POETRY NEWS - AMHERST, MA.

"The room comes alive": A celebration of Emily Dickinson's bedroom restoration AMHERST, MA - It's surprising. Now, when you step into Emily Dickinson's bedroom, which also served as her writing studio, you see color. Bolder hues have replaced the wallpaper hung in the 1960s when the Homestead was still a residence. Light streams through lace curtains at four large windows and dances across the reddish pink of roses and spring green of leaves hanging on a background lattice pattern. Far from a muted, neutral space that seemed to reinforce a ghostlike image of the famously reclusive poet, the restored bedroom is warm, colorful, and vivacious. "The room comes alive now, with the curtains and wallpaper and pictures that were here when Dickinson lived here, the beautifully reproduced desk and bureau, and the original bed," said Polly Longsworth, former Chair of the Museum's Board of Governors, as she viewed the fully restored room for the first time. "It's just wonderful." Emily Dickinson, now recognized as one of the world's greatest poets, occupied the southwest chamber of the family Homestead in her adult years. There she wrote all but a few of the nearly 2,000 poems that make up her opus. Just a handful were published, all without her assent, during her lifetime. Only after her death were hundreds of poem manuscripts found in her room by her sister, Lavinia. Dickinson's work became known to the public through the publication efforts of Lavinia and first editors Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. "This was a tremendous project for the Emily Dickinson Museum, the most significant step we've taken toward re-creating Dickinson's everyday surroundings. As we close this project and celebrate its completion, we're really opening a new era for the Emily Dickinson Museum and how we introduce visitors to this magnificent poet," said Emily Dickinson Museum Executive Director Jane Wald. READ AMHERST COLLEGE'S STORY ON THE BEDROOM RESTORATION HERE.  The restoration of Dickinson's bedroom was celebrated on Saturday, September 26, marking the completion of two years of work that saw 20th century additions stripped away to reveal Dickinson's original 19th-century space. The process revealed architectural details that allowed historians, architects, designers and a crew of other experts involved in the project to accurately recreate a room that is prominently woven into American literature along with other Massachusetts landmarks like Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond, Alcott's Orchard House, and Wharton's Mount. William McC. Vickery "It looks remarkable," said William McC. Vickery, the former member of the Emily Dickinson Museum Board of Governors who provided the seed gift establishing the restoration's initial funding. "I can now see Emily Dickinson in this bedroom, writing at her desk and storing her poems in that bureau, and I think everybody has a much different impression of what this bedroom meant to her than we did beforehand." The bedroom restoration is the latest of an ongoing series of projects that began with the incorporation of the museum in 2003, which brought together Dickinson's house, the Homestead, with her brother's home, The Evergreens, next door. Work has included the restoration of the hedge and fence surrounding the Dickinsons' property, the painting of the Homestead and The Evergreens in their original colors, archaeological investigations, and a wide assortment of repairs necessary to keep the houses intact. "The work over the past twelve years is a textbook example of exactly how to approach a site like this," said Eric Gradoia, architectural historian and conservator for Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker Architects, who helped to create the restoration plan for the Homestead and The Evergreens. "As we peeled apart the bedroom and started to look at it, there was a wealth of evidence. The majority of the Dickinson period material is still here in the house, it's just hidden away behind much later additions and changes. Hopefully the bedroom is just the beginning of a much greater and grander restoration of the Homestead." Emily Dickinson's conservatory With the bedroom restoration complete, the Emily Dickinson Museum is now focused on the next major project: recreating Dickinson's garden conservatory. Built by her father, Edward Dickinson, in 1855, the conservatory was a crucial tie throughout the cold New England winter to the natural world she loved. This project, like the bedroom, is based on years of historical and archaeological research. Photographs from 1916, the year it was dismantled, provide useful documentation as do some of the original building materials saved on site. One hundred years later, the museum hopes to reconstruct the conservatory to add another chapter to the interpretive story of Dickinson's daily life. $100,000 of the $300,000 needed to complete the project has been raised, and the fundraising goal is to meet the complete tally by December 2016.  "A complete restoration of the Homestead and Evergreens is made up of a number of individual steps," says Wald. "As we advance in this process, we hope the value of preserving this center of American literature becomes ever more clearly evident. Emily Dickinson so identified with home and Amherst that she even signed a letter with the name of the town rather than her own. The town, of course, has grown and changed. But within the borders of the fence and hedge, we hope to evoke Dickinson's 19th-century surroundings, a place that she would have recognized and in which she would have felt at home." See Emily Dickinson's restored bedroom, and learn more of the details of the renovation, during one of our guided tours, offered Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm.   About the Emily Dickinson Museum The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about the poet's life, family, creative work, times, and enduring relevance, and to preserving and interpreting the Homestead and The Evergreens as historical resources for public and academic enrichment.   The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College and overseen by a separate Board of Governors. The Museum is responsible for raising its own operating and capital funds. The Emily Dickinson Museum is a member of Museums10, a collaboration of ten museums linked to the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley--Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org                    Emily Dickinson Museum 280 Main Street, Amherst Massachusetts 01002 | 413-542-8161 | info@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

