If you had entered the Gund Community Foundation Theater on Thursday afternoon, you would’ve been greeted by the infectious excitement of writers Stephanie Heit and Petra Kuppers, the Anita Gonzalez collegiate professor of performance studies and disability culture at the University of Michigan, as they prepared for the reading to follow.
William P. Rice Associate Professor of Literature Orchid Tierney began the reading with a glowing introduction of Heit that showcased the artist’s numerous works, including the poetry collection The Color She Gave Gravity and the hybrid poetry-memoir work Psych Murders.
After making sure that the audience felt comfortable to stand up, walk around and take care of themselves during her portion of the event, Heit began with a poem that honored the earth — in observance of Earth Day — and invited the audience to practice exhaling and humming beforehand. “I need a little help [with this one],” Heit explained to engaged listeners. “With this piece, there’s a hum that happens. … This can be a way of landing in the room together.” After we practiced our humming (and, I won’t lie, we hit a beautiful harmony), she dove into her poem, “Luthiers Prepare the World for Dawn.” Before reading another piece, Heit mentioned how somatic experiences inform her writing process: “I’m often not at a desk,” Heit laughed, “except to revise. But as far as exploring, [Kuppers] and I are doing movement-awareness practices. … We’re exploring each other’s skulls.” She then asked for audience participation once again, inviting community members to touch their own skulls as she read her piece “Temple.” Toward the end of her reading, Heit shared a visual poem created from lines of her own work. “I invite you to tune into the water in your own body,” Heit suggested before setting up the video. True to her word, the visual poem included many clips of falling water, as well as Heit swimming and dancing near the ocean.
Next, Tierney introduced Kuppers, mentioning some of the artist’s works, including Gut Botany and Diver Beneath the Street. Kuppers began by illustrating how, during a sabbatical, she made an effort to attend numerous conventions to connect with the queer writing community. Then, Kuppers read a section from her speculative literature novel, Ice Bar, in which the narrator’s body blends into the paint of a Vincent van Gogh painting. “He’s a very iconic madman,” Kuppers explained of her choice to loop van Gogh into the story. Next, Kuppers described some of the backstory of her recent true crime poetry collection, Diver Beneath the Street. Diver focuses on the 1967-69 serial killings of more than seven women in Ann Arbor — dubbed the “Michigan Murders” — and the 2019 Detroit serial killings of four Black women. During her portion of the reading, Kuppers made a point to explain that “the book honors the women without going into their suffering.”
Later, during the following Q&A session, Kuppers discussed issues of appropriation when it comes to writing about tragic stories like the Michigan Murders. “Do I tell their story?” she wondered aloud. “Or do I tell the story of me experiencing the sights and those spaces? … Still, you will see I do mention the names [of the victims] as a way to honor them.”
Even at the end of a long and busy semester, Heit and Kuppers reminded us writers and, most importantly, humans, to be gentle with ourselves and to be cognizant of the world around us and how we interact with sensitive subjects. Whether through a visual poem or a true crime lens, Heit and Kuppers are inspirations for the next generation of writers working with diverse media.