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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260624
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260629
DTSTAMP:20260420T095421Z
CREATED:20260420T095152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T095421Z
UID:6195-1782259200-1782691199@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Whitman in Love
DESCRIPTION:Actor John Kevin Jones of the Summoners Ensemble — much beloved WWI camerado — offers his resonant performance of “Whitman in Love” at the Merchants House Museum (NYC) for a limited run during Pride Month 2026: 6/24 – 6/28.  Jones brings to life Whitman’s “Live Oak\, with Moss” poems\, his most intimate expressions of self\, in the exquisite garden behind a stately home Walt surely passed on his city strolls.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/whitman-in-love/
LOCATION:Merchants House Museum (NYC)
CATEGORIES:Performance
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026Whitman-horizontal-1536x864-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260517T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260517T160000
DTSTAMP:20260420T101608Z
CREATED:20260420T101307Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T101608Z
UID:6212-1779026400-1779033600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:NYC POETS AFLOAT - 7th ANNUAL HARBORWIDE READING
DESCRIPTION:Tickets here for our reading aboard the tall ship Wavertree at the South Street Seaport Museum from 2-4 pm on Sunday\, May 17th. Poets are going out on their respective vessels this month and will be sharing poetry from their time afloat. Ticket sales for this reading go to the shipkeepers who make the series possible (proceeds from our subsequent June reading will go to the poets).  With poet/WWI board member Brad Vogel.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/nyc-poets-afloat-7th-annual-harborwide-reading/
LOCATION:South Street Seaport Museum
CATEGORIES:Reading
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/unnamed-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T204500
DTSTAMP:20260420T101031Z
CREATED:20260420T100915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T101031Z
UID:6208-1776969000-1776977100@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:"I BECOME THE OTHER DREAMERS" - Night Class
DESCRIPTION:Finding Radical Empathy in the Dark: Walt Whitman’s “The Sleepers”  – Night Session – April 23\, 2026\nJoin poet/WWI board member Brad Vogel as he leads the first ever night class at Cafe Martin in Park Slope. We’ll be diving into one of Walt Whitman’s spookier\, unsettlingly thought-provoking poems from 6:30 – 8:45 pm (with a brief break). Called one of America’s first surrealist poems\, there’s much to discuss. Ticketing coming soon via Cafe Martin’s Instagram @cafemartinbk
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/i-become-the-other-dreamers-night-class/
LOCATION:Cafe Martin in Park Slope
CATEGORIES:Class
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/unnamed-2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T200000
DTSTAMP:20260420T100533Z
CREATED:20260420T100533Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T100533Z
UID:6204-1776796200-1776801600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:THE CRUELLEST MONTH: POETRY FOR HARD TIMES
DESCRIPTION:Swing by the Park Slope Branch of Brooklyn Public Library for a reading where each poet will read a poem that has gotten them through a hard time…and then share one of their own poems that has helped them survive a hard time.  With poet and WWI board member Brad Vogel.  April 21st\, 6:30-8:00 pm.  Free.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/the-cruellest-month-poetry-for-hard-times/
LOCATION:Park Slope Branch of Brooklyn Public Library
CATEGORIES:Reading
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/unnamed.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T180000
DTSTAMP:20260324T214532Z
CREATED:20260324T213622Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260324T214532Z
UID:6138-1776276000-1776276000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:"The Sea Whisper'd Me: Walt Whitman\, Poetry\, and the Long Island Sound"
DESCRIPTION:WWI president Karen Karbiener explores the lifelong inspiration of Whitman’s earliest land- and seascapes.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/the-sea-whisperd-me-walt-whitman-poetry-and-the-long-island-sound/
LOCATION:Connecticut Writing Project/ Center for Climate\, Coastal\, and Marine Studies\, Fairfield University\, CT
CATEGORIES:Lecture/Talk
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/april15poster.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260415
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260514
DTSTAMP:20260420T101529Z
CREATED:20260420T100009Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T101529Z
UID:6200-1776211200-1778716799@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:UP IN THE OLD HOTEL - READING GROUP
DESCRIPTION:Sign up here.  Join poet and WWI board member Brad Vogel for five sessions across April and May at the Center for Fiction reading classic New York vignettes crafted by Joseph Mitchell\, legendary writer for The New Yorker.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/up-in-the-old-hotel-reading-group/
CATEGORIES:Reading Group
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Up-in-the-Old-Hotel.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260418T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260418T190000
DTSTAMP:20260324T214135Z
CREATED:20260324T213956Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260324T214135Z
UID:6145-1776538800-1776538800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:"A More Perfect Union: Celebrating 250 Years of Struggle\, Hope\, and the Ongoing Work of Democracy"
DESCRIPTION:Grace Chorale once again offers a diverse\, soul-stirring repertoire in an inspiring setting.  Bob Lewis of Fulton Stall Market — beloved partners of WWI — is among the featured voices.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/a-more-perfect-union-celebrating-250-years-of-struggle-hope-and-the-ongoing-work-of-democracy/
LOCATION:St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church\, Brooklyn Heights\, NY
CATEGORIES:Music Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T210000
DTSTAMP:20260324T213900Z
CREATED:20260324T213229Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260324T213900Z
UID:6134-1775847600-1775854800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:"Singing of Democracy: Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence"
DESCRIPTION:This celebratory concert features works by Aaron Copeland\, Leonard Bernstein\, Ricky Ian Gordon and Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra Director Gary Fagin.  WWI president Karen Karbiener will join Fagin in a conversation about how Whitman’s words and works resonate with the current state of democracy.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/singing-of-democracy-celebrating-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-signing-of-the-declaration-of-independence/
LOCATION:Battery Maritime Building\, NY
CATEGORIES:Music Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260214T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260214T150000
DTSTAMP:20260212T192233Z
CREATED:20260212T191930Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260212T192233Z
