The Slave Is Gone: The Show That Talks Back to AppleTV+'s Dickinson

Dickinson Season One ends with a funeral, a wedding, and another Funeral, in Emily’s brain.

Is Emily subconsciously guilty about her relationship with Sue? Was Mrs. Dickinson a lush? Did George Gould really go for gold? And why are season finales so difficult? Plus, new poems from our cohosts — and the Dickinson verse that launched #emisueforevermore.

Jericho, Breezy and Aífe talk back to Dickinson Season One, Episode Ten "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain."

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Poems featured in this episode:

One Sister have I in our house by Emily Dickinson

I Will Die Alone by Brionne Janae

Sitcom by Jericho Brown

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson

In the finale of Dickinson, Season One, Emily gives Sue a poem so small she has to use a magnifying glass to read it.

On this bonus episode, Jericho, Breezy and Aife explore Emily Dickinson's radical experimentation with what we'd now call "mixed media" — using the skills of women's work the AppleTV+ series portrays her as not possessing.

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That poem Emily gives Sue:

One Sister have I in our house

A solar eclipse darkens the skies over Amherst. Is it a miracle of God's creation? A disturbing omen? Or just a great place to take a date? 

In the series' most emotionally wrenching episode so far, Emily grapples with all these possibilities — and ends up begging Death to let Ben live. 

Breezy, Jericho, and Aífe, joined by special guest and two-time US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, talk back to Season 1, Episode 9 of Dickinson: "'Faith' Is a Fine Invention." 

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Poems featured in the episode: 

I’m “wife”—I’ve finished that by Emily Dickinson 

Once or twice or three times, I saw something by Marie Howe 

The Angels by Tracy K. Smith 

“Faith” is a fine invention by Emily Dickinson

It's Christmas Eve at the Dickinsons, and they've got visitors, including bestselling author Louisa May Alcott (on a runner's high) and just-returned-from-Spain Aunt Lavinia (experiencing widow's euphoria). Conspicuously absent (though perhaps not missed) is Edward Dickinson, who heads off to DC — but not without leaving a double-edged gift for Emily.

Could Emily cook? Were Austin and Sue into hunching? And does being a writer have to mean turning your back on your family?

Breezy, Jericho, and Aífe, joined by special guest poet Chen Chen, talk back to Season 1, Episode 8 of Dickinson: “There's a Certain Slant of Light"

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Poems featured:

They shut me up in Prose by Emily Dickinson

Origin Story by Chen Chen

There's a certain Slant of light by Emily Dickinson

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Songs referred to:

Left Alone by Fiona Apple

Love Is Stronger Than Pride by Sade

If You Don't Believe by Deniece Williams

Let's Go Crazy and 1999 by Prince

Lovin' You by Minnie Riperton

On Friday, we release bonus material that takes you deeper into the world of Emily Dickinson, and the work of our guest poets. This week Evie Shockley talks about the complexities of Zora Neale Hurston's legacy — and how Black women writers have found meanings and possibilities in Emily Dickinson's poetry far beyond what Dickinson might have had in mind.

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Referred to in the episode:

"Coloring Dickinson: Race, Influence, and Lyric Dis-reading" by Evie Shockley

It’s Election Day, and Rep. Edward Dickinson is showing his true colors, culminating in a literal blow to Emily.

Was Edward Dickinson dead set against his daughter becoming a poet? Can his refusal to embrace abolitionism be traced to the fact that both his and his wife's family fortunes depended on enslaved labor? And if her family hadn't profited from slavery, would Emily Dickinson have had the space to write the poems we continue to revere?

Breezy, Jericho, and Aífe, joined by special guest, poet and scholar Evie Shockley, talk back to Season 1, Episode 7 of Dickinson: “We lose — because we win”

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Learn more about what our researcher Anna Smith uncovered about the ties between the Dickinsons' family wealth and enslavement: 

A Racial History of Amherst College: "There Are No Good Billionaires, or the Trask-Dickinson Connection"

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Poems featured in this episode: 

A Burdock—clawed my Gown by Emily Dickinson

daddy's girl by Evie Shockley

We lose—because we win by Emily Dickinson

Death was a constant presence in 19th century America, including Emily Dickinson's Amherst. But if you were poor, Black, or indigenous — or all three — the risk of death from illness and overwork was much greater. 

As our rogue scholar Aífe Murray describes in this bonus conversation, the prominent citizens of Amherst, including Emily's father Edward Dickinson, were vigilant about their own health. But they weren't much looking out for the health of their less advantaged neighbors and hired hands. In fact, if it suited their purposes, they just might send you out to die on the edge of town. 

Joining Aífe in the conversation are cohosts Jericho Brown and Brionne Janae, and special guest Amber Flame.

Emily feigns mortal illness so her family will leave her alone in her room to write. Sue, who's already suffered so much loss, hurries back from Boston to visit what she thinks is her friend and lover's deathbed, only to find it's a hoax. And to make it worse, Emily chooses this moment to tell Sue she should marry Austin, her possessiveness apparently softened by the previous night's poetic flirtation with her father's clerk Ben Newton. 

What do we know about the real relationship between Emily and Ben? How can Emily be so insensitive to Sue? Is Dickinson treating queerness as a "phase"? And is there a poet out there who hasn't been tempted to do something they shouldn't to get time to write? 

Breezy, Jericho and Aífe, joined special guest Amber Flame, talk back to Season 1, Episode 6 of Dickinson: "A Brief, but Patient Illness."

Plus: Aífe opens up Lavinia's juicy teen diary. Jericho speaks his truth on nude selfies, dating profiles, and men who act like they would never have anything to do with abortion, when in fact they've paid for them. And Breezy has a little something for the archivists and biographers of the future.

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Poems featured in this episode:

I would not paint — a picture — by Emily Dickinson

fear; low hum by Amber Flame

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — by Emily Dickinson

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Go deeper into the Dickinson dirt: This week's bonus episode "Death on Edward Dickinson's watch" drops this Friday, January 13th. 

In this special episode, cohost Jericho Brown is in conversation with Alena Smith, creator and show runner of AppleTV+'s Dickinson. They go inside the making of the show, and why Emily Dickinson's life and poems continue to inspire.

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Poems in this episode:

You cannot put a fire out by Emily Dickinson

The Soul selects her own Society by Emily Dickinson

Duplex (I Begin With Love) by Jericho Brown

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This conversation was recorded at Smith College on September 29, 2022. We thank Smith for permission to use the audio, and for its support for The Slave is Gone.

Cohosts Brionne Janae and Jericho Brown preview the rest of Season One (including a conversation with Dickinson creator and showrunner Alena Smith) and have a request for everyone who's been appreciating The Slave Is Gone.