What feeble nightbird of misfortune is this at my door?

June 12, 2020 1:18 PM

Among the many lives lost to Covid-19 was that of Margaret Holloway[NYT], known around the Yale University campus as the Shakespeare Lady of New Haven. A short documentary about her from 2001, God didn’t give me a week’s notice, is available on Vimeo.
posted by Mchelly (7 comments total)

.
posted by jb at 1:32 PM on June 12, 2020

Thanks for posting, she sounds like someone I would have enjoyed knowing.

Albany, GA, her hometown, has been hit hard by the virus.
posted by mareli at 1:47 PM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

.
She was an institution here in town, and in many cases for us who grew up here, one of the first faces that humanized persons with major mental health issues. She could be loud - that voice could project down the block - but was always kind, and I never felt unsafe if she was around even as a short suburban 13 year old taking the buses.
The local obit is arguably a smidge better than the Times.
posted by cobaltnine at 2:13 PM on June 12, 2020 [4 favorites]

.
posted by praemunire at 3:28 PM on June 12, 2020

What a terribly sad thing. It really seems like Black artists in particular fall through the cracks, and I always wonder if people would get so sick if they weren't dealing with racism and minority stress. And how little space there is for classically trained Black artists, too. This article reminds me of the composer Julius Eastman, who technically died of a heart attack after falling into mental illness and addiction, but who fundamentally died of racism.

1983 was a bad year. If there wasn't the backlash, if we hadn't elected Reagan, if we had mental health services and housing services - could people get better? Could people survive? Why can't we stop the terrible consequences of slavery? Why do we go on with this year after year after year, losing people who have such capacity and promise? What kind of world might we have if we didn't just let our visionaries and artists die?
posted by Frowner at 4:02 PM on June 12, 2020 [12 favorites]

The obit by the fellow that knew her was just lovely.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:20 PM on June 12, 2020

Aw, shoot. She was unforgettable. When I lived in New Haven, in the early 80s, her disease was just making itself known and it was clearly frightening and confusing her. She would beseech people to understand what was happening, explaining what she was experiencing in heartbreaking detail, and then bust out a soliloquy as if to reassure herself, and others, that she was ok and still had acting chops. I returned maybe 20 times in the intervening years and saw her during about half of the trips: always friendly, curious, polite, and in amazing voice. Rest in peace.
posted by carmicha at 8:55 AM on June 13, 2020 [2 favorites]