Poet to read works at Kellogg Environmental Center in Derby

DERBY - Philanthropist Francis Osborne Kellogg deeded her 350-acre property to the state of Connecticut for a state park, which led to the creation of Osbornedale State Park.

Kellogg, who died in 1956, supported the arts and brought many famous speakers and performers to the Valley during her lifetime.

To help continue the tradition all are invited to celebrate spring and Mother’s Day at a special poetry reading and book signing by Marilyn Nelson at the Kellogg Environmental Center, 500 Hawthorne Ave.

The program will be held at 2 p.m. May 11.


Nelson will open the season with readings from her collection of poems, "Carver: A Life in Poems."

This collection provides young readers with a compelling, lyrical account of the life of revered African-American botanist and inventor George Washington Carver.
Born in 1864 and raised by white slave owners, Carver left home in search of an education and eventually earned a master's degree in agriculture.
Rising to head the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee Institute and known for his studies on sweet potatoes, cow peas and peanuts, Carver provided the world with many products and agricultural innovations.
Nelson tells his story through 44 poems celebrating the man and his accomplishments. She is the author or translator of 15 books and five chapbooks.

Image Journal writes, "American history as conceived by Marilyn Nelson is the inside-out, last-shall-be-first version. She inhabits the voices of the overlooked and disenfranchised and shines light into forgotten corners that reveal essential truths about the whole....But if she is a revisionist historian’s poet, she is also a child’s poet, a mother’s poet, a housekeeper’s poet, and scientist’s poet....It’s this breadth of perspective, from pole to pole, past to present, from spheres domestic to atmospheric, that make her so remarkable. Nelson is also an openhanded citizen of the nation of writers." 

Nelson's honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, an A.C.L.S. Contemplative Practices Fellowship, the Department of the Army's Commander's Award for Public Service.
In addition, she has received a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Frost Medal—the Poetry Society of America's most prestigious award, for a "distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry."

Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut. She was (2004-2010) founder/director and host of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small non-profit writers' colony; and held the office of Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut from 2001-2006. 

The staff of the Kellogg Environmental Center is honored to host Nelson.

The program is offered free, but donations are gratefully accepted. Refreshments will be provided.

The Kellogg Environmental Center, operated by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

For more information call 203-734-2513.

This post is taken from a press release from Kellogg Environmental Center.