TWICE AS MANY STARS AS USUAL, a documentary on poet Laura Gilpin, by Gracie Wenner

Twice As Many Stars As Usual is a multimedia journalism project conducted by SUNY Purchase student Gracie Wenner for her bachelor degree in journalism studies. This project uncovers the life of late poet Laura Gilpin, the author behind the viral poem “The Two Headed Calf”, that created a cult following on online spaces, such as Tumblr, X, and Tiktok.

I, Gracie Wenner, began my research on Laura Gilpin in the spring of 2021, after I had realized I spent years seeing “The Two Headed Calf” in my feed across multiple social media platforms, and had found little information about the author, Laura Gilpin, online. Illustrations, comics, tattoos, tweets, and videos continued to reference “The Two Headed Calf”, and I couldn’t find any available printed publications of the poem.

The poem exists almost metaphysically, a collective appreciation and devotion to a scarcely sourced image, something that had resounding and repetitive presence in my life, and the lives of its fans, with little documentation about its origin.

So three years ago I began by finding her obituary, and reaching out to her family, which led to hours of interviews about who Laura was.

With the help of Laura’s brother Rob, her sister Liz, and her nephew Tyler, I’ve had the privilege of piecing together Laura’s extraordinary life as a nurse, teacher, student, reformist, and poet, while connecting to fans of Laura’s work, and understanding the legacy she has left behind.

Laura’s family lives in the south, and as I am based in New York, I am crowdfunding to cover the expenses of visiting Laura’s family, and then having access to her childhood photos, physical copies of her writing, cassette tapes, and other belongings, and having the ability to conduct these interviews in person.

I expect to finish my research on Laura, the impact her poem has had on it’s audiences, as well as looking into the digital legacy and archivization of “The Two Headed Calf”, by the summer of 2025, and will publish my findings online for open access, consisting of a written article, photojournalism, and documentary short.

As this project is currently in pre-production, any and all help is deeply appreciated so that this film can move forward into production in the spring of 2025.

All funds raised will go directly towards production costs such as travel expenses, lodging, and catering for crew.

No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.