UID:6072-1771081200-1771081200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Valentine's Day Event - Walt Whitman's Secret Loves at South Street Seaport
DESCRIPTION:Join the Walt Whitman Initiative this Valentine’s Day for a special program celebrating love\, poetry\, and connection at the South Street Seaport Museum. \nQueer History: Walt Whitman’s Secret Loves\nSaturday\, February 14 | 3:00 PM\nSouth Street Seaport Museum\, 213 Water Street\n$10 admission (Free for Museum members) \nDiscover Walt Whitman’s secret loves as we explore 12 deeply personal poems from his handmade notebook Live Oak\, with Moss. Co-authors of the acclaimed book—Caldecott Medal–winning illustrator Brian Selznick and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener—will place these revolutionary poems in historical context. \nWritten with honesty and vulnerability decades before the term “homosexual” entered common usage\, these poems remained hidden from the public for more than a century—a secret chapter of literary and queer history. Every guest receives a special Valentine keepsake from Bowne & Co.’s historic letterpress print shop\, plus access to the Museum’s ships and galleries all day! \nWhether you bring your special someone or come solo\, we hope to see you there.\nRegister: https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/whitmans-secret-loves/
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/valentines-day-event-walt-whitmans-secret-loves-at-south-street-seaport/
LOCATION:South Street Seaport Museum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231120T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231120T130000
DTSTAMP:20231106T140608Z
CREATED:20231105T215031Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231106T140608Z
UID:5201-1700481600-1700485200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Whitman In Your Mouth (and all over your body) – A Discussion About Poetry in Performance
DESCRIPTION:John Kevin Jones shares his approach to bringing literature and poetry to life through live performance. He explains that the journey from selecting the work to standing in front of an audience involves immersing oneself in the text and allowing it to become intuitive. By deeply understanding the work and embodying it as a performer\, new possibilities and questions arise that shape the performance. Jones specifically discusses his process in building the performance of “Live Oak\, with Moss\,” focusing on creating objectives\, dramatic arcs\, and a sense of urgency. Through living with the words in his mouth and his body in motion\, Jones aims to offer a glimpse into a genuine and authentic part of Walt Whitman. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \n  \nJohn Kevin Jones is an actor and storyteller\, and the executive director of Summoners Ensemble Theatre. Currently in its 11th holiday season\, Kevin has been performing his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House (co-adaptor Rhonda Dodd) since 2013. Also at the Merchant’s House\, Kevin has adapted and performed Killing an Evening with Edgar Allan Poe\, and Whitman in Love – both slated to make a return in 2024. Kevin spent many seasons in regional theatre across the country before settling in New York City in 2000\, and spends his free time thinking of other shows to entertain and excite the imaginations of Summoners Ensemble’s audiences. Kevin is a member of Actors Equity Association\, the Screen Actors Guild\, and the Dramatists Guild of America. \n  \nFor further information about John Kevin Jones’s upcoming performance of A Christmas Carol\, which will run from Nov. 28th through Dec. 24th\, 2023\, please check: https://www.summonersensemble.org \n\nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet.\n  \nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on November 20th at 12:00 pm (EST). \n 
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/whitman-in-your-mouth-and-all-over-your-body-a-discussion-about-poetry-in-performance/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Slide1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230921T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230921T143000
DTSTAMP:20230922T221311Z
CREATED:20230908T001243Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230922T221311Z
UID:5141-1695303000-1695306600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Containing Multitudes: The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer\, with Adeena Karasick and Judith Sloan
DESCRIPTION:Author/artist Warren Lehrer’s solo and collaborative books and multimedia projects form a panoramic and very human chronicle of the American experience\, from boardwalks\, fast food joints\, youth detention centers and mental health wards\, to the prismatic personalities of immigrant Queens\, NY\, and a half century of imaginary books by his literary alter ego Bleu Mobley. We talk with the vis lit pioneer and his most recent collaborator\, poet/cultural critic Adeena Karasick about his Whitman-inspired journey and their new book Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings. \nFor more information about the book launch\, which will take place on Friday\, October 6th\, please check: https://centerforbookarts.org/calendar/book-launch/ouvert-oeuvre-openings \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \n\nWarren Lehrer is a NY-based writer and designer known internationally as a “pioneer of visual literature and design authorship.” His solo and collaborative books and multimedia projects explore the vagaries and luminescence of character\, the relationships between social structures and the individual\, and the pathos and absurdity of life. Honors include: Ladislav Sutnar Lifetime Achievement Prize\, Center for Book Arts Honoree\, the Brendan Gill Prize\, the Innovative Use of Archives Award\, the International Book Award for Best New Fiction\, three AIGA Book Awards\, and fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts\, New York Foundation for the Arts\, Rockefeller\, Ford\, and Greenwall Foundations. Lehrer is a founding faculty member of the Designer As Author/Entrepreneur MFA program at the School of Visual Arts\, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Purchase\, and co-founder of EarSay\, a non-profit arts organization in Queens\, NY.\n\nFor more about Warren’s work\, please check his website: https://warrenlehrer.com/globalization-preventing-sameness-2012/\n\nAdeena Karasick\, Ph.D is a NY based poet\, performer\, cultural theorist\, media artist and author of 14 books of poetry and poetics. Her Kabbalistically inflected\, urban\, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard)\, “proto-ecstatic jet-propulsive word torsion” (George Quasha)\, noted for their “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing\, theatre and theory” (Charles Bernstein). Honors include: 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award recipient; Voce Donna Italia Award for her contributions to feminist thinking; 2023 winner of the Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form (MEA); and is Poet Laureate of the Institute of General Semantics. Karasick teaches Literature and Critical Theory for the Humanities and Media Studies Dept. at Pratt Institute. The “Adeena Karasick Archive” is established at Special Collections\, Simon Fraser University. Hot of the press is Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations and Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings\, Lavender Ink\, 2023.