Part of the 2021 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival:

In the final installment of this three-part series, go behind the scenes of the restoration of Emily Dickinson’s home with Museum Executive Director Jane Wald and special guest Jeff Baker, preservation architect and partner at Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects. The Emily Dickinson Museum is currently embarking on the most significant restoration project to date of the interior architectural features, finishes, and furnishings of the revered poet’s Homestead. This work will not only triple the amount of restored space in the Homestead accessible to guests, but will also add critical details to our understanding of Dickinson’s daily life by providing a more authentic experience of the house she inhabited. In this virtual program, learn how the documentary record yields clues about this historic house and hear first-hand about the research and decisions that go into restoration work. 

REGISTER

Jeff Baker has been with Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker for over thirty years and has been a firm Partner for over twenty years. After his graduation from Hudson Valley Community College, Jeff attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he earned a Bachelor’s of Building Science and a Bachelor’s of Architecture. Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker specializes in Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, and has overseen the success of several previous restoration projects at the Emily Dickinson Museum, as well as numerous other National Historic Landmarks.

A few examples of Jeff’s work include the restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia; Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest in Lynchburg, Virginia; James Madison’s Montpelier, in Montpelier Station, Virginia; and the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island. Jeff has also been retained to assist in the restoration of George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia.

Learn more at mcwb-arch.com.

Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival. 

2021 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

The Emily Dickinson Museum is now accepting proposals for the tenth annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, held September 19-25, 2022!

Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, with support from the Beveridge Family Foundation and Mass Cultural Council, the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival celebrates the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and the contemporary creativity of the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

The Festival’s name “Tell It Slant” (new in 2020), was selected in homage to Dickinson’s poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” This title underscores the revolutionary power of poetry to shift our perspective and reveal new truths. The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival remains committed to featuring and serving established and emerging poets who represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary American poetry scene, and to fostering community by placing poetry in the public sphere. To see our 2021 Festival schedule click here.

The 2022 Festival returns to the Emily Dickinson Museum with a combination of in-person and virtual programs. We invite you to “dwell in possibility” and submit your most inventive proposals for audience-centered performances, workshops, panel discussions, and programs.

The Steering Committee especially welcomes the following:

• Submissions from groups of 2 – 5 facilitators
• Submissions that engage young attendees and those new to poetry
• Submissions that creatively encourage audience participation or that foster a sense of community

Honoraria are provided per event. 

Proposals should be designed for one of the following program types to be scheduled September 19-25 (You may submit separate forms if proposing more than one program):

IN-PERSON GENERAL AUDIENCE PROGRAMS:

• Poetry workshops, panels, or other participatory programs open to the public. Event sessions are typically 60- to 90-minutes long. 
• $250 honoraria offered per event.

IN-PERSON GENERAL AUDIENCE PERFORMANCES:

• Music, theater, dance, or other performance open to the public. Submissions should be for 60- to 90-minute programs.
• A $500 honorarium is offered for this program. 

VIRTUAL PROGRAMS:

• Poetry workshops, panels, or participatory programs open to the public and hosted on the Festival’s remote conferencing platform. Virtual programs must be designed for a minimum of 50. Proposals may also be designed for an unlimited number of Festival registrants. 
• $250 honoraria offered per event.

HIGH SCHOOL WORKSHOPS (to be held in person and scheduled during the school day between Monday, September 19th and Friday, September 23rd):

• Private poetry workshops for classes of high school age students (grades 9-12). Submissions should be for 45-minute sessions offered up to four times between 7:50am and 3pm EST. Partner schools will be shared with selected poets and will include schools in Hampshire and Hampden counties.
• A $350 honorarium is offered for the day’s workshops.

Submission Guidelines:

• Only submissions made in the online form will be considered. There is no fee to submit proposals.
• To complete your submission, please upload the following to this Dropbox folder:
  • The resumes/CVs of all presenters.
  • If appropriate, up to 3 sample poems per group member.
  • Any desired links, audio, or video files of performances or facilitation. 
  • High resolution headshots of all presenters. 
• All your materials as listed above should be titled by your PROGRAM TITLE. You may upload materials as one zipped file or individually. We can accept .pdf, .doc, .doc(x) files. If applicable, you may upload images in .png, .jpg, or .gif form and audio files in .mp3, .aac, or .wav form.
• Selected facilitators will be notified by the end of July and will be asked to sign a letter of agreement confirming their participation in the Festival.
• Submissions Due: Sunday, July 17 at 11:59PM, EST.

