About

The Walt Whitman Initiative (WWI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to celebrate and honor New York City’s literary 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 during his first 43 years, Whitman wrote, helped print and publish the first 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 campaign to establish Brooklyn’s first public park (Fort Greene Park), WWI seeks to encourage and facilitate discussions and events that uphold this New Yorker’s most inclusive and democratic ideals and his engagement as a responsible, open-minded citizen.

WWI stands in solidarity with all people trying to make a world of equality and justice, and social activism movements against systemic racism, discrimination and social and economic inequity.  With the publication of his revolutionary Leaves of Grass (1855), Whitman called on the public to observe and reflect upon the complexities and contradictions represented by the American people, including himself.  Though he did not always live up to the high standards that he preached, WWI is committed to striving 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.

President

Karen Karbiener

Treasurer

Zachary Kuperman

Whitman Tane Library Curator

Jay Sherry

Board of Directors

Ed Centeno
Eric Conrad
Di Cui
Gary Glazner
Ann Kaiser
Stefan Killen
Deirdre Lawrence
William Logan
Ian Maloney
Jesse Merandy
Matt Miller
Lavelle Porter
Triston Pullen
Andrew Rimby
Jay Sherry
Brad Vogel
Ed Whitley
Ted Widmer
Ed Whitley

Logo and graphic design

Megan Lee

WWI interns

(please contact us at walt@waltwhitmaninitiative.org if you are interested in placement)

Emma Jaeger, Skidmore College (Summer 2019)
Sam Dady, New York University (Spring 2021)
Raizy Neuman, Yeshiva University (Spring 2021)
Freddie Widmer, Lesley University (2021)