Marilyn Hacker

Renowned poet and activist to read at Kemper Museum March 18

Award-winning poet Marilyn Hacker will read from her work at 7 p.m. Friday, March 18, at Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Marilyn Hacker
Marilyn Hacker

The author of 11 books of poetry and essays, Hacker is a cancer survivor and prominent lesbian activist as well as an influential literary editor and a gifted translator. Much of her work details her own struggles with breast cancer and the loss of friends to AIDS.

The talk is free and open to the public and is sponsored by The Center for the Humanities and The Writing Program, both in Arts & Sciences, in conjunction with the Kemper Art Museum’s exhibition Inside Out Loud: Women’s Health in Contemporary Art (through April 24). The museum is located in Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Hacker has received many of poetry’s highest honors, including a National Book Award for her first collection, Presentation Piece (1974); the Lambda Literary Award and the Nation’s Lenore Marshall Prize, both for Winter Numbers (1994); and the 1996 Poet’s Prize, for Selected Poems 1965-1990. Other books include Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons (1986); Squares and Courtyards (2000); and most recently Desesperanto (2003).

Hacker’s work has appeared in numerous anthologies of gay and lesbian poetry as well as in collections focusing on AIDS and women’s illnesses. As editor of The Kenyon Review from 1990-94, she encouraged a number of emerging women, minority and gay and lesbian writers. She currently divides her time between Paris and New York, where she teaches at City College and CUNY.

CALENDAR SUMMARY

WHO: Poet Marilyn Hacker

WHAT: Reading from her work

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, March 18

WHERE: Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (314) 935-5576

Inside Out Loud is the first major survey of contemporary American art to explore critical issues relating to women’s health. The 51 artworks from across the country represent such topics as breast cancer, AIDS, reproductive rights and technology, beauty and aging, paralleling the rise in awareness of Women’s Health as a distinct category in the medical profession and in the community at large.

In conjunction with the exhibition, more than 30 campus and community partners have joined with the Kemper Art Museum to present close to 70 events relating to women’s health. For a complete schedule, contact Stephanie Parrish at (314) 935-7918; email Stephanie_Parrish@wustl.edu; or download Inside Out Loud: Guide to Community Events Exploring Women’s Health.

In April, the Kemper Art Museum and the Center for Humanities will present a talk by poet and physician Rafael Campo.