for Robert Frost was one of the granite figures of our time in America. And let's take a listen I apologize, there's a little snag in the audio. It is so fitting that we are having this tribute with PEN New England, for Seamus Heaney was a champion of artists whose voices were suppressed and recently had lent his voice to the PEN International Campaign for the release of his fellow Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo.Īnd it is so fitting we are having this tribute at the Kennedy Library, for 50 years ago today, on October 26, 1963, President Kennedy dedicated the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College, the only American President to talk about the importance of arts in a major speech about American culture. As Chair of PEN New England and the Forum Producer at the Kennedy Library, I am wearing, with delight, two hats today. Today's program at the Kennedy Library is a collaboration with PEN New England. I'm Amy Macdonald, and on behalf of Tom McNaught, Executive Director of the Kennedy Library Foundation, and Tom Putnam, the Director of the Kennedy Library, and all of my Library and Foundation colleagues, I thank you for coming, and acknowledge the generous underwriters of the Kennedy Library Forums: Bank of America, Raytheon, Boston Capital, the Lowell Institute, the Boston Foundation and our media partners, The Boston Globe, Xfinity and WBUR. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumĪMY MACDONALD: Good afternoon.