Bozeman Magazine

Through poems and storytelling, Burgess describes the journey of his grandmother, Anna Lee, and great-aunt, Dicka Lee, from their family homestead in northern Minnesota out to eastern Montana where they became homesteaders themselves and lived out their lives. He includes a litany of disasters, humor, illnesses, adventure, hard work, and social chatter excerpted from hundreds of postcards mailed to Anna and Dicka from their women’s community back in Minnesota. This presentation provides some unique and intimate insights into the day-to-day social and working lives of early 20th-century, rural, Western women. It is a tribute to how women’s community, built with bonds of love, mutual support, and courage can help build and hold together the greater community in extremely harsh circumstances—and to the contribution that one uneducated, impoverished, cantankerous, color-blind, terrible cook of an old woman made throughout her life to one such community. Burgess, of Missoula, MT, is a veteran, poet, storyteller, ex-gypsy, ex-therapist, ex-cabdriver, etc., who still nourishes and honors his eastern Montana roots. He is the author of the collection of poetry Badlands Child and Penny Postcards and Prairie Flowers. Register at (406)388-4346.