POETRY EVENT - NYC

Poets Forum Kicks Off This Thursday   Join us Thursday evening for a reading by the Academy of American Poets Chancellors, including Elizabeth Alexander, Claudia Rankine, and U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. Buy your tickets here.

Read a selection of poems by our fifteen esteemed Chancellors, who will join us in New York City. “Blues” by Elizabeth Alexander “Love Story in Black and White” by Toi Derricotte “This Your Home Now” by Mark Doty “Narrow Flame” by Linda Gregerson “Saturday Night at the Buddhist Cinema” by Juan Felipe Herrera “Mosquito” by Jane Hirshfield “Before” by Khaled Mattawa “The House on Moscow Street” by Marilyn Nelson “Next Time Ask More Questions” by Naomi Shihab Nye “Insomnia” by Alicia Ostriker “from Citizen, IV” by Claudia Rankine “The Cities Inside Us” by Alberto Ríos “Morning Antlers” by Arthur Sze “Alphabet of Mother Language” by Anne Waldman “Imaginary June” by C. D. Wright   Eileen Myles & Solmaz Sharif: A Conversation Across Generations   Read an exclusive interview between poets Solmaz Sharif and Eileen Myles, whose latest book I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems1975–2014 (Ecco) is just out.  Listen to Eileen Myles read her poem “Joan” about Joan of Arc. Read James Wright's famous poem for fall "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio." Read Stanza for updates about new essays, poems, and more on Poets.org. Submit to the Walt Whitman Award   The winner of the Walt Whitman Award receives $5,000, publication by Graywolf Press, an all-expenses-paid, six-week residency at theCivitella Ranieri Center in Italy, and distribution of the winning book to thousands of Academy members.Submit your manuscript through November 1. Carolyn Forché will judge.

a POEM for your THOUGHTS

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American Life in Poetry: Column 529

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

 

People speak of “hearts and flowers” when they’re talking about poems with predictable sentimentality, but here’s an antidote to all those valentines, from Sally Bliumis-Dunn, who lives in New York. Her most recent book of poems isSecond Skin, Wind Publications, 2010. Heart  She has painted her lips hibiscus pink. The upper lip dips perfectly in the center like a Valentine heart. It makes sense to me— that the lips, the open ah of the mouth is shaped more like a heart than the actual human heart. I remember the first time I saw it— veined and shiny as the ooze of a snail— if this were what we had been taught to draw how differently we might have learned to love.

