Park McCullough is thrilled to kick off the PARK MCCULLOUGH TALKS Series with this exclusive conversation and reading with former Vermont Governor and United States Ambassador Madeleine Kunin. Well-known author and artist Sandra Magsamen will moderate this special online event which will be broadcast live from the Governor’s Parlor inside the Park McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion( via Zoom). Governor Kunin will speak about her life in politics, read to us from her newest book of poetry, Red Kite, Blue Sky and take questions from the audience.

*In Partnership With The Bennington Bookshop

$25.

Includes One Signed Copy of “Red Kite, Blue Sky”

Zoom Invites Will Be Sent Out To Registered Participants On June 10th

Proceeds Benefit Park McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion

Don’t forget to visit: www.BenningtonBookShop.com #ShopLocal

Red Kite, Blue Sky, the debut poetry collection from Madeleine May Kunin, celebrates life and the

natural world, occasioned by the birth of grand-children, the memories of friendship and past

birthdays/Bar Mitzvahs, a gift of plum-colored gloves from the poet’s daughter, the Sicilian sun which

“melts my argument against myself," with sharp observations and humor. Like Emily Dickinson before

her, Kunin does not shy away from death; rather she embraces the anticipation “before death drags me

deep,” the gap in her life when her beloved husband dies, the fear of immigration to America during

World War II with “an H for Hebrew, I found out later,” and the sadness of being isolated as an older

woman living alone during the pandemic.

For years Kunin was caught in the tempo of politics — as governor, as a federal official, and as an

ambassador — but as she eased into retirement from public life, she found a door that opened for her to

explore the multi-layered language of poetry. She used this form she has dabbled in for years as a new

outlet and, like her passion for promulgating women in politics, she was able to catalog her changing

body and mind as she aged, the loss of late-in-life love, the quotidian details found in nature and home

life, and ultimately dealing with COVID-19. Kunin explores the police brutality that lead to George

Floyd’s death — “A black man couldn’t breathe/Because a white man/Pressed down on his neck/‘Mama,’ he cried, before/He died”— with the raw emotion of witnessing injustice and horrible wrong, with a unique and unbending power of her own political, life-affirming, poetic voice.