Celebration Day: Poems to Remember
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Dr Johnson’s House was delighted to host Poems to Remember, a moving series of short films created for Celebration Day.
Celebration Day is an annual event encouraging people to remember and celebrate those who have shaped their lives.
Poems to Remember feature a series of poetry readings by actors and poets in memory of loved ones they have lost. Their chosen works explore grief, remembrance and celebration through poetry. Filmed in the historic interiors of the House, the readings highlight the enduring power of spoken words to comfort, connect and commemorate.
Curated by Allie Esiri and directed by Oliver Parker, the films feature contributors including Hussain Manawer, Donna Ashworth, Lucas Jones, Helen Lederer, Lem Sissay, Ophelia Lovibond, Alison Steadman and Nathaniel Parker, who reads Johnson's On the Death of Robert Levet in memory of his mother. You can find all these readings on the Celebration Day website.
You can find out more about Poems to Remember at The Independent.
Celebrating the life of Samuel Johnson, and of all those who lived here with him and shaped the wider Age of Enlightenment, is at the very heart of what we do at Dr Johnson’s House. We remember and celebrate not only those now gone whom we admire, but also the ways in which their lives, struggles and triumphs continue to resonate in the 21st century, allowing us to explore matters of prejudice and exclusion — and conversely inclusion — whether based on race, mental or physical health, or gender, all through the lens of language.
