Back to the Patch and Formula Twins

Installation view of "Back to the Patch," a musical performance and video projection, and "Formula Twins" photographic print. Both works are part of a larger installation in the exhibtion "Anthropology of Motherhood: Culture of Care" that narrates the story of Power's grandparents.

According to the artist:
"My grandmother gave birth to twin girls in 1916. She was confined to the hospital in Uniontown Pa with toxemia and almost died at nineteen years old. My grandfather did not know how to feed the babies.

The black miners, who he worked with in the coke fields of Fayette County, Pennsylvania gave him a recipe for a formula. Mix flour with water in a bottle. He fed the twins and they thrived on it. Their subsequent children were all fed this formula.

I’ve always found this family story to be like a miracle. The support of the workers for each other in a mining community and the tale of my grandfather being like a mother deeply resonate in my life.

I wrote the song “Back to the Patch” using the memory of this oral history and of a road trip made with my grandmother and mother to visit all the patch towns.

Sue Powers- Banjo and vocals
Jeff Berman- Mountain Dulcimer