Join us for a tender and thought-provoking evening as we dive into two essays that reverberate with longing, revelation, and the raw inevitability of love.
Essays by Maria Popova | Read in this order:
Emily Dickinson’s Electric Love Letters to Susan Gilbert
James Baldwin on Love, the Illusion of Choice, and the Paradox of Freedom
We begin with Emily Dickinson, whose ecstatic and anguished letters to Susan Gilbert shimmer with poetic brilliance and ache with uncontainable desire. Through Popova’s lens, we witness not just a romantic drama, but a soul attempting to name the unnameable, reaching for the divine through a love that shaped her poetry and defied her time.
We then turn to James Baldwin, who confronts us with the paradox of freedom: that we do not choose who we love, nor who we are. In his reflections, love becomes the most radical site of surrender: where freedom is not control, but the courage to go “the way your blood beats.”
Both essays center figures whose inner lives were rich, expansive, and deeply shaped by the social norms of their time. Dickinson’s letters to Susan Gilbert offer a glimpse into sacred intimacy, something spiritual, even mystical. Baldwin’s meditations on love and freedom challenge us to consider how much of our “choice” is shaped by fear: and how love becomes a kind of spiritual confrontation with the self.
Together, these essays open up rich conversation about longing, identity, spiritual defiance, and the mystery of affection that shapes us more than choice ever could.
Event Details:
📅 Date: Wednesday, June 25th
📍 Location: Zoom
⏰ Time: 8:00 PM EST / 7 PM CST / 6 PM MST / 5 PM PST
Join us for an evening of deep conversation and shared reflection.
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