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 the Old Walt inscription on majestic Mazinaw Rock, dedicated by a generation of Canadian Whitmanites a century earlier. Since then the event has grown, connecting new and longtime fans of Whitman’s work — and connecting us to the devotees that came before.
Julia Garro is the founder of Canadian Whitmanites and organizer of the Bon Echo Song of Myself marathon. Her ongoing Whitman projects include working towards memorizing the 1892 version of Song of Myself, a Whitman-themed geocaching trail and training for a 45-mile “Whitman walk”. She is a former board member of the Friends of Bon Echo Park and a former editor at Xtra, Canada’s leading LGBTQ2S+ magazine. After many years in Toronto, she now lives on a small farm in rural Ontario where she raises alpacas and works as a massage therapist.
Jordan Bond-Gorr was only vaguely aware of Whitman’s work when he agreed to read at the inaugural Bon Echo marathon, after being invited by his dear friend Julia. As he recited the visceral lines of text he fell under Whitman’s spell and continues to find personal meaning and universal truths throughout the 52 sections. Jordan has attended each Bon Echo reading since its inception and this past spring he joined the online version of New York’s 18th annual reading. Jordan works in gay men’s healthcare.
Karen Karbiener, president and founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative, is a Whitman scholar and teaches at New York University. Winner of the Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress and a Fulbright recipient, she has published widely on Whitman (most recently working with Brian Selznick on Live Oak, with Moss, a new illustrated edition of Whitman’s secret same-sex love poems). As a cultural activist in her hometown, Karen has been working on the campaign to preserve 99 Ryerson Street since 2017, and gave testimony at the hearing to landmark 227 Duffield Place, Brooklyn, last year.