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“In Flanders Fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place...”
Every school child around here used to learn that World War
I poem, written by a Canadian medical officer in Belgium, just
before he succumbed to pneumonia during the war. They also
knew that red poppies were the symbol of remembrance for
veterans and that Moina Michael was the "Poppy Lady," who
pushed the sale of paper poppies into a world-class fundraiser
for disabled veterans. Now, even in Athens, where she went to
school at Lucy Cobb Institute and the University of Georgia—
where she also taught—Moina Michael is no more remembered
than those who sleep in Flanders Fields.
This collective memory loss astounds Stephen Mulqueen,
a prolific and energetic New Zealand sculptor who recently
visited Athens on a Fulbright Fellowship. He is researching the
international movement that has made the poppy into a world
wide symbol, with significant monuments in Belgium, Ireland,
England, Canada and other
countries. Mulqueen can
not believe that nothing
in Athens commemorates
Michael, who was born in
nearby Good Hope and is
buried in a Monroe cem
etery. (It's true that we
used to have Moina Michael
Auditorium, where Heyward
Allen Motors is, and the
road to Monroe is named
the Moina Michael Highway,
but nobody knows why.)
More than a decade ago,
on a visit to a cemetery
outside Ypres, Belgium,
where New Zealander sol
diers were massacred during a World War I battle, Mulqueen
noticed the poppies growing and began fashioning brass pop
pies from WW I and II shell casings. That "epiphany" began his
passionate pursuit of the origins of the poppy as a reminder
of war and led to his sojourn here in Athens, where the art
department lent him a studio while he attempted to re-awaken
in our community some understanding of what our once-fa-
mous forebear accomplished.
Since the centennial
of World War I runs from
2014-2018, Mulqueen
believes this is a particularly
auspicious time for Athens
to rediscover the Poppy Lady
and provide an appropriate
commemoration that will
restore to her the recogni
tion she deserves and also
include Athens among the
focal points in the interna
tional remembrance of The
War to End All Wars.
"On my recent travels to
Ireland, UK, Belgium and Canada... the questions I have faced
again and again, as I have presented and talked about my
practice and research, about the brass cartridge poppies and
my homage to the memory of Michael, is, 'What has happened
to her memory? Where is Moina Belle Michael?"'
While here, Mulqueen worked to contact people in Athens
who may be able to jumpstart locally a renewed interest in our
once-famous citizen of the world, perhaps eventuating in an
appropriate memorial.
"My feeling is that the international community will come
and engage with great curiosity, with inquiry about her life
and contribution," Mulqueen says. "They will come to her
native landscape in ways not seen before."
Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
Mulqueen fashions poppy brooches
from shell casings.
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VOLUME 28
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