Announcing the 2024 Long Island Poet of the Year –  Nancy Keating

2024 Long Island Poet of the Year Award Reception & Reading will be held on April 21, 2024, 2PM – 3:00PM, in-person at Walt Whitman Birthplace Association.

The Long Island Poet of the Year Award is an annual award given by Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) to honor a notable and distinguished local poet who actively promotes poetry on Long Island.  Each year, the board of trustees selects a notable poet as the WWBA poet of the year. They are a nationally known and well-respected poet who champions poetry through their writing, teaching, and support of the Long Island community of poets and their events.

For more information visit https://www.waltwhitman.org/li-poet-of-the-year/.

Art in the Barn: Storytime and hands-on art project for Pre-schoolers  is a new workshop for pre-schoolers at Walt Whitman Birthplace. Taught by Lena Massari Sawyer, former Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Come and join us every week as we read various stories including the award-winning Caldecott books.  Learn about artists of the past and create your own artwork.

April 20, 2024
Come and explore the work of Architect Frank Loyd Wright!
In the Art Barn, we will be building with wood and reading “My first Shapes with Frank Lloyd Wright” by Mudpuppy and L. Ortiz.

Register NOW for the full series and SAVE! (Space is limited)
Members: $13  Non Members: $15
(Per workshop, tickets can be purchased at the door)
Click here to register >>

See Spring Calendar below.

Picture Books are a crucial tool for developing a child’s literacy and language skills in their early years.  They help build self-confidence as the child learns to read through visual thinking. The children will read a book, then tell their own story through collage and other multimedia materials. They will look at the different elements of art such as changing perspective, scale, as well as multiple points of view through drawing and using collage materials. In addition, each child will be given a small plastic magnifying glass to explore a tinker box filled with objects from nature such as seashells, rocks, etc.

Lena Massari Sawyer has been an educator for over 25 years. She taught Art History and Studio Art to children for over two decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  While at the Met, she specialized in early childhood education, creating and teaching numerous art history and children’s literature classes.   Lena has been a long-time resident of Long Island. She teaches art history, painting and other multimedia classes both at the Birthplace at the Little Studio in Northport Village.  Lena holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and performed her graduate studies in Museum Education at New York University.

Art in the Barn Spring Calendar

April 6th – Come and celebrate National Poetry Month at Walt Whitman Birthplace!
Explore the work of British Textile designer, poet and artist William Morris. We will be reading “Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made” by Beth Kephart and end the session making your own print designs.

April 13th – Spring has arrived! Celebrate National Garden Month with us at the Birthplace.
We will walk through Walt’s Garden and find some Whitman Lilacs blooming. Back in the Art Barn, we will explore the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The session will end with a stained glass inspired project and “In the Garden” by Carin Berger.

April 20th – Come and explore the work of Architect Frank Loyd Wright!
In the Art Barn, we will be building with wood and reading “My first Shapes with Frank Lloyd Wright” by Mudpuppy and L. Ortiz.

April 27th – “The Wave” by Hokusai!
Let’s explore how the world of Japanese prints affected Nineteenth Century artists. We will be painting and reading “Hokusai: He saw the world in a Wave” by S Hodge and K. Ekdahl.

May 4th – The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
Get ready, get set, we will be looking at The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and reading Vincent’s “Colors” by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Bring your smock and lets paint!

May 11th – No Class

May 18th – Cezanne’s Apples!
Put on your smocks and grab a paint brush. We will be painting in The Art Barn and reading “Orange Pear Apple Bear” by Emily Gravett.

May 25th- Let’s travel to Monet’s Garden!
We will be planting our own herbs in the Art Barn and reading Lena Anderson and Christina Björk’s book “Linneas’s Windowsill Garden”.

June 1st – Summer has arrived!
Let’s go sailing with the artist Edward Hopper and look for Lighthouses. We will be painting and reading “Edward Hopper Summer at the Seashore” by Deborah Lyons.  Makeup class for May 11^th.