Submissions will be judged on the following:

• Originality – Is your idea bold and intriguing? Will it offer something new to our Festival?
• Quality – Does the submission reflect thoughtful preparation? How are you uniquely qualified to facilitate this program?
• Audience – Have you clearly outlined participatory elements? How does your proposal contribute to community-building for the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival? 
• Special consideration will be given to Pioneer Valley and Massachusetts-based facilitators.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

Questions? Email us at edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Bloom – is Result – to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would cause one scarcely to suspect
The minor Circumstance

Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian –

(Excerpt Fr1308)

This program is free of charge, but participants must register in advance and donations are encouraged. 
Register

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

In this beloved poem, Emily Dickinson ends, “To be a Flower, is profound Responsibility – “. Indeed, as the poet knelt on her red wool army blanket to tend her garden across the seasons, she understood the weight of each bloom in her hands as a miraculous force. Observing keenly the lifespan of every blossom, the weather it endured and the fauna it encountered, Dickinson transformed her garden knowledge into hundreds of poems inspired directly by her garden.

In this virtual program, join Marta McDowell, master gardener, landscape historian, and author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life for a close look at blooming cultivars from the Homestead in Amherst. We’ll spend an hour savoring blossoms, stories, and verse gathered from Dickinson’s gardens. Learn to identify these Dickinsonian varieties and listen to the language they inspired from our favorite garden poet.

About Marta McDowell:
Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her book Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, was published in 2019. Timber Press also published The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times-bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens, and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing. Marta’s newest book, Unearthing The Secret Garden about author Frances Hodgson Burnett, is due out from Timber Press in September 2021. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.

To learn more about Marta or purchase her books visit www.martamcdowell.com

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Emily Dickinson is having a moment. The enigmatic poet’s popularity has surged in recent years, thanks in part to fresh interpretations and perspectives offered up by a new wave of curious and talented artists, writers, and thinkers.

We’re delighted to invite our donors to join Museum Director Jane Wald as she welcomes Alena Smith, creator of the award-winning Apple TV+ series Dickinson, and Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson, to a virtual event broadcast from the Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, MA.

Enjoy a lively conversation about Emily Dickinson and her enduring legacy, while you sip on the evening’s signature cocktail:

The Bee’s Knees 

• 2 ounces gin (for mocktail, substitute w/ 2 ounces of ginger ale)
• 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 oz honey syrup (1 TBSP honey mixed with 1/2 TBSP warm water)

Combine ingredients and shake with ice. Strain and pour into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.  Enjoy!

This program is free to donors who’ve supported the Museum this past year. To those who have already donated, we sent an email with a complimentary registration link. 
Please contact connect@emilydickinsonmuseum.org if you need another invitation by email.
In case you are unable to attend, a recording of the event will be shared to all those who register for the program.

Not a donor, but still want to attend? You’re invited!
Become a donor today and register.

About the speakers:

Alena Smith Alena Smith is a playwright and TV writer. She is the creator, showrunner and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed series “Dickinson” starring Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson, which recently aired its second season on Apple TV+, and is currently in production on its third. Dickinson won a Peabody Award in the category of Entertainment, and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy series.Smith previously served as a writer and producer for Showtime’s The Affair and HBO’s The Newsroom. Variety said of her play Icebergs, which had its world premiere in 2016 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, “Smith shows impeccable comic timing, and also knows how to layer her drama with pathos.” Other published plays include The Bad Guys, Plucker, The Lacy Project, and The New Sincerity, which The New York Times called “Splendid… entertaining and thought-provoking… comedy with a poignant edge.”
Learn more: New Yorker

Martha Ackmann is a journalist and author who writes about women who have changed America.  Her essays and columns have appeared in The New York Times, Paris Review, and The Atlantic. She also is a frequent commentator for New England Public Radio, and has been featured on CNN, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Martha’s award-winning books include The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight, Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League, and These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. A long-time member of the Gender Studies Department at Mount Holyoke College, Martha taught a popular seminar on Emily Dickinson in the poet’s house, now the Emily Dickinson Museum, in Amherst, Massachusetts. 
Learn more: marthaackmann.com