Library Special Collections Blog
In Remembrance of Martha Graham’s “American Document” 1938
blog post by Genie Guerard
As described by Graham in an interview at the time, “This dance is supposed to bring back to its full meaning what has largely become meaningless in America through familiarity. I refer to such a word as democracy that reminds us of rights we have but may not avail ourselves of. As the line goes in the script of the dance, 'We forget too much.'"
May O'Donnell, Jane Dudley, and Sophie Maslow in Martha Graham’s American Document, 1938.
Photograph by Barbara Morgan.
Three women dance throughout the following lines:
Listen to what we say.
We are three women.
We are three million women.
We are the mothers of the hungry dead.
We are the mothers of the hungry living.
We are the mothers of those to be born.
Listen to what we say.
Ours is a lament for the living.
The UCLA Library Special Collections holds the complete photographic archive of Barbara Morgan, and the personal papers of Barbara and her husband, Willard Morgan.
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