\n\nJudith Sloan is an actor\, educator\, radio\, audio artist\, librettist and human rights activist. Her work combines humor pathos and a love of the absurd. In addition to her plays\, commentaries\, documentaries and collaborative works\, as cofounder of the non-profit EarSay\, Sloan is the director of a two decade long program in arts education for immigrant teenagers. She is also a faculty member at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and has been awarded multiple commissions and grants form NY State Council on the Arts\, NY Foundation for the Arts\, Mellon\, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. She is performing at the end of October at the People’s Voice Cafe in Manhattan.\nFor further information about Judith’s upcoming event\, please check: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScfDJV8S0-zegfixHDVCxA15rvCYZJJclllB0xRj7X9wWZ4pw/viewform\n\nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet.\nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on September 21st at 1:30 pm (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/containing-multitudes-the-visual-literature-of-warren-lehrer-with-adeena-karasick/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NewThumbnail_Warren-Lehrer_Adeena-Karasick_image_for-WWI-American-Love-Series_2-scaled.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230609T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230609T130000
DTSTAMP:20230609T184511Z
CREATED:20230522T191631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230609T184511Z
UID:5108-1686312000-1686315600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Whitman's Warnings: The Poet in Performance
DESCRIPTION:On the eve of its staged reading at the Walt Whitman Birthplace\, the new play “American Poet: Whitman’s Warnings” will be the focus of conversation for playwright Sarah Vander Schaaff and WWI president Karen Karbiener. Learn about the genesis of this work exploring Whitman’s creative genius in the face of the national crises of his day\, enjoy a sneak peek of the performance\, and– if you’re listening live– ask a question about this provocative and timely re-examination of the personal and political challenges Whitman faced.\n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nSarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff is a freelance journalist and playwright. She lives in Kennebunkport\, Maine with her husband and two daughters.\n\nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet.\nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on June 9th at 12 pm (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/whitmans-warnings-the-poet-in-performance/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/sarahvanderschaaffheadshot-12.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230604T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230604T170000
DTSTAMP:20230515T204938Z
CREATED:20230515T204850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230515T204938Z
UID:5096-1685887200-1685898000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:20th Annual "Song of Myself" Marathon
DESCRIPTION:Get ready\, we are bringing back the “Song of Myself” marathon for the 20th year! Happening virtually on June 4th\, from 2-5pm (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/19th-annual-song-of-myself-marathon-2/
LOCATION:online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/WWI-SOS-Marathon-Poster-Web-scaled.jpeg
ORGANIZER;CN="Walt Whitman Initiative":MAILTO:info@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T140000
DTSTAMP:20230428T205501Z
CREATED:20230421T174450Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230428T205501Z
UID:5045-1682341200-1682344800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:It Ain't Over 'Til the Good Gray Poet and the Black Lesbian Feminist Socialist Mother Warrior Poet Sing: New Operas Inspired by Walt Whitman and Audre Lorde
DESCRIPTION:Please join WWI President Karen Karbiener for a lively discussion with The American Opera Project Interim General Director Charles Jarden and NYU Tisch faculty members Randall Eng and Sam Helfrich\, whose students have created new operas inspired by—and even featuring—Walt Whitman and Audre Lorde. Composers Durra Leung and Sean Havrilla\, librettists Peyton Marion and Troy Defour\, and singer Nathaniel Sullivan will discuss the genesis and development of these exciting new works “The Walt Whitmans of Fort Greene Park\,” The People vs. American Cheese\,” and “West Love ’89”\, which premiere on May 25th at NYU. Preview their work while learning about their writing process\, and– if you’re lucky enough to be listening live– ask the composers\, librettists\, and performers a question about these fresh new imaginings of Whitman and Lorde’s lives and art. \nFor further information\, or to buy tickets for future events\, please see: https://www.aopopera.org/events \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nRANDALL ENG’s music lies at the intersection of opera\, music-theatre\, and jazz. His\noperas Florida\, Henry’s Wife\, and Before the Night Sky have been presented by UrbanArias\, Lyric Opera Cleveland\, New York City Opera’s VOX Festival\, The American Opera Project\, the\nVirginia Arts Festival\, OPERA America\, and the Center for Contemporary Opera. His short\nopera Norfolk premiered as part of the Fractured Mosaics program by White Snake Projects in\nApril 2023\, alongside a set of interludes that he composed in collaboration with the hip hop\nartist Jason Chu.\nRecent non-theatrical works include Harbor\, a song for soprano and orchestra created with\nU.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith for the Boston Pops; the choral work Remain\, a setting of\nan immigration rights pamphlet for MasterVoices Chorale; and Miracles\, a setting of a Walt\nWhitman poem for Mirror Visions Ensemble that premieres at Merkin Concert Hall in May 2023.\nHe has been awarded grants\, prizes\, and residencies from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation\,\nthe Montalvo Arts Center\, the Ucross Foundation\, the John Duffy Composers Institute at\nthe Virginia Arts Festival\, Tapestry Opera\, and New Dramatists.\nRandall is a graduate of Harvard University\, Cambridge University\, and NYU/Tisch’s\nGraduate Musical Theatre Writing Program\, where he is now an Associate Arts Professor.\nTogether with stage director Sam Helfrich\, he founded and leads the AOP/Tisch Opera\nLab. www.randalleng.com. \nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet during his New York years. \nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on April 24th at 1 pm (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/it-aint-over-til-the-good-gray-poet-and-the-black-lesbian-feminist-socialist-mother-warrior-poet-sing-new-operas-inspired-by-walt-whitman-and-audre-lorde/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Eng_Thumbnail-Photo_Cropped.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221202T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221202T100000
DTSTAMP:20221129T155457Z
CREATED:20221115T002740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221129T155457Z
UID:5001-1669971600-1669975200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Listening to American Voices with Paul Moravec
