PHOTO: Poet Dylan Thomas during a reading in Greenwich Village. (courtesy Wiki Images)
Wales has made the year 2014 a commemoration of the life and work of poet Dylan Thomas during the centenary of his birth year.
Only the poets of Wales itself, are more indebted to Thomas than American poets. Thomas' series of four visits to New York City from 1951 to 1953 were characterized by a fabulous dramatic flair in his public readings that went onto inspire American poets, especially poets of the emerging Beat movement to develop dramatic reading styles.
Thomas was born in Swansea in 1914 and the Dylan Thomas 100 Festival is already going on in Wales. The festival encompasses the entire country with events in literature, opera, theatre and painting. From high profile exhibits and live performances to community-based educational programs, the celebration has already gone beyond Wales to New York.
On Thursday, Feb. 27 the Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones and Thomas' granddaughter Hannah Ellis led a walking tour of New York's Greenwich Village following the steps of a new free app and pocket guidebook that highlights 10 places located in New York synonymous with the poet. He died at St. Vincent's Hospital on Nov. 9, 1953.
Narrated by Welsh actor Nicholas McGaughey, and developed by the Pembrokeshire company Moilin Cyf, the app is a self-guided tour which takes almost two hours to complete. The app can be downloaded free of charge from iTunes and Google Play at http://moil.in/dtnytour.
A pocket guidebook version of the tour is also available at http://www.amazon.com/Dylan-Thomas-Walking-Greenwich-Village/dp/0893049972 or from www.spdbooks.org/dylan-thomas-walking-tour-of-greenwich-village.
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