WWBA is proud to announce our 2024 Series – Whitman’s Long Island: Then & Now

Our 2024 Series compares Whitman’s celebration of his native Long Island environment with current conservational commentaries two hundred years later. Sessions open with a reading of a poem or essay by ecopoet Walt Whitman followed by community conversation led by notable Long Island environmentalists. Focus is on Environmental Justice issues for Long Island communities, including access to clean water, a pollution free environment, limiting development of natural land, and a local accessible food supply. Whitman infused the beauty of Long Islands fields, forests, creeks, wetlands, bays, sound and ocean from Brooklyn to Montauk Point in his writings. This Series illuminates the agrarian and aquatic-based society in which he was born and heralded in his writings, and which is left to us to protect.

Program 1 – The Pine Barrens – Who’s Guarding our Long Island Treasure
Thursday, April 18, 7 -8:30PM

It is imperative to save the last wild forest on Long Island. The Pine Barrens contain a unique ecosystem supporting the endangered Tiger salamander and provides a sanctuary for birds, owls and hawks. It contains kettle ponds formed by receding glaciers 16,000 years ago. The Aquifers provide our drinking water and face a multitude of dangers such as loss of natural land and increasing pollution.

Join our conversation to learn to safeguard this Long Island Treasure.  Tom Casey will speak about the importance of the Pine Barrens. Tom is a board member of the Pine Barrens Society, an environmental advocacy group, and the Quogue Wildlife Refuge in Suffolk County. He’s been hiking in the Pine Barren for over 40 years. WWBA Trustee  Mark Nuccio will read Whitman’s ecopoetry and essays. Singer-Songwriter Linda Sussman performs a musical environmental interlude.

15 FREE 8”-18” FIR TREE LOTTERY
Donated by NY State Parks

Everyone in attendance may enter into a lottery to win one of 15 8″-18″ fir trees that were donated by New York State Parks!

This event is FREE and held in person.

Retired English teacher Tom Casey has hiked on Long Island for over forty years and considers Quogue Wildlife Refuge to be one of the crown jewels of Long Island’s protected open spaces. He has been a board member, newsletter editor, and a hike leader for the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference for over thirty years. He also serves on the board of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, is Secretary for the New York State Trails Council, chairs the Central Pine Barrens Commission’s Protected Lands Council, and is a member of the Pine Barrens Advisory Committee and the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum.

Mark Nuccio, WWBA Trustee, Artist, Poet, and Community Activist: Primary Team Leader. Nuccio studied painting and history with post-grad studies in Product Design and Engineering. He is the founder of Design Edge Group which develops and markets toys and games. Three of his woodcut prints, including “Walt Whitman,” reside at the Library of Congress. Nuccio has written over 25 published articles on the environmental challenges of Long Island and its surrounding waters. He is the author of four chapbooks of poetry, and recently published Mary E and all that Jazz. Mark is a musician who is knowledgeable about traditional folk music, jazz, and blues, and is fluent in guitar, banjo, and harmonica. He taught art classes in the Taylor Street projects in Brooklyn, NY to inner city senior adults, made wood cuts supporting Caesar Chavez and MLK, and created paintings devoted to the culture of the Montaukette Indians and former slaves from the east end of Long Island. He is active in fishing and boating organizations. 

Linda Sussman (LindaSussman.com) is an award-winning singer-songwriter whose versatile vocals and guitar style incorporate both folk and blues. Her music spans universal topics—from heartache, triumphs, social justice and others just for fun—and has ranked #1 on the Roots Music Report’s weekly Alternative Folk Album Chart. Her music is played on radio programs internationally (including here at home on WFUV, WUSB, WSHU, and WLIW), and the many stages she has played include the iconic New York City venue The Bitter End, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in Stony Brook, the Jeanne Rimsky Theater at Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington, and smaller stages such as Radio Bean in Burlington, Vermont. Earlier this year (2024), Linda released her fifth album, titled “Win or Lose,” which she has on hand today. Linda’s music is also available on all streaming platforms, such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

This program is made possible with funds from Humanities New York, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, and Town of Huntington.

