hcl.harvard.edu

January 5 - June 30

Harvard College Annual International Photo Contest
Photos taken by Harvard students who have studied, worked, interned, or done research abroad during the past year are on exhibit.

Level B and First Floor, Lamont Library
Hours
For details contact Lynn Sayers at 617-495-2455

 

April 15 – August 28

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: Twenty Years that Changed the World of Art
An exhibition of more than 200 original documents and artworks in the Harvard Theatre Collection.

Copeland Gallery and Sheldon Exhibition Rooms, Pusey Library
Hours
For details contact Fredric Wilson at 617-495-2445

Related Events

• Wednesday, April 15 – Friday, April 17
  Diaghilev's Ballets Russes Symposium
  A three-day symposium co-sponsored with the Office for the Arts
  New College Theatre, 10-12 Holyoke Street
  Advance registration required: htc@harvard.edu or 617-495-2445

May 5 – August 8

“Ever Westward”: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and American Culture
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birth, this exhibition examines his life and most famous literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, with a special emphasis on their place in American culture.

Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
Hours
For details contact Peter X. Accardo at 617-496-4027

Related Events

• Thursday, May 7 - Saturday, May 9
  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Sesquicentennial Assessment
• Thursday, May 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
  Exhibition Opening Reception
  Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library

May 19 – August 1

José García Villa: The Poet Doveglion
José García Villa (1908-1997) grew up in the Philippines, studying first medicine, then law; but writing, particularly poetry and short stories, was an early passion. When in 1930 he was fined for obscenity by a Manila court for an erotic poem, he took the prize-money he had won for a short story and moved to the United States. Only three years later, his first book was published; his second book of poems, Volume Two, was nominated for the prestigious Bollingen Prize for Poetry. Dubbed "The Pope of Greenwich Village" for his witty, often caustic, opinions, he was an important member of the New York literary scene, and became particularly close friends with E.E. Cummings. Writing under the name Doveglion (Dove-Eagle-Lion) he invented new poetic forms such as "reversed consonance" and "comma poems." Villa is credited with establishing modern writing in English in the Philippines, where he is considered by many to be the national poet.

2008 marked the centenary of Villa's birth, the publication by Penguin as a "Classic" of Villa's Collected Poems, and the gift by the Literary Estate of José García Villa to Houghton Library of Villa's archive: approximately 22 linear feet of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, notebooks, and other materials, and a portion of his library (361 volumes of his published work, that of other Filipino writers, and annotated books he read). The exhibition includes a small sampling of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and books highlighting the poetic legacy of this important Filipino writer.

Chaucer Case, Houghton Library
Hours

May 27 – March 31, 2010

Masked Festivals of Canton Bo (Ivory Coast), West Africa
The festivals of Canton Bo, located in the dense forest region of eastern Liberia and western Ivory Coast, centered on the g'la, or the spirit forms of ancient ancestors who appeared in post-harvest festivals wearing carved masks and full body coverings of straw, animal hide, textiles and paint. Until 2002, the Bo people invited the sprits each year to protect their village against unknown threats, and to stimulate fertility for both women and crops. Through rare drawings and photographs, along with masks from the Peabody Museum collections, Masked Festivals explores the different kinds of spirit forms and their performances.

Gallery, Tozzer Library
Hours
Bibliography
For details contact Janet Steins at 617-495-2292

June 8 – August 21

“This great voice that shakes the world”: Tennyson's Idylls of the King
In celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), this exhibition focuses on the poet's great Arthuriad, the Idylls of the King, a twelve-part cycle of poems composed and published over the course of nearly thirty years. The exhibition includes early drafts and variants, published editions, and artists' interpretations of the Idylls.

Amy Lowell Room, Houghton Library
Hours
For details contact Heather G. Cole at 617-495-2449

June 24 - November 30

Gleams of a Remoter World: Mapping the European Alps
This exhibit explores how European cartographers over the centuries have responded to the challenge of mapping the Alps. It surveys the range of techniques employed to represent mountains in graphic form: from the stylized hill profiles of Renaissance maps to recent topographic maps that combine contours, hill shading, rock drawing, and landscape tints to create a naturalistic, three-dimensional impression of the terrain. The exhibit looks at a variety of cartographic genres, including maps celebrating military conquest, panoramic views for tourists, guides for hikers and skiers, national surveys, and transportation maps.

