BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Walt Whitman Initiative - ECPv6.18.0//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Walt Whitman Initiative REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20190310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20191103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE 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 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/speakeasy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT 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 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT 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 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/canada.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT 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 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Robust-Speakers-Tim.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT 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 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Robust-Ryerson-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210518T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210518T190000 DTSTAMP:20210518T155144Z CREATED:20210412T160252Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210518T155144Z UID:4377-1621360800-1621364400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:An Evening of Song (of Myself) with Paula Kimper DESCRIPTION: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 recordings of some of her favorite settings while discussing these works with WWI President Karen Karbiener.  Tune in for WWI’s first attempt at a “Sing-a-Long-Song-of-Myself”! \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nPaula M. Kimper\, a graduate of Eastman School of Music\, is a composer of opera\, theater\, dance\, film\, and song. Her first opera\, PATIENCE & SARAH (Lincoln Center Festival\, New York City\, 1998)\, was commissioned and produced by American Opera Projects. The revival of the opera in 2016 at the Off-Broadway Players Theatre in NYC received subsequent productions in Chicago (Third Eye Theatre Ensemble\, 2018) and NYC (Hunter College Opera Theater\, 2019). THE CAPTIVATION OF EUNICE WILLIAMS (Reid Theatre\, Deerfield MA\, 2004) appeared at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in DC\, and toured the Balkan region in 2008. TRUTH\, An American Opera about Sojourner Truth (Academy of Music\, Northampton MA\, 2012)\, appeared in the New York International Fringe Festival 2013\, and at Riverside Theatre inside Historic Riverside Church in 2014. Kimper was an inaugural participant in Columbia University’s Community Scholars Program. “Here is a Place” was commissioned by OPERA America for The OPERA America Songbook to commemorate the 2012 opening of the National Opera Center in NYC. ONE ART was commissioned by soprano Laure Meloy\, who created the one-woman opera/cabaret based on Elizabeth Bishop’s life\, and most recently performed it at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2019 in London\, England. Kimper’s catalog can be found in the Loeb Music Library of Harvard University. Her current project\, MELODY BOOK FOR SONG OF MYSELF\, celebrates Walt Whitman’s bicentennial and his contribution to American poetry. \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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/an-evening-of-song-of-myself-with-paula-kimper/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/kimper.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210413T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210413T190000 DTSTAMP:20210311T171709Z CREATED:20210311T170649Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210311T171709Z UID:4324-1618336800-1618340400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: A Pinhole Photography Project DESCRIPTION: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 into his ferry-riding Stefan read the poem and poet Howard Nelson’s essay on it. Nelson’s observations — about the poem’s kinesthetic quality and about how\, in his daily ferry-riding\, Whitman was moving among archetypes — reminded him of his blurry\, dream-like photos and sparked an idea: to make an interdisciplinary book on “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” that included the poem\, his photos\, and essays. Join Stefan\, Howard\, and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener as they read the poem\, screen over fifty pinhole photos of New York City ferries\, and discuss Whitman’s sweeping meditation on time\, our interconnectedness\, and the transcendent power of art.  \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \nStefan Killen is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer and pinhole photographer. His photos\, which have been exhibited at the Alan Klotz Gallery and the Center for Book Arts\, are included in the award-winning book Out of Focus: Pinhole Cameras and Pinhole Photographs. Stefan is working on several books of his photography\, including a meditation on Walt Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” In celebration of Whitman’s 2019 bicentennial he produced Happy Birthday\, Walt Whitman\, a national public reading of the poem that introduced participants to “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and Whitman’s vision of a democratic United States with the question\, “What is it then between us?” \nHoward Nelson taught for nearly fifty years in the Humanities Division of Cayuga Community College (Auburn\, NY)\, where he is now Professor Emeritus.  His books of poetry include Gorilla Blessing\, The Nap by the Waterfall\, All the Earthly Lovers: Selected & New Poems\, and most recently That Was Really Something.  