DESCRIPTION:Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec creates exciting musical drama– in the form of opera\, oratorio\, and choral works– on American themes.  Notable recent accomplishments include Sanctuary Road\, an opera based on Underground Railroad narratives; the orchestral work A New Country\, with settings of Whitman and Emma Lazarus; and A Nation of Others\, an oratorio celebrating Ellis Island that premiered at Carnegie Hall on November 15\, 2022.  Please join WWI president Karen Karbiener for an informal conversation with Paul on why and how he is inspired to sing America’s stories. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nPaul Moravec\, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music\, has composed over 200 orchestral\, chamber\, lyric\, and operatic works.  A graduate of Harvard and Columbia universities\, he holds the distinguished rank of University Professor at Adelphi University\, and has served as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton as well as Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome.  His website is paulmoravec.com and his works are published by subitomusic.com. \nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet during his New York years. \nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on December 2nd at 9 am (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/listening-to-american-voices-with-paul-moravec/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/thumbnail_Paul-Moravec�Joanna-Eldredge.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220811T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220811T180000
DTSTAMP:20220804T000034Z
CREATED:20220803T211623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220804T000034Z
UID:4963-1660237200-1660240800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:I stop somewhere waiting for you: Catching Up with Ed Folsom
DESCRIPTION:The Walt Whitman Initiative honors Ed Folsom‘s brilliant 50-year career as Whitman scholar\, teacher and mentor with a discussion of the final section (#52) of “Song of Myself\,” a poem that in theory can never end.  Whitman scholars Eric Conrad and Matt Miller\, both students of Folsom at the University of Iowa\, will be joined by WWI president and Folsom mentee Karen Karbiener in a conversation with Ed about #52– where it comes from and where it takes us.  We’ll discuss responses to these lines such as W.S. Merwin’s poem “Whoever You Are” and Ed will display selected manuscripts from his own collection.  Please join us for what is sure to be a lively exchange! \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nEd Folsom is the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at The University of Iowa\, editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review\, co-director of the online Walt Whitman Archive\, and editor of the Whitman Series at The University of Iowa Press. He is the author or editor of numerous books and essays on Whitman and other American writers. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Archives.  His work has been chosen four times as a Choice “Outstanding Academic Title\,” and he has been featured on numerous national radio and television programs about Whitman. \nEric Conrad is the Prep School Assistant Director at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School (NYC) where he also teaches courses on nineteenth-century American literature\, memoir\, and contemporary fiction. Beginning with his graduate work at the University of Iowa under the direction of Ed Folsom\, Eric’s various publications have examined aspects of Whitman’s relationship to the emergence of modern literary promotion in the United States. He is a former managing editor of The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and currently serves on the advisory board for the Walt Whitman Archive and the Walt Whitman Initiative board of directors. He lives in Brooklyn\, NY. \nMatt Miller is Associate Professor of English at Yeshiva University’s Stern College in Manhattan\, where he is Chair of the English Department. Known for his work on the American poet\, Walt Whitman\, his books include a study of Whitman’s writing process in the making of Leaves of Grass and a co-edited volume of his notebooks and journals. Miller is a founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative and currently serves on the board of directors. He lives in Long Island City\, Queens. \nKaren 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 and is currently completing a biography of the poet during his New York years.  Karen is grateful for Ed’s decades-long mentorship and support as well as the inspiring example Ed sets as an active\, involved teacher-scholar. \nWe look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on August 11th from 5 to 6 pm (EST).
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/ed-folsom/
LOCATION:online
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/folsom.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220714T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220714T180000
DTSTAMP:20220710T211332Z
CREATED:20220710T211030Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220710T211332Z
UID:4956-1657818000-1657821600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:The Calamus Project: Camaraderie\, Friendship\, and Love
DESCRIPTION: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.” \nBrian 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. \nSam 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). \nKaren 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. \nJoin us on July 14th from 5-6pm (EST) on our YouTube channel.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/the-calamus-project-camaraderie-friendship-and-love/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/brian-brown-headshot.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220619T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220619T190000
DTSTAMP:20220524T141735Z
CREATED:20220315T032702Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220524T141735Z
UID:4814-1655654400-1655665200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:19th Annual "Song of Myself" Marathon
DESCRIPTION:Get ready\, we are bringing back the “Song of Myself” marathon for the 19th year! Happening virtually on June 19th\, from 4-7pm (EST).  \nRSVP for the event and receive updates as we get closer to the marathon. \nRSVP for the Marathon
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/19th-annual-song-of-myself-marathon/
LOCATION:online
ORGANIZER;CN="Walt Whitman Initiative":MAILTO:info@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220512T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220512T150000
DTSTAMP:20220506T171320Z
CREATED:20220317T194907Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220506T171320Z
UID:4828-1652364000-1652367600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:I Hear America Singing: A Musical Conversation with Rob Paterson
