SHOWTIME
Thursday, December 18 2025, 7:00pm
TICKETS
$34, includes a signed book ("Fear Less," $24, hardcover)
https://www.themusichall.org/events/tracyksmith/
A Pulitzer Prize–winning poet reveals how poetry is a powerful tool of connection and understanding in a fractured world.
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterized as “inaccessible,” “irrelevant,” or “intimidating.” She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and cultivate community. Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us to better confront life’s many uncertainties and losses, build camaraderie with strangers, and understand ourselves more fully.
She grounds readers in the technical elements of the craft and provides close readings of the works of contemporary poets such as Joy Harjo, Danez Smith, and Francisco Márquez, alongside classic poems by Dickinson, Keats, Millay, and others. By reimagining and reexamining the age-old art form, Fear Less is a warm invitation to find meaning, consolation, and hope through poetry for poetry fans and newcomers to the art form.
Tracy K. Smith is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of five poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Life on Mars.
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Special thanks to our Literary in The Lounge Presenting Sponsor, the University of New Hampshire and our Media Partner, New Hampshire Public Radio.
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![Tracy K. Smith with "Fear Less", 18 December | Event in Portsmouth | AllEvents](https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/ea49491306817b58d122c06c4b0a3c7e60b1215be7a9d24e6bdb7dcdb7a9329e-rimg-w1200-h675-dc141416-gmir?v=1764007490 "Tracy K. Smith with "Fear Less", The Music Hall Lounge, Portsmouth, 18 December 2025 | AllEvents")
