Mission Statement

The Walt Whitman Initiative (WWI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to celebrate and honor New York City’sliterary legacy, and to serve as an organizing center for cultural activism and poetry-related events.  We are an international collective open to all, and seek to foster a sense of community among those interested in the life, work, and influence of Walt Whitman.

While living in New York (1819 – 1862), Whitman came out as queer, supported the burgeoning women’s rights and antislavery movements, published three editions of Leaves of Grass and made important contributions to the public good as a community activist.  Inspired by the all-embracing vision of poems such as “Song of Myself” as well as Whitman’s social outreach, such as his successful campaign to establish Brooklyn’s first public park (Fort Greene Park), WWI seeks to encourage and facilitate events that “celebrate and educate.”  WWI aims to represent Whitman’s most inclusive and democratic ideals through word and deed, and stands in solidarity with all people trying to build a world of equality, justice, and peace.  As a collective of engaged and committed social activists, WWI strive for the more perfect union Whitman envisioned for America. 

In this spirit, we encourage you to sing with us the first lines of the first poem in the first edition of Leaves of Grass:

I celebrate myself,
And what I assume, you shall assume,
For every atom that belongs to me as good belongs to you.