The Blaney Lecture on contemporary poetry and poetics is offered annually in New York City by a prominent poet. Past lectures have been given by Sharon Olds, Joy Harjo, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forche, Elizabeth Alexander, Susan Howe, and Anne Carson. The lecture was created in memory of former Academy of American Poets Board member Dr. Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, past president of Cedar Crest College and champion of women and education, by a gift from her estate.
Claudia Rankine, Academy Chancellor and author of the best-selling book Citizen will deliver this year’s Blaney Lecture at the Guggenheim Museum. This year also marks over five decades since the Academy launched poetry events at the Guggenheim with the first-ever public reading of “The Dream Songs” by John Berryman in 1967.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 6:30 p.m., $30 general, $25 Academy and Guggenheim members, $15 students (with valid ID). Tickets go on sale September 1 and the members presale begins August 30. Copresented by the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Museum.