POETRY EVENT - CHICAGO

POETRY CENTER OF CHICAGO Chicago's Literary History, Censorship & the Beats: A Conversation with Maryrose Carroll Thursday, October 8, 5:30 PM Chicago Cultural Center, Garland Room 78 East Washington St. Free admission BOOKENDS & BEGINNINGS Reading & Discussion: Reginald Gibbons Thursday, October 8, 6:00 PM Bookends & Beginnings 1712 Sherman Avenue, Alley #1 Evanston, IL Free admission POETRY FOUNDATION Grandma’s Tale Friday, October 9, 12:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission HIGHLAND PARK POETRY Featuring Ellen Savage Friday, October 9, 8:00 PM The Art Center 1957 North Sheridan Road Free admission ILLINOIS STATE POETRY SOCIETY Central Chapter Meeting Saturday, October 10, 1:00 PM Pontiac Public Library 211 East Madison Street Pontiac, IL Free admission CHICAGO SLAM WORKS Handsome Animals Friday, October 9, 8:15 PM Stage 773 1225 West Belmont Avenue Free admission THE NORTHWEST CULTURAL COUNCIL Second Saturday Poetry Workshop: Contemporary Conceptualisms Saturday, October 10, 9:00 AM Palatine Public Library 700 North North Court Palatine, IL $15.00 admission RSVP at 847-382-6922 or nwcc@att.net. GREEN MILL Uptown Poetry Slam Sunday, October 11, 7:00 PM Green Mill Jazz Club 4802 North Broadway Avenue $7.00 admission GRAYWOLF POETRY TOUR Featuring Mary Jo Bang, Nick Flynn, Diane Seuss, & Srikanth Reddy Tuesday, October 13, 6:00 PM 57th Street Books 1301 East 57th Street Free admission YOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS WordPlay Tuesday, October 13, 6:00 PM Young Chicago Authors 1180 North Milwaukee Avenue Free admission POETRY FOUNDATION Curbside Splendor Publishing with Erika T. Wurth, W. Todd Kaneko & Dasha Kelly Tuesday, October 13, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST Sappho’s Salon featuring Eillen Tull & Liz Baudler Tuesday, October 13, 7:30 PM Women & Children First Bookstore 5233 North Clark Street Free admission POETRY FOUNDATION Poetry off the Shelf: Paul Muldoon Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission ELIZABETH'S CRAZY LITTLE THING Featuring Dalice Malice Wednesday, October 14, 9:00 PM Phyllis' Musical Inn 1800 West Division Street Free admission IN ONE EAR Featuring Pete Wolf Wednesday, September 14, 10:00 PM Heartland Cafe 7000 North Glenwood Avenue Free admission POETRY FOUNDATION Poetry off the Shelf: Joyce Carol Oates Friday, October 16, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission CHICAGO SLAM WORKS Handsome Animals Friday, October 16, 8:15 PM Stage 773 1225 West Belmont Avenue Free admission POETRY FOUNDATION Open House Chicago Saturday, October 17, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday, October 18, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO FRESH AYERS: Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, & Nate Marshall Sunday, October 18, 3:00 PM The Seminary Co-op Bookstores 5751 South Woodlawn Avenue Free admission GREEN MILL Uptown Poetry Slam Sunday, October 18, 7:00 PM Green Mill Jazz Club 4802 North Broadway Avenue $7.00 admission ONGOING POETRY FOUNDATION "Like" our new Children's Facebook page The Poetry Foundation provides resources for parents and teachers to cultivate a lifelong love of poetry in children. POETRY FOUNDATION GALLERY Dianna Frid & Cecilia Vicuña: A Textile Exhibition September 4 – November 27 Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Poetic Associations: The Nineteenth-Century English Poetry Collection of Dr. Gerald N. Wachs September 21 – December 31, 9:00 AM – 4:45 PM Regenstein Library The Special Collections Research Center 1100 East 57th Street Free admission CHICAGO CULTURAL MILE ASSOCIATION The Halloween Gathering Saturday, October 24, 4:30 PM Columbus Drive Register before October 1 to participate in the Poetry Guild

Forward to a friend Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Submit an event If you would like your poetry event to be included in the Around the City Newsletter, please e-mailmedia@poetryfoundation.org with a web link to your event site. Also include the event sponsor or series, names of featured poets, and date and time. Poetry off the Shelf: Joyce Carol Oates October 16: Joyce Carol Oates visits the Poetry Foundation for the first time to read her poetry. The author of many books, Oates has penned best-selling novels, critically acclaimed collections of short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, the unlikely bestseller On Boxing(1987), and a new memoir about her childhood, The Lost Landscape(2015).