Breaking News (In My World) - Reading at BPL

Boston Public Library Reading Room, 2010

I took this photograph of the Boston Public Library Reading Room when I visited Boston and Cambridge on a book tour in 2010. I visited the courtyard, the map cafe, and this awe inspiring reading room. I photographed the frescoes and saw original copies of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and the letters of Emily Dickinson. It was a somewhat surreal experience of bringing my childhood and adulthood into one focus.

I grew up just a few miles from here and as a child, this library represented everything good and true about the world. It was also a bit intimidating. I thought of it as a museum for the mind --- a place where I attended summer programs and when I was a bit older, wandered exhibits and wondered at the people who seemed at ease inside this building --- this building which was always under construction! This space where supposed Boston Brahmins moved effortlessly alongside Boston's homeless population. Without knowing the words, I knew this was an important democratic space for all. A place I wanted to be part of in some way.

And now I will be reading my poems here on Thursday, November 12th @ 6:00 pm. There will be more details to follow once the announcement is made. For now I will just mention that this will happen in connection with the opening of the exhibit titled "Women in Cartography" curated and organized by Alice Hudson, former Chief of Map Collections at the New York Public Library.

I couldn't be happier.