In Loving Memory: Greg Trupiano, 1955-2020
I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful curious breathing laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them . . to touch any one . . . . to rest my arm ever so lightly round
his or her neck for a moment . . . . what is this then?
I do not ask any more delight . . . . I swim in it as in a sea.
Our cherished friend and fellow Whitmanite Greg Trupiano passed away on February 18, 2020.
Greg made a life’s work of bringing people together, joyously and energetically, through music and poetry. He worked at the Sarasota Opera (FL) for more than thirty years, and was the founder and director of the Walt Whitman Project, a Brooklyn-based community arts organization. A lifelong Brooklynite, Greg built community wherever he went and was beloved for his lively information-packed Whitman walking tours; he organized and hosted countless public concerts and events and regularly (and magnificently) read formidable Section 33 since the inception of New York’s “Song of Myself” Marathon in 2003.
Greg was a major force in bringing poetry to public life. He brought Whitman home to his America. We already miss his excellent company, Brooklyn charm, electric enthusiasm for the opera and all things Whitman.
Greg’s husband Lon is planning a memorial service in Brooklyn later this year, and the Whitman Initiative is hoping to hold the first annual Greg Trupiano Whitman Walk during the weekend of our seventeenth annual “Song of Myself” Marathon (to be held on Sunday, May 31st this year).
We love you, Greg. And we know that you, our intrepid tour guide, are stopping somewhere waiting….
–Karen Karbiener