“Just know we all have stories worth your time. Just know we’re just starting to understand our own worth.†This is how Gayle Brandeis opens Many Restless Concerns: The Victims of Countess Bathory Speak in Chorus. Countess Bathory of Hungary allegedly killed up to 650 girls and women between the years 1585 and 1609, in a variety of cruel, heartless ways. Brandeis brings these words to our attention–stab, strangle, pummel, hack, burn, drown, freeze, scald. “Your body remembers even when you no longer have a body, some tender part of you still flinches; some immaterial nerves still flare,†she writes. “We want you to bear witness,†voices the chorus.
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