Author/choreographer/performer Tim Cusack and director/co-choreographer Patrice Miller discuss the inspiration and development of their site-specfiic performance piece, "I Ping the Body Electric," a line-by-line, syllable-by- syllable rewiring of Whitman's iconic ode that premiered as part of the Art in Odd Places performance event held along Manhattan's 14th Street in May. Written during pandemic lockdown in [...]

Inspired by New York's annual Song of Myself Marathon, a small but enthusiastic group gathered on the shores of Ontario's Mazinaw Lake in 2017 to share that same epic poem in the wilderness. Across the water, visible at that distance only to those who knew what to look for, could be seen the smudge of [...]

Join us for an evening with Paul Morris and Danielle Molden of the House of Speakeasy, a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to bringing writers and books to the public in innovative and accessible ways.  Paul and Danielle will discuss the evolution of the House of Speakeasy (founded in 2013) and the development of their distinct [...]

Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park is a 34-acre public space stewarded by the community to celebrate and sustain the neighborhood’s diverse, vibrant culture. The park is an incredible natural asset with a rich history, boasting Walt Whitman as the park's spiritual founding father.  The Fort Greene Park Conservancy is a non-profit that provides programming, maintenance, and [...]

Please join us for a conversation with poet Tanya Ko Hong, who will introduce us to her latest writings and cultural activism. Host and WWI president Karen Karbiener will discuss with Tanya the connection between her artistic vision and Whitman's work as a supporter of America's earliest women's rights movements. Tanya Ko Hong was the first [...]

Please join WWI president Karen Karbiener and board member Triston Pullen for a conversation with Gil Cole, a writer and performer who has just returned to the theater after thirty years in practice as a psychoanalyst. This Garden Plot (which premiered at Theatre Row, NY, in October 2021) draws on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Thom [...]

Fahri Oz will present a general picture of Whitman translations in Turkish so far; dwelling on his translation strategy he will also read excerpts from Leaves of Grass in Turkish. View the Event Livestream Page Fahri Öz is an ex-academic, translator and poet. After signing Academic for Peace declaration in 2016, he was [...]

Founded by Bob Lewis and Stephen Dima, Fulton Stall Market is a non-profit public marketplace that connects farmers and producers with the lower Manhattan community.  Located in the historic district where NYC’s public markets began in the 1700's, Fulton Stall Market’s storefront is a first step toward reviving a year-round multiple-vendor public market-- a place to [...]

Please join Whitman Initiative president Karen Karbiener for a conversation with Dr. Paul Salveson of Bolton, England. Paul is the perfect person to outline the story of Bolton's strong Whitman links, starting with a meeting of friends in the 1880s and continuing through the 'Whitman Revival' of the 1980s to 2022, when the annual Whitman [...]

Walt Whitman's poetry has been set to music by numerous composers from his time to ours. Scholars estimate that over 1,200 settings have been composed for Whitman's robust songs, making him one of the most 'set' American poets of all time. In 2015, Rob Paterson responded to a commission by the Gulf Coast Symphony (FL) [...]

Whitman's beloved Calamus poems celebrating manly love and comradeship have been transformed into films and performances by the Calamus Project. Please join us for a conversation with Executive Producer Sam Magavern and Production Manager Brian Brown, who will discuss their collaboration with the Ujima Theater and the ways in which Ujima's vision-- rooted in Black [...]

The Walt Whitman Initiative honors Ed Folsom's brilliant 50-year career as Whitman scholar, teacher and mentor with a discussion of the final section (#52) of "Song of Myself," a poem that in theory can never end.  Whitman scholars Eric Conrad and Matt Miller, both students of Folsom at the University of Iowa, will be joined [...]

Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec creates exciting musical drama-- in the form of opera, oratorio, and choral works-- on American themes.  Notable recent accomplishments include Sanctuary Road, an opera based on Underground Railroad narratives; the orchestral work A New Country, with settings of Whitman and Emma Lazarus; and A Nation of Others, an oratorio celebrating Ellis Island that [...]

Please join WWI President Karen Karbiener for a lively discussion with The American Opera Project Interim General Director Charles Jarden and NYU Tisch faculty members Randall Eng and Sam Helfrich, whose students have created new operas inspired by—and even featuring—Walt Whitman and Audre Lorde. Composers Durra Leung and Sean Havrilla, librettists Peyton Marion and Troy Defour, [...]

On the eve of its staged reading at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, the new play "American Poet: Whitman's Warnings" will be the focus of conversation for playwright Sarah Vander Schaaff and WWI president Karen Karbiener. Learn about the genesis of this work exploring Whitman's creative genius in the face of the national crises of his [...]

Author/artist Warren Lehrer’s solo and collaborative books and multimedia projects form a panoramic and very human chronicle of the American experience, from boardwalks, fast food joints, youth detention centers and mental health wards, to the prismatic personalities of immigrant Queens, NY, and a half century of imaginary books by his literary alter ego Bleu Mobley. [...]

John Kevin Jones shares his approach to bringing literature and poetry to life through live performance. He explains that the journey from selecting the work to standing in front of an audience involves immersing oneself in the text and allowing it to become intuitive. By deeply understanding the work and embodying it as a performer, [...]