The poet Anne Sexton took her own life in 1974, but had she lived, this year would have marked her 83rd birthday. Reason enough, thought the actor Paul Hecht, to organize an elegant tribute to her at the Cornelia Street Café on Nov. 14.
Two strong women — Kathleen Chalfant and Jennifer Van Dyck — took turns mapping Sexton’s somewhat fragile life through the ley lines of her verse. Even without knowing how it ended, it was possible to glimpse a conflicted mind through the shifting surfaces of her words.
Pianist Liz Magnes provided deft transitions between sections of the program, which followed a loose arc from childhood to maturity. Cornelia Street Café co-owner and host Robin Hirsch provided the introduction.
Bon Mots:
Verses from "Rowing":
Then there was life
with its cruel houses
and people who seldom touched —
though touch is all —
Verse from "A Story for Rose":
Someday, I promised her, I'll be someone going somewhere.
Verses from "The Ambition Bird":
The business of words keeps me awake.
I am drinking cocoa,
that warm brown mama.
Verses from "The Black Art":
A woman who writes feels too much,
those trances and portents!
As if cycles and children and islands
weren't enough; as if mourners and gossips
and vegetables were never enough.
Use the player above to hear selections from the program.
Time and Space and Philip Glass: The Iconic Artist Talks at BAM
Unhappy Family: Geoffrey Rush and Fred Schepisi Discuss "The Eye of the Storm" at the 92nd Street Y
Wanting What You Can't Have: Happy Ending at Joe's Pub
Fighting Words: Churchill's Granddaughter Offers a Model for Leadership
A Reporter's Perspective on War at PEN World Voices
Rushdie Talk on Censorship Wraps Up PEN Festival
Getting Your Irish On at the PEN World Voices Festival
Jennifer Egan on How to Create Your Own Rules at PEN
Doctorow, Atwood and Amis on America and its Role in Global Political Culture
Who Will Rule Britannia? Patrick Jephson Weighs in at Bonham’s
The Jane Hotel's Connection to the Titanic Draws a Crowd
Authors Conjure Up 'Strange Places' in Readings at Happy Ending
Bringing At-Risk Teens Closer to Home: A Forum on Juvenile Justice at The New School
The Fire in Him: John Hurt Sets Krapp's Record Straight
Talk to Me: Behaving Badly at Happy Ending
Connected by a 'River of Smoke': Amitav Ghosh and Jonathan Spence at The Asia Society
Oxymoron: Frustration at Happy Ending
Lydia Davis and Eliot Weinberger Have High School Reunion at KGB Bar
The Asia Society Presents Oral Histories from Burma
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