All of My Bones Remember: A Special Event in Honor of Lucille Clifton

The Clifton House

Join us June 27th-29th for transformative 3-day gathering honoring the enduring spirit of Lucille Clifton &amp; The Clifton Family.

The Clifton House, Talbot Road, Baltimore, MD, USA

We welcome our community for a transformative gathering honoring the life, work, and enduring spirit of Lucille Clifton and the Clifton Family. Join us for All of My Bones Remember, a three-day series of programs that weave together memory, legacy, and lineage. Events include panels, intimate discussions, communal activations, and our 2nd Annual Lucille Clifton Lecture that will be presented by acclaimed poet, novelist, and scholar <a href="https://honoreejeffers.com/" title="https://honoreejeffers.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Honorée Fanonne Jeffers</a>. Please stay tuned for further announcements on our additional honored guests, speakers, and more. This event is hosted in partnership with <a href="https://www.jupiter-mag.com/" title="https://www.jupiter-mag.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Jupiter Mag</a> and The Library. First Come, First Seated:Due to the overwhelming response to our free events, we may at times be overbooked. All registered seats are released 15 to 30 minutes before start time, so we recommend that you arrive early to secure a seat. If you would require special accommodations, please email <a href="mailto:info@thecliftonhouse.co" title="mailto:info@thecliftonhouse.co" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">info@thecliftonhouse.co</a>. Please note that there is only one ticket per registrant and photo ID is required upon entry. If you're interested in multiple programs, please register for each event separately. Hotel &amp; Accomadations: We have partnered with local hotel Ulysses for accommodations. Please visit this <a href="" title="" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Event Partner Booking Link </a>for 20% off your stay. A Note on Parking:Parking is extremely limited. Out of respect for the neighbors, please consider Uber or Lyft, or consider parking on Clifton Road (runs parallel to Talbot Road) and walking up the street to The Clifton House. Schedule of Events:Friday, June 27, 2025Musical Performance by Brandon Woody at 5:45pm | Trumpeter and composer Brandon Woody will play an intimate solo set to open our weekend of programming for All My Bones Remember. A Baltimore native, Woody uses music as a tool for healing, genuine connection, and celebrating community. He performs with his band UPENDO around the globe and his debut project For the Love of it All was recently released on Blue Notes Records in May 2025. This is a rare opportunity to experience this rising and distinctive voice in contemporary jazz at The Clifton House. Poetry Performance with aja monet at 6:00pm | As a surrealist blues poet, musician, and cultural worker, aja monet moves between mediums, each one an element to her writing. She is the author of the poetry collection My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter (Haymarket Books, 2017), which was nominated for a NAACP Image award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry, and of two chapbooks, The Black Unicorn Sings and Inner-City Cyborgs and Ciphers. monet will read from her newest book, Florida Water, which was published by Haymarket Books on June 3rd, 2025. The 2nd Annual Lucille Clifton Lecture by Honorée Fannone Jeffers at 6:15pm | Poet essayist, and novelist Honorée Fannone Jeffers will deliver the 2025 Lucille Clifton Lecture. This annual lecture series was established to honor the beloved poet and luminary Lucille Clifton, and emerges to reflect the impact of her extraordinary personhood and literary contributions through the work and imaginations of contemporary poets. Following the inaugural lecture by aracelis girmay, Jeffers will explore her own scholarship, alongside providing insights into her work as Clifton’s biographer ahead of the book’s scheduled release in 2026. Saturday, June 28, 2025The Clifton Siblings in Dialogue at 10:15am | A conversation with the Clifton siblings on the intimacies of returning to their family home and transforming it into a public heritage site to continue the legacy of acclaimed poet Lucille Clifton and community activist Fred Clifton. This conversation will be moderated by Joël Díaz, Director of Programs, and aims to highlight the connections between the Clifton family home and the larger Baltimore community across generations. The Legacy of Lucille Clifton in Contemporary Art at 11:45am | Beyond literature, Lucille Clifton’s legacy has reached artists and thinkers across fields of practice. Together, visual artists Joyce J. Scott, Phylicia Ghee, Kennedy Yanko and others, will discuss Clifton’s influence on their own work and how her words are reflected within the larger art world. Poetry Performance by Lady Brion at 2:15pm | Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, activist, organizer and educator. She was appointed the Poet Laureate of Maryland in 2024, making her the youngest Poet Laureate in Maryland’s history and the only spoken word artist to ever hold this position. In 2021 Lady Brion became the Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion making her the highest ranked woman slam poet in the world. Lady Brion brings an expressive range of storytelling to both the page and the stage—her performance is not to be missed. Nikky Finney in Conversation with Honorée Jeffers at 3:00pm | The occasion of Lucille Clifton’s 89th Birthday weekend brings together two prolific Southern writers, Nikky Finney and Honorée Jeffers, in a conversation about Lucille Clifton’s legacy, their individual and shared experiences as her creative/spiritual "daughter-poets", and the significance of reconnecting to her home. The authors enliven The Clifton House with a conversation that considers the nature of mother-daughter connection and the importance of one's home and interior spaces. What efforts and means does one apply toward the seed work of tending to our interior? How does one apply this seed work to future generations? Join us, as the Finney and Jeffers discuss these matters and more in the fertile grounds of The Clifton house. Sunday, June 29, 2025 Sonic Meditations with Randy Preston at 10:00am | Randy Preston is an African Native American singer-songwriter, author, educator and storyteller who was raised in the UK, Zimbabwe and Kenya. His compositional work and love of storytelling led to literary collaborations with Kwame Alexander, wherein Preston wrote original songs for Alexander’s novels Rebound, Solo, and Swing, and his picture books, Animal Ark, Surf’s Up and Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band. About The Clifton House:The Clifton House, a nonprofit arts organization based in Baltimore, MD, celebrates the legacy of poet Lucille Clifton and her activist husband Fred Clifton. Grounded in Lucille and Fred’s lives and work and operating from their historic family home, The Clifton House is proud to offer low- to no-cost poetry and writing workshops, art classes, and opportunities for creative development and networking to Baltimore artists and beyond