Celebrate ArtWeek at the second annual Florence Poetry Carnival! Join the Emily Dickinson Museum and other area organizations on the grounds of the Florence Civic building for this inclusive community event. Through activities and talks, participants will engage in writing, reading, and listening to poetry. Community participants include Forbes Library, the Emily Dickinson Museum, Perugia and Hedgerow Presses, and Northampton Poet Laureate Karen Schofield. Individual writers, artists, and performers will lead interactive crafts and writing projects such as poetry themed mad libs. Visit the Florence Poetry Carnival Facebook page for more information. 

There is a $5.00 suggested donation for the Florence Poetry Carnival.

All ages are welcome, rain or shine!

The program will be offered remotely! Stay tuned for more information on how to participate. 

Celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day with the Emily Dickinson Museum. Every year during National Poetry Month we take this day to carry a favorite poem with us and share with friends near and far. During this year’s remote program we will focus on a recently published book, On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Becca Stadtlander, published by Chronicle Books in 2020. Visit IndieBound.org to purchase this book through your local bookstore!

Ways to Celebrate:

• • Carry a favorite “Poem in Your Pocket” and share it on social media using the hashtags #pocketpoem and #EmilyDickinsonMuseum 
  • Mail a poem to a friend
  • Chalk your walk with a favorite poem
  • Join us for our virtual story hour at 11AM for a reading of On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. At 11AM tune in to Facebook Live at the Emily Dickinson Museum Facebook page to attend this live story hour. 

Activities

1. Poetic Portraits
   With the power of her words and the freedom of her imagination, Emily explored the universe. Inspired by an illustration in the story, this activity asks readers to imagine what they would like to experience.

   Directions: “Dwell in possibility” and think about all you would like to see, do, touch, or taste. Download and print one of the silhouettes below and fill it with illustrations of your ideas. You can draw or even make a collage from newspapers and magazines.

   Download: child Emily silhouette	Download: silhouette w/ short hair	Download: silhouette w/ bun

2. Fun with Similes
   On Wings of Words is beautifully written. The words of the story can seem like poetry because they make use of poetic devices. In this downloadable worksheet, you will practice using one poetic device called a simile.

   Directions:  This activity as written is best for students in 8-11 who have already studied similes in school. If your student is younger or has not studied similes, skip the challenge activity.  Read the sentence prompts aloud and just have fun inventing creative endings together. For example, if the comparison is “The flower was as yellow as….,” you would first read the prompt. Then, ask your child to name something yellow, write in their answer, and read the new sentence back to them.

   Download the “Fun with Similes” worksheet

3.  Wings of Words
   Poets can inspire others with their words because they feel inspiration so deeply themselves. To be a poet, an artist, or a even scientist, it is important to pay attention to the things that spark your curiosity or make you feel strongly. In the book, we learn about the many sources of Emily’s inspiration, from her love of books to her brother who always made a big “hurrah” when he was near.

   Directions:  Print out the butterfly and fill each space with a word or drawing of things that inspire you. If you don’t have a printer, draw your own butterfly.
   For younger children, simplify the questions and write in their responses. Let them color in the butterfly as they wish.

Download: Wings of Words sheet

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters. The Poetry Discussion Group meets at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, on the second floor of Amherst College’s Frost Library. Participants should proceed directly to the Library and do not need to stop at the Museum. While no RSVP is required, participants are invited to email edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to receive a list of poems for discussion. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch. Beverages and a sweet snack are provided.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured Poets: Terry Johnson and Rebecca Hart Olander

Terry S. Johnson, a forty year resident of Amherst, began her career as a concert harpsichordist before finding her true calling as a sixth grade public school teacher. In the last two decades, she also discovered the challenges and joys of writing poetry. She received a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College and has published extensively in many journals and anthologies. Coalescence, her first poetry collection, won an honorable mention award in the New England Book Festival. In Terry’s second book entitled Plunge (Off the Common Books, 2019) , she explores her father’s war time experiences as a pilot shot down over northern Italy as well as her journeys to meet his saviors and her namesakes, gradually becoming a member of village life.  Gracefully weaving memory, research and first-hand experience, Terry creates an Italian cultural feast employing both lyric and narrative poetry. 

