First Annual Marathon Reading of Walt Whitman’s “Song
of Myself”
June 27th from 5-8 pm
aboard the South Street Seaport Museum’s tall ship Peking, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge
Professor Karen Karbiener of New York University
and her class:
Dear friends, in the democratic, progressive,
visionary spirit of Whitman’s great poem, we would be honored to have you
join us at this event.
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Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin
of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun… there
are millions of suns left,
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand… nor
look through the eyes of
the dead… nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from
me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself.
Whitman wrote in 1855 to a country in deep crisis. Political
corruption was at an all-time high, due in large part to three
incompetent
presidencies in a row. The slavery issue divided the country,
and events such as the Compromise of 1850 and “Bleeding Kansas” demonstrated
how dishonesty and lack of integrity had become national characteristics.
The gap between rich and poor was widening at an alarming rate,
and diseases such as Asiatic cholera swept through American cities.
Additionally, America was still looking over its shoulder at
England for cultural inspiration: British writers such as Dickens
and Tennyson
outsold any native American authors.
“
Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son” employed art
to institute change. His long poem “Song of Myself” is
a call to consciousness for Americans as much as it is a celebration
of the American spirit, particularly the “New York state
of mind” he so loved and lovingly portrayed. “Song
of Myself” is our cultural Declaration of Independence. It
represents radical patriotism. And we feel it is once again time
to speak, hear, and be moved by Whitman’s timeless message.
The reading is being hosted by the South Street Seaport Museum
and organized by me, a native New Yorker and professor at NYU
who has dedicated her life to Whitman's art. I've just finished
a new
edition of Whitman's poetry and I teach a popular course entitled "Whitman
and New York" that you can read about here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0806/p16s01-lehl.html
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/02/07/waltWhitman_course.html
We are encouraging wide public response to this reading and are
collecting reader information at songofmyself2004@yahoo.com,
or call the Seaport
Programs office (212.748.8735) for further information.