He is a contributing editor to The Hollins Critic\, where many of his essays about contemporary writers have appeared.  He is the author of Robert Bly: An Introduction to the Poetry in the Columbia University Introductions to 20th Century American Poetry series\, and he edited On the Poetry of Galway Kinnell: The Wages of Dying Is Love for the University of Michigan Under Discussion series.  He was a contributor to Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia and A Companion to Walt Whitman\, and his selection from Whitman\, Earth\, My Likeness: Nature Poetry of Walt Whitman\, was published by North Atlantic Books. \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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/crossing-brooklyn-ferry-a-pinhole-photography-project/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CBF-Banner-2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210316T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210316T190000 DTSTAMP:20210208T184016Z CREATED:20210208T163505Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210208T184016Z UID:4225-1615917600-1615921200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Brooklyn Poet: An Evening with Jason Koo DESCRIPTION:Please join the Walt Whitman Initiative and Karen Karbiener for an Evening with Jason Koo.\n\nView the Event Livestream Page\nNamed 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 Small Island\, winner of the De Novo Poetry Prize and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Members’ Choice Award for the best Asian American book of 2009. He is also the author of the chapbook Sunset Park and coeditor of the Brooklyn Poets Anthology. He has published his poetry and prose in the American Scholar\, Missouri Review\, Village Voice and Yale Review\, among other places\, and won fellowships for his work frm the National Endowment for the Arts\, Vermont Studio Center and New York State Writers Institute. An associate teaching professor of English at Quinnipiac University\, Koo is the founder and executive director of Brooklyn Poets and creator of the Bridge (poetsbridge.org). He lives in Beacon\, NY.\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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/brooklyn-poet-an-evening-with-jason-koo/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/JasonKoo-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210216T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210216T190000 DTSTAMP:20210216T234814Z CREATED:20210126T151705Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210216T234814Z UID:4207-1613498400-1613502000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Local Heart\, Global Impact: A Tribute to Whitman Specialist Greg Trupiano DESCRIPTION: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\, we celebrate some of the ways Greg exemplified the philosophy of thinking globally and acting locally.\n\nView the Event Livestream Page \n\nGreg Trupiano reading at the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club group reading of Walt Whitman’s The Centenarian’s Story (a story of the Battle of Brooklyn at the site of the battle on the August anniversary of the battle)\, 2018 \n  \nLon Black and Greg were life partners for over 38 years before his passing a year ago. Lon was Associate Artistic Director of The Walt Whitman Project which was Greg’s brainchild. Lon\, who has a theatre background\, was a reader at many of the events produced by The WWP. He also designed the marketing materials and programs for these events. For the last 16 years he has worked in the animal wellness field as a massage therapist\, acupressurist and Reiki Master for cats and dogs. His internet presence is focused on bodywork for senior cats. He goes by the name The Cat Masseur. \nDi Cui is a storyteller who uses writing\, photography\, and videography to tell stories about social justice. Her documentary film “Song of Ourselves: Cultural Activism in Whitman’s New York” premiered at the International Whitman Week in celebration of Walt Whitman’s bicentennial in 2019. She completed her Master’s degree in Historic Preservation at Pratt Institute\, where she explored cultural heritage\, public history\, gentrification\, and other urban issues. In her work with different communities in New York City and community-based organizations\, she always brings a creative touch and empathy. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Art History from Macalester College. \nBrad Vogel is the author of the poetry collection Broad Meadow Bird. A finalist for the 2020 Erskine J. Poetry Prize\, his poetry has appeared in Smartish Pace\, The Freshwater Review\, Solitary Plover\, Deadline Gowanus\, and elsewhere. He founded the Brooklyn Book Festival’s annual Gowanus Dawn Reading (in canoes)\, the NYC Poets Afloat residency and reading series (aboard ships)\, and co-created Whitman After Dark (an afterdark group read ramble). \nCharles Jarden was General Director of the Brooklyn-based American Opera Project\, 2002 to 2019 and Board member of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy 2003 to present (board chair 2006-2020). He produces music concerts\, opera productions\, poetry events and tours throughout Brooklyn and the outer boroughs\, many combining local history and site specific themes. \nJulian Macrone is an advocate for communities and student of cities\, currently completing a Masters degree at the Yale School of the Environment. 