News Release

2019 Anniversary Week Events

Date: September 17, 2019
Contact: Park Ranger, 828-693-4178

Flat Rock, NC – Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site will offer two special programs during the park’s anniversary week in October. The park was authorized on October 17, 1968, and celebrates 51 years this fall. On October 15, The Gathering Dark will present the music program, “Dylan at Connemara.”  On October 19, a community reading of Carl Sandburg’s “The Complete Poems,” will be held at the amphitheater. Both of these programs are free and open to the public.

“Dylan at Connemara” will be presented on Tuesday, October 15, from 4:00 – 6:00 pm, at the park amphitheater. The program explores the 1964 meeting between Carl Sandburg and Bob Dylan. Through song, story, and “wild speculation” it presents possible answers regarding what happened the day Bob Dylan arrived in Flat Rock, NC and knocked on Carl Sandburg’s door. The show features the songs of Bob Dylan, as well as selections from Carl Sandburg’s American Songbag and canon of poetry. The work of Dylan and Sandburg are woven into the story of their meeting in a show that provides perspective on how that event fits into the context of American cultural history. The program is presented by The Gathering Dark, a songwriting duo which includes Josh Dunkin, who hails from Tennessee by way of Chicago, and Steven DuRose, who hails from Ohio by way of Los Angeles.

A community reading of Carl Sandburg’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection, “The Complete Poems,” will take place on October 19, 2019, from 9:00 am to noon at the amphitheater.  “The Complete Poems” is a collection of Sandburg’s poetry published from 1916 to 1950. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1951. The collection starts with the Chicago Poems and reflects a portrait of America, much of which can still be observed today. The community is invited to read 5-minute segments of the collection for the audience. You can sign up to read at nps.gov/carl/planyourvisit/tcp.htm.

“We look forward to hearing Sandburg’s poems spoken out loud, at his home, by the people he championed,” said Superintendent Polly Angelakis. “If we don’t get through the entire ‘Complete Poems’ we will continue at a future community reading, most likely in the spring.”

These programs are supported by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park Service. The park is located three miles south of Hendersonville off U.S. 225 on Little River Road, and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Weekdays are less busy than weekends. For parking options, please visit www.nps.gov/carl/planyourvisit/parking.htm. For further information please telephone [phone], or visit our website at:

www.nps.gov/carl

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov.