A conversation with Maria Popova and artist, author, and podcaster Debbie Millman, lensed through dramatically different samples of Emily Dickinson’s handwriting from different periods of her life.
"To celebrate the centennial of the Morgan Library & Museum–one of my favorite cultural institutions, stewarding some of the most influential works in the history of creative culture–I have chosen several items from the collection that I especially love to serve as springboards for larger conversations about art and life with some of the most interesting and creative people I know. We will be investigating questions like the nature of time and self, the art of observation and the art of vision, the relationship between memory and self-forgetfulness in creative work, and the power of being an outsider, lensed through Whitman and Dickinson, The Little Prince and Alice in Wonderland, the invisible women in the margins of classical music and the hidden philosophy in the margins of children's books."
– Maria Popova, writer, thinker, and creator of The Marginalian
Maria Popova thinks and writes about our search for meaning—sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children's books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian (born in 2006 under the name Brain Pickings), which is included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials, author of Figuring, and maker of the live show The Universe in Verse—a charitable celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry — which is now also a book.
This program takes place in Gilder Lehrman Hall on the Ground Floor. Doors to the Hall will open 30 minutes before the conversation begins.
Additional programs in this series:
Please e-mail public_programs@themorgan.org with questions about accessibility.
Image Credit: Design by Maria Popova
- Letter to Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Sally Jenkins, ca. 1883
- Antoine de Saint Exupėry (1900–1944). Le petit prince et un escargot, 1942. Watercolor and ink on onionskin paper.
- Clara Schumann (1819–1896). Variationen uber ein Thema von Rupert Schumann (Album leaf): autograph manuscript, 1865 Oct.
- William Blake (1757–1827). The Grey Monk from the Pickering Manuscript, 1807.
- Walt Whitman (1819–1892). O Captain, My Captain!, 1865.