“Never was there more romance in a new country.”

Before pianist, spiritualist, and author, Jesse Shepard, became a world traveler and performer, he was an immigrant boy growing up on the Illinois prairie in the time of Lincoln, comets, religious revivalism, and anti-slavery conflicts.

Enjoy stories and songs from his youth, while the young United States of America reckons with its own sense of Self and Union. In a unique and lyrical series of vignettes, Jesse Shepard, writing under his pen name "Francis Grierson," paints an optimistic and enchanting picture of a people and place shimmering on the brink of change. Performed in the gorgeous Music Room of Jesse Shepard's own Palace of the Arts - the 1887 masterpiece - Villa Montezuma.

We are honored to celebrate this overlooked author’s recollections of the splendor of the 19th Century prairie and the colorful characters he encountered there. The beauty of Grierson’s language is as vivid as his own resplendent Palace of the Arts.” 

Veronica Murphy, Artistic Director, Write Out Loud

Directed by Rachael VanWormer

Performers include: Rhianna Basore, Todd Blakesley, Paul Maley, Veronica Murphy, Walter Ritter,  and Steve Smith.

Presented by Write Out Loud and the Friends of the Villa Montezuma.

Local non-metered street parking in the residential neighborhood.

Please note that the Villa Montezuma Museum is a historic structure with no elevator. No internal recording or photography.