Best American Poetry Blog

The Poetry Society of America’s 2015 Annual Benefit Honors Jenny Holzer

On Tuesday, June 9, 2015, the Poetry Society of America will hold its Annual Benefit at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, honoring visionary artist Jenny Holzer. 

The evening includes cocktails and a private viewing of FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life, followed by dinner and a celebration of Jenny Holzer's work. Guests are invited to a private tour of Kahlo's art and manuscripts in the Mertz Gallery from 6-6:30 pm. A short walk away, cocktails will be served from 6:30-7:15 pm in the Conservatory where Kahlo's garden and studio are reimagined. Dinner and a tribute to Jenny Holzer follow at 7:30 pm in the Garden's beautiful Terrace Room. Following dinner there will be a champagne toast and the premiere of Jenny Holzer's new installation.

For more than 35 years, Jenny Holzer has presented her profound art in public places to international acclaim. Writing in a public dimension has been integral to the delivery of her work beginning in the 1970s with her New York City posters and continuing through her recent light projections on landscape and architecture. The PSA has chosen to honor Jenny Holzer for holding poetry aloft as a central component of her art for many years, featuring the work of Walt Whitman, Wislawa Szymborska, Czeslaw Milosz, Yehuda Amichai, Henri Cole, and others, and emblemizing the power of poetry more than any other contemporary artist.
 
Previous Benefit honorees have been Jill Bialosky, acclaimed poetry editor at W.W. Norton, and Sandra Bloodworth, Director of MTA Arts & Design, with whom the PSA has relaunched the popular Poetry in Motion series.

For full details of the Benefit, please visit the PSA website:

http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/about/spring_benefit/

Tickets to the Benefit are available for purchase here:

http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/store/benefit_tickets/

 

Founded in 1910, the Poetry Society of America was the nation's first organization dedicated exclusively to poetry. Its mission is to build a larger and more diverse audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the vitality and breadth of poetry in the cultural conversation, to support poets through an array of programs and awards, and to place poetry at the crossroads of American life.