Reflections on Emily Dickinson with Barbara Mossberg

Me—Come! My dazzled face
In such a shining place!
Me—Hear! My foreign ear
The sounds of Welcome—there!

. . . My holiday shall be
That They—remember me—
My Paradise—the fame
That They—pronounce my name—

HEAR HEAR! And so we shall! Thank you for coming today, to celebrate the life of a poet and to consider how and why it is that an obscure little self-named Nobody would matter! Would become a celebrity! An influencer! Broadway! Apple TV+! But even more—someone who matters to you, who lights up the darkest days and seasons and plates this feast of consciousness. How, how? We’ll go backstage, that is, in the kitchen, and see what she cooked up, and upstairs at her desk, where a window was a portal to the world, its infinite majesty and heartbreak . . .  and joy. And, a cherished Cherry tradition since 2004, Dr. B’s HOMEMADE GINGERBREAD WILL BE SERVED!

A former California laureate, Poet in Residence for Pacific Grove, Dr. Barbara Mossberg is known to this community on the stage and page as our “wild genius,” an exuberant actor, playwright, dramaturg, radio and podcast host (Barbaramossberg.com), restaurant reviewer, orator, professor, educational leader, and scholar. Leader of flash mobs chanting “I’m Nobody” with 50 local high schoolers at Cannery Row, internationally recognized authority on Emily Dickinson, she has lectured on Dickinson around the world, twice holding the Senior Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship, a federal appointment as U.S. Scholar in Residence American Studies specialist, and President of the Emily Dickinson International Society; her first book on Dickinson, When a Writer Is a Daughter, was named Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year. Dr. Mossberg, former Dean and Professor at CSUMB,  now Professor of Practice, Clark Honors College University of Oregon, lectures on Dickinson for OLLIE. Recipient of national awards, she has served the Carmel, Peninsula, and Cherry Community since 2002, on the Board of the Cherry, Bach Festival, Forest Theater Foundation, and others, and as president of the Forest Theater Guild, acting in the Cherry production by Rosemary Luke of Lettice and Lovage (Lettice), covering Jeanne D’Orge, and regaling Cherry audiences with original programs on John Muir, eco creativity, her own life in Fat Lady Flying, and of course Emily Dickinson. Her recent books, Emily Dickinson-based Clown Cantos, Here for the Present, A Grammar of Happiness in the Present Imperfect, Live from the Poet’s Perch, as well as Sometimes the Woman in the Mirror Is Not You, and other hopeful news postings, feature her own poems on her life with Dickinson, and will be available at the performance.

Tickets: $25. Purchase tickets online through Eventbrite.com. The Carl Cherry Center for the Arts is located at Fourth and Guadalupe in Carmel. Space is limited.