Support Our Literacy Programs >>

George Wallace and Walt Whitman Birthplace proudly present season three of POETS BUILDING BRIDGES: A TRIANGULATION PROJECT, inaugurated in March 2022 with the purpose of enhancing dialogue between communities of writers across the US and internationally. Based on a shared small-group experience, these Saturday zoom sessions engage three distinct and well defined communities of poets with each other to share work and foster further interaction. In Season Three, POETS BUILDING BRIDGES will build on that experience, triangulating national and international groups based not only on location but additionally offering key small press publications an opportunity to form a participating group.

THIS IS A ZOOM ONLY EVENT. 

Find Zoom Information Below.

Live on zoom. archived on Youtube. For Season 2 visit our YouTube Channel >>

Live Mag NYC:  Jeff Wright  |  Richard Martin  |  Wang Ping  |  Steven Luttrell

Jeffrey Cyphers Wright  received his MFA after studying with Allen Ginsberg. A self-described New Romantic poet, he is also a publisher, art and literary critic, eco-activist, impresario, filmmaker, and artist. He is author of 19 books of verse, including Blue Lyre and Party Everywhere. Recent work appears in the anthologies Best American Poetry; NYC Insiders; and Contemporary Surrealist and Magical Realist Poetry. His latest work, a book of sonnets and artwork called Doppelgängster, Self Portraits in a Funhouse Mirror is from MadHat Press. Wright publishes Live Mag!  He received a Kathy Acker Award for publishing and writing. You can see his puppet shows on Youtube.

Richard Martin’s recent books from Spuyten Duyvil are Leakage & Smoke (2023), Chapter & Verse (2021), Ceremony of the Unknown (2020), Goosebumps of Antimatter (2018) and Techniques in the Neighborhood of Sleep (2016). He is a past recipient of a NEA Fellowship for Poetry and the founder of the Big Horror Poetry Series in Binghamton, New York (1983-1996). A retired Boston Public Schools principal, Martin lives in Boston with his family.

Dr. Ping Wang came from Shanghai, earned her BA in Beijing University, PhD at NYU, published 15 books of poetry and prose: My Name Is Immigrant, Life of Miracles along the Yangtze and Mississippi, among others. She’s recipient of NEA, Bush, Lannan and McKnight Fellowships, director of Kinship of Rivers project. She’s also a dancer, photographer and installation artist. Her multi-media installations were shown at colleges, galleries, museums, river confluences and mountains around the world. She’s the Emerita Professor of Poetry, Macalester College.

Steve Luttrell is an internationally recognized Poet and Publisher. He is the founding editor of The Café Review, an award-winning art and poetry journal, published in Portland, Maine since 1989. He is a past Poet Laureate for the city of Portland, Maine and is the author of five published collections of poetry including his latest, Plumb Line, published by North Atlantic Books (Berkeley, Ca.) in 2015.

Kerrville TX:  Kathleen Hudson  |  Etain Scott  |  Lisha Adela Garcia  |  Jean Hackett

Kathleen Hudson is author of three oral histories in Texas music, founder of Texas Heritage Music Foundation (1987-2017), English teacher 1968-present, poet and lover of all animals. Lives in the Texas Hill Country.

Etain Scott is a multidisciplinary artist from Ireland currently living on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. Traveling, cooking, dancing, and her writing groups are part of her source of creativity. Often a guest writer in the English classes at Schreiner University, she is currently illustrating some of her poems with mixed media collage.

Lisha Adela García has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and currently resides in Texas with her beloved four-legged children. Her books, A Rope of Luna and Blood Rivers, were published by Blue Light Press of San Francisco. Lisha has been nominated for a Pushcart and was a recipient of the San Antonio Tri-Centennial Poetry Prize. She has served as a judge for various poetry prizes. Most recently, she served as judge for the Chicago Poetry Prize. Lisha leads the Wyrdd Writers, a writing group based in San Antonio.

Jean Hackett lives and writes in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.  Her most recent work has appeared in journal Voices de la Luna, the ‘zine Words for Birds, the collection of vulture poetry Purifying Wind, the collections of coronavirus poetry No Season for Silence, Tejascovido, and The Langdon Review as well as Arts Alive San Antonio.

