Adaptation
The poetry department approached the interactives team about a possible collaboration on the publishing of an excerpt from Nicole Sealey’s upcoming book of poetry, “The Ferguson Report: An Erasure.” In the book Sealey carved poetry out of the Department of Justice’s verbose report on police bias and brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, repurposing redaction paradoxically to reveal lyrical insights about society. We considered recreating the poem in its printed format or adding a toggle to show/hide the original report, but ultimately decided recreating Sealey’s transformative action in the browser would be the most powerful communication of her work.
Reception
Public reception was positive, including a mention on WNYC, and I was gratified to bring more attention to this piece as well as see the author’s reaction to our adaptation.
