As part of the Westerly 250th celebration of American independence, the Babcock-Smith House Museum is sponsoring a reading of poems of Philip Freneau and other poets of the Revolutionary War. Local dramaturg Bob Madison (recently seen around town as “Ben Franklin”) will be joined by Providence actress Jessica Gates (Shakespeare’s Dead Dames).

Philip Freneau (1752-1832) became known as the “poet of the America Revolution. He was also a sea captain, a newspaper editor, and friend of Presidents Jefferson and Madison. Other poets featured are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.