Portuguese Poets: Maria do Rosario Loures  |  Alvaro Maio  |  Isilda Nunes  |  Irene Marques

Maria Do Rosario Loures is a trilingual writer (writing in Portuguese, German and English). Her first appearance in the world of poetry was in 1996 at the art magazine “sign 7” by Gillitzer & Müller, Nuremberg. She has produced many anthologies in Portugal including three editions of “Poetas na Diápora”, Oxalá Editora, and “IV Antologia Poetas Lusófonos da Diáspora”, Oxalá Editora. In 2021, she coordinated the “First Anthology of Poetry Hera the Light of Women”, and n 2021 became International Ambassador of Peace and Human Rights for the World Literary Forum for Peace and Human Rights – WLPH. She is also Ambassador for the Asih Sasimi Indonesia Global Writers Foundation. A contributor to Glitterati Quillwithspark, a quarterly magazine to promote and publish poetry, artwork, short stories, reviews, and articles, she also publishes her poems and short stories in the social networks.

Álvaro Maio was born in Portugal 1960 and is a journalist in several radio stations and national newspapers. He received the 1st Literary Prize with the short story “My 1st trip to the sun” in Mozambique November 69. He is editor of ”Fragmentos” ( poetry) 2013 / ”Mais de mim…” ( poetry) 2016 / ”Peregrino de mim…” (poetry) 2019 / “Ala Ala Arriba!” ( epic operetta )2020 / “ PURGATÓRIO “ ( poetry) 2022, coauthor of several poetry anthologies in Portuguese, and five other languages, and produced CD with 12 original songs entitled “Poeta da Vida“. He has won numeorus literary prizes, including the Poetas da Ria Literary Prize (poetry), the Dr Luís Raínha  Correntes D’Escritas National Literary Award, the World Award for Artistic Excellence Carlos Vallejo, and the Àguila de Oro award for literary excellence. Co-author of several poetic anthologies in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Russian, Urdu and Mandarin, and was translated and published in dozens of countries.

Isilda Nunes is a Portuguese artist, writer and poet, Doctor Honoris Causa in Philosophy, Letters, Arts and Humanities in Barcelona. She is winner of international literary prizes and she is published in many national and international magazines and newspapers. She is co-author of many anthologies and author of books of poetry and prose. She is among other functions Founder and Vice-President of UMEA (World Union of Writers and Artists); Chairperson of the Language, Literature and Oratory Art Committee of Modern Pythian Games; Advisor to the Presidency of CIESART (International Chamber of Writers and Artists) and President of CIESART-Portugal; National Director of IFLAC World- Portugal; Vice-President MEL (Mulheres Empreendedoras da Lusofonia); Ambassador of the Women’s Federation for Word Peace International; RRM3 Advisor for GPLT-UK- UN & EU, Ambassador for Peace and Humanity IFCH Morocco; Member of the Board of Directors of Editorial Atunis, etc.

Irene Marques is a bilingual writer (writing in English and Portuguese) and Lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Department of English, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, Masters in French Literature and Comparative Literature and a BA (Hon.) in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto, as well as a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University. Her creative writing publications include the poetry collections Wearing Glasses of Water (Mawenzi House, 2007), The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit (Mawenzi House, 2012) and The Circular Incantation: An Exercise in Loss and Findings (Guernica Editions, 2013), and the novels My House is a Mansion (Leaping Lion Books, 2015), Uma Casa no Mundo (Imprensa Nacional, 2021) and Daria (Inanna Publications, 2021). Uma casa no mundo won the Imprensa Nacional/Ferreira de Castro Prize (Portugal).

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Support Our Literacy Programs >>

POETS BUILDING BRIDGES is produced by Poetrybay Productions for the Walt Whitman Birthplace.

Art in the Barn: Storytime and hands-on art project for Pre-schoolers  is a new workshop for pre-schoolers at Walt Whitman Birthplace. Taught by Lena Massari Sawyer, former Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Come and join us every week as we read various stories including the award-winning Caldecott books.  Learn about artists of the past and create your own artwork.

April 13, 2024
Spring has arrived! Celebrate National Garden Month with us at the Birthplace.
We will walk through Walt’s Garden and find some Whitman Lilacs blooming. Back in the Art Barn, we will explore the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The session will end with a stained glass inspired project and “In the Garden” by Carin Berger.

