Admit One: An American Scrapbook

This book, the third in a poetic trilogy, traces the history of scientific racism from the 1904 World’s Fair through the eugenics movement of the 1920s. Following the practice begun in her book-length poem Blue Front and continued in her exploration of race in White Papers, Collins combines research with innovative poetic techniques to create an account of a segment of American history that haunts us even today.

Admit One: An American Scrapbook is a strikingly original collection that combines brilliant storytelling and compelling commentary on ethics and race. The interwoven poems begin with the speaker’s grandparents entering the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where technological advances and artistic marvels were proudly displayed, as were examples of ‘inferior’ human beings, such as Ota Benga, a Congolese Pygmy who was later housed in the primate exhibit of the new Bronx Zoo. The poems follow his short, sad life and the rise of Madison Grant, a hunter friend of Theodore Roosevelt who created the zoo. Grant later became a key proponent of the eugenics movement. Collins doesn’t sensationalize the material. Exquisitely spare, these works recount some of the sinister moments of American history, quietly pushing readers to learn from those episodes and consider our collective responsibility for them.”     —Elizabeth Lund, Washington Post

An unflinching look at the underpinnings of racism in the U.S., via key figures who used science to defend sterilization, exploitation, discrimination, segregation, and dehumanization of nonwhites, whites not deemed white enough, and anyone ‘less’ than those with ‘superior’ genes. With the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as a framework, Collins attempts to understand her family’s experience of and participation in those times. Her poems are lists, definitions, newspaper pages, historical time lines, and biographical facts. These diverse poetic forms highlight the beauty of diversity itself. But Collins never lets up on the driving themes of unethical treatment and collective culpability.”     —Booklist (starred review)

Martha Collins’Admit One: An American Scrapbookis the most disturbing collection of poetry I’ve read in years. It’s disturbing because it’s so culturally honest but also because Collins exploits the necessary compression of poetic language,  juxtaposing events and vocabulary to demonstrate that there are no coincidences. . . . It’s a book that needed to be written and that needs to be read.”     —Kenyon Review Online

Gripping and mind-bending in its inventiveness, this is not a book for the faint of heart, but it now seems more important than ever to read it.”      —Lloyd Schwartz, WBUR

Admit One concludes the trilogy Collins began with Blue Front and White Papers. Each book attacks the ideas and implications of race, and each employs intelligent precision of language, of sources, and of construction. Some smart publisher should gather these three books into a single volume—Collins’s ‘race trilogy’  would be perfect for any social science teacher, creative writing instructor, or history professor to use in the classroom.”     —Edward A. Dougherty, Rain Taxi 

 

 

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Fitter Families

Yea, I have a goodly heritagemy mother
said her sister said the Bible said
and it does and they did we do but

that was also the motto of Fitter Families
for Future Firesides, contests featured
at state fairs using anthropometric

measurements medical dental vision
exams intelligence tests personality
evaluations of families some

with several generations as well
as eugenic family histories. The forms
had a blank for race (which could be Nordic) 

and charts were posted with literacy rates
fornative-born  foreign-born negroes
as well as birth rates for native-born  alien

There were also displays with flashing lights

          This light flashes every 15 seconds
          Every 15 seconds $100 of your money
          goes for the care of persons with bad
          heredity such as the insane, feeble-
          minded, criminals & other defectives

—and medals awarded to winners, which read:

          Yea, I have a goodly heritage

Race / Race

 

stock     strain    family     line

breed     blood    skin     shape

of the head     of the pack

animal     human    judge




better     fitter     swiftly

to find     foot     horse    car     run

for your life     around

town     the block     the camp




to the top     the finish     contend

compete     in    for     against

the other     the not so

great     not even in the