Riley Brokeshoulder

She/her

Education: Majoring in English

Mentor: Traci Brimhall, Ph.D.

McNair Project: Visitations

“Visitations” is a collection of five flash nonfiction essays. The essays serve to create an open and comfortable conversation about grief. To do so, I focused on observing personal grief and how public spaces dedicated to grieving help facilitate introspection on a personal level. The locations that inspired these essays include: my grandfather’s grave to add a personal aspect to
the essays, the Riley County Historical Museum to observe a Victorian grieving practice, Faithful Friends Pet Cemetery, a headstone cleaning at May Day Cemetery to engage in volunteer work, the World War One Museum and the Sallie House to observe memorials within the differing contexts of war and haunting. Prior research along with photos and notes taken at each site were used in the content of the essays. The essays that were produced by these visits
have come to reflect the personal ways I interacted with my own grief in these public spaces. The varying locations sparked memories of my own loss and I portrayed these memories by braiding the scenes of each location and moments of personal connection throughout the essays. The public spaces offer a look at grief from a distance that can then provoke internal reflection of
personal loss and grieving. Through connecting these public spaces to the personal I found a Riley Brokeshouldercommonality and comfort in actively engaging with my grief.