The Heiress/Ghost Acres

Probing the historical record, filial memory, and bodily experience, Lightsey Darst sets out to confront her Southern family's slave-owning past in order to dream forth a more alive and loving future.

In her most intimate poetry collection yet, Lightsey Darst visits the land of her slave-owning ancestors, questioning what kind of healing can take place in the wake of history's horrors, on land that stole others' life and labor, land itself stolen into "ownership" from which she benefits. Can one woman's efforts repair any of her lineage's damage? What kind of relationship she can build for herself and her children to their own history? As she navigates fresh challenges of political upheaval and pandemic isolation, Darst attempts to create a tenable and connected future, one that acknowledges past crimes while finding present, potent ways for love to counter violence.