Join us on Thursday, May 23, 2024, for an illuminating evening at the Missouri Botanical Garden featuring two award-winning poets, Ariana Benson and Dana Levin, whose compelling work explores the natural world through a historical lens.
Ariana Benson, a Black eco-feminist Southern poet and MFA graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, will share from her collection Black Pastoral, which draws on Black lives and voices filtered through nature and the landscape. She will also debut new work inspired by her recent visits to the Garden and archives.
Dana Levin, author of five poetry collections and widely anthologized, has been a teacher of poetry for over thirty years. Levin will share St. Louis-centric poems from her latest book, Now Do You Know Where You Are. She will also present poems featured in Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them, edited by Tess Taylor. Levin currently serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis.
The evening will conclude with a book signing, offering you the chance to meet these talented poets and take home a signed copy of their work.
Program curated by Sylvia Sukop, a doctoral student in the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought, Washington University in St. Louis.
Program takes place from 6–7 p.m. The Garden is open to enjoy until 8 p.m. (last entry at 7:30 p.m.).
Included with Garden admission | Free for Garden members.
This event is a collaboration with the Center for Literary Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.