St. Johnsbury, VT — For the sixth year, the Northeast Storytellers host a special event to commemorate Robert Frost, longtime poet laureate of Vermont. This year the event will be hosted in conjunction with the St. Johnsbury Athenæum via Zoom on Sunday, April 25th from 4:00-5:15 pm. The “Remembering Robert Frost” gathering is dedicated to the memory, poetic works, and legacy of the famed Vermont resident.
Brief presentations will be made by notable poets in the region, including former Vermont poet laureate, Chard deNiord, and current president of the Poetry Society of Vermont, George Longenecker. Director of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire Zoom events, Jimmy Pappas, will also make a presentation. Depending on remaining time, other event attendees will be invited to share readings, reflections, history, anecdotes, and experiences they’ve had with Robert Frost, his works, and his legacy.
This event is free and open to the public and all are welcome to attend online. Please see the related event listing in the adult events at the Athenæum website to register and receive the Zoom meeting code. With any questions regarding participating in the reading, please contact Brooke Quillen via brookequillen@yahoo.com or 802.751.5432.
One of the most popular and critically acclaimed American poets of the twentieth century, Robert Lee Frost – who was born March 26, 1874, and died January 29, 1963 – received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. Frost is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life in New England in the early twentieth century. Although he never graduated from a university, he received 44 honorary degrees during his lifetime.
Robert Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont in 1961 after living, writing, and teaching in the Green Mountain State for many years. The Robert Frost Farm in Ripton, where he lived and wrote in the summer and fall months from 1939 until his death, is a National Historic Landmark. He wrote "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", one of his most popular poems, in June 1922 at his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont — which now operates as the Robert Frost Stone House Museum. The poet was laid to rest in the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His gravestone carries the inscription: "I HAD A LOVER'S QUARREL WITH THE WORLD."
Other noted works by Robert Frost include “The Death of a Hired Man", "Mending Wall", and "The Road Not Taken". At 87 he recited his poem “The Gift Outright” from memory at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy, when faint ink from his typewriter made the poem he'd written for the occasion unreadable.
The Northeast Storytellers — a group of writers, readers, and appreciators of prose and verse — met regularly the second Tuesday of every month from 2-3:30 pm for a Poetry Tea Party at the St. Johnsbury House in downtown St. Johnsbury, Vermont as part of a program offered through the Good Living Senior Center. The group organizes events during National Poetry Month each April, participating in poetry readings and other activities throughout the year.
National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 and is held every April throughout the country. It is the largest literary celebration in the world — with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital role in our lives.
The St. Johnsbury Athenæum is a non-profit public library and art gallery located at 1171 Main Street in St. Johnsbury. It was founded as a cultural center by the Fairbanks family whose scale manufacturing company contributed to the growth of the town. Constructed in the French Second Empire style in 1871, the library was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. A small art gallery was added in 1873, and the collection of paintings and sculptures now numbers over one hundred. Most are originals with some copies of masterpieces by Old Master artists such as Van Dyck, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Fra Angelico. Dominating the gallery is the magnificent "Domes of the Yosemite" framed oil painting by Albert Bierstadt (recently back from major refurbishment).
The Athenæum hosts a number of artistic, cultural, and educational events for the public throughout the year.
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LIVE LINK FOR THIS RELEASE: (click here)
CONTACTS:
Brooke Quillen
Phone: 802-751-5432
E-mail: brookequillen@yahoo.com
Adele West-Fisher
Phone: 802-745-1392
E-mail: awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org
SEE ALSO:
http://www.stjathenaeum.org/ St. Johnsbury Athenæum
http://www.poetrysocietyofvermont.org/ Poetry Society of Vermont
http://www.robertfrostsociety.org/ The Robert Frost Society
http://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home National Poetry Month
http://www.stjgoodliving.org/ Good Living Senior Center