Register NOW for the full series and SAVE! (Space is limited)
Members: $13  Non Members: $15
(Per workshop, tickets can be purchased at the door)
Click here to register >>

See Spring Calendar below.

Picture Books are a crucial tool for developing a child’s literacy and language skills in their early years.  They help build self-confidence as the child learns to read through visual thinking. The children will read a book, then tell their own story through collage and other multimedia materials. They will look at the different elements of art such as changing perspective, scale, as well as multiple points of view through drawing and using collage materials. In addition, each child will be given a small plastic magnifying glass to explore a tinker box filled with objects from nature such as seashells, rocks, etc.

Lena Massari Sawyer has been an educator for over 25 years. She taught Art History and Studio Art to children for over two decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  While at the Met, she specialized in early childhood education, creating and teaching numerous art history and children’s literature classes.   Lena has been a long-time resident of Long Island. She teaches art history, painting and other multimedia classes both at the Birthplace at the Little Studio in Northport Village.  Lena holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and performed her graduate studies in Museum Education at New York University.

Art in the Barn Spring Calendar

April 6th – Come and celebrate National Poetry Month at Walt Whitman Birthplace!
Explore the work of British Textile designer, poet and artist William Morris. We will be reading “Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made” by Beth Kephart and end the session making your own print designs.

April 13th – Spring has arrived! Celebrate National Garden Month with us at the Birthplace.
We will walk through Walt’s Garden and find some Whitman Lilacs blooming. Back in the Art Barn, we will explore the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The session will end with a stained glass inspired project and “In the Garden” by Carin Berger.

April 20th – Come and explore the work of Architect Frank Loyd Wright!
In the Art Barn, we will be building with wood and reading “My first Shapes with Frank Lloyd Wright” by Mudpuppy and L. Ortiz.

April 27th – “The Wave” by Hokusai!
Let’s explore how the world of Japanese prints affected Nineteenth Century artists. We will be painting and reading “Hokusai: He saw the world in a Wave” by S Hodge and K. Ekdahl.

May 4th – The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
Get ready, get set, we will be looking at The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and reading Vincent’s “Colors” by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Bring your smock and lets paint!

May 11th – No Class

May 18th – Cezanne’s Apples!
Put on your smocks and grab a paint brush. We will be painting in The Art Barn and reading “Orange Pear Apple Bear” by Emily Gravett.

May 25th- Let’s travel to Monet’s Garden!
We will be planting our own herbs in the Art Barn and reading Lena Anderson and Christina Björk’s book “Linneas’s Windowsill Garden”.

June 1st – Summer has arrived!
Let’s go sailing with the artist Edward Hopper and look for Lighthouses. We will be painting and reading “Edward Hopper Summer at the Seashore” by Deborah Lyons.  Makeup class for May 11^th.

Art in the Barn: Storytime and hands-on art project for Pre-schoolers  is a new workshop for pre-schoolers at Walt Whitman Birthplace. Taught by Lena Massari Sawyer, former Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Come and join us every week as we read various stories including the award-winning Caldecott books.  Learn about artists of the past and create your own artwork.

April 6, 2024
Come and celebrate National Poetry Month at Walt Whitman Birthplace!
Explore the work of British Textile designer, poet and artist William Morris. We will be reading “Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made” by Beth Kephart and end the session making your own print designs.

Register NOW for the full series and SAVE! (Space is limited)
Members: $13  Non Members: $15
(Per workshop, tickets can be purchased at the door)
Click here to register >>

See Spring Calendar below.

Picture Books are a crucial tool for developing a child’s literacy and language skills in their early years.  They help build self-confidence as the child learns to read through visual thinking. The children will read a book, then tell their own story through collage and other multimedia materials. They will look at the different elements of art such as changing perspective, scale, as well as multiple points of view through drawing and using collage materials. In addition, each child will be given a small plastic magnifying glass to explore a tinker box filled with objects from nature such as seashells, rocks, etc.

