Scent references in literature resonate with a personal repository of smelling experiences gathered over the course of our lives. This is overlooked when we're focused on the transporting experience of sensory narrative via text as we read. Smell memories subconsciously evoke the reader’s gaze. What happens if we reverse the process and experience smells before relating to them in their literary context—as a group?

The answer is both simple and profound; we discover who we are and connect more deeply to the text and each other.

Five ingredients that correspond to specific texts will be blind smelled using professional sensory evaluation techniques derived from perfumer and flavorist training at Smell & Tell: The Scented Alchemy of Words. The identity of each ingredient will be revealed after participants share descriptions of studied aromas, and is followed by the reading of a poem or literature excerpt where the scent makes its memorable mark.

The Smell and Tell series of art+science programming is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy, sensory evaluation and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. Smell & Tell builds community through interactions with flavor, fragrance and storytelling.