Celebrate National Poetry Month by joining poets and writers Shanta Lee Gander, Diana Whitney and Christal Brown for a conversation that explores how girlhood and womanhood in America are manifested across the boundaries of poetry, dance, and lived experience. The First Wednesday lecture series, a collaboration between the Vermont Humanities Council and Vermont public libraries will be delivered in-person at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St. Brattleboro on Wednesday, April 6th at 7pm.

"Within this program, poetry comes off the page for a poetics that is blended with our individual and shared experiences'" says Shanta Lee Gander. "The audience will both witness and become a part of a conversation that explores how storytelling can be a tool for unwriting shame, how one connects to one's identity in ways that become authentic while venturing beyond the boxes that society tries to place upon our bodies, and how our various pathways of our work through dance, writing, photography, and across other mediums has helped to inform and expand what we as the panelists have come to understand as girlhood and womanhood in this country."

The First Wednesdays series is held in nine communities statewide, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. The statewide underwriter for the 2021-2022 series is the Institute of Museum & Library Services through the Vermont Department of Libraries. Brattleboro programs are sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library. April's program is underwritten by the Anne Comire Fund for Women in the Humanities in partnership with Middlebury College and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Masking is optional, but appreciated. For more information, call 802.254.5290 or visit https://brookslibraryvt.org/.

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