On February 8, the 109th birthday of U.S. poet laureate Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) will be celebrated by the Elizabeth Bishop Key West Committee at Key West Theater’s Back Stage Listening Room, 512 Eaton Street, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.  This culminates a week of events by the Key West Literary Seminar leading up to the public opening of its recently purchased house that Bishop once owned at 624 White Street.  The Mayor is proclaiming the date as “Elizabeth Bishop Day” in Key West.  At the Back Stage Room there will be a birthday cake; other refreshments are also available.  (Free admission; seating limited:  doors open at 4:15 pm.)  

At the birthday, the four recent Key West poet laureates, members of the Key West Poetry and Writers Guilds, and other poets will present some of Bishop’s often enigmatic but sharply descriptive Key West poems (1938-1949) and their own about her life and the Key West house she loved.  Bishop was drawn to Key West for its then-quiet, its characters and varied life styles, fishing and art, and Sloppy Joe’s Saturday Rumba Nights.  Some of Bishop’s evocative poems will be read,  like “The Fish,” “Seascape,” “Full Moon, Key West, and “The Street by the Cemetery,” and much else about Key West, including her own 35th birthday poem, “The Bight.” 

Info.:  504-228-2899; [email protected]; thekeywesttheater.com

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