SEANCE
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28th January 2024
Remember When We Wanted It?
Welcome to SEANCE, a writing collective based in Austin, TX. Every three weeks, we commune to create poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, all to the same prompt: the name and memory of someone who’s passed away. Any art inspired by reflection on the deceased gets posted here. Our first gathering has come to an end; SEANCE1 is born.
When Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951) began treatment for cervical cancer, she didn’t know that the white doctors at Johns Hopkins would biopsy her cells and use them for research. Before she had even passed away, her vigorous and constantly reduplicating cells— a medical marvel— were being donated to labs across the country without consent or compensation. Now, decades after her death at the age of 31, Henrietta’s cells have gone to space, helped cure polio, and revealed the secrets of the human genome. What remains of Henrietta Lacks— all 55 million metric tons, split across innumerable Petri dishes and test tubes— lives on in unsought immortality.