Glass Act
Performance
2024
27th Letter Books in Detroit, USA
Glass Act was the first performance done by the duo Madison Katrina Flood and Cameron Wilson.
This poetry-sound project began as a 10-poem cycle that Flood wrote as part of their research on the Latvian National Library, reimagining the history of the library and finding connections with their adoption identity.
From here, Flood and Wilson collaberated to create five tracks: Slope of Deconstruction, Saule: Baltic Sun Goddess Drawn In Gold Chariot, Flicker Sound of Generational Abandonment, Glass Act, and Skylight.
This set was performed at 27th Letter Books in Detroit, USA.
listen to a track
Beginning as a single poem, Glass Act was written in broken pantoum form about the Latvian National Library and how it is a representation of the Glass Mountain -- a national symbol of hope for Latvian people, according to architect Gunnar Birkerts. The poem refers to Birkerts’ literary inspirations for his design, including the literature of Aspazija, a cannonical woman in Latvian literary history that was left out of Birkerts’ narrative.
The thesis-length research for this project was awarded the Henry P. Tappan Award for Interdisciplinary Studies, High Honors, and two research-travel grants from the University of Michigan.