#  Samantha's ARTS FIRST picks 

 





April 16, 2019

 

 

\[\[{"fid":"1016116","view\_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"168","width":"183","style":"float: left;","alt":"Candela","class":"media-element file-default"}}\]\]Our blogger will perform with the Candela Dance Troupe during ARTS FIRST. She also has her eye on a handful of the 100-plus free events at the festival, which runs May 2-5. Here are her suggestions.

By Samantha Neville '19

[ARTS FIRST](/arts) is a time of openness, new beginnings and rejuvenation. For one spring weekend every year, Harvard Yard and its surroundings are transformed into a wide-ranging stage, an art exhibit in the open air. Theater, music, art and dance – of all kinds! – are all in store. Be sure to stop by and say hello to my classmates and me after the [Candela Dance Troupe](https://www.facebook.com/harvardcandeladancetroupe/) during [DanceFest](/event/dancefest) 3-5 p.m. Saturday, May 4 at the Plaza Tent. Below are a few events I am interested in attending. For more, see the [Arts First Guide](https://issuu.com/harvard_artsfirst/docs/arts_first_2019_guide_issuu) or the [daily schedule](/arts/festival-schedule) of events by day.

**Harvard** **Arts Medal Ceremony: Poet Tracy K. Smith ’94**   
 **4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2 | Agassiz Theater**   
I am beyond excited to see [Tracy Smith](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tracy-k-smith) ’94 be honored at the [Harvard Arts Medal Ceremony](/Harvard-Arts-Medal-2019-Tracy-K-Smith-ARTSFIRST). Indeed, there is hardly a literary award that Smith has not received. To name a few of Smith’s accomplishments, in 2012 she received a [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.pulitzer.org) for Poetry and, in 2017, was named [U.S. Poet Laureate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Poet_Laureate). She concluded her second term on [April 15, 2019](https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/smith/?loclr=eadrs). Above all, I look forward to hearing Smith read her work. I am most familiar with the poem [*My God, It’s Full of Stars*](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55519/my-god-its-full-of-stars), and reading it was a religious experience. Smith brings to life worlds “bursting at the seams with energy,” as she writes in that poem. You won’t want to miss this fantastic event.

**Poetry of Nature, Nature of Poetry**   
**1****-2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4 | Fong Auditorium, Boylston**   
Walking around Harvard Yard, looking at the spring buds and blooms and the majestic trees, I can’t help feeling that nature is poetry, that life itself has a rhythm that can be sung in verse. Now more than ever we need to appreciate this world we live on, and what better way than with a poetry reading. I am thrilled about this event -- a collaboration between the [Harvard Office for Sustainability](https://green.harvard.edu/) and the [Office for the Arts](/) -- and I am eager to hear the poetry.

\[\[{"fid":"1016094","view\_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"1333","width":"2000","style":"float: right; width: 300px; height: 200px;","alt":"Beyond Borders","title":"Beyond Borders","class":"media-element file-default"}}\]\]**Beyond Borders**   
**11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5 | Harvard Commons, Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center**  
What an opportunity this is! Even if any one of these musical groups – [Silkroad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkroad_(arts_organization)) artists, [Parker Quartet](http://www.parkerquartet.com) or the [Brattle Street Chamber Players](https://www.brattlestreetchamberplayers.com) - were playing alone, it would be a musical treat. However, the fact that they will be playing together in Harvard’s natural light-filled, Smith Campus Center, is thrilling. Whatever the fusion of these different groups creates it will certainly be a delightful once-in-a-lifetime experience.