Join us for summer-evening readings by award-winning poets in the walled gardens of Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center!

The “A Garden of Verse” series returns for its third season, including a reading by poets Terry Blackhawk and CT Poet Laureate Antoinette Brim-Bell on August 7.

Bring a lawn chair or blanket; picnic dinners are welcome! In the event of rain or a heat emergency, readings move inside the historic Garden House.

There is ample parking on site and the facility is fully accessible.

The 2023 season of “A Garden of Verse” is generously cosponsored by the Manhattanville College MFA in Writing, a flexible, cross-genre program that prepares students for today’s creative opportunities, from traditional publishing and editing careers to freelance writing and teaching.

“A Garden of Verse” is directed and hosted by Ridgefield Poet Laureate Emerita Barb Jennes.

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center is located at 152 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877

Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut’s 8th State Poet Laureate, is the author of three full-length poetry collections: These Women You Gave Me, Icarus in Love, and Psalm of the Sunflower. She is a Cave Canem Foundation Fellow and an alumna of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. A printmaker and collage artist, Brim-Bell is a Professor of English at Capital Community College in Hartford, CT. https://www.antoinettebrimbell.com/

Terry Blackhawk’s five full-length poetry collections include Escape Artist, winner of the 2002 John Ciardi Prize, and One Less River, named a Top 2019 Poetry Title by Kirkus Reviews. She received the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize and founded InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a nonprofit that amplifies the voices of Detroit youth. Her chapbook Maumee, Maumee, dedicated to a late-life love, is newly published. https://terrymblackhawk.com/