The Emily Dickinson Museum will host its annual Poetry in the Garden series on Sundays, July 18, 25, and August 1 at 2:00 p.m. The three afternoon programs feature informal readings of Dickinson's poetry by noted artists, scholars, and Dickinson enthusiasts. Each presenter will share a personal selection of Dickinson poems, reflect on their significance, and engage in discussion with the audience. The readings will take place in the Homestead Garden at 280 Main St. Amherst, MA. Audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets. The event is free and open to the public. For alternate rain locations or more information, visit www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events or contact Nan Fischlein, program coordinator, at nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org or 413-542-2034.
On Sunday July 18, Karen Sánchez-Eppler will present, "'The things that never can come back': on cake and poetry and loss." Sánchez-Eppler is Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College. She has taught four undergraduate seminars on Emily Dickinson at the Museum. She has written an essay on the Dickinson children's decorations of their nursery doors for The Visual and Textual Worlds of Childhood and the catalog essay for the exhibition Language as Object: Emily Dickinson and Contemporary Art. Both her first book, Touching Liberty: Abolition, Feminism and the Politics of the Body, and her present project, The Unpublished Republic: Manuscript Cultures of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century United States, contain significant chapters on Dickinson.
Composer, conductor, and teacher Alice Parker will present "The Music in the Words" on Sunday, July 25. Parker graduated from Smith College with a major in music performance and composition and received her Master's degree from the Julliard School, where she studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw. Her life's work has been in choral and vocal music, combining composing, conducting and teaching in a creative balance. Among her compositions are rich and illuminating choral settings of Dickinson poems. Parker has made thirteen acclaimed recordings and published books on melodic styles and choral improvisation. She has been recognized by Chorus America, the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association, The Hymn Society and Choral Arts New England for her lifetime contributions to choral music.
Poet Henk Rossouw will complete the series on Sunday, August 1, with "Dickinson's Birdlife." Last year Rossouw gave a poetry reading in Times Square as a winner of the Poetry Society of America's 2nd annual Bright Lights Big Verse competition. "Chez Times Square" was one of four winning poems chosen from 500 entries. Judges included Alice Quinn, the Poetry Society's executive director and former poetry editor of the New Yorker, and Rob Casper, publisher of Jubilat. Originally from South Africa, Rossouw lives in Amherst where he is in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Tin House, and The Threepenny Review. In 2006, he won the Summer Literary Seminars contest with a trip to a literary festival in Kenya as the prize. Rossouw will share several of his own poems as part of his program.
The Emily Dickinson Museum, comprising the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens, is devoted to the story and legacy of poet Emily Dickinson and her family. Both properties are owned by the Trustees of Amherst College. The museum is overseen by a separate Board of Governors charged with raising its operating and capital funds. The Homestead was the birthplace and residence of the poet (1830-1886). The Evergreens was the 1856 home of the poet's brother and sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson. The official museum website is www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org. Regular season hours are Wednesday through Sunday 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Extended summer hours in June through August are Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. General information: 413-542-8161.
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