February 3–8, 2020
In November 2019 we acquired the former home of celebrated American poet Elizabeth Bishop at 624 White Street. This February we present a series of lectures, films, discussions, and community events that explore Bishop’s work in the context of Key West, and the momentous impact she continues to have on readers around the world.
Click to learn more about the Bishop House and our plans to restore this national treasure.
Monday, February 3, 6–7 pm
Arlo Haskell in conversation with Mark Hedden:
“‘White herons got up as angels’: Elizabeth Bishop Among the Birds of Key West.”
Arlo Haskell is Key West Poet Laureate, executive director of Key West Literary Seminar, and author of The Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers and Revolutionaries. Mark Hedden is an award-winning photographer, writer, and executive director of the Florida Keys Audubon Society.
Friends of the Key West Library Lecture Series
Tropic Cinema, 416 Eaton Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 5, 5 pm
Mayor Teri Johnston and the City Commission
Reading of the official proclamation recognizing February 8, 2020, as “Elizabeth Bishop Day” in the City of Key West
Regular Meeting of the City Commission
Key West City Hall, 1300 White Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
Thursday, February 6, 1–2:30 pm
Film Screening
Welcome to This House
Barbara Hammer’s Welcome to This House (2015), is a feature documentary film on the homes and loves of poet Elizabeth Bishop. Hammer filmed in Bishop’s ‘best loved homes’ in the US, Canada, and Brazil believing that buildings and landscapes bear cultural memories.
Tropic Cinema, 416 Eaton Street, Key West
Ticketing via Tropic Cinema: $14 general public; $10.75 for Tropic members.
Friday, February 7, 6–7:30 pm
Thomas Travisano: “‘My Shelter from the Hurricane’: Elizabeth Bishop’s Search for Home.”
A lecture, conversation, and book signing with Thomas Travisano, founding president of the Elizabeth Bishop Society and author of Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop.
Old City Hall, 510 Greene Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 8, 2020 — “Elizabeth Bishop Day”
By Proclamation of Key West Mayor Teri Johnston and the City Commission
Saturday February 8, 11–12 pm
“North & South: Key West in Elizabeth Bishop’s Life and Art.”
A roundtable discussion with leading Bishop scholars and poets Bethany Hicok, David Hoak, Barbara Page, Emily Schulten, and Thomas Travisano; moderated by Arlo Haskell.
The roundtable format will feature brief presentations from each particpant, followed by dialogue and a question-and-answer session.
Bethany Hicok is the author of Elizabeth Bishop’s Brazil and the editor of Elizabeth Bishop and the Literary Archive. She’ll discuss how Key West’s intimate scale and diverse community influenced Bishop’s poetic practice; and explore the ways in which Bishop’s Key West poems consider race and class and document her erotic self-discovery. David Hoak is an independent scholar whose interests center on letters between poets. His most recent work, on the three-decade correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and May Swenson, will appear this winter in a volume to be published by the Lever Press. His talk will address key Florida poems by Bishop, including “Florida” and “Pleasure Seas,” as well as her two major Florida romances, with Louise Crane and Marjorie Stevens. Barbara Page is retired Professor of English at Vassar College. In her talk, she will look back at her 1993 study of the notebooks Bishop kept while living in Key West. Emily Schulten is an award-winning poet and professor of English at The College of the Florida Keys. She will focus on Bishop’s use of image and discuss how and why this reader-traveler’s experience holds up 74 years after North & South. Thomas Travisano is founding president of the Elizabeth Bishop Society and author of Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop. His talk will focus on Bishop’s Key West seascapes.
Elizabeth Bishop House, 624 White Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
Saturday February 8, 12–2 pm
Open House
Elizabeth Bishop House, 624 White Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
February 8, 4:30–6:30 pm
“The Elizabeth Bishop 109th Birthday Celebration and Poetry Reading”
Hosted by the Elizabeth Bishop Key West Committee
Key West Theater, Listening Room, 512 Eaton Street, Key West
Free and open to the public.
