University of Michigan News Service – UM News

Barbara Neri explores life and work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

ANN ARBOR—Performing artist and scholar Barbara Neri will present her unique work, “The Consolation of Poetry,” on
Neri”The Consolation of Poetry” combines the form and style of performance art with aspects of traditional theatre to create a probing look into the life and work of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The core of Neri’s performance is her transformation into Barrett Browning’s likeness. Dressing in carefully researched, historically accurate reproductions of the poet’s mid-Victorian garments, Neri engages in a dialogue of both a personal and political nature with Barrett Browning that serves to better illuminate the poet’s personae. This imaginative performance mixes 19th century imagery, as gleaned from the special collections of Wellesley College and the Armstrong Browning Library, with the wizardry of 21st century technologies, as aided by her multi-media producer, Tom Bray.

Neri, a former U-M Center for the Education of Woman scholar, is a published Elizabeth Barrett Browning scholar whose creative work has been funded by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. Neri began exploring Barrett Browning in 1995, through a multidisciplinary study titled, “The E.B.B. Project,” which is coming to the Ann Arbor Public Library this September. Modifying her focus in order to approach her subject matter from a performance perspective, Neri produced her new work, “The Consolation of Poetry,” as a way to celebrate the very powerful voice that Elizabeth Barrett Browning established for women in poetry.

300 dpi .JPG of the image seen above