Being Emily Dickinson

Last Friday was my daughter's final day of middle school. I want to enjoy the summer with her, before high school begins -- and while she still likes hanging out with me. (My mom-cred went up considerably when this happened.)

Between sports camps and school orientations, we are making time for something we both love: the performing arts.

Our plans include:

·         Our traditional family night at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's outdoor performance space. (This year: As You Like It)

·         A wicked Broadway weekend with Nana.

·         Seeing my friend, poet MiMi Zannino, perform as Emily Dickinson.

MiMi in period costume.
Photo: Ron Shrewsbury

MiMi is a fellow Maryland State Arts Council artist in residence. For the past few years, she has been performing a one-woman show as Emily Dickinson. This summer, her Emily Dickinson is part of Chautauqua's "Creative Women Breaking the Mold" series, which also features separate programs on Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe

I've invited MiMi [on Twitter she's @MiMiAsEmily] to stop by for Poetry Friday. It's the perfect occasion to chat about how MiMi wrote the script for her show and what it's like "being" Emily Dickinson.

Be sure to visit Buffy's Blog today. Buffy Silverman is hosting the Poetry Friday round up. 

Now, on to MiMi and Emily! Here are five questions for the performer.

 

1.       Why is Emily Dickinson a good fit for the Chautauqua program? In what ways do her story and her poetry connect with the audience?

Emily Dickinson is a natural for Chautauqua because her poetry is alive and relevant as much today as when she wrote in the mid-1800s. Humans are ever on a quest to unravel the mysteries of Life, Death and Love. Her observations, assessments and interactions with people, the natural world, and the psyche are fiercely honest and precise. Her life story as well as her poetry and personal letters have more layers than a Smith Island cake.

Oh, you poor, deprived non-Marylanders.
This is what you're missing --
10 layer Smith Island cake. A recipe is here.

I highlight her playfulness, wit, and sometimes flirty side. Chautauqua audiences come to these performances expecting to transcend time and space, to enter the world of a fascinating historical character, and to have the opportunity to ask the character questions directly. What could be more thrilling than to have a conversation with Emily Dickinson!

2.      How did you develop your one woman show about Emily? What were some of the sources you used and how did you thread them into your performance?

My one woman show began with a gravitational pull towards Emily Dickinson’s poetry. There are about 1,800 poems from which to choose. So I swam in them, rolled in them, fell asleep with them lying on my chest and awoke with them beside me. My play condenses about 30 years of her life from age 25 to 56, when she died, so one must move with me along the space-time continuum. Suspending reality is part of the fun for everyone. My research began six years ago. My writing began about four years ago. My performances began a little over two years ago. The facts of her life are culled from many sources. [AA: You’ll find an abridged list of MiMi’s sources at the end of this post.]

3.      Is there a particular fact about Emily Dickinson’s life that surprised you, or changed your view of poetry and/or your view of what life was like for women in the 1800s?

Initially what surprised me were her personal letters. Her loyalty to life-long friendships. Her adventurous nature in pursuing new friendships, on her own terms, and well into her early 50s. After discovering her private thoughts by sampling the 1,000 letters that have survived, her voice began to inhabit my being. She is writing the script, not I. She whispers which details will sparkle like the facets of a long-buried sapphire. True, I shape the script, and thread the poems and the letter-excerpts so that the tapestry tells an engaging story. My goal is to allow her, finally, to speak for herself, free of the judgment, expectations and gossip of her day and free of the limiting and confining descriptions that are finally being replaced by the solid research of contemporary scholars. In a way, I ask her soul’s permission to tell her truth as honestly and accurately as possible. I trust that audiences are ready to hear and experience her dazzling spirit. And they do!

4.      What is the response from audiences like? Why do you think people still connect with Dickinson’s biography and her work in the 21^st century?

Audiences invigorate me to no end. Sometimes, as I’m reciting one of her poems, audience members recite them, from memory, along with me. After the performance, they tell me that they first learned that particular poem in 5^th grade, or that their mother loved Dickinson and read to them as a child. These engaged and astute individuals are in their 80s and 90s. Younger audience members are transfixed by the music and imagery in her poetry, the sheer audacity at the heart of her expression. People often say that they are surprised to learn about the depth and breadth of her personal relationships.

I admire her fearless honesty in exploring the depths of human emotion, particularly across the spectrum of Love and Grief. Yet she renders understanding of these complex emotions in startlingly original and unsentimental ways. This is her universal appeal.

An 1860 photo suspected to be
a late portrait of Emily Dickinson.
Source: PoetsUSA

Perhaps the greatest feedback I’ve received during my two years of performing in the Mid-Atlantic area is from a gentleman who is a member of an Alzheimer’s therapy group: “Your words stick, they don’t evaporate into the air, they have substance. Your words stay with me,” he said while tapping his hand to his heart. I nearly cried with joy. This person was a retired attorney—ironic, because Emily’s father and brother were lawyers. Such responses tell me that Emily Dickinson is alive and well, and relevant, and still reaching people with her poetry, her cultivated flowers, her homemade cakes, and her personal notes.

