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Upcoming events

POETS BUILDING BRIDGES Series 2, June 2023 – Cleveland, Wales, Somerville MA/Cervena Barva

George Wallace and Walt Whitman Birthplace proudly present season two 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. THIS IS A ZOOM ONLY EVENT.

Season One triangulated groups by location — from the US, UK, Italy, South America, the Balkans, the Near East and India.

(47) Poets Building Bridges: A World Poetry Day Triangulation Project – Day 1 – 5Mar2022 – YouTube

In Season Two, 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.

Walt Whitman Birthplace Events & Media Director is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

 

Cleveland: John Burroughs  |  Doc Jenning  |  Christine Howey  |  Shelley Chernin

John Burroughs is the author of John Burroughs of Cleveland is the author of Rattle & Numb: Selected and New Poems, 1992-2019 [2019, Venetian Spider Press], and more than a dozen chapbooks. He has curated several regular reading series in the Greater Cleveland area and currently moderate [2019, Venetian Spider Press], and more than a dozen chapbooks. He has curated several regular reading series in the Greater Cleveland area and currently moderates the northeast Ohio literary calendar at clevelandpoetry.com. Since 2008, John has served as the founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press. From 2019 to 2021 he was Ohio’s Beat Poet Laureate and in September the National Beat Poetry Association named him the U.S. Beat Poet Laureate.

Doc Janning is the 80-year-old inaugural Poet Laureate of the city of South Euclid, Ohio. He has created Ekphrastic Poetry for Heights Arts and for Cleveland Photo Fest. Doc is Moderator of First Wednesday Poets, Creator-Host of Awenites, and a featured reader for poetry events around the world, is included in twenty-five anthologies, has had individual poems published on La Hermosa Bruja, and by PoemHunter.com, and videos on YouTube from a variety of readings.

Christine Howey is a performance poet, stage actor and director, playwright, theatre critic and the former executive director of Literary Cleveland. Her one-person play about her transgender journey, Exact Change, consists of 40 poems. It premiered at Cleveland Public Theatre and was an official selection of the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival. She then adapted the play into a film, which was an official selection of the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in 2018.Christine has had four chapbooks of poetry published and was named Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights, Ohio for 2016-2018. She is also a slam poet and competed in the National Poetry Slams in 2013 and 2017, as a member of the four-person Cleveland team  Christine was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship in 2014 from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council in 2016. She was honored to receive both the Illumination Award as the Transgender Leader of the Year in northeast Ohio for 2015, and the Torch Award for leadership on transgender issues from the Cleveland chapter of the Human Rights Campaign in 2017. 

Shelley Chernin  is an environmental activist and ukulele enthusiast who has been writing poetry on and off for most of her life. She is the author of The Vigil, published by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2012. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Great Lakes Review, Scrivener Creative Review, Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, Rhapsoidia, Durable Goods, Big Bridge, and Oct Tongue-1. She was awarded Second Place in the 2011 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest and received Honorable Mentions twice in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words Poetry Contest. Shelley has read her poems and played ukulele in many venues, including Mac’s Backs, Visible Voice Books, Mahall’s, The Beachland Ballroom, numerous libraries, coffee shops, parks, bars and street corners.

 

Wales: Ian Griffiths  |  Amanda Rackstraw |  Rhian Edwards

Ian Grifffiths was born in Swansea Wales and lives in Shotley, county of Suffolk UK. Former chairman of the Suffolk Poetry Society, his first poetry collection was Conversations with Birds, published by Eye Wild Books. He lists his poeticinflurnces as Dylan Thomas, John Done, Robert Browning, Russian poets Afanasy Fet and Sergei Yesenin, and George Wallace. 

Amanda Rackstraw comes from London. She trained at RADA and worked as an actor until relocating to Wales.  Following an MA at Cardiff, she taught for the university until 2017.  Her work has been published in Planet, Mslexia, New Welsh Review, Acumen, and Poetry Wales. She has been longlisted for the National Poetry Prize for five years and shortlisted for the Bridport in 2019. Amanda has written and performed her own work programmed at Chapter Arts Centre. She has also worked as a storyteller in various venues across Wales. She is working on a collection of her poetry.

