Rose Vidal

Drama Doll formalized a reflective and narrative inquiry into pain. I now want to confront this research with the opioid crisis, examine its realities, and listen to the people who live it, fight it, and suffer from it, in order to develop methods of listening, writing, and shaping the stories I encounter. I want to turn my investigation into a space for encounters and the exchange of tools to better understand what is unfolding in the United States: what does this crisis reveal about its history, its culture, its people? What possibilities, what perspectives does it offer?

I have never been to the United States, yet events there affect me deeply. It begins in San Francisco, where Emmanuelle—the subject of Drama Doll—gave birth and lost her baby. Twenty-five years later, I go there to close Emmanuelle’s book and to open a second one, today. There is no better place than a clinic to open oneself to new stories. I imagine perhaps encountering the ghost of her lost son—before realizing that among the doctors, the patients, and their families, there are so many real stories to haunt me more profoundly than any ghost. Will I hear the voices of these “storyless” people, à la Raymond Carver? They never imagined that their lives could interest anyone here below, or above, or even themselves, so they never took the trouble to tell their stories—the joys, the sorrows—simply living them, slipping into the backdrop of the United States like a leaf falling into the space between wall and desk, forgotten there, never to be read. But we can no longer afford to simply forget them. And to do that, we must take the trouble to tell their stories.

San Francisco is a starting point: it is where Emmanuelle lived, and also “Fentanyl City,” creating a striking contrast between Silicon Valley’s pursuit of technological control over health and immortality, and the visible suffering of public spaces ravaged by the crisis. I am interested in the everyday lives of the population, the settings that bear witness to this history and those that escape it, as well as the institutions and healthcare policies. I hope to meet people whose work is to combat the crisis and support affected communities.

Chicago offers rich perspectives on social divides and how communities organize to face challenges. I hope to connect with contacts at the Chicago Department of Public Health, universities, or any organizations addressing health in relation to urban and social frameworks, resonating with the influential Chicago School of Sociology. I am already in contact with Alice Centamore, a PhD student at the University of Chicago and an art historian involved in the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project. Alice researches the “Janes,” a group of women who provided advice and performed abortions in the 1970s, and she is connected to local initiatives that continue this legacy.

In New York, I want to explore how major crises, such as the crack and heroin epidemics, shaped artistic communities and inspired new forms of activism and social engagement. I aim to connect with Nan Goldin and the P.A.I.N. collective, which combines art and activism to denounce the opioid epidemic.