Supporter Spotlight
Gwenn A. Nusbaum
Poet & Author
Creativity Coach/Life Coach
Retired Psychoanalyst
https://gwennnusbaumpoetry.com/
Dolly Parton and the Spirit of Walt Whitman
Recently, I visited Nashville, Tennessee, given my interest to delve deeper into the origins and story-telling elements of country music. The Country Music Hall of Fame exhibited, “Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker.” As I read the introductory excerpts about this prodigious creator and humanistic philanthropist, I flashed to Whitman. Despite over a generation between them as well as growing up in different parts of our country without economic advantage or privilege, both exemplify the highest of American values inclusive of their solid work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit, and activism to foster a regard for diversity, equality, and mentorship of others. Their expansive generosity, along with remarkable talent, is an indelible American song that travels with us throughout time!
Especially during these divisive times, I am heartened by reminders of those who bring us back to the best of who we are. I support the Whitman Initiative because it revolves around grass root efforts and all-in engagements, to cultivate knowledge about Walt Whitman’s values, personal life, and literary accomplishments, spearheaded by Karen Karbiener’s ethical consciousness and scholarly might. Similarly, I am gratified by the mission of the Gwenn A. Nusbaum Scholarship for “Poets to Come”, which I founded in 2021, in affiliation with the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association in Huntington, New York, to support emerging younger poets in their goals to attain excellence in the craft of poetry, as well as carry writing into various communities through teaching, workshops, and other educational forums. Indeed, Whitman invites all of us in our myriad identities, to “contribute a verse” to the ongoing “play” of living!
Dr. Lawrence D. Mass has donated the Whitman book collection of his late life partner, Professor Arnold Kantrowitz (1940-2022), to the Walt Whitman Initiative. Its several hundred titles include works by Kantrowitz, a pioneer of Gay Studies and of appreciation of Walt Whitman as gay at CSI-CUNY, where he chaired their Department of English. Kantrowitz is the author of Under The Rainbow, the acclaimed Stonewall gay classic autobiography of coming out and growing up gay, which is being re-released in a 50th anniversary commemorative edition.
A leading figure of the post-Stonewall Gay Liberation Movement, Kantrowitz was a co-founder of GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and is the author of Walt Whitman, a monograph for the Chelsea House series on the Lives of LGBTQ writers. Although a number of other books have acknowledged Whitman’s homosexuality, Walt Whitman is apparently the first biography to designate him as gay. Kantrowitz became known for his activism to have Whitman recognized more widely and forthrightly as gay. He is the author of the posthumously published Song of Myself: A Novel.
Portrait of Arnie Kantrowitz and Larry Mass by David Alexander, 1990
Song of Myself: A Novel by Arnie Kantrowitz, cover by Tatiana Fernandez
Here is what Lavelle Porter, who has been a board member of WWI, had to say about Arnie’s novel:
“Creative inhibitions, the professional demands of teaching, and eventually, failing health, all prevented Arnie Kantrowitz from publishing his only novel, Song of Myself, in his lifetime. But it would be a mistake to dismiss this as a mere archival curiosity. Song of Myself is an entertaining and enlightening novel inspired by Walt Whitman’s spiritual, literary, and political legacies, written by a man who was himself a leader in the gay liberation struggle, and a Whitman scholar. Song of Myself, like the poem it is named after, is a celebration of life in all of its exhilaration, pleasure, and confusion. Daniel Dell Blake is a character who lives against the backdrop of twentieth-century America, through wars and political upheaval, through the modern gay rights movement, through tragic losses from AIDS, and survival in its aftermath. Through it all, Whitman’s poetry is a constant presence in Daniel’s life, as it was in Kantrowitz’s own life, and the lives of many queer folks who came to see Whitman as a spiritual icon. This book is an important document of post-Stonewall literary history, and a delightful blend of creative and critical texts. Arnie Kantrowitz has left all Whitman lovers a gift that should be enjoyed and celebrated.”
–Lavelle Porter, Distinguished Lecturer, Macaulay Honors College, CUNY, author of The Blackademic Life: Academic Fiction, Higher Education, and the Black Intellectual.