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\, and of course\, Greg Trupiano. Before Yale\, Julian was Associate Director of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy. \nKarin Coonrod is a theater director and writer whose work has been seen and heard across the U.S. and around the world. Recently she directed More Or Less I Am (drawn from Whitman’s “Song of Myself”) virtually and on tour around NYC; The Merchant of Venice on tour in the USA and the Jewish Ghetto in Venice\, Italy; Babette’s Feast in Portland \, Maine and off-Broadway; her own texts&beheadings/ElizabethR at the Folger Theater in Washington DC and at BAM/Next Wave Fest. Founding Director of Compagnia de’ Colombari (2004-now)\, Coonrod is on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. Greg Trupiano was an Advisory Board member of Colombari and a close friend to the company. \nNicole Joy Mitchell\, is an Opera Singer (contralto) and a proud native of Brooklyn\, New York and has performed around the country and abroad. Nicole made her Metropolitan Opera debut\, during their 2019/2020 season\, as part of the ensemble in the highly acclaimed James Robinson production of the Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. She has performed with American Opera Projects (now The American Opera Project) singing the works of new composers. For several years Nicole has been the featured soloist on Fort Greene Park Conservancy tours celebrating the history of Brooklyn\, and Walt Whitman through song. Last year Nicole debuted with Santa Fe Opera in the role of Fannie Lou Hamer in Is This America?\, adapted from This Little Light of Mine\, the story of Fannie Lou Hamer by Diana Solomon-Glover (libretto) and Chandler Carter (music). \nKaren Karbiener 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\, including an edition of Leaves of Grass\, two audiobooks on Whitman’s life and influence\, a book introducing Whitman’s poetry to children\, and a collaboration with Brian Selznick on a new edition of Whitman’s “Live Oak\, with Moss” poems. Karbiener is the president and a founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative\, a 501c3 nonprofit organization serving as an organizing center for cultural activism and poetry-related events. Greg Trupiano’s cultural activism was a shaping force on the founding of WWI and on Karen’s public scholarship. URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/local-heart-global-impact-a-tribute-to-whitman-specialist-greg-trupiano/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/gregtribute.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210119T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210119T190000 DTSTAMP:20210118T213415Z CREATED:20210111T194053Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210118T213415Z UID:4194-1611079200-1611082800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Whitman on Democracy: Three Curators\, Six Objects DESCRIPTION: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 Democracy”; Morgan Library\, 2019)\, and Karen Karbiener (“Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman”\, Grolier Club\, 2019) for an ‘exhibition’ of their favorite objects representing Whitman’s democratic ideals. \nResources for Event: \n\nQuote on democracy from the Brooklyn Rail: https://brooklynrail.org/2020/11/publishersmessage/Dear-Friends-and-Readers-1120 \n\nClarissa Sligh\n\nhttps://clarissasligh.com/\nhttps://wsworkshop.org/2019/06/clarissa-sligh-living-a-life-the-personal-and-the-political/\nhttps://sheville.org/featured-book-transforming-hate-an-artist-s-book-2016-by-clarissa-t-sligh/\nhttp://centerforbookarts.dreamhosters.com/index.php/Browse/modifyCriteria/facet/individual_facet/id/2937/mod_id/0\n\n\nRussell Maret\n\nhttp://russellmaret.com/\nhttp://russellmaret.blogspot.com/2016/06/hungry-dutch-typographic-adventure.html\nhttps://newsletter.lib.utah.edu/russell-marets-character-traits/\nhttp://centerforbookarts.dreamhosters.com/index.php/Search/Index?search=russell+maret\n\n\n\n\nTed Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. He has also directed research centers and libraries\, notably at the Library of Congress\, Brown University and Washington College\, and he was a speechwriter and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton. In 2019\, he curated the Morgan Library’s Whitman Exhibit\, “Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy.” He writes actively about history for the public\, including the “Disunion” series in the New York Times\, which chronicled the Civil War\, and “The Year of the Crack Up\,” which described the upheavals of the year 1919\, also in the New York Times. In 2020\, his book\, Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washiington was published by Simon and Schuster. \nDeirdre E. Lawrence was the Principal Librarian at the Brooklyn Museum from 1983 to 2017. Before Brooklyn\, she was Associate Librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and previously worked at other cultural institutions. She received her M. L. S. from Pratt Institute and has studied art history on the graduate level. At the Brooklyn Museum she established the Museum Archives and implemented many projects to preserve and make accessible extensive research collections. Deirdre has written numerous articles and lectured frequently on the research collections held in the Libraries and Archives as well as other collections held by the Brooklyn Museum. Deirdre has curated several exhibitions including Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today (Center for Book Arts\, 2019)\, Walt Whitman & the Art of the Book: Contemporary Visions (Poet’s House\, 2015)\, and Artists Books (Brooklyn Museum\, 2000). She has contributed essays to several publications including Camerado\, this is no book / See the Moon? (Co-Ed\, 2018)\, Hand\, Voice & Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW\, 2010)\, and Cultural Signposts: Art and Text Together Through the Ages (Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning\, 2001). In addition to her work with the Whitman Initiative\, she is a member of discussion groups regarding the collection\, criticism and display of artists’ books. \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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/whitman-on-democracy-three-curators-six-objects/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Robust-Speakers-curators.