“Hello, Reed residence. This is Tirzah speaking.”
I was taught how to answer our landline when I was little, and at the time I didn’t understand what “residence” meant. One pandemic later, and I’m still trying to figure it out.
It’s currently impossible to attend residencies where artists work, learn, and rest. Instead, residency as a home and place of shelter— this definition is increasingly evocative. What constitutes a residency? Is it an institution’s stamp of approval? Is it an address? A feeling of comfort? Community? The possibility for personal growth? Perhaps artist residencies and the Reed residence are not so different after all.
Summer 2020: The Reed Residency is founded as I host myself in my family’s home.
The blog below contains artifacts and updates from the adventure.
When it’s warmer, scents are more pungent, evocative.
I had just stepped onto the back porch to enjoy the birds
when I heard the faint sound of her favorite hymn.
It must have been North Park’s steeple, like they knew
He Walks With Me And He Talks With Me
waves wafted through neighboring Dogwood trees.
Spring sounds and the smell of death.