This year’s Emily Dickinson Lecture, a part of the Mary E. Rollings Reading Series, featured renowned poet Marilyn Nelson, who gave a reading that was at once hilarious, engrossing, and moving this past Thursday evening. A full crowd gathered in the library’s Foster Auditorium.

Marilyn Nelson read poems from several collections of poetry, ranging from lighthearted accounts of meeting fellow American travelers while abroad with her siblings and suspecting that they might be members of the CIA, to a frightening retelling of the true story of Preserved Porter, a doctor who dissected the body of his late slave, Fortune, in the name of science. Marilyn’s reading, like her poetry, was spirited and spellbinding, at once classic and refreshing. With a bit of time leftover for some questions, Marilyn spoke with the audience about her preference for form and her poetic process. It was a wonderful evening of remarkable poetry, and we are so lucky to have had Marilyn visit with us!