Events

In collaboration with Sparks and Wiry Cries, The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University present the world premiere of Mortality Mansions, a song cycle by Grammy® Award-winning composer Herschel Garfein and distinguished American poet Donald Hall, former Poet Laureate of the United States (2006-2007). The featured performers are tenor Michael Slattery (“elemental emotional force” –Financial Times; “sweet-toned tenderness” –New York Times), and Dmitri Dover, acclaimed pianist for the Metropolitan opera Lindemann Young Artist program.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford and National Book Award-winning poet Jean Valentine will read Donald Hall poems. Columbia University Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine Dr. Rita Charon will join the artists in reflections on poet Donald Hall’s guiding themes of love, sexuality and bereavement in old age, and trace the unprecedented adoption of Mr. Hall’s work into the curricula of medical schools across the country. Mr. Hall himself will participate via remote video link from his farmhouse in New Hampshire.

Open to the public, registration required. For more information, please visit the Heyman Center website.

This event is sponsored by The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, the Sparks and Wiry Cries, the Program in Narrative Medicine, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and Columbia School of the Arts.