DESCRIPTION:Walt Whitman’s poetry has been set to music by numerous composers from his time to ours. Scholars estimate that over 1\,200 settings have been composed for Whitman’s robust songs\, making him one of the most ‘set’ American poets of all time. In 2015\, Rob Paterson responded to a commission by the Gulf Coast Symphony (FL) with “Walt Whitman’s America\,” a setting of six poems for baritone and soprano soloists\, chorus and orchestra. Please join Rob and Whitman Initiative president Karen Karbiener as they discuss the inspiration and process of creation of “Walt Whitman’s America” and why Whitman’s words continue to sing for today’s audiences. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nDescribed by the press as “a modern-day master” (AXS.com) and the “highlight of the program” (The New York Times)\, Robert Paterson has composed over one-hundred works and won numerous awards for his music in virtually every classical genre. The Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie’s Weill Hall named Paterson Composer of The Year. His works have appeared on National Public Radio’s Best of the Year lists for classical music and regularly appear on radio playlists across the United States. For more information\, visit robertpaterson.com.\n\n \nKaren 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.\n\n \n Join us on May 12th from 2-3pm (EST) on our YouTube channel.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/i-hear-america-singing-a-musical-conversation-with-rob-paterson/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Robert-Paterson-Composer-01-scaled.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220414T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220414T150000
DTSTAMP:20220602T164956Z
CREATED:20220602T161838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220602T164956Z
UID:4912-1649944800-1649948400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:With Paul Salveson and Walt Whitman in Bolton
DESCRIPTION:Please join Whitman Initiative president Karen Karbiener for a conversation with Dr. Paul Salveson of Bolton\, England.  Paul is the perfect person to outline the story of Bolton’s strong Whitman links\, starting with a meeting of friends in the 1880s and continuing through the ‘Whitman Revival’ of the 1980s to 2022\, when the annual Whitman Walk will take place during the first-ever Bolton Whitman Weekend (May 28-29).  Bolton was at the heart of the Lancashire cotton industry and its role as a gritty industrial centre – surrounded by fine moorland scenery – probably appealed to Whitman!  The contacts developed up to and long after his death\, with close friendships formed between Whitman’s friends (notably the Traubels) and the Bolton group. Today\, those links are as strong as ever\, supported by the Bolton Library Service\, the University of Bolton and the Bolton Socialist Club. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nPaul Salveson is a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Huddersfield and Bolton. His Bolton role is ‘Visiting Professor in Worktown Studies’ in the Faculty of Arts whilst his Huddersfield position is in Transport and Logistics. He runs his own publishing business Lancashire Loominary (www.lancashireloominary.co.uk) which specialises in Lancashire working class history and culture.  He initiated the revived ‘Walt Whitman Walk’ in Bolton in the mid-1980s.  Paul’s PhD is entitled ‘Region\, Class\, Culture: Lancashire Dialect Literature 1746-1935’ (Salford 1993). It explores working class history and culture through the work of Lancashire’s dialect writers some of whom were admirers of Whitman.  Publications include With Walt Whitman in Bolton – Lancashire’s links to Walt Whitman  and Moorlands\, Memories and Reflections which features the Bolton Whitman connections. His  first novel\, ‘The Works’\, was published in 2020.\n\n \nKaren 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.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/with-paul-salveson-and-walt-whitman-in-bolton/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/wwi-robustamericanlove-paul-salveson-2022.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220316T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220316T120000
DTSTAMP:20220301T153529Z
CREATED:20220301T152852Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220301T153529Z
UID:4806-1647428400-1647432000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Celebrating Whitman's "Interlink'd\, food-yielding lands!" with Fulton Stall Market
DESCRIPTION:Founded by Bob Lewis and Stephen Dima\, Fulton Stall Market is a non-profit public marketplace that connects farmers and producers with the lower Manhattan community.  Located in the historic district where NYC’s public markets began in the 1700’s\, Fulton Stall Market’s storefront is a first step toward reviving a year-round multiple-vendor public market– a place to learn more about the region’s food producers and the area’s vibrant cultural history. Please join WWI president Karen Karbiener and board member Andrew Rimby for a lively chat and chew with Bob and Stephen on site at 91 South Street! \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \n  \n\nStephen Dima is President of the nonprofit Fulton Market Association and co-founder of the Fulton Stall Market in the South Street Seaport area of Lower Manhattan. He is a Brooklyn native whose family and community roots drive his concern for New York City neighborhoods and cultural preservation. As founder and President of Dima Productions\, he has created and produced some of the largest festivals and community events in NYC including the Seaport Music Festival\, River to River Festival and the NY Comedy Festival. He hosts a weekly radio show “My Ears Are Bent”\, broadcast live from the Fulton Stall Market. Mondays 10am-12pm em-radio.com\nBob Lewis is Fulton Market Association’s Public Market Advisor. He is a regional and environmental planner who has played a key role in developing and strengthening NYC’s regional food system for over 45 years. After co-founding NYC’s citywide Greenmarket Farmers Market program in 1976\, he created and directed multiple statewide interagency marketing and nutrition programs for the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets that have revived hundreds of farmers markets across the state that support family farmers\, provide urban consumers with renewed access to fresh\, affordable\, locally grown food\, and encourage learning\, human interaction\, vibrant communities and a sense of place.  He is a native Brooklynite whose grandfather\, an early Squibb & Sons’ chemist at its Brooklyn waterfront headquarters\, was once visited in his office by Walt Whitman.\n\n\nKaren 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 is thrilled that Fulton Stall Market is generously contributing space and good will towards WWI’s latest project: the ever-growing Tane Whitman Research Library on the second floor of historic 91 South Street.\n\n\nAndrew Rimby (he/him/his) is a Ph.D. Candidate and queer activist at Stony Brook University researching 19th-century literature from a queer transatlantic perspective. He is the 2019 inaugural recipient of the Guiliano Global Fellowship\, a 2019-2020 Public Humanities Fellow\, and a 2019 Stony Brook Graduate Fellow in the Arts\, Humanities\, and Lettered Social Sciences. He is the Executive Director of The Ivory Tower Boiler Room\, a Public Humanities podcast that features literary and artistic interviews. He is the Curator of the Whitman Tane Library for the Walt Whitman Initiative where he also serves as a board member. He recently published “Talking Back to Walt Whitman” in Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies\, and he is the Associate Editor for the Watchung Review. 