Rhian Edwards is a multi-award winning poet. Her first collection of poems Clueless Dogs (Seren 2012) won Wales Book of the Year 2013, the Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry 2013 and Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice 2013. It was also shortlisted for the  Forward Prizefor Best First Collection 2012. Rhian’s second full collection The Estate Agent’s Daughter (Seren 2020) was a National Poetry Day Recommended Read for 2020. Rhian also has two pamphlets of poems Parade the Fib, (Tall-Lighthouse 2008), which was awarded the Poetry Book Society Choice for autumn 2008. Brood (Seren 2017) is an illustrated pamphlet of bird poems, containing beautiful and original charcoal magpie drawings by artist Paul Edwards. Rhian is also the current winner of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, winning both the Judges and Audience award. She was also the first Writer in Residence at Aberystwyth Arts Centre from March to June 2013. Rhian’s poems have appeared in the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, New Statesman, Spectator, Poetry London, Poetry Wales, Arete, Prague Revue, the London Magazine, Stand, Planet Magazine, the New Welsh Review and the Lampeter Review. Rhian is a poet and musician and has delivered over 400 stage, radio and festival performances world-wide. She lives in South Wales with her daughter Megan.

 

 

Somerville Ma/Cervena Barva:  Gloria Mindock  | Andrey Gritsman Russia-USA  |  Flavia Cosma Romania/Canada

Gloria Mindock  is editor of Červená Barva Press. She is an award-winning author of 6 poetry collections, 3 chapbooks and a children’s book. Her poems have been published and translated into eleven languages. Her recent book, Ash (Glass Lyre Press, 2021) has received 6 book awards and was translated into Serbian by Milutin Durickovic and published by Alma Press in Belgrade in 2022. Gloria’s work recently has appeared in Gargoyle, The James Dickey Review, 10 x 10, Ibbetson, Growth: Journal of Literature, Culture, & Art (Macedonia) and others. Gloria was the Poet Laureate in Somerville, MA in 2017 & 2018. For more information, visit her website at: www.gloriamindock.com

Andrey Gritsman A native of Moscow, Andrey emigrated to the United States in 1981. He is a poet, essayist and a physician. Gritsman have published ten volumes of poetry and prose in Russian and six in English. He received the 2009 Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention XXIII and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize several times. His poems, essays, and short stories in English have appeared and forthcoming in over 90 literary journals, including Nimrod International Journal, Cimarron Review, Notre Dame Review. His work has also been anthologized. Andrey received MFA in poetry from Vermont College and runs the Intercultural Poetry Series in New York City.

Flavia Cosma is a Canadian writer, poet and translator. Flavia is also a producer/ director for television documentaries. An author with more than 50 books, she has been published in various countries. Cosma’s poetry books Leaves of a Diary, Thus Spoke the Sea and The Latin Quarter were studied at Universities in Canada and USA. Flavia received numerous distinctions and awards for her literary work. Flavia Cosma is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, Union des Ecrivains du Quebec, Writers’ Union of Romania. She is the director of The Biannual Writers’ and Artists’ Festivals at Val-David, QC, Canada. www.flaviacosma.com

 

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Live on zoom. archived on Youtube.

Date: Saturday, June 10, 2023
Start Time: 12:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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Staged Reading – AMERICAN POET: WHITMAN’S WARNINGS

You are invited to a special event! Come see a staged reading of AMERICAN POET: WHITMAN’S WARNINGS, a bold new play revealing Walt Whitman’s creative genius amidst national crises.

Register to attend staged reading at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KWDcs68iOqsOv21e5heGaEKXkB4SkmhKADsSx-Uq92M/edit

Producer Jared Hershkowitz will present a staged reading of the new play AMERICAN POET: Whitman’s Warnings in Huntington on June 10, 2023. Directed by Academy Award winner Milton Justice, the script by Sarah Vander Schaaff follows provocative poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and his drive to create his legendary collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, during a dangerous time for American unity and politically driven censorship. The staged reading will be held at the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site, where Walt was born in 1819. Situated amidst the nature that influenced Whitman’s sensibilities, the tented outdoor stage offers a rich historic context to the dynamic professional presentation of the play. Broadway veteran Erik Lochtefeld (King Kong, Misery, Metamorphosis) will play Walt Whitman with additional professional actors to be announced.