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201210T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201210T180000 DTSTAMP:20201210T161901Z CREATED:20201208T151435Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201210T161901Z UID:4184-1607619600-1607623200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Preserving Whitman's Legacy DESCRIPTION: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 and his view of the world. \nBrad Vogel is a poet\, attorney\, and historic preservationist who captains the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. He is the author of the poetry collection Broad Meadow Bird: 15 Years of Poetry and a finalist for the 2020 Erskine J. Poetry Prize. His poetry has been published in outlets like Smartish Pace\, Fresh Water Review\, and Solitary Plover\, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times. Vogel brings poetry to life in original\, unorthodox events like Whitman After Dark (after dark walkabout reading of The Sleepers)\, the annual Dawn Reading in canoes for the Brooklyn Book Festival (including Whitman’s entire Sea-Drift cluster)\, and NYC Poets Afloat (a microresidency and reading series aboard vessels around NY Harbor). He serves as Executive Director of the New York Preservation Archive Project\, and previously served as the Ed Majkrzak Fellow with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in New Orleans \nRAL Host 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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/brad-vogel-preserving-whitmans-legacy/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/brad.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201203T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201203T190000 DTSTAMP:20201203T175354Z CREATED:20201130T174716Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201203T175354Z UID:4170-1607018400-1607022000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Walt Whitman and the Black Poetic Experience: "Dynamic Range" in Photography and Artistic Vision. DESCRIPTION: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 a fuller picture\, and how this understanding affects both literary criticism\, and our own artistic inspirations. \nJerome Ellison Murphy earned his MFA from the CreativeWriting Program at New York University\, where he currently serves asUndergraduate Programs Manager. He co-curates the Bespoke reading series atBureau of General Services Queer Division bookstore. His critical writing has appeared in The Yale Review\, LAReview of Books\, Publishers Weekly\, Adroit Journal\, The Brooklyn Rail\, LambdaLiterary Review\, and elsewhere\, while his poetry appears in Narrative Magazine\, LitHub\, The Awl\, TheCortland Review\, Spunk\, Bellevue Literary Review\, and more. Hepreviously served on the board of Lambda Literary Foundation\, the world’s foremost non-profit supporting LGBT literature. \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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \n  \nReadings for the EventView the Event Livestream Page \n  \n  URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/walt-whitman-and-the-black-poetic-experience-dynamic-range-in-photography-and-artistic-vision/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/jerome.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201119T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201119T180000 DTSTAMP:20201119T223745Z CREATED:20201110T150728Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201119T223745Z UID:4158-1605805200-1605808800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Nineteenth Century Health Reform and the Bread Revolution DESCRIPTION: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 that also sparked the temperance movement\, homeopathic medicine\, Spiritualism\, and Leaves of Grass.  Learn how early food activists such as Sylvester Graham (creator of ‘Graham bread’\, the healthy forerunner of the graham cracker) expressed themselves through fresh\, unadulterated flour in comparable ways to Whitman’s use of fresh\, unadulterated language from award-winning baker Graison Gill and Stephen Jones\, Director of the Bread Lab at Washington State University. \nStephen Jones is a wheat breeder and the Director of the Bread Lab at Washington State University. Stephen has a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California at Davis and teaches graduate courses in advanced classical genetics and in the history and ethics of genetics. His first wheat crop was on five acres at Chico State University’s student farm in 1977. Together with his graduate students he breeds wheat and other grains for local uses to be grown on small farms in the coastal West\, the upper Northeast and other regions of the country. The Bread Lab is a combination think tank and baking laboratory where scientists\, bakers\, chefs\, farmers\, maltsters\, brewers\, distillers and millers experiment with improved flavor\, nutrition and functionality of regional and obscure wheats\, barley\, other small grains and beans. \nGraison Gill is the owner of Bellegarde Bakery in New Orleans. Graison has been baking professionally for eleven years and was trained at the San Francisco Baking Institute under Michel Suas and Frank Sally. Graison’s passion for bread stems from the craft’s intricacies and interactions with the elements of fire\, water\, and fermentation. In 2020 he was a nominee for the Best Baker in America by the James Beard Foundation. \nbellegardebakery.com\nInstagram: @bellegardebakery \n\n  \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/nineteenth-century-health-reform-and-the-bread-revolution/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/bread.