Jessica Lowell Mason

Straight Jacket Jessica Lowell Mason

The poems of Straight Jacket gather bravely at the intersection between LGBTQ identity and the politics of illness, and speak to the consequences of homophobia and social injustice. The book takes readers into the horrors of being committed into a mental hospital and does fierce linguistic battle with stigma, offering witness to failures within the mental health system and demonstrating expressions of the indomitable spirit's restlessness in times of helplessness and adversity. The collection chronicles in a personal way the oppressive experiences of dehumanization and institutionalization.