Stan Apps – Public Art of the New Deal

Stan Apps

Public Art of the New Deal

I Community sanitation Keeps flies away In 1940 And today Community sanitation planning Begins with Concrete floor and foundation, A modern approved sanitary privy Outwits the giant fly Keeping him away From deadly disease That comes out of: You, Sir! John Buczak is telling you And simultaneously showing you On behalf of the federal government: Look here, man, woman, child of Illinois! Look and see! A giant fly Looking to catch disease And spread disease, on wings It comes from you, man, woman, child! It’s up to you, man, woman, child! Community sanitation planning Begins with Concrete floor and foundation In the consciousness of the community A modern approved sanitary privy In 1940 And today Begins in the mind of: You! Man, woman, child of Illinois! Communities of Illinois! John Buczak is warning you! A giant fly’s after your shit! II Oh, the Gaieties of 1936 Are mostly girls, Federally funded girls At the Greek Open Air Theatre Vermont Avenue at Griffith Park, With orchestra and dancing girls Federally funded dancing follies Opens Sept 8 Nightly except Monday! We are giving you this information, Federally funded information, Our society is advanced enough To inform you And provide you dancing girls And provide the dancing girls With a chance To dance for you, Courtesy Stage Show Division of the WPA Skirts and hats, arms and legs We’re putting America to work, Mostly girls with elegant long legs Oh, the federally funded follies! For relief of anxiety and to promote good cheer The Gaieties of 1936. III High above us, ghostly horses, Buffalos and men in loincloths Surge among the clouds A woman with a baby in her arms And a man dressed in the skin Of a blown-away buffalo In the lobby of the Dick Cheney Federal Building They are traveling across the gun-shot prairies Hoping against hope to arrive And to build this Federal Post Office And a society with sufficient archival resourcefulness To correct the artist’s name: It has been misprinted long enough! Let it not be misprinted no more—she is a patriot! Her correct name is Ms. Louise Harrington Emerson Ronnebeck The title of her work is The Fertile Land Remembers In the lobby of the Dick Cheney Federal Building There is (and there shall always be) a plaque With her name correctly spelled. This fertile state of Wyoming recollects her: Ms. Louise Harrington Emerson Ronnebeck, She put the men in loincloths among clouds, She made them blow away in the gigantic prairie winds, An infinite stampede of clouds Containing horses, buffaloes and men Containing everything that we have killed In the lobby of the Dick Cheney Federal Building At 100 East B Street, Casper, Wyoming Officially redesignated by H. R. 3453 in May of 1998.

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