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“Starting from Paumanok: Whitman, Long Island, The World” is a half-day symposium at Stony Brook University that will explore Walt Whitman’s impact on literature, music, and the visual arts. Topics will include “Whitman’s Poetic Legacy,” “Whitman’s New York,” and “Whitman and the Civil War.” The event will culminate with a lecture and performance featuring 2018 MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin, composer and writer of the opera Crossing, based on Whitman’s Civil War writings. Leading American operatic baritone Rod Gilfry and pianist and SBU alumnus Adam Nielsen will perform with Aucoin. The opera was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2017 and by the Los Angeles Opera in 2018. This lecture-performance will offer a rare opportunity for audiences in the New York area to hear this critically acclaimed work. Sponsored and supported by a FAHSS grant award, the Run Run Shaw Fund, the University Libraries, Humanities Institute, the Departments of English and Music, and the Office of the Provost. Free and open to the public.

 

Schedule

Poetry Center, Humanities 2001
A selection of rare poetry works from SBU Libraries’ Special Collections will be on display at the program.

Session I
Whitman’s New York
2:30pm to 3:00pm: “Whitman’s Arcadia: Long Island through the Eyes of of a Poet and Painters” (Joshua Ruff, Chief Curator/Director of Collections and Interpretation, Long Island Museum)
3:00pm to 3:30pm: “A Sense of Place: Evoking Whitman’s Long Island” (SBU English PhD students present research for Long Island Museum exhibition on Whitman and walking tour)

3:30pm to 3:45pm (Break)

Session II: 3:45pm to 4:15pm
“Friendship in Whitman’s New York” (Professor Karen Karbiener, New York University)

Session III: 4:15pm to 4:45pm
Whitman and the Civil War
“Whitman the Wound Dresser” (SBU English Professor Susan Scheckel)
“Civil War and Whitman’s Homoeroticism” (SBU English PhD student Andrew Rimby)

4:45pm to 5pm (Break; travel to Recital Hall, Staller Center for the Arts)

Session IV: 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Crossing lecture and performance
Recital Hall, Staller Center for the Arts
Crossing lecture and performance with composer Matt Aucoin, baritone Rod Gilfry, and pianist Adam Nielsen

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