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/celebrating-whitmans-interlinkd-food-yielding-lands-with-fulton-stall-market/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/wwi-ralss-bob-stephen-fulton-stall-market-scaled.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220118T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220118T190000
DTSTAMP:20220113T163830Z
CREATED:20220113T144121Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220113T163830Z
UID:4779-1642528800-1642532400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Giving Voice to Whitman in Turkish
DESCRIPTION:Fahri Oz will present a general picture of Whitman translations in Turkish so far; dwelling on his translation strategy he will also read excerpts from Leaves of Grass in Turkish. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nFahri Öz is an ex-academic\, translator and poet. After signing Academic for Peace declaration in 2016\, he was dismissed in 2017 from his position at Ankara University\, where he taught British and American poetry\, poetic genres\, literary history and translation. He has translated into Turkish works by Christina Rossetti\, Jack London\, Saki\, William Burroughs and Bob Dylan. He has co-authored and co-edited a collection of very short fiction in Turkish called Hayat Kısa Proust Uzun. He has written articles and book reviews on contemporary Turkish poetry and fiction in print and online media. Currently he has been working on the translation of Whitman’s complete poems into Turkish in four volumes\, the first two volumes of which has so far been published. He has a book of poems (Meşrutiyet Çok Bulutlu On Beş Santigrat Yağmur Olasılığı Sıfır) that came out in 2019. He is translating also Emily Dickinson’s complete poems into Turkish. He is a visiting scholar at Iowa University and was one of residents of Iowa University International Writing Program. \nKaren 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.  In 2019\, Karen participated in the Canadian Whitmanites’ marathon reading of “Song of Myself” in Bon Echo Provincial Park\, Canada. \n 
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/giving-voice-to-whitman-in-turkish/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/oz.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211214T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211214T190000
DTSTAMP:20211210T201808Z
CREATED:20211210T010831Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211210T201808Z
UID:4761-1639504800-1639508400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Walt Whitman\, Thom Gunn\, and the Art of Dressing Wounds 1865/1995
DESCRIPTION:Please join WWI president Karen Karbiener and board member Triston Pullen for a conversation with Gil Cole\, a writer and performer who has just returned to the theater after thirty years in practice as a psychoanalyst. This Garden Plot (which premiered at Theatre Row\, NY\, in October 2021) draws on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Thom Gunn to trace the experience of being Gay in America from the Civil War through AIDS. Gil will discuss how his life’s journey led him to the writing and performance of this one-man show\, borne out of times of trouble but offering messages of hope\, healing and love. \nGil Cole trained as an actor at The Juilliard School and worked in theater for nine years\, appearing on Broadway in Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy’s A Meeting by the River\, Off-Broadway in the Roundabout Theater’s revival of William Inge’s Dark at the Top of the Stairs\, and in Joseph Papp’s Henry V at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  Toward the beginning of his life with AIDS\, he returned to school and eventually trained to be a psychoanalyst.  He was in practice for thirty years upon retirement in February 2021.  He is the author of Infecting the Treatment: Being an HIV Positive Analyst and many articles on sexuality and gender.  This Garden Plot\, a one-many show that developed out of Gil’s experiences with two pandemics (AIDS and COVID-19)\, marks his return to the theater and debut as a playwright. \nKaren 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.  In 2019\, Karen participated in the Canadian Whitmanites’ marathon reading of “Song of Myself” in Bon Echo Provincial Park\, Canada. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/walt-whitman-thom-gunn-and-the-art-of-dressing-wounds-1865-1995/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-09-24-at-4.31.14-PM.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211130T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211130T190000
DTSTAMP:20211122T140256Z
CREATED:20211122T132709Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211122T140256Z
UID:4757-1638295200-1638298800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:The War Still Within: Seeking Justice with Poet Tanya Ko Hong
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a conversation with poet Tanya Ko Hong\, who will introduce us to her latest writings and cultural activism. Host and WWI president Karen Karbiener will discuss with Tanya the connection between her artistic vision and Whitman’s work as a supporter of America’s earliest women’s rights movements. \nTanya Ko Hong was the first Korean-American recipient of the Yun Doon-ju Korean-American Literature Award. Her segmented poem\, “Comfort Woman\,” won the 11th Moon Prize from Writing in a Woman’s Voice and received an honorable mention from the Women’s National Book Association. The poem is included in her most recent collection\, The War Still Within\, which is based on the experiences of Korean “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. \nBorn and raised in South Korea\, Tanya emigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen. She writes in both English and Korean and is currently translating the work of Arthur Sze into Korean. She has written on parenting\, culture\, marriage and women’s issues as a columnist for Korea Daily since 1998\, and has taught Korean language\, creative writing\, and bilingual writing workshops to both Korean and English audiences. She has organized dozens of multicultural literary events in Southern California and has been a literary talk show host. \nKaren 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.  In 2019\, Karen participated in the Canadian Whitmanites’ marathon reading of “Song of Myself” in Bon Echo Provincial Park\, Canada. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/the-war-still-within-seeking-justice-with-poet-tanya-ko-hong/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Tanya-Ko-Hong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211019T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211019T190000