Map Gallery Hall, Pusey Library
Hours
For details contact Joseph Garver 617-495-2417

August 26 - November 14

“A Monument More Durable Than Brass”: The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson
In 2003, Harvard received the bequest of the most comprehensive collection in existence on the life and work of Samuel Johnson, and his circle of friends and associates in 18th century literary London. The year 2009 marks Johnson's 300th birthday and provides an opportune moment to exhibit some of the treasures of the Hyde Collection, including a fragment of the manuscript for his Dictionary, his only surviving letter to his wife, books from his library, and his teapot.

Edison and Newman Room and Amy Lowell Room, Houghton Library
Hours
For details contact John Overholt at 617-495-2439

Related Event

• Thursday, August 27- Saturday, August 29
  Johnson At 300: A Houghton Library Symposium
  For symposium details consult the website

• Daytime Programs
• Evening Programs
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Daytime Programs

REEL TIME @ The Woodberry

REEL TIME is an acoustical journey through one of the preeminent audio archives in the country. Each week throughout the semester participants are invited to read, write and chat during these creative listening sessions at the Woodberry Poetry Room. The weekly listening hours will follow an almost alphabetical route through the Poetry Room's 20th and 21st century collection.

Events take place several Fridays a month throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff and alumni. Seating is limited. Members of the public wishing to attend should contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at 617-495-2454.

IMPROMPTU POETICS: WPR Recording Sessions

Friday, February 20, 12:00pm

Recording Session with Ilya Kaminsky (author of Dancing in Odessa) and Polina Barskova (author of Traveling Musicians)

Monday, March 2, 5:00pm

Recording Session with Richard Tillinghast (author of The New Life)

Thursday, March 19, 11:00am & 3:00pm

Recording Session with Susan Howe (author of Souls of the Labadie Tract), 11:00am
Recording Session with Zafer Senocak (author of Door Languages), 3:00pm

This exciting new series harks back to one of the Poetry Room's original roles as a pioneering poetry-recording venue. With its early recording label, Harvard Vocarium, the Poetry Room was once a kind of Motown of Modernist poetry. Our new series revives this role for the 21st century and offers attendees a close-listening experience like never before. Each guest poet is invited to add his/her voice to the Woodberry Poetry Room's vital archive by reading new work for 15-20 minutes. Audience members are invited to listen as the recording session takes place and take part in a brief Q&A.

Events take place throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public (with a valid photo ID). Seating is limited.

Woodberry Works-in-Progress

Tuesday, April 7, 3:00pm

Maximum Security Poems: On Boxes, Vasko Popa, Prison and Poetry
Guest: Idra Novey (author of The Next Country)

 

 

Thursday, April 16, 3:00pm

Hamlet's Blackberry: Poetry & Disconnectedness in the Digital Era
Guest: Bill Powers (author of the forthcoming Hamlet's Blackberry)

Journalist and two time National Press Club award winner William Powers, AB ' 83 will lead a discussion on the role of poetry in an "always connected" world. Powers began his career at The Washington Post as a staff writer and columnist specializing in the media. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New York Times, and many other publications, and he has been a frequent contributor on National Public Radio and other broadcast outlets.

Woodberry Works-in-Progress offers attendees an opportunity to engage with artists and scholars who are in the midst of creating significant works—whether those works be compiling a cutting-edge anthology; launching a small press; articulating a ground-breaking literary theory; or experimenting with a new form of poetry. These casual conversations take place in a round-table setting in the Woodberry Poetry Room.

Events take place on a monthly basis throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff and alumni. Seating is limited. Members of the public wishing to attend should contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at 617-495-2454.

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Evening Programs

Spring 2009 Public Programs

Thursday, February 19, 7:00 p.m.

