Description
In recognition of Black History Month, the Cambridge Department of Veterans Services, the City's Office of Equity & Inclusion, and the Mayor's Office cordially invite you to the event, the Secrets of Phillis Wheatley on Wednesday, February 19, from 12-2 p.m., in the Sullivan Chamber of Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue. Light refreshments will be served.
Phillis Wheatley Peters (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. As was the custom of the times, if slaves used a surname, it was the last name of their owners.
On a 1773 trip to London with the Wheatleys' son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became her patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Prominent figures, such as George Washington, praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own. Phillis Wheatley was emancipated by the Wheatley family shortly after the publication of her book of poems.
Wheatley was a revolutionary poet who lived during two wars and had the rare experience of being a slave who was taught to read and write, and then became a published author. At this event, Lilly Darr will portray Phillis Wheatley in a multimedia theatrical monologue which will include some of Wheatley's poems.
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