Rebecca Hart Olander is a poet, teacher, and editor based in Western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her poetry has appeared recently in Crab Creek Review, llanot Review, Plath Poetry Project, Solstice, SWWIM Every Day, and Yemassee Journal, among others. Rebecca won the 2013 Women’s National Book Association poetry contest.  In 2019 her poem “Wellfleet,” published in Parks & Points, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the editor/director of Perugia Press, a small press publishing first and second books of poetry by women. Her chapbook, Dressing the Wounds, was published in 2019 by Dancing Girl Press and her full-length poetry collection Uncertain Acrobats is forthcoming from Cavan Kerry Press in 2021.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters. The Poetry Discussion Group meets at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, on the second floor of Amherst College’s Frost Library. Participants should proceed directly to the Library and do not need to stop at the Museum. While no RSVP is required, participants are invited to email edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to receive a list of poems for discussion. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch. Beverages and a sweet snack are provided.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able. 

Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured Poet: Karen Skolfield

Karen Skolfield’s book Battle Dress (W. W. Norton, 2019) won the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry and the First Book Award from Zone 3 Press, and is a Massachusetts “Must Read” selection. She is the poet laureate for Northampton, Massachusetts, for 2019-2021.

Skolfield is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review, the 2015 Robert H. Winner award from the Poetry Society of America, and the 2015 Arts & Humanities Award from New England Public Radio. She’s received fellowships and awards  from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, Ucross Foundation, Hedgebrook, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Skolfield is a U.S. Army veteran and teaches writing to engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts.

Featured Artist: Mary Ellen Kelly

Mary Ellen Kelly is a western Massachusetts photographer and former professor of literature at Greenfield Community College. This body of work captures three years of the Women’s March in three different cities: Boston, New York, and Washington DC. Kelly says, “A feminist, writer, and amateur photographer, I continue to research, photograph, and write about this protest that demands inclusion and safety for all and celebrates the voices of women and our allies. While much work still needs to be done to keep the dialogue open and ongoing, I have hope that this Women’s March movement can produce dramatic and positive change.”

From February 27 through March 1, LitFest returns to Amherst College. Celebrate the extraordinary literary life at the college with distinguished authors and editors who will discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression. This year’s festival features Jesmyn Ward, winner of a 2017 National Book Award (NBA) for fiction, 2019 NBA Fiction Winner Susan Choi and finalist Laila Lalami, and memoirist Ben Rhodes, former speechwriter and deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama.

For more information, please visit the Amherst College LitFest webpage. 

This is my letter to the World 
That never wrote to Me –
The simple News that Nature told – 
With tender Majesty

(Fr519) 

When Emily Dickinson wrote her “letter to the World,” she wrote to a world “That never wrote to Me.” Now the world has the opportunity to write back! In honor of the poet’s birthday on December 10, 2019, the Emily Dickinson Museum invites you to contribute to the celebratory exhibit, “The World Writes Back: Postcards to Emily Dickinson.” Send us a postcard, and your work and words will be on display in the Homestead where Dickinson wrote almost all of her 1,789 poems!

How to participate:

1. Purchase or create an original postcard representing your corner of the world.
2. Write down some thoughts! You might share how you discovered Emily Dickinson, how you’ve been inspired by her life and work, and/or send us original poetry of your own! If you like, snap a photo of your postcard and share to social media using #PostcardstoEmily.
3. Mail your work to the Emily Dickinson Museum. Postcards received by December 10 will be included in the exhibit. Please mail postcards to:
   

   Emily Dickinson Museum
   280 Main Street
   Amherst, MA 01002

4. Follow along on the Museum’s social media to see your work displayed in the Homestead! @EmilyDickinson.Museum on Instagram, @DickinsonMuseum on Twitter, and @Emily.Dickinson.Museum on Facebook. Or follow the hashtags #PostcardstoEmily and #TheWorldWritesBack.

Please note: Postcards will be displayed during family events. Please refrain from using explicit language or images. By sending us your postcard, you give the Emily Dickinson Museum the right to share your work in the exhibit and via social media. Please sign your card as you would like to be attributed.

Questions can be directed to edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.