Palindrome: A reading of poems in exploration of my mother’s life

Palindrome is a manuscript of poems written in response to my mother’s dementia. The story of two generations of Appalachian women in flux, Palindrome considers the mutability of memory and time and the shared loss of identity as the mother/daughter relationship alters in such a profound way. The reading will include poems I crafted from my mother’s handwritten memoir describing the final years of WW II both in eastern Kentucky and in Buffalo, New York, where she was sent by her community’s missionaries; my parents’ courtship at Southland Bible Institute; and her own reflections on her early years of motherhood