This conversation will explore the similar views about the personality found in the works of these two creative individuals. Their shared focus on the Self stemmed from a familiarity with the history of religions and the new science of psychology. The lens for understanding the revolutionary potential of this approach will be Whitman’s “Chanting eh [...]
Triston P. Pullen will discuss the process and creation of his new play “Songs of Memories: A Whitmanic Queer Discovery”. From the conception of the idea of the play to the finalized script, Pullen has retraced Whitman’s life to highlight his “hells and damns” but also his greatest love stories. Pullen will also start a [...]
Gleaning from Whitman’s wisdom, this interactive session explores ways leading to a just recovery in post-COVID New York City. Taking up the great poet’s legacy of democracy and equality, New Yorkers are devoting their time and effort to mutual aid groups, mental health support and other programs that help the city to heal.Di Di Cui [...]
In the 1850s, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled "Live Oak, with Moss." The poems were Whitman’s first sustained attempt to write about the naturalness of love beyond traditional heteronormative boundaries. They are intensely private reflections on the attraction he felt for men, and they also present a new [...]
A conversation between Matt Miller and Zachary Turpin on their new book, Every Hour, Every Atom: A Collection of Walt Whitman’s Early Notebooks and Fragments. Zachary Turpin is an assistant professor of American literature at the University of Idaho, and a former Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress. A specialist in the lost [...]
“Artists don’t die,” notes Phillips. “I invade artists’ dreams and invite them to talk with me.” His lifelong dialogue with Whitman is represented by Robust American Love, a series of thirty watercolor illuminations of quotations from the poet's best-known works as well as obscure sources. Written in Phillips' easy hand, devoid of quotation marks and [...]
In February 1861, the president-elect of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, began a grueling 13-day train trip through the country to introduce himself to the divided people who had voted him into office (barely). Along the way, he had to deal with bruising adversity, including a serious assassination plot, but he also used the trip [...]
Norman Corwin was the genius of American radio drama. Bernard Herrmann, Hollywood’s supreme film composer (“Psycho,” “Citizen Kane,” “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” etc.) was also the foremost radio composer. In 1944, they created a classic radio drama, “Whitman,” to rally the home front during WW II with an appeal to the ideals of American democracy. [...]
The Library of Congress holds the largest number of Walt Whitman materials in the world, and has been actively digitizing these collections for the use and enjoyment of scholars, artists, and the general public. Join Library of Congress Historian and Curator Barbara Bair, writer and journalist Wally Suphap and Whitman Initiative President Karen Karbiener for [...]
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, [...]
