How do we talk about trauma and healing through public art and creative work? Caledonia Curry, also known as Swoon, presents her Triennial 2025 commission In the Well: The Stories We Tell About Addiction, currently on view at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square. The project questions the prevailing narratives around addiction and draws inspiration from the groundbreaking research of Boston-based doctors Judith Herman and Bessel van der Kolk, who transformed how we understand the connection between trauma and addiction.

The evening begins with a reading by the artist from her novella Sibylant Sisters, a story of two sisters living with a witch bound to a noxious substance brewed in a well of toads. Through this imaginative tale of girlhood, Swoon reframes how drug addiction is perceived, explained, and often misunderstood.

Following the reading, Dr. Judith Herman will join Swoon for a conversation that deepens and challenges our perceptions of trauma and addiction, while pointing toward the possibility of healing.

This program is presented in partnership with the Boston Public Library.