Life & Letters

Victoria Davis

  • Sick: The Poetics of Modern Health Care

    …And all the while, I kept thinking about that great old Whitman  poem… ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.’I…I don’t know it.Anyway…Well, can you recite it?Pathetically enough, I could. With some encouragement from Walt, Gale continues:When I heard the learn’d astronomer,When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,When I was shown the charts…

    Victoria Davis

  • A Monumental Decision: What to do About Jefferson Davis and the Challenges of Commemoration?

    Let’s talk about statues, or one statue in particular, and all of the trouble a cold, hard, unfeeling thing can cause. Imagine you are the president of a very large, prestigious institution, representative of the spirit and aspirations of a region. Your greatest benefactor, a former regent and a veteran, stipulates in his will the…

    Victoria Davis

  • Leaving Home: Austin’s Declining African American Population

    In December of 2015, author and former Austin resident Ellen Sweets wrote a farewell letter to Austin that was published in TribTalk: Ever since I decided to leave Austin, I’ve tried to write a farewell devoid of anger and frustration, and every time I’ve had to move on to writing something else. A Facebook post.…

    Victoria Davis