DTSTAMP:20211006T140810Z
CREATED:20211006T134738Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211006T140810Z
UID:4620-1634666400-1634670000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:The Fort Greene Park Conservancy: Cultivating Whitman’s Leaves
DESCRIPTION:Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park is a 34-acre public space stewarded by the community to celebrate and sustain the neighborhood’s diverse\, vibrant culture. The park is an incredible natural asset with a rich history\, boasting Walt Whitman as the park’s spiritual founding father.  The Fort Greene Park Conservancy is a non-profit that provides programming\, maintenance\, and advocacy to preserve and nourish Fort Greene Park as a community resource and public space for all New Yorkers for generations to come. Please join WWI President Karen Karbiener for a discussion on the history and future of Brooklyn’s first public park with present and past Conservancy leaders. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nRosamond Fletcher joined the Fort Greene Park Conservancy in 2019. As its first Executive Director\, she is shaping its role as steward of the park with its Board\, community partners and NYC Parks. Rosamond has worked for over 15 years at the intersection of public space planning and urban design\, most recently\, as Director of Programs at the Design Trust for Public Space\, where she partnered with communities and government agencies on projects to improve NYC’s public realm. Rosamond has taught at the Urban Lab/New York University\, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Georgia Institute of Technology. She holds a Master of Environmental Design from Yale School of Architecture and a BArch and BFA from RISD. \nCharles Jarden\, board member of the Conservancy since 2002\, and Chairman 2005 to 2019. Charles first activities with the Conservancy included building awareness and creating multi-year programming around the 100th anniversary of the Park’s historic Prison Ship Martyrs Monument. After the Monument’s restoration and celebration in 2008\, Charles and the Conservancy began a programming track on Walt Whitman to produce year-round free events. Charles transitioned the organization from all-volunteer to professional staff and launched collaborations with local businesses. Outside of the Conservancy\, Charles is fundraiser and producer for classical music projects across the county. \nJulian Macrone is an advocate for communities and student of cities\, currently completing a Masters degree at the Yale School of the Environment. Julian was Associate Director of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy. His professional and academic work centers around how we can build more resilient\, just urban environments—perennially inspired by the ideals of Brooklyn Boosters like Whitman. \nKaren 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.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/fort-greene-cultivating-leaves/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/fortgreene.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210921T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210921T190000
DTSTAMP:20210916T214631Z
CREATED:20210912T233435Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210916T214631Z
UID:4603-1632247200-1632250800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:The SpeakEasy Bookmobile: Helping Families Build Home Libraries
DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening with Paul Morris and Danielle Molden of the House of Speakeasy\, a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to bringing writers and books to the public in innovative and accessible ways.  Paul and Danielle will discuss the evolution of the House of Speakeasy (founded in 2013) and the development of their distinct educational programs\, particularly the Speakeasy Bookmobile\, which delivers books and authors to neighborhoods where few or no bookstores exist.  Learn about the joys and challenges of driving their pop-up mobile book truck through New York City streets– and through the COVID crisis. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nPaul W. Morris is Executive Director of House of SpeakEasy. Formerly the Director of Literary Programs at PEN America and Vice President of The Authors Guild. He has held editorial positions at multiple publishers and magazines. From 2004 to 2011\, he oversaw digital strategy and cultural programming at BOMB Magazine\, where he was General Manager. His writing has appeared in several anthologies\, and his essay on Hermann Hesse was included as the introduction to a translation of Siddhartha. He sits on advisory councils for the National Book Foundation\, the Brooklyn Book Festival\, and Lit Crawl NYC. He lives in New York City. \nDanielle Molden is an artist and writer who has a decade of experience in nonprofit administration\, including as Driving Logistics Specialist for BioBus and Art Director at Camp Lohikan. She is a graduate of Bowling Green State University\, holding degrees in both Creative Writing and Fine Arts. An avid reader\, she currently resides in downtown Brooklyn. She devotes her free time and energy to improving the lives of others by helping to increase access to education and the arts. \nKaren 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.  In 2019\, Karen participated in the Canadian Whitmanites’ marathon reading of “Song of Myself” in Bon Echo Provincial Park\, Canada.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/speakeasy-bookmobile/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210816T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210816T200000
DTSTAMP:20210816T152935Z
CREATED:20210810T181402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210816T152935Z
UID:4581-1629136800-1629144000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Greg Trupiano Fort Greene Park Bench Dedication
DESCRIPTION:We are thrilled to announce a ceremony unveiling a bench dedicated to Greg Trupiano next Monday\, August 16\, at 6pm at the top of Fort Greene Park.  Greg’s longtime partner Lon Black will give a memorial presentation\, Brooklyn-based contralto and longtime working partner Nicole Mitchell will sing\, and refreshments will be served as we give Greg a permanent place in the Park that he so loved.\n\n\nYou\, dear friends\, are warmly invited to participate\, and to say a few words about our amazing and much-missed friend.  As Greg welcomed all with open arms to his tours and events\, so we welcome you!\n\nPlease watch our tribute to fellow WWI member Greg\n\nHope to see you all in Brooklyn!
