Sunken Garden Poetry Video Library

Welcome to the Sunken Garden Poetry Video Library!

With video recordings from Hill-Stead Museum’s Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, the Sunken Garden Poetry Video Library features links to Simsbury TV and performances by Pulitzer Prize winners, rising stars in the world of poetry, and students who won acclaim in Hill-Stead’s own Fresh Voices Poetry Competition.

This site is an ongoing project and new material will continue to be added.  Please check back often.


2020 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch selected readings from 2020

Festival poets included
  • Mahogany L. Browne
  •  Fresh Voices Winners
  • Joy Harjo
  • Margaret Gibson

 

The 2019 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch highlights from 2019

Festival poets included
  • Claudia Rankine
  • Emily Skillings
  • Terrance Hayes
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil
  •  Rajiv Mohabir
  • Chris Abani & Mai Der Vang
  • Elizabeth Acevedo
  • Winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition

2018 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch highlights from 2018

Tracy K Smith Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Festival poets included
  • Eamon Grennan
  • David McLoghlin
  • Molly Brown
  • Margaret Gibson
  • United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
  • Solmaz Sharif
  • Javier Zamora
  • Andrea Gibson
  • Winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition

2017 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch selected readings from 2017

Festival poets included
  • Billy Collins
  • Jericho Brown & Ladan Osman
  • Cornelius Eady & Emily Jungmin Yoon
  • Mark Doty & Eileen Myles
  • Ocean Vuong & the Fresh Voices Winners

2016 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch selected readings from 2016

Festival poets included
  • Heather McHugh & Suzanne Parker
  • Brian Turner & Doug Anderson
  • Edward Hirsch & Clare Rossini
  • Juan Felipe Herrera, United States Poet Laureate & Peg Boyers
  • Kwame Dawes and the winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition

2015 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch selected readings from 2015
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Festival poets included
  • Ted Kooser
  • Hadara Bar-Nadav
  • Marie Howe, Ciaran Berry
  • Vijay Seshadri
  • Ravi Shakar
  • Li-Young Lee
  • Tina Chang
  • Natalie Diaz
  • Aja Monet
  • Fresh Voices Poetry Competition Winners

2014 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Watch selected readings from 2014
Keving Young and Rennie McQuilkin at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Festival poets included
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil
  • Ted Lardner
  • Jeffrey Harrison
  • Alicia Ostriker
  • Frank Bidart
  • Kevin Young
  • Richard Blanco

 

 

Learn more: