POETRY NEWS - AMHERST, MA.

August 21: Free Fun Fridays Explore the Emily Dickinson Museum on Friday, August 21, during the Highland Street Foundation's Free Fun Fridays. Free Fun Fridays offers free admission to 70 museums and cultural events in 2015. Over 500 people visited the Emily Dickinson Museum last summer during Free Fun Fridays, and we hope to see even more this year for our tours and other activities held throughout the day from 10 am to 5 pm.    Before You Became Improbable returns in September  Before You Became Improbable, the immersive theater production which premiered at the Museum last fall, returns in September for a two week run! Written and directed by Amherst Regional High School Performing Arts Department Head John Bechtold and produced by Wendy Kohler in partnership with the Emily Dickinson Museum, it runs two weekends: September 17-19 and September 24-26.   Before You Became Improbable reimagines the day Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson finally met after eight years of correspondence. Unlike most shows, Before You Became Improbableis not a stationary production. Equipped with a pair of headphones, theatergoers will embark on an immersive journey in which Amherst past and present will blur together - with the poetry and prose of Emily Dickinson guiding them. Ticket information will be available later this month on the Emily Dickinson Museum website. October 1- 4: Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon and Amherst Poetry Festival The Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon and the third Amherst Poetry Festival, co-sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum and the Amherst Business Improvement District, will run October 1-4 on the Museum grounds and throughout downtown Amherst. The Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon kicks off the festivities on Thursday, October 1, during the Amherst Art Walk from 5 pm to 8 pm. Updates on specific readers and events will be posted later this month on the Amherst Poetry Festival website.    Exterior repair work is underway at The Evergreens The Evergreens is in the midst of receiving a new paint job and exterior repairs as part of ongoing restoration and preservation work at the home of Emily Dickinson's brother Austin and sister-in-law Susan. The work is supported partly by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. Regular tours are ongoing at The Evergreens during the project, so make sure to stop by and see the exterior restored to its original colors based on historic paint analysis.   Visit the Museum with a group tour this fall Have you ever wanted to experience the Emily Dickinson Museum with your family, friends, coworkers, or classmates? Group tours are available, and we are now booking for the fall. Call Lucy Abbott at 413-542-2034 or emaillabbott@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to book your group tour! To learn more, visit ourgroup tours page. Magic is our most frugal Meal... In August 1878, Emily Dickinson wrote to Sarah Tuckerman, the wife of Amherst College professor and botanist Edward Tuckerman: "To see is perhaps never quite the sorcery that it is to surmise, though the obligation to enchantment is always binding - It is sweet to recall that we need not retrench, as Magic is our most frugal Meal."  www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org                           Emily Dickinson Museum 280 Main Street, Amherst Massachusetts 01002  |  413-542-8161  |  info@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org