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/greg-trupiano-fort-greene-park-bench-dedication/
LOCATION:Fort Greene Park\, Washington Park St.\, Brooklyn\, NY\, 11205\, United States
CATEGORIES:HOME FEATURE
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210810T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210810T190000
DTSTAMP:20210810T230139Z
CREATED:20210708T120512Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210810T230139Z
UID:4563-1628618400-1628622000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Tenon’d and mortis’d in granite: Walt Whitman in Canada
DESCRIPTION: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. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nCanadian Whitmanites Group\nJulia 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. \nJordan 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. \nKaren 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.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/tenond-and-mortisd-in-granite-walt-whitman-in-canada/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210713T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210713T190000
DTSTAMP:20210518T160108Z
CREATED:20210518T154604Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210518T160108Z
UID:4545-1626199200-1626202800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Cruising Daddy on the Street: "I Ping the Body Electric" and Queer Artistic Lineages
DESCRIPTION:Author/choreographer/performer Tim Cusack and director/co-choreographer Patrice Miller discuss the inspiration and development of their site-specfiic performance piece\, “I Ping the Body Electric\,” a line-by-line\, syllable-by- syllable rewiring of Whitman’s iconic ode that premiered as part of the Art in Odd Places performance event held along Manhattan’s 14th Street in May. Written during pandemic lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020\, IPBE is a charged response to several overlapping\, intersectional crises: HIV/AIDS\, COVID\, and the ongoing brutalization and fetishization of bodies of African descent. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nTim Cusack was the co-founder and artistic director of Theatre Askew. For Askew he conceived\, co-adapted\, co-directed and appeared as Caligula in the company’s six-part serial adaptation of I\, Claudius\, and directed the New York premiere of William M. Hoffman’s Cornbury: The Queen’s Governor with David Greenspan and Everett Quinton. He appeared onstage for Askew in Bald Diva! (Notable Performance of the Year—TheaterMania & NYTheater.com)\, The Tempest\, i google myself\, and Horseplay\, or the Fickle Mistress: A Protean Picaresque in the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa. He is a Next magazine “Future Legend\,” a 2007 NYTheatre.com Person of the Year\, was named by Next as one of the most significant figures among the new generation of out gay theatre artists\, and is an inductee to the Indy Theater Hall of Fame. He is an adjunct lecturer in the Theatre department at Hunter College where he teaches acting. BFA NYU/TSOA. MA Hunter/CUNY. \nPatrice Miller is a director-choreographer and performance artist best known for their interdisciplinary performance making. Recently directed the premieres of This Joint is Jumpin featuring Lillias White (The Other Palace\, London)\, Brian Boone’s The Testament of Josh: A Flesh and Blood Musical\, James Judd’s Funny Stories (Crown & Anchor\, Provincetown)\, In the Pines (AUSTRAL Buenos Aires\, Argentina). Noted downtown credits: Mad Jenny’s Love und Greed\, Sarah Jane Johnson’s Devil in the Box\, Maggie Cino’s Decompression\, Marion Fayolle’s In Pieces\, Evelyn Piper’s Bunny Lake is Missing. Artistic Associate of Untitled Theater Company #61: Paul Auster’s City of Glass\, Vaclav Havel’s The Pig … \, Money Lab. Installation/performance art work includes work for The Brooklyn Museum\, Prelude/CUNY Grad Center\, SUNY Stonybrook; Steve Valk & Michael Klein’s Excavation: Martha Graham Company (COIL); Grace Exhibition Space\, Postmasters Gallery\, NYLA\, Performa\, NYC Fashionweek. Patrice frequently guest curates throughout NYC is also an enthusiastic cat lady and lazy witch. \nKaren 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.
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/cruising-daddy-on-the-street-i-ping-the-body-electric-and-queer-artistic-lineages/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210622T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210622T190000
DTSTAMP:20210520T141653Z
CREATED:20210518T152400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210520T141653Z
UID:4540-1624384800-1624388400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org
SUMMARY:Saving 99 Ryerson: The Peculiar Problem of Landmarking Brooklyn's Earliest LGBT Site
DESCRIPTION:After nearly five years of petitions and two rejections from the Landmarks Preservation Commission\, a group of activists persevere in their efforts to landmark Whitman’s house at 99 Ryerson Street\, Brooklyn: the only extant residence of over 30 while Whitman lived in NYC\, the house in which he completed the first edition of Leaves of Grass in1855\, and the place where he received his first literary pilgrims\, including a November 1855 visit from Ralph Waldo Emerson.  So why hasn’t this cradle of American poetry been landmarked?  Should it be?  Join us for a roundtable discussion on the historic and cultural significance of the structure\, the story of the campaign to ‘Save the Walt Whitman House’\, plans for the future– and how you can help. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nKaren 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. \nKen Lustbader is a co-founder and co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project\, an award-winning cultural heritage initiative that is documenting and memorializing LGBT place-based history in New York City. For almost 30 years\, he has been national leader in issues related to LGBT history\, documentation\, and historic preservation. Between 2007 and 2015\, he served as Historic Preservation Program Officer at the J.M. Kaplan Fund where he was responsible for US and international grant initiatives. Prior to that he was lead consultant for the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund\, which resulted in the conservation of in situ elements of the World Trade Center that are now integral components of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. Between 1994 and 2002\, he was the Director of the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program. \nJay Shockley is a co-founder and co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. He retired in 2015 as senior historian at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission where since 1979 he researched and wrote over 100 designation reports covering all aspects of the city’s history. In 1993\, he helped pioneer the concept of recognizing LGBT place-based history by incorporating it into the Commission’s reports. He co-authored the Stonewall nomination\, which resulted in the first-ever National Register (1999) and National Historic Landmark (2000) listings for an LGBT site. \nBrad Vogel is a poet\, attorney\, preservationist\, and sail freight agent. An advocate for designating Whitman’s Leaves of Grass House a city landmark\, he serves on the board of the Walt Whitman Initiative. Brad is the author of the poetry collection Broad Meadow Bird and was a finalist for the 2020 Erskine J. Poetry Prize. Brad brings poetry to life in original events including the annual Dawn Reading in canoes for the Brooklyn Book Festival\, and NYC Poets Afloat (a microresidency and reading series aboard vessels in NY Harbor). He captains the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. \n 
URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/saving-99-ryerson-the-peculiar-problem-of-landmarking-brooklyns-earliest-lgbt-site/
CATEGORIES:Robust American Love
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