Susan Howe Narrates MY EMILY DICKINSON Today, May 20

In 1985, the poet Susan Howe wrote a book about Emily Dickinson, called My Emily Dickinson. She describes Dickinson as a voracious reader, as well as an expert in secret listening, and silent understanding. Her Emily Dickinson is a poet for whom a tear is an intellectual thing.

"The vital distinction between concealment and revelation is the essence of her work," she wrote.

We know that in her thirties Emily Dickinson became increasingly reclusive. She rarely left the family house on the main street in Amherst Mass. She wrote her prose and poetry, sometimes single lines to be saved for later use, on fragments of all types--torn envelopes, scraps of wrapping paper, pages from notebooks. Her words, marks, and strokes on paper can start to look like drawings. They make the marginal masterful, and vice-versa.

This afternoon, May 20th, at 4pm, Susan Howe narrates a slideshow showing a few of the fragments, drafts, drawings, and envelopes at The Artist's Institute, 163 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002, A project by Hunter College, City University of New York, www.theartistsinstitute.org