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Robert Burns at 250:
Poetry, Politics & Performance

Symposium: February 24-25, 2009
Mumford Room, 6th Floor
James Madison Memorial Building
101 Independence Ave. , SE
Washington, DC

Oil painting of Robert Burns, by Alexander Nasmyth, 1787. This is the most well-known image of Burns and the source for many subsequent portraits. From the collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Scottish Government, will present a free public symposium on Burns’s life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture.

Leading scholars, poets, and musicians from Scotland and the United States will join experts from the Library of Congress in the two-day event. The symposium will be produced by the Library’s American Folklife Center, in cooperation with the Library’s Center for the Book and Center for Poetry and Literature.

Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, Politics, and Performance will be held in the Mumford Room of the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so registration is required.