Abstract
What is a legacy? Is it the conferral of monetary goods, physical artifacts, or memories? Or is legacy an extension of the self, complicated and crystallized, as it is refracted through the stories of those left behind? Using the improvisational methodology of collaborative narrative refraction, we sought to deconstruct the concept of legacy as we have experienced it through the loss of our grandmothers in this performative piece. As we spoke about our memories and narratives with one another, shared meaningful artifacts, and engaged in dialogical autobiographical storytelling, we began to think differently about not only our grandmothers’ legacies but also our own legacies as we are constantly constructing them. For us, legacy is not a passive bequeathal to the next generation but rather a current, constant, and complex intermingling of experiences and interactions that are ever refracted through the self and those who have gone before us.
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