If you are searching for Whitman-related events in the the New York area, please also check the Walt Whitman Birthplace website (we highly recommend the tours of the house Whitman Sr. built and Walt lived in for his first four years) and the Whitman House in Camden, NJ (step inside Walt’s home for his last decade).
If you have an event you’d like to list with us, please let us know: waltwhitmaninitiaitve@gmail.com.
Preferring to be out-of-doors, Walt Whitman constructed pocket-sized notebooks to record his thoughts: we’ll start by creating a folded-paper notebook, and then trace Whitman’s career through the lens of the printing trade. The period of his life coincided with extraordinary changes in the printing industry. Apprenticed in a newspaper office at the age of twelve, [...]
Join Walt Whitman Initiative President Karen Karbiener for a conversation with Karin Coonrod, who has brought the many voices of Whitman's multitudes to life with her extraordinary, interactive musical/theater piece "More or Less I Am." Based on Whitman's epic "Song of Myself," "More or Less I Am" was conceived by Coonrod, who directs the international [...]
In "Manly Health and Training" (1858), a series of newspaper articles on the topics of exercise and healthy eating practices, Whitman preached that moral character develops from a well-maintained physique and a healthy diet. "Manly Health and Training" was inspired by America's first health reform movement, which was set in motion by the reformist atmosphere [...]
In the essay "Conspicuous Erudition: The New Black Poetry" (Yale Review, April 22,2020), poet and critic Jerome Murphy discusses how we might admire Whitman's range of vision while questioning its specifics. In this conversation, Murphy and WWI president Karen Karbiener discuss how bringing a greater "dynamic range," or wider understanding, to the artist's vision, can provide [...]
Join the Walt Whitman Initiative’s Karen Karbiener in conversation with poet and preservationist Brad Vogel as he dives into the complicated effort to preserve built, physical touchstones of Whitman’s time in New York City for the future. Vogel will share some of his own poetry as he explores what Whitman’s poetry has meant for him [...]
In celebration of this year's monumental Inauguration Day on January 20, the Walt Whitman Initiative presents its inaugural Robust American Love discussion: an examination of Whitman's self-professed status as the "Bard of Democracy." Please join curators Deirdre Lawrence ("Walt Whitman's Words: Inspiring Artists Today"; Center for Book Arts, 2019), Ted Widmer ("Walt Whitman: Bard of [...]
Please join the Walt Whitman Initiative and many special guests for a poetical, visual, and musical tribute to Greg Trupiano: sought-after Whitman specialist and director of the much-beloved Walt Whitman Project, tour guide extraordinaire, Whitman Initiative founding member and our dear friend. Greg's local cultural activism had a reach far beyond his beloved Brooklyn; today, [...]
Please join the Walt Whitman Initiative and Karen Karbiener for an Evening with Jason Koo. View the Event Livestream Page Named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture" by Brooklyn Magazine, Jason Koo is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: More Than Mere Light, America's Favorite Poem and Man on Extremely [...]
In 2009 pinhole photographer Stefan Killen was shooting the NYC harbor for a commercial story about sunken Guggenheim treasure in the waters off Staten Island. Without realizing it he was, from the Staten Island Ferry, being pulled into the imagery that Whitman said future readers of his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” would experience. Digging deeper [...]
Celebrating Walt's birthday month, this presentation will involve the origins of Paula Kimper's love of Whitman, her journey as a composer, her work with Greg Trupiano and the Walt Whitman Project in Brooklyn, and her current project, "Melody Book for 'Song of Myself'", musical settings of all 52 sections of the epic poem. Paula will present [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. Tanya Ko Hong was the first [...]
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 [...]
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. View the Event Livestream Page Fahri Öz is an ex-academic, translator and poet. After signing Academic for Peace declaration in 2016, he was [...]
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 [...]
