Even Statues Need a #MeToo
Willy Conley
On the morning my father and I
drove to the Baltimore Museum of Art
to see the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit
we passed The Johns Hopkins University.
On the outskirts of campus
a Hans Schuler bronze and marble statue
the university’s namesake
flanked by two bronze figures.
On Hopkin’s left, a male figure
“Knowledge and the University”
on his right, a female
“Healing and the Hospital.”
My father says, “Let you in on a secret…
the pledge class always polishes
the female statue’s breasts
every year…for good luck –
the only thing that really shines
on the whole thing in my opinion.”
Willy Conley's most recent book is Photographic Memories – Essays, Playlets, and Stories. His other books are: Plays of Our Own – An Anthology of Scripts by Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Writers, Visual-Gestural Communication: A Workbook in Nonverbal Expression and Reception, The World of White Water – Poems, Listening Through the Bone – Collected Poems, The Deaf Heart – A Novel, Vignettes of the Deaf Character and Other Plays, and Broken Spokes – A Play in Seven Scenes. Born profoundly deaf, Conley is a retired professor emeritus and former chair of Theatre Arts at Gallaudet University (the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students) in Washington, D.C. Fun fact: In an earlier “lifetime,” he used to be a medical photographer at some of the top hospitals in the U.S., and became the first and only deaf person to become certified as a Registered Biological Photographer. For more info about his work, please visit: willyconley.com