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201112T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201112T190000 DTSTAMP:20201112T225730Z CREATED:20201026T230509Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201112T225730Z UID:4148-1605204000-1605207600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Making More or Less I Am: A Conversation with Karin Coonrod\, Director of Compagnia de' Colombari DESCRIPTION: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 and site-experimental collective Compagnia de’ Colombari. Performed continuously from 2012 to this year\, when Colombari released new virtual performances of the piece\, “More or Less I Am” “vitalizes Whitman’s call to us\, then and now\, a declaration of interdependence\, an awakening of the American consciousness.” \nKarin Coonrod is a theater director and writer whose work has been seen and heard across the U.S. and around the world. Recently she directed More Or Less I Am (drawn from Whitman’s “Song of Myself”) virtually and on tour around NYC; The Merchant of Venice on tour in the USA and the Jewish Ghetto in Venice\, Italy; Babette’s Feast in Portland \, Maine and off-Broadway; her own texts&beheadings/ElizabethR at the Folger Theater in Washington DC and at BAM/Next Wave Fest. Founding Director of Compagnia de’ Colombari (2004-now)\, an international company which performed Strangers and Other Angels (medieval mystery plays re-imagined for the 21st century in the streets of Orvieto\, Italy)\, she and the company launched a new tradition of theater in Orvieto. Coonrod is on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. \nKaren Karbiener 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\, including an edition of Leaves of Grass\, two audiobooks on Whitman’s life and influence\, a book introducing Whitman’s poetry to children\, and a collaboration with Brian Selznick on a new edition of Whitman’s “Live Oak\, with Moss” poems. Karbiener is the president and a founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative\, a 501c3 nonprofit organization serving as an organizing center for cultural activism and poetry-related events. \n[fusion_vimeo id=”https://vimeo.com/418581132″ alignment=”” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility\,medium-visibility\,large-visibility” class=”” css_id=””][/fusion_vimeo] \n[fusion_vimeo id=”https://vimeo.com/418582237″ alignment=”” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility\,medium-visibility\,large-visibility” class=”” css_id=””][/fusion_vimeo] \n[fusion_vimeo id=”https://vimeo.com/430564407″ alignment=”” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility\,medium-visibility\,large-visibility” class=”” css_id=””][/fusion_vimeo] \n[fusion_vimeo id=” https://vimeo.com/432343640″ alignment=”” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility\,medium-visibility\,large-visibility” class=”” css_id=””][/fusion_vimeo] \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/making-more-or-less-i-am-a-conversation-with-karin-coonrod-director-of-compagnia-de-colombari/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/karinCoonrod.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201105T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201105T190000 DTSTAMP:20201105T225535Z CREATED:20201015T213711Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201105T225535Z UID:4119-1604599200-1604602800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Walt Whitman\, Poet Printer: Letterpress Studio Workshop with Barbara Henry\, Master Printer DESCRIPTION: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\, he learned the trade and worked as a compositor\, publisher\, and editor. Each of his books represent his graphic concept—evolving with time and technology— about the work within\, and he maintained a professional interest in the production of his books until the end of his life. \nBarbara Henry prints fine editions at Harsimus Press. She was Curator of Bowne & Co.\, Stationers at New York’s South Street Seaport Museum and served as Master Printer at The Center for Book 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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \nFolding Exercise 1\nFolding Exercise 2 \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/barbara-henry/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/barbara.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201022T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201022T190000 DTSTAMP:20201007T184018Z CREATED:20201007T181535Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201007T184018Z UID:4122-1603389600-1603393200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Poet of the Body: Walt Whitman from Archive to Classroom DESCRIPTION: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 an exploration of the Library of Congress’ rich digital resources on Whitman’s life\, work\, and legacy. Bair will lead a discussion on Whitman’s important “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” notebook and discuss an assignment (given by Karbiener and completed by Suphap) designed to inspire fresh insights on the poem as well as Whitman’s creative process. \nBarbara Bair works in collaborative projects in