The Poe Museum will officially conclude the year-long international celebration of Poe's Bicentennial on January 16th with a 24-hour party featuring events and activities for the whole family. Doors open at 11:45pm on the 15th for the Champagne toast at Midnight.

Tentative Schedule:

11:45PM(Jan.15th)–Doors Open

MIDNIGHT(Jan.16th)-Champagne Toast / curator tours

12:30AM-Eerie Nights Ghost Tour

1AM-GHOST HUNT
you can join a hunt for the ghostly children reputed to haunt the Poe Museum's garden.

2AM-Séance

3AM-GHOST Hunt

4Am–10Am Self guided POE PJ's tours (COME IN YOUR PJ's)

12:00PM-Carriage Rides

2:30 P.M.-The "Great Poe Debate" Officially Settled by the Poe Family
Dr. Harry Lee Poe, President of the Poe Foundation, will make his ruling on the debate that has been waged all year between Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston over which city can claim Poe as their own.

3:00PM-Poe Showdown
Two Poes enter. Only one survives. Witness this head-the-head competition between two Poe actors to see who is the real Poe.

4:30PM-Zombie Cheerleaders

5:30PM-Zombie Cheerleaders

6:00pm-EERIE Nights Ghost TOUR

7:30PM-St. Johns for Candlelit tour
Walk in the footsteps of Poe to see the places that he knew bests. The tour begins at his mother's grave and St. John's Church.
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL ST. JOHNS CHURCH - (804) 648 - 5015

8:00PM-Tour departs

9:00PM-11:00PM – Tour Reception

11:45PM-Close

Poe Goes the Movies:
All Day
This new exhibit features highlights from the Poe Museum's amazing collection of movie posters and memorabilia from the many screen adaptations of Poe's works.






*Check back for the latest details on guided tours, carriage tours, and segway tours.
POE MUSEUM- (804) 648-5523

DEAD POETS COME TO LIFE IN RICHMOND

On Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 7 P.M., the Dead Poets Society of America Tour will be making its only Virginia stop at the Poe Museum at 1914 East Main Street in Richmond, and the public is invited to join them for readings of great deceased Virginia poets. Among those reading are “who’s who” of the Commonwealth’s best living poets, including former Poet Laureate of Virginia, Carolyn Keiter-Foronda, and President of the Poetry Society of Virginia, Ed Lull. Six poets are scheduled to perform. Admission is free. The readings begin at 7 P.M. The doors open at 6:30 P.M.

The Dead Poets Society of America is the creation of Maine poet Walter Skold, and its 2010 tour will visit 22 states to recite poetry at the graves of each state’s greatest dead poets. The 1,600-mile, 34-day schedule will begin in Portland, Maine, on April 23rd, and end in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 24th. Stops along the route also include Lincoln’s Tomb, in Springfield, IL; the Poe Museum, in Richmond, VA; and Swan Point Cemetery, in Providence, Rhode Island, where Poe courted the poetess Sarah Whitman. Along the way they are going to visit some of the most and least-well known deceased poets in the US, including Robert Lowell, Donald Justice, James Whitcomb Riley, John Trumball, Henry Timrod, Abram Ryan, and Sarah Whitman.

Walter Skold’s goal with the tour is to establish October 7 (the anniversary of Poe’s death) as Dead Poets Remembrance Day. “The Dead Poets Remembrance Day will be an opportunity for people all over to learn about the amazing history and diversity of American poets, as well as a way to remember them for their contribution to American literature,” he said. “We are launching this tour in order to encourage people in every state to get together on October 7th to honor our dead poets by reading at the grave of a poet near them,” said Walter Skold, the founder of the Dead Poets Society of America. More information on the Dead Poets Society of America is available at http://deadpoets.typepad.com/dpsablog/

Founded in 1921, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum of Richmond is the world’s finest collection of Edgar Allan Poe artifacts and memorabilia. The five-building complex features permanent exhibits of Poe’s manuscripts, personal items, clothing, and a lock of the author’s hair. The Poe Museum’s mission is to interpret the life and influence of Edgar Allan Poe for a global audience. Edgar Allan Poe is America’s first internationally influential author, the inventor of the detective story, and the forerunner of science fiction; but he primarily considered himself a poet. His poems “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Bells” are classics of world literature.

UPDATE:
The speakers scheduled so far are:
Hollis Pruitt (reading the work of Andrew Jackson Andrews)
Ann Shalaski (reading the work of George Garrett, former poet laureate)
Nancy Powell (reading the work of Margaret Preston)
Edward Lull (reading the work of Joe Awad, former poet laureate)
Ron Smith (reading the work of Edgar Allan Poe)
Shann Palmer (reading the work of Bess Gresham)
Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (reading the work of Anne Spencer)
David Wojahn (possibly) (reading the work of Larry Levis)


For more information, contact Chris Semtner at the Poe Museum at chris@poemuseum.org or 888-21-EAPOE. More information and a complete list of Poe-related activities can be found at http://poe200th.com/events.php.

Enjoy live music and the cash bar while meeting new friends and exploring the museum and garden.

Poe's strange tale of dark humor will set the mood for this month's event. Admission is free. Cash bar and live music are provided.

This month's Unhappy Hour will feeature a film screening in the Enchanted Garden.