Now recognized as a significant voice in American poetry, Whitman was a literary outsider, challenging the conventional style and inhibitions of his era.  Much of his work reflects his interrogation of American democracy as it was tested, particularly surrounding the Civil War. Personally, he faced financial failure, mockery, censorship and heartache. “Whitman did not come easily to his truths,” director Milton Justice said. “He fought hard for his understanding. This play leads us through his journey, rather than just showing us the result of it.”

Producer Jared Hershkowitz said the play strikes a deep chord with the issues of today. “Whitman’s writing was marked by his admiration for the American experiment in democracy, which he believed was under threat from the divisions that were tearing the country apart.” While these challenges are not new, “Watching a play can be a transformative experience, allowing us to see the world through the eyes of others and gain a deeper understanding of our shared humanity,” Hershkowitz said.

Producer Michael Prywes said, “It’s easy to forget just how iconoclastic, prophetic, and brave Whitman was, especially during the most violently divisive time in American history.” “I think we give audiences a new way to confront Whitman’s ambition,” Vander Schaaff said. “The man behind the poetry, the journalist, the son, the friend who made hot toddies or comforted wounded soldiers—we bring him to life as he grapples with the tensions between idealism and reality and his hopes for us—the future.”

The June 10th, 2023 reading has been funded in part through a grant from LitNYS, (Literary New York State) Advancement Regrant.  The Birthplace historic site is operated by the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association and New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Date: Saturday, June 10, 2023
Start Time: 4:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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Father’s Day Exhibit Opening – Walt’s Father, Walt Whitman Sr.

Stop in on Wednesday, June 14th, between 1:00 and  4:00PM, for the opening of our new Father’s Day Exhibit. 

Many Whitman biographers have portrayed Walt’s father as a drunken, cruel and financially unsuccessful man who forced his family to relocate all over Long Island and Brooklyn as he found building work. They believe that Walt himself suffered from his father’s behavior, typically casting him as  a “mean father” character in his fiction, and writing descriptions of his threatening behavior into his poetry. But is it true?  We will explore the few historical clues we have about Walter Whitman, Sr. which hint that the true story may be something different.

The exhibit will include books, pamphlets, photographs, letters, and other rarely seen items from the WWBA’s historic collection.

Date: Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Start Time: 1:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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New York State’s Path Through History

Join us Saturday, June 17th, and Sunday, June 18th, for New York State’s Path Through History! Walt Whitman Birthplace Association will have old fashion toys from the era of Walt’s childhood for children to play with as well as videos showcasing the way of life from that time.

 

 

The Whitman family roots on this part of Long Island date back to the early 17th century. Walt Whitman’s ancestors were farmers, served in the militia, and were active members of their community. Some time after Walt’s parents Walter and Louisa had married in 1816, they set up housekeeping in this simple, Federal-style home. They had three children here. Their second son, Walter Jr., who was to establish a great literary career, was born in 1819.

When the Whitman family moved to Brooklyn in 1823, Walter Sr. sold the property to Carlton Jarvis whose descendants retained it throughout the 19th century. After 1899 the house exchanged ownership several times. The kitchen wing was torn down prior to 1908. Recognizing the structure’s vulnerability, the Huntington Historical Society spearheaded local interest in protecting the property. Attracted to its historical associations, John and Georgia Watson purchased the house and lived there for over 30 years.

In the 1940’s, plans were made to purchase the house and turn it into a historic site. In October 1951, the newly chartered Walt Whitman Birthplace Association acquired the house and grounds. In April 1957, Governor Harriman signed a bill for the state to assume ownership, and on September 28, 1957, it became New York’s 22nd state historic site.

Date: Saturday, June 17, 2023
Start Time: 11:00 am EST
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WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 1 – Walt Whitman & Native Americans

Join us on Sunday, July 16th, for our first program in WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples – Walt Whitman & Native Americans featuring Ed Folson, Whitman Scholar and Sandi Brewster-walker, Executive Director of the Montaukett Indian Nation & Government Affairs Officer.

Walt Whitman’s relationship with the Native American community of Long Island will be discussed. Whitman often referred to Long Island by its Native American name of Paumanok, and his reverence for the natural world was very much in keeping with the ethos of Long Island’s first inhabitants.

Prof. Ed Folsom, PhD. is a Roy J. Carver Professor of English at The University of Iowa.  He has been a central figure in the study of Walt Whitman for several decades and is best known for pioneering the online study of Whitman by co-directing the Walt Whitman Archive. The whitmanarchive.org, an open resource that makes available a