Whitman’s beloved Calamus poems celebrating manly love and comradeship have been transformed into films and performances by the Calamus Project. Please join us for a conversation with Executive Producer Sam Magavern and Production Manager Brian Brown, who will discuss their collaboration with the Ujima Theater and the ways in which Ujima’s vision– rooted in Black activism and culture– newly expand Whitman’s concept of “robust American love.”

Brian Brown is both an actor and a Production Manager in the Calamus Project, as well as the Managing Director of Ujima Company. He’s appeared and starred in many Ujima productions, including Free Fred Brown and Passing Strange.

Sam Magavern is the Executive Producer of the Calamus Project and Senior Policy Fellow at Partnership for the Public Good. He teaches at University at Buffalo Law School and Cornell University ILR School, where he served as the Visiting Activist Scholar in 2020. His publications include a non-fiction book, Primo Levi’s Universe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and a book of poetry, Noah’s Ark (BlazeVOX, 2014).

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). 2022 will be her second year participating in the annual Whitman Walk in Bolton, where she first met her dear friend Paul in 2008; this year, she is delighted to work with Paul, Chris Chilton, Karin Coonrod, Kim Edwards-Keates, and others on the first Bolton “Whitman Weekend” around their signature event.

Join us on July 14th from 5-6pm (EST) on our YouTube channel.