Ecstasy and Death: The Genius of Keats and Shelley. A reading by Jack Ramey

Tuesday 10 May, 18:30 - SOLD OUT EVENT

* Please note that this event will be filmed and audience members may be also be filmed while the reading takes place *

Jack Ramey, poet and spoken word artist, offers his unique perspective on the lives and works of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley to accompany his dynamic reading of selections of their poetry. Rome was especially important to these two poets. Keats, of course, died here and is buried in the non-Catholic cemetery and Shelley wrote some of his greatest works here. His “Prometheus Unbound” was composed partly here, within the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. In addition to the works of Keats and Shelley, Ramey performs a selection of his own poetry.  

Links for Jack's videos of Keats & Shelley:

http://www.springwoodpress.org/ode-to-a-nightingale/    (Note:  From this URL, you can press the right sidebar arrow to scroll to the other 3 videos.)
http://www.springwoodpress.org/ode-on-a-grecian-urn/

http://www.springwoodpress.org/3625-2/

http://www.springwoodpress.org/ozymandias/ 

Biographical Note:  

Jack Rameyis a poet, author, performer, and English professor at Indiana University Southeast. His poetry books include The Future Past, Death Sings in the Choir of Light, and Eavesdropping in Plato’s Café , which was published April 2015. His historical fiction, Turtle Island, was published November 2015. His documentary,William Blake: Inspiration and Vision , won an Aegis award for best educational film. 

In his early years, Jack was a member of the counterculture and read his poetry in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Eugene, Victoria BC, and Kent OH. He then moved to New York to work in the theater, where his roles ranged from contemporary plays to the role of Bunthorne – a parody of Oscar Wilde – in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience. Isaac Asimov praised his performance as “the best Bunthorne I have ever seen.” He taught in Stockholm for several years. On his return to America, he performed in medieval plays with the Chicago Medieval Players and often read his poetry at the Green Mill, where he was a finalist in the Chicago Slam.  He frequently posts poems at Springwood Press.