CORRECTIONS APPENDED

“Many people have asked whether I’m still alive and still writing,” said 78 year-old Adrienne Rich ’51, the acclaimed poet and feminist.

“I am!” she continued, to the laughter of the over 200-person audience. “I actually have two new poems to be published in the next month, one in The Nation, and the other in the Socialist Review.”

Rich was the guest speaker at the yearly Maureen and Robert Rothschild Lecture, held yesterday at the Schlesinger Library. [CORRECTIONS BELOW]

In a talk that was at times serious and at times sexual, Rich recited and provided commentary on five of her poems, written at intervals throughout her long career.

She is the first poet chosen to be as a Rothschild lecturer, said Nancy F. Cott, director of the Schlesinger Library.

“This signifies a branching out towards the arts,” she said.

Yale professor and fellow poet Elizabeth Alexander introduced Rich, calling her ground-breaking and a guiding light for poets everywhere.

“It’s amazing to have Adrienne Rich here,” she said. “I want to extend the deepest kind of thank-you to you.”

Rich began by reading her poem “The Art of Translation,” which celebrates the act of translation itself as an art form.

“Poetry itself is an act of translation, and perhaps language itself,” said Rich, who has been involved in various poetry translation projects over the years.

During the recitation of her poem “Seven Skins,” her words took a sensational and knowing tone when she began to describe an intimate session between a Harvard man and a Radcliffe woman.

Currently, Rich lives with her partner Michelle Cliff, also a writer, in Santa Cruz, Calif.

At the end of her talk, the majority of the audience formed a line to have Rich autograph one of her books of poetry.

“Adrienne Rich is an icon of poetry,” said Cambridge resident Anne Kingsley, while waiting in line. “I started reading her in college, and she’s one of the ones I always return to.”

Students said that Rich’s work is still relevant to modern women’s studies.

“I’m a Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrator, and Adrienne Rich is pretty integral to that study,” said Michelle E. Crentsil ’10. “And I also like hearing poetry as opposed to just reading poetry.”


CORRECTIONS

The April 29 story, "Poetic Icon Returns for Reading," misspelled the name of the lecture series and the place where it was held. The lecture is named after Maurine and Robert Rothschild, not Maureen and Robert Rothschild, and was held at the Radcliffe Gymnasium, not the Schlesinger Library.