Lena Massari Sawyer has been an educator for over 25 years. She taught Art History and Studio Art to children for over two decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  While at the Met, she specialized in early childhood education, creating and teaching numerous art history and children’s literature classes.   Lena has been a long-time resident of Long Island. She teaches art history, painting and other multimedia classes both at the Birthplace at the Little Studio in Northport Village.  Lena holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and performed her graduate studies in Museum Education at New York University.

Art in the Barn Spring Calendar

April 6th – Come and celebrate National Poetry Month at Walt Whitman Birthplace!
Explore the work of British Textile designer, poet and artist William Morris. We will be reading “Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made” by Beth Kephart and end the session making your own print designs.

April 13th – Spring has arrived! Celebrate National Garden Month with us at the Birthplace.
We will walk through Walt’s Garden and find some Whitman Lilacs blooming. Back in the Art Barn, we will explore the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The session will end with a stained glass inspired project and “In the Garden” by Carin Berger.

April 20th – Come and explore the work of Architect Frank Loyd Wright!
In the Art Barn, we will be building with wood and reading “My first Shapes with Frank Lloyd Wright” by Mudpuppy and L. Ortiz.

April 27th – “The Wave” by Hokusai!
Let’s explore how the world of Japanese prints affected Nineteenth Century artists. We will be painting and reading “Hokusai: He saw the world in a Wave” by S Hodge and K. Ekdahl.

May 4th – The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
Get ready, get set, we will be looking at The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and reading Vincent’s “Colors” by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Bring your smock and lets paint!

May 11th – No Class

May 18th – Cezanne’s Apples!
Put on your smocks and grab a paint brush. We will be painting in The Art Barn and reading “Orange Pear Apple Bear” by Emily Gravett.

May 25th- Let’s travel to Monet’s Garden!
We will be planting our own herbs in the Art Barn and reading Lena Anderson and Christina Björk’s book “Linneas’s Windowsill Garden”.

June 1st – Summer has arrived!
Let’s go sailing with the artist Edward Hopper and look for Lighthouses. We will be painting and reading “Edward Hopper Summer at the Seashore” by Deborah Lyons.  Makeup class for May 11^th.

Gerd Stern is a poet, painter, sculptor, and media artist. His oral history, From Beat Scene Poet to Psychedelic Multimedia Artist: 1948–1978, was published by The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. He is a founder of, one of the first arts/technology cooperatives, active since the early 1960s, Based in Rockland County. Author of six collections of poetry, Gerd was born in Saarland on the German/French border in 1928, emigrated to the United States with his family as the Nazis rose to power, and eventually settled in Washington Heights in New York City. A lifetime of wide travels and accomplishments brought him in contact with the Allen Ginsberg, Carl Solomon, Charlie Parker and James Baldwin in NYC, a brief stint with the Black Mountain School, The SF Beat Scene (including Maya Angelou), and helped build the Living Theater on 14^th St in NYC.

Kat Georges is a  author, poet, playwright, and graphic designer. Author of Awe and Other Words Like Wow, Our Lady of the Hunger and Three Somebodies: Plays about Notorious Dissidents. She is co-editor of the annual contemporary dada journal, Maintenant. Her poems have recently appeared in NYC from the Inside, Arriving at a Shoreline, and Mas Tequila. She lives in New York City, where she is co-director of Three Rooms Press, a literary publisher driven by diversty, dada, punk, and passion.

Peter Carlaftes is author of five books including the poetry collections Life in the Past Lane, Drunkyard Dog and I Fold With the Hand I Was Dealt and two collections of plays: Teatrophy and Triumph for Rent. He is co-editor of the annual contemporary dada journal, Maintenant and editor of The Faking Of The President: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir. His poetry has recently appeared in NYC from the Inside, Love, Love, Chorus: A Literary Mixtape and many more. Co-director of Three Rooms Press, he lives in New York City.

Josie Bello is a Singer-Songwriter from Huntington.  Her songs tell stories that are relatable, and explore issues that are both timely and timeless. Her newest release “Have Purpose Live Long” (2020) and her debut album “Can’t Go Home” (2018) have both had extensive U.S. & International radio play with the albums and individual tracks appearing on an impressive number of radio charts.  Josie performs solo and with her band, “The Kit House Band”.  Her music is available everywhere including Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes and Amazon. For more information about Josie, you can visit her website at josiebello.com.