5.      How has studying and playing Emily Dickinson affected your own work as a poet and performer?

I am immersed completely in the development of my script. I continue to research and add lines of her poetry, letter-excerpts and historical facts. So I am now a hybrid poet/playwright, or a dramatist. The research, composition, direction, rehearsals, performances and marketing of this one woman show is all-encompassing. And my husband, Thomas Dickinson Law, has been instrumental in the success of every phase of the production. He is both Muse and pragmatist. And a New Englander, to boot! It remains to be seen whether this experience affects my poetry. It certainly has affected my life. I am breathing Emily Dickinson, and am in awe of every new discovery.

BONUS:

Please share one of your favorite Dickinson poems and tell us why and how it speaks to you. We’d also love to read a poem of yours that was inspired or influenced by a poem of Dickinson’s.

982 Fr. (written about 1865)

By Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one Life the Aching

Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin

Unto his Nest again

I shall not live in vain.

This is one of Emily Dickinson’s simplest poems on all levels, so it resonates with children as well as adults. Yet, the simplicity speaks volumes about the purity and focus of her heart’s desire. She is saying that “IF” it is within her power, she will use words and actions to stop a heart from breaking, to ease emotional aching, and to help fellow humans or creatures to find the way back home. Home can be literal or figurative. These conscious choices give her a sense of certainty that her own life is well-lived. It’s an entire philosophy in seven concise lines of poetry.

This poem likely marks my earliest curiosity surrounding the mystique of Emily Dickinson:

Emily

by MiMi Zannino ©1987

Why does

            the wounded deer leap highest

spurred by lance

                        the one she loves

only those who mean most

            are equipped with

shafted weapon

            to slay emotion

            die or rise

            weep or leap

Here is "Modern MiMi" --
looking glamorous as herself.
Photo: Leo Heppner

Thanks for visiting, MiMi. Many of the poems that stay with me – no matter who the author – channel your observation about Dickinson’s work. “'IF' it is within her power, she will use words and actions to stop a heart from breaking, to ease emotional aching, and to help fellow humans or creatures to find the way back home.” Well said!

If you live in or near Maryland, I hope you'll come out for one of MiMi's shows. They are free! Her website is www.emilydickinsonlive.com

Information on Chautauqua’s 2014 Program

THE MARYLAND HUMANITIESCOUNCIL PRESENTS

CHAUTAUQUA 2014

Creative Women: Breaking the Mold

Free living history performances of Emily Dickinson

Sunday, July 6 - Emily Dickinson written and performed by MiMi Zannino

GARRETT COLLEGE, 687 Mosser Road, McHenry (Near Deep Creek Lake)

7:00 PM, under tent – if severe weather, program will be held indoors in Garrett College Auditorium

Tuesday, July 8 - Emily Dickinson written and performed by MiMi Zannino

CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM, 213 N. Talbot Street, St. Michael’s MD

7:00 PM, outside by Steamboat Building – if severe weather, program will be held in the CBMM auditorium

Wednesday, July 9  - Emily Dickinson written and performed by MiMi Zannino

THE COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN MARYLAND, 8730 Mitchell Road, La Plata MD

6:45 PM, outdoors– in case of severe weather, program will be held indoors in FA Building Theatre

Thursday, July 10    - Emily Dickinson written and performed by MiMi Zannino

MONTGOMERY COLLEGE-GERMANTOWN, 20200 Observation Drive, Germantown

7:00 PM, Globe Hall Theater, High Technology Building

           

Saturday, July 12 - Emily Dickinson written and performed by MiMi Zannino

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, (DUNDALK COLLEGE)

7:00 PM, 7200 Sollers Point Road, Dundalk, College Community Center Theatre

           

Made Possible By

The Maryland Humanities Council

in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities

For further information, contact the Maryland Humanities Council at 410-685-4185 or jdobbs@mdhc.org

or contact MiMi Zannino at mimizannino@gmail.com

MiMi’s Abridged List of Sources

The Letters of Emily Dickinson. ed. Thomas Johnson and Theodora V. Ward. Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1958.

The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition. ed. R.W. Franklin. Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1998.

Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson. Ed. Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith. Paris Press, 1998.

The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Judith Farr. Cambridge: The Belknap Press at Harvard University Press, 2004.

Reading the Fascicles of Emily Dickinson: Dwelling in Possibilities. Eleanor Heginbotham. Ohio State University Press, 2003.

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Brenda Wineapple. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

The Life of Emily Dickinson. Richard B. Sewall. Harvard University Press, 1974, 1980.

My Wars Are Laid Away in Books. Alfred Habegger. New York: Random House, 2001.

A Loaded Gun

My mother was called for jury duty a few months ago. I don't remember the details, but I believe she had been at the courthouse, waiting to be interviewed by lawyers.