digital humanities\, exhibitions\, and outreach as a historian at the Library of Congress\, where she curates collections in Literature\, Culture\, and the Arts in the Manuscript Division. She has taught Whitman in American Studies courses at the University of California\, Santa Cruz\, and Brown University. \nKaren Karbiener\, president and founding member of the 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 curated several exhibitions focused on the poet. In 2019\, she was the co-curator with collector Susan Tane of Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman\, an exhibition at New York’s Grolier Club (May 15 – July 27)\, and is the author of a book based on the exhibition (Grolier Club\, 2019). \nWally Suphap is a writer\, lawyer\, journalist\, community organizer\, and queer rights advocate based in New York City. Recognized by the Financial Times and Yahoo! Finance as a Global Top 5 OUTstanding LGBT+ Future Leader in 2018 and 2019\, Wally has 15 years of experience in the legal and finance industry in New York and Hong Kong. He is currently following his passion by pursuing creative writing and literature studies at Columbia University. His recent piece—a personal essay entitled “I Sit and Look Out”—traces his two-decades-long relationship with a lesser-known Walt Whitman poem across time and space\, inspired and bookended by two literature seminars taught by Karen Karbiener. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/poet-of-the-body-walt-whitman-from-archive-to-classroom/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/whitarchives.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201015T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201015T190000 DTSTAMP:20200910T212345Z CREATED:20200901T015621Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200910T212345Z UID:4092-1602784800-1602788400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:The Classic 1944 Radio Play “Whitman” — A New Recording and Its Pertinence Today DESCRIPTION: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. Corwin’s script was culled from “Leaves of Grass.”  A new\, world-premiere recording\, by PostClassical Ensemble\, argues that “Whitman” deserves to live as a concert work for narrator and orchestra. It is also particularly timely at a fraught moment in American history when the fabric of the nation seems to be shredding. It bears mentioning that Corwin’s distinctive radio voice\, generally\, drew inspiration from Whitman’s poetic style. This is an element of Whitman’s legacy that has been little noticed. \nJoseph Horowitz\, who produced the recording\, is an historian of American music whose 10 books explore the American experience. \nAngel Gil-Ordonez\, who conducted the new recording\, is Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble. \nWilliam Sharp\, a prominent American concert baritone\, played Whitman in the new recording. \nMurray Horwitz\, who also took part in the recording\, hosts radio’s “The Big Broadcast” and is an authority on radio drama. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/the-classic-1944-radio-play-whitman-a-new-recording-and-its-pertinence-today/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/radio.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201008T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201008T190000 DTSTAMP:20201007T200402Z CREATED:20200929T132900Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201007T200402Z UID:4113-1602180000-1602183600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:When Whitman Saw Lincoln DESCRIPTION: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 to develop his thoughts about the complicated country he was about to lead\, and to meet or at least be seen by millions of Americans\, including Walt Whitman. That first encounter would never be forgotten by Whitman\, and he would expand upon it in lectures for the rest of his life. \nTed Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. He has also directed research centers and libraries\, notably at the Library of Congress\, Brown University and Washington College\, and he was a speechwriter and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton. In 2019\, he curated the Morgan Library’s Whitman Exhibit\, “Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy.” He writes actively about history for the public\, including the “Disunion” series in the New York Times\, which chronicled the Civil War\, and “The Year of the Crack Up\,” which described the upheavals of the year 1919\, also in the New York Times. In 2020\, his book\, Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washiington was published by Simon and Schuster. \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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/when-whitman-saw-lincoln/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/tedtalk.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201001T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201001T190000 DTSTAMP:20200921T203636Z CREATED:20200914T154421Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200921T203636Z UID:4107-1601575200-1601578800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips DESCRIPTION:“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 freed from their original poetic form\, these meditations become Phillips’ as much as they are Whitman’s. Alive and elastic\, their words harmonize naturally with Phillips’ provocative illuminations. Learn about the intimate bond between poet and artist as Phillips discusses Whitman’s influence on his life and work with Karen Karbiener\, curator of “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips (Blackbook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \nJohn Ransom Phillips is a New York based contemporary artist who works across various mediums: painting\, film\, theater and poetry. His paintings combine image and text\, nodding to the legacy of Symbolism\, in that they demand the spectator unpack them\, with careful consideration for what they portray beyond appearances. Mr. Phillips received his BA and PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. To learn more about John Ransom Phillips and his art\, visit www.johnransomphillips.