The First Annual Briggs-Copeland Poetry Reading
A celebration of the prestigious Briggs-Copeland lectureships, featuring readings by current poetry lecturers Joanna Klink (author of Circadian) and Peter Richards (author of Nude Siren). Introduced by Bret Anthony Johnston, Director of Creative Writing. Co-sponsored by the Woodberry Poetry Room and the Department of English.

Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Thursday, February 26, 7:00 p.m.

Brahmins & Beyond: Matthew Pearl on the Poetic and Literary History of Boston and Cambridge
Matthew Pearl (author of the international bestsellers Dante's Club and Poe's Shadow) takes us on an illuminating journey through Boston's literary landscape during its 19th and early 20th century heyday. Co-sponsored by the Woodberry Poetry Room and The Wick, a publication of the Harvard Divinity School.

Braun Room, Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Wednesday, March 11, 7:00 p.m.

The Poet's Voice: Mary Jo Bang, Catherine Barnett, and Noelle Kocot
Join us as we launch our season of Poet's Voice readings with three preeminent poets: National Book Critics Circle Award winner Mary Jo Bang (author of Elegy and the forthcoming The Bride of E), Whiting Award winner Catherine Barnett (author of Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes are Pierced) and Noelle Kocot (author of Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems). Broadsides of a poem by each author will be produced by Harvard's Bow & Arrow Press.

Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Wednesday, March 18, 7:00 p.m.

The Poet's Voice: Maurice Manning, Sabrina Orah Mark, and Jeffrey Yang
Join us for the second reading in our Poet's Voice series, featuring poets from across the country whose work is staking out new terrain in the American grain. Our readers for the evening will be Yale Younger Poets Prize winner Maurice Manning (author of Bucolics), Sabrina Orah Mark (author of Tsim Tsum and The Babies) and Jeffrey Yang (author of An Aquarium: Poems).

Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Monday, March 30, 7:00pm

Reconfiguring Romanticism: Readings from Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three,
with Bill Corbett, Gerrit Lansing, Jeffrey C. Robinson, Jerome Rothenberg, Keith Waldrop & others
In conjunction with the recent release of Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three, this reading and discussion will reveal surprising continuities between the Romantic canon and the experiments of modernism and postmodernism. Introduced by Patrick Pritchett.

Thompson Room, Barker Center
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Wednesday, April 1, 7:00 p.m.

Critical Contexts: A Woodberry Poetry Roundtable on the State of Contemporary Poetry
National Poetry Month begins with a dynamic interchange among three influential poet-critics Stephen Burt, Adam Kirsch, and Maureen McLane, as they survey the contemporary poetry landscape and share their current fascinations, concerns and discoveries. Moderated by Robert N. Casper (Program Director of the Poetry Society of America and Publisher of Jubilat). Co-sponsored by the Woodberry Poetry Room and the Poetry Society of America.

Thompson Room, Barker Center
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Monday, April 20, 7:00 p.m.

The Poet's Voice: Dobby Gibson, Fanny Howe, and Sarah Manguso
Join us for the grand finale reading in our Spring 2009 Poet's Voice series, featuring Dobby Gibson (author of Skirmish, forthcoming from Graywolf Press), Rome Prize winner Sarah Manguso (author of Two Kinds of Decay and Siste Viator), and the 2008 recipient of the Academy Award in Literature, Fanny Howe (author of Gone: Poems and The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation, forthcoming from Graywolf Press).

Thompson Room, Barker Center
For details, contact Christina Davis at 617-495-2454

Events are free and open to the public. A valid photo ID may be required to enter certain venues.

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To receive a weekly update of events, please contact the Poetry Room via e-mail with "WPR MAILING LIST" as the subject header.

Permanent exhibition

Mercator Globes
Exhibition includes Gerard Mercator's terrestrial (1541) and celestial (1551) globes that reflect new discoveries in world geography and cosmography as well as new techniques in charting, printing, and globe making. Only 22 matched pairs survive, Harvard's being the only matched pair in America.

Mercator Case, Map Gallery Hall
Hours
For details call the Map Collection at 617-495-2417

• Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200

• Cabot Science Library
• Harvard Map Collection
• Tozzer Library