The sequence ‘To Feel Things and Their Names’ methodically deconstructs the ornate entryway to Louis Sullivan’s 1914 masterpiece, Merchants’ National Bank in Grinnell, Iowa, and recreates fragments of it as concrete poems. Working through the radical design of this obscure, rural bank, Toby Altman tackles questions of embodiment, injury, and political agency—examining the way that his own body is both constructed and constrained by capital.
Toby Altman is the author of two books, Discipline Park (Wendy’s Subway, 2022) and Arcadia, Indiana (Plays Inverse, 2017). He has held fellowships from the Millay Colony for the Arts, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Beloit College.
