Celebrating Tennessee Williams Induction into The Poets’ Corner

This week marks the induction of Tennessee Williams, American playwright and poet, into the American Poets’ Corner at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. The week long celebration begins Sunday, November 1.

• Sunday, November 1, 4pm, Choral Evensong: Poetry of the Divine and the Mystic
• Thursday, November 5, 7pm, An Evening to Commemorate Tennessee Williams
• Sunday, November 8, 4pm, Choral Evensong: Induction of Tennessee Williams into the American Poets’ Corner

All these events are open to the public and admission is free. More detailed information can be found at the cathedral’s website.

The Evening to Commemorate Tennessee Williams will be done in association with The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival and will be hosted by its curator David Kaplan (and author of our Tennessee Williams in Provincetown), president Patrick Falco and festival director Jef Hall-Flavin. Participants include Eli Wallach & Anne Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Marian Seldes, John Guare, Olympia Dukakis, John Patrick Shanley, Gregory Mosher, Sylvia Miles, William Jay Smith, Lenya Rideout, Jeremy Lawrence, Wyatt Prunty, David Kaplan, Thomas Keith, Mitch Douglas, and current Cathedral Poet-in-Residence Charles F. Martin.

Hansen Publishing Group has also been asked to participate in the events. We recently visited with Lisa Schubert, Vice President of Cathedral Events. Being our first visit to the cathedral, Ms. Schubert gave us a wonderful tour of its nooks and crannies ending with The Poets’ Corner. The cathedral’s Poets’ Corner was dedicated in 1983. It was inspired by the English Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Unlike its English counterpart, though, the American Poets’ Corner only commemorates its poets, novelists, and playwrights—none are interned here.