"I can't go back," she told me over the phone. "I have a terrible migraine. How am I going to get out of it?"

"Mom," I told her. "You're having post traumatic stress symptoms. Tell them. You shouldn't have to sit on a jury again."

How do you feel about jury duty?

Over twenty years ago, my mother was on the jury for a postal massacre. She had to view photographs of the crime scene. Then the jurors made a visit to the post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where a former postal clerk -- after killing his supervisor and the man's girlfriend in their home -- murdered two postal employees before turning himself in to police. (Read a NY Times article, written at the time of the 1991 murders, here.)

I have been thinking about my mother's experience ever since Saturday, when a 19-year-old boy showed up at our local mall with a shotgun in his backpack. He killed two young people at the store where they worked, then killed himself.

I wish I could express -- as a transplant to Howard County, Maryland -- what it is like to live in this community. The central township of our county is Columbia, where the mall shooting took place. Columbia is famous for being a planned community, the vision of developer James Rouse. His commitment to building an ethnically and socio-economically diverse, welcoming suburb was idealistic, but it still acts as a foundation for the place where we live today.

Columbia's "People Tree" sculpture is a symbol
and celebration of community.

Midway between Washington, DC and Baltimore, our area is not without crime. However, public spaces are valued here as a way to maintain Rouse's inclusive vision and small-town feel. We have free open-air movies at the lakefront every summer. Columbia's mailboxes don't stand at the end of individual driveways, but rather in a central group -- encouraging residents to meet and have a daily chat. And then there is the mall. Until now, it was a safe place for families and newly independent teens to meet for a meal or a movie and window shopping.

I was surprised by how deeply Saturday's shooting affected me. We were scheduled to hold the launch reading of Little Patuxent Review's new issue that afternoon -- right around the corner from the mall. My co-publisher gave our event the go ahead. We would celebrate as planned.

I'm glad we did. More than 60 people came to share poetry, fiction, our love of literature and art. We all -- Columbia residents and out of town visitors -- took comfort in gathering as a community just hours after the shooting.

In the last few days, people began to share stories: a friend of mine was shopping for a birthday present at the time of the shooting. She sheltered in place in a jewelry store. On Monday afternoon when the mall reopened, my friend went back to thank the store clerk whom she now knew by name.

For many, like me, the crisis in our town has triggered memories of other violent events: the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the DC area sniper shootings in 2002, the postal massacre that still affects my mother.

A member of the non-profit Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America noticed my shooting-related posts on Twitter. (Visit their website.)

At first I was shaken by Saturday's shooting. Now I'm deeply sad. Tonight: had to explain the American gun lobby to my 14-year-old.
— Laura Shovan (@LauraShovan) January 28, 2014

I joined the group after reading their response to the Columbia Mall shooting.

During Saturday's reading, I felt that poetry was a light we shared to dispel the darkness. Emily Dickinson's poem "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun" is not an easy read. It's given me something to think about, though, as I struggle to understand how guns have taken on a life of their own in this country.

The final two stanzas of the poem speak to the issue of gun violence. 

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun (764)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a Day

The Owner passed - identified -

And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -

And now We hunt the Doe -

And every time I speak for Him

The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light

Opon the Valley glow -

It is as a Vesuvian face

Had let it’s pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -

I guard My Master’s Head -

’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s

Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -

None stir the second time -

On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -

Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live

He longer must - than I -

For I have but the power to kill,

Without - the power to die -

50 State Tour: West Virginia

West Virginia is the 35th state (6/20/1863).

It's a popular retirement spot for Marylanders -- nearly  75% of the state is covered by forests. The golden delicious apple originated there.

But it's not all idyllic. There are some strange laws in West Virginia.Whistling underwater is prohibited, so watch yourself. And do not walk your lion, tiger or leopard -- even if it's leashed -- in the city of Alderson.

West Virginia's state poet laureate is Irene McKinney, who has held the position since 1994. There's a wonderful interview with her here. It gives McKinney's background and she speaks about the writing process.

In the introduction to the anthology Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (2003), McKinney said, “I’m a hillbilly, a woman, and a poet, and I understood early on that nobody was going to listen to anything I had to say anyway, so I might as well just say what I want to.”

She's a fitting PL for the Mountain State, who's motto is "Mountaineers are always free."

Don't you love that quote? For me, it shows McKinney's connection to another woman who wrote what she wanted to, convinced nobody cared enough to listen. Here is McKinney's portrait of Emily Dickinson.

The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson

by Irene McKinney

The straight neck held up out of the lace

is bound with a black velvet band.

She holds her mouth the way she chooses,

the full underlip constrained by a small muscle.

She doesn’t blink or look aside,

although her left eye is considering

a slant. She would smile

if she had time, but right now

there is composure to be invented.

She stares at the photographer.

Read on! The rest of the poem is at the Poetry Foundation.

Nevada is up next. It's been a while since we've visited a Poetic Wall of Shame state. Nevada has that dubious honor.