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  • Teddie Bernard

Unidentified Woman




Image ID: "Unidentified Woman" is a poem based on a photograph from the Lorraine Hurdle papers. The photo was likely taken between 1942 to 1952. The photograph shows four women sitting on wooden bleachers. The bleachers appear to be located on a military base. In the front of the photo, on the first bleacher, a Black woman sits, holding a baseball in one hand, her other had covered by a glove. She looks off into the distance somberly. On the second bleacher, two women sit a few feet apart from each other. The Black woman on the left is Lorraine Hurdle. Hurdle is the only person in the photograph looking at the camera. Her expression is unreadable. The woman on the right is white with curly hair. She stares off into the sky. On the third row of bleachers, two women sit, facing away from the camera, looking at something to the left. They are both white. All of the women wear sweaters or long-sleeved shirts as well as pants. The overall mood of the photograph is tired, restless, and disharmonic. The photograph has been reproduced on a risograph printer, giving it an interesting texture overlaid across the photo.


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