Make a meaningful gift to support our poetry programs:  https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/2197152

This program is made possible with funds from Poets and Writers, The Claire Friedlander Family Foundation, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.

The Gwenn A. Nusbaum-WWBA Scholarship application is open January 1 – April 1, 2024.

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) invites applications for the Gwenn A. Nusbaum-WWBA Scholarship.  The $1800 scholarship is offered in the spirit of Walt Whitman’s poem, “O Me! O Life!” He writes: “That you are here – that life exists and identity, / That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

Applications are sought from those poets at the early stages of their careers, ages 25-35 years.  This scholarship, awarded every year, aims to encourage and assist an emerging poet in their creative poetry writing endeavors.

For guidelines and submission form visit https://www.waltwhitman.org/nusbaumscholarship/

Art in the Barn: Storytime and hands-on art project for Pre-schoolers  is a new drop-in workshop for preschoolers at Walt Whitman Birthplace. Taught by Lena Massari Sawyer, former Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Come and join us every week as we read various stories including the award-winning Caldecott books.  Learn about artists of the past and create your own artwork.

March 23, 2024
Experience the world of Alma Thomas Paintings
Shapes, color and movement in art will be discussed.  “I Spy Shapes” in Art by Lucy Micklethwait will be explored.

Members: $13  Non Members: $15
(Per workshop, tickets can be purchased at the door)

See Winter Calendar below.

Picture Books are a crucial tool for developing a child’s literacy and language skills in their early years.  They help build self-confidence as the child learns to read through visual thinking. The children will read a book, then tell their own story through collage and other multimedia materials. They will look at the different elements of art such as changing perspective, scale, as well as multiple points of view through drawing and using collage materials. In addition, each child will be given a small plastic magnifying glass to explore a tinker box filled with objects from nature such as seashells, rocks, etc.

Lena Massari Sawyer has been an educator for over 25 years. She taught Art History and Studio Art to children for over two decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  While at the Met, she specialized in early childhood education, creating and teaching numerous art history and children’s literature classes.   Lena has been a long-time resident of Long Island. She teaches art history, painting and other multimedia classes both at the Birthplace at the Little Studio in Northport Village.  Lena holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and performed her graduate studies in Museum Education at New York University.

Art in the Barn Winter Calendar

February 3rd – Black History Month
A look at Royal Art of Benin from Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a reading of the 2011 Caldecott winner: “Dave the Potter Artist, Poet, Slave” by Laban C. Hill and Bryan Collier.  Project: drawing and clay.

February 10th –  Celebrate the Chinese New Year with Us!
Learn about Chinese scroll painting, paint will calligraphy brushes and read about your own personal Chinese zodiac in “The Legend of the Chinese Dragon” by M. Sellier, C. Louis, W. Fei.

February 17th –  Come and explore Romare Bearden’s groundbreaking collage celebrating African American Urban life in “The Block”
A multimedia art project will follow and Barney Saltzberg fun book “Beautiful OOPS” will be enjoyed.

February 24th – Travel with us to Africa and learn about African Masks!
Class will end with the book “Me… Jane” by Patrick McDonnell about Jane Goodall, the English Anthropologist and “Can you Spot the Leopard” by C Stelzig.  Bring your favorite stuff animal to class!

March 2nd – Women’s History Month
Learn how to paint large flowers like Georgia O’ Keefe did.   “My Name is Georgia: A Portrait” by Jeanette Winter will be read.

March 9th – Explore the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama
We will be painting and reading “From Here to Infinity” by S. Suzuki and E. Weinstein.

March 16th – Come celebrate the color GREEN with us for Saint Patrick’s Day!
We will be reading the book “Green” by Laura V. Seeger and exploring Henri Rousseau’s very green Jungle paintings.  A magical surprise will follow.

March 23rd – Experience the world of Alma Thomas Paintings
Shapes, color and movement in art will be discussed.  “I Spy Shapes” in Art by Lucy Micklethwait will be explored.

March 30th – No class