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 was the curator of “Whitman and the Promise of America” (South Street Seaport Museum\, NY\, July – December 2005)\, “Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman” (with Susan Tane; Grolier Club\, NY\, May – July 2019)\, and most recently\, “Robust American Love: Avid Visions by Walt Whitman and John Ransom Phillips” (BlackBook Presents\, Brooklyn\, August – September 2019). \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/avid-visions-by-walt-whitman-and-john-ransom-phillips/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/John-and-Karen.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200924T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200924T190000 DTSTAMP:20200826T161449Z CREATED:20200825T205102Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200826T161449Z UID:4040-1600970400-1600974000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Every Hour\, Every Atom: A Conversation on Whitman's Early Notebooks DESCRIPTION: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. \n\nZachary 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 writings of 19th- and 20th-century authors\, his work focuses on American periodical culture\, bibliographic analysis\, and digital-archival archaeology. He is currently writing a book for Liveright on literary rediscoveries\, thefts\, and forgeries\, and his articles have appeared in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and elsewhere. \nMatt Miller is an associate professor of English at Yeshiva University in Manhattan\, where he teaches American literature and creative writing. Miller previous Whitman study Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass\, was published by the University of Nebraska Press. \n  URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/every-hour-every-atom-a-conversation-on-whitmans-early-notebooks/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/matt-and-Zach.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200917T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200917T190000 DTSTAMP:20200901T141842Z CREATED:20200901T141650Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200901T141842Z UID:4095-1600365600-1600369200@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Live Oak\, with Moss: Whitman's Secret Same-Sex Love Poems DESCRIPTION: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 chapter in literary and social history: in these poems\, Whitman attempts to establish a definition of same-sex love decades before the word “homosexual” is in common parlance. Though Whitman cut up the notebook\, the original sequence of poems was discovered about 100 years later and has remained largely unknown to the general public. New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Award–winning illustrator Brian Selznick offers a provocative visual narrative of “Live Oak\, with Moss\,”and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener reconstructs the story of the poetic cluster’s creation and destruction. Their reassembled\, reinterpreted edition of Whitman’s Live Oak\, with Moss (Abrams ComicArts\, 2019) serves as a source of inspiration and cause for celebration. \nKaren Karbiener 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\, including an edition of Leaves of Grass\, two audiobooks on Whitman’s life and influence\, a book introducing Whitman’s poetry to children\, and a collaboration with Brian Selznick on a new edition of Whitman’s “Live Oak\, with Moss” poems. Karbiener is the president and founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative\, a 501c3 nonprofit organization serving as an organizing center for cultural activism and poetry-related events. \nBrian Selznick is the author and illustrator of many books for children\, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret\, winner of the Caldecott medal and the basis for the Oscar-winning movie Hugo\, directed by Martin Scorsese. He’s also the author and illustrator of Wonderstruck (made into a movie directed by Todd Haynes with a screenplay by Selznick)\, as well as The Marvels. His most recent works include Baby Monkey\, Private Eye\, written by his husband David Serlin\, and Live Oak\, With Moss with poems by Walt Whitman. Selznick is also the illustrator for the 20th anniversary editions of the beloved Harry Potter series. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/live-oak-with-moss-whitmans-secret-same-sex-love-poems/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/karen-and-Brian.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200910T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200910T190000 DTSTAMP:20200908T235257Z CREATED:20200901T013300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200908T235257Z UID:4085-1599760800-1599764400@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Whitman’s "Two Cents" on COVID-19 Relief and Recovery DESCRIPTION: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 \nDi Cui is a storyteller who uses writing\, photography\, and videography to tell stories about social justice. Her documentary film “Song of Ourselves: Cultural Activism in Whitman’s New York” premiered at the International Whitman Week in celebration of Walt Whitman’s bicentennial in 2019. She completed her Master’s degree in Historic Preservation at Pratt Institute\, where she explored cultural heritage\, public history\, gentrification\, and other urban issues. In her work with different communities in New York City and community-based organizations\, she always brings a creative touch and empathy. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Art History from Macalester College. \nArif Ullah is an activist\, a gardener\, a beekeeper\, and an immigrant from Bangladesh who grew up in NYC. He is committed to issues of social\, environmental\, and racial justice. He has more than 15 years of experience leading and shaping programming that provides capacity-building for grassroots groups and facilitates the power of such groups to become organizers and advocates for their community’s needs. \n\nView the Event Livestream Page \n  URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/whitmans-two-cents-on-covid-19-recovery/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/di-speaker-image.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200903T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200903T190000 DTSTAMP:20200810T155111Z CREATED:20200810T141347Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200810T155111Z UID:3971-1599156000-1599159600@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Songs of Memories: A Conversation About the Creation of a Whitmanic Play and the Queer Life of Walt Whitman DESCRIPTION: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 dialogue about the repression of sexuality Whitman describes as the “subtle electric fire” that played within him. Triston examines Whitman’s life and works to explore if Whitman’s life long struggle with melancholy connects to his repression of self-expression and identity.\n\nTriston P. Pullen is an MFA Directing Candidate at the University of Memphis\, in Tennessee. He is the founder/artistic director of Studio 1621\, a summer stock theatre company\, in North East Texas. Pullen’s work has been seen in Texas\, New Mexico\, Memphis\, and New York City. He has worked with New York Times Best Selling Author\, Colleen Hoover\, to adapt her novel “It Ends With Us” into a stage play and has been a resource for playwrights around the nation as they create new works.\n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/songs-of-memories-a-conversation-about-the-creation-of-a-whitmanic-play-and-the-queer-life-of-walt-whitman/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/triston-talk-.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200827T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200827T190000 DTSTAMP:20200825T151111Z CREATED:20200821T021823Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200825T151111Z UID:4008-1598551200-1598554800@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Walt Whitman and Carl Jung\, Selective Affinities DESCRIPTION: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 Square Deific.” \nJay Sherry\, PhD\, has taught history and psychology at Long Island University-Brooklyn. He is currently the chairman of the Kristine Mann Library at the Jung Center of New York. He is the author of Carl Gustav Jung\, Avant-garde Conservative and The Jungian Strand in Transatlantic Modernism. \nSteven Herrmann\, Ph.D.\, MFT is a Jungian analyst with a practice in Oakland\, California. He is the author of Walt Whitman: Shamanism\, Spiritual Democracy\, and the World Soul (2010). \n \n\nView the Event Livestream Page URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/walt-whitman-and-carl-jung-selective-affinities/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/steveandjay.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200820T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200820T190000 DTSTAMP:20200825T152613Z CREATED:20200803T191629Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200825T152613Z UID:3915-1597946400-1597950000@waltwhitmaninitiative.org SUMMARY:Connecting with Whitman's Brooklyn: Walking Tours and Mobile Games DESCRIPTION:Jesse Merandy and Karen Karbiener discuss connecting to Whitman through place\, using walking tours and location based mobile experiences as methods to understanding the poet’s life and work.  Speakers will recount their own experiences using place-based pedagogy\, offering helpful insights and resources for educators and those looking to embark on their own exploration of Whitman’s New York City! \nKaren Karbiener is a Walt Whitman scholar who teaches at New York University. Her works include an edition of “Leaves of Grass\,” a book introducing children to Whitman’s poetry\, and “Live Oak\, With Moss\,” an edition of Whitman’s secret same-sex love poems illustrated by Brian Selznick. She is president of the Walt Whitman Initiative\, and is spearheading the campaign to grant landmark status to Whitman’s only standing residence in New York City (99 Ryerson Street in Brooklyn). \nJesse Merandy is the Director of Digital Humanities and Digital Exhibitions (DH/DX) at Bard Graduate Center. His location based mobile experience Vanishing Leaves was the first all digital dissertation successfully defended at the CUNY Graduate Center.\nVisit Vanishing Leaves and read his dissertation white paper \nVISIT OUR WALKING TOUR RESOURCES!SCHEDULE A WALKING TOUR! \n  URL:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/event/connecting-with-whitmans-brooklyn-walking-tours-and-mobile-games/ CATEGORIES:Robust American Love ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://waltwhitmaninitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/jesse-and-karen.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR