• “Vachel’s Golden Age” exhibit will be hosted by the Pharmacy featuring work inspired by Lindsay, June 8 and 9, 6-9 p.m. each night at the Pharmacy and Vachel Lindsay House. Free admission.

• A collaborative exhibition about Vachel Lindsay at the Springfield Art Association will run Sept. 7-28. Partners are the SAA, ALPLM and the Vachel Lindsay Association, Springfield Poets and Writers, UIS Archives and the Sangamon Valley Collection. Highlights will include original Lindsay photographs, artwork and poetry, as well as a portrait of Lindsay done shortly before his death in 1931.

• The second annual Amaranth Apple Festival – named after the mystical fruit central to The Golden Book – has been announced for July 13 through July 15 and will be an official Bicentennial event.

• The Vachel Lindsay House’s monthly Poets in the Parlor series will feature an open mic prior to each featured reader throughout this year, in the spirit of The Golden Book of Springfield, which features the voices of a wide variety of Springfield citizens.

• On Wednesday, March 28, a town hall meeting will be held at the Vachel Lindsay House to examine Springfield and the surrounding community’s literary roots in addition to exploring the potential of our literary future. Authors Jackie Jackson and Shawna Mayer will discuss a few key figures from the past as well as present their ideas of where the literary community is now. Following their presentation, the discussion will be opened to the audience.

• The New Golden Book of Springfi eld will be published in the fall of 2018. The book will contain essay and art winners, photos of bicentennial visitors and events, and essays from Springfield leaders about what Springfield 2118 will be like.

For information about various town hall meetings being planned throughout 2018 by the Illinois Bicentennial Coordinating Committee of Springfield, visit www.il200springfield.org/town-hall-series.html