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This spring the Emily Dickinson Museum is hosting The Big Read: Emily Dickinson. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. The Big Read: Emily Dickinson will run from April 2 through May 21 and will offer over a dozen programs that are free and open to the public.
The Museum launched The Big Read: Emily Dickinson with its "Poems Around Town" program on April 2nd and will finish the month with Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch's residency. Finch has visited the Emily Dickinson Museum several times in preparation for various installations. Most notably, on a summer afternoon in 2004, Finch recorded the light on the lawn of Dickinson's home in Amherst for his "Sunlight in an Empty Room (Passing Cloud for Emily Dickinson, Amherst, MA, August 28, 2004, pictured here)." This work has been installed at MASS MoCA (2007) and at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC (2010) among other places. During his Amherst residency Spencer Finch will create a special installation for the Museum, in celebration of his work, Finch will give an "Artist Talk" Tuesday, April 26, 7:00 p.m at the Jones Library, 43 Amity St. The Museum will host an Installation Opening at the Homestead on Thursday, April 28 at 4:00 p.m.
In May, The Big Read: Emily Dickinson will highlight specific themes in Dickinson's poetry with a three-part discussion series, "Emily Dickinson's Poetry 102." Participants can attend one, two, or all three of the sessions. All attendees will receive a "Reader's Guide to Emily Dickinson's Poetry" (published by the National Endowment of the Arts) and a booklet of Dickinson's poems. All programs take place at the Jones Library at 7:00 p.m. Advance registration is encouraged; please contact Janet Ryan at 259-3223 or the Jones Library Reference Desk at 259-3096.
On Tuesday, May 3, Elizabeth A. Petrino will present, Milton's Daughters: Echoes of Browning, Rossetti, and the Brontes in Emily Dickinson's Poetry. Petrino is associate professor of English at Fairfield University, where she teaches American literature, poetry, and gender studies. She is the author of Emily Dickinson and Her Contemporaries: American Women's Verse, 1820-1885 (1998).
Martha Nell Smith will lead the Tuesday, May 10 presentation, "Ah - the Sea!" Reading Dickinson Erotically. Smith is Professor of English and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland, She is the Executive Editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives with Lara Vetter and Ellen Louise Hart, and coedited Emily Dickinson's Correspondences: A Born-Digital Textual Inquiry (2008), a digital scholarly edition.
The final "Emily Dickinson Poetry 102" program will be held on Tuesday, May 17 with Martha Ackmann, "Tell Me What is True": Dickinson's Cardinal Themes and Principles. Ackmann is an author and journalist who writes about women who have changed America. Ackmann has written and lectured on Emily Dickinson for over twenty years. For the past ten years, Ackmann has taught a popular Mount Holyoke College seminar on Dickinson in the poet's home in Amherst.
The very popular annual program, Dickinson Poetry Walk and Open House, will take place on Saturday, May 14, at 1 p.m. and starts at the Homestead. Programs and maps of the Walk's one-mile route will be available at the Museum. Participants are welcome to join the Walk at any point along the route. After the Poetry Walk, the Museum will host an Open House from 3 to 4 p.m. The Homestead and The Evergreens will be open for self-guided tours during that time, and guides will be on hand to answer questions. Admission is free.
For a complete list of the Emily Dickinson Museum's 2011 programming and special events, visit www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org.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 home of the poet's brother and sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson. The Emily Dickinson Museum is located at 280 Main Street in Amherst.
The Museum is a member of Museums10, a consortium of ten Pioneer Valley museums forged to celebrate the collections and promote the programs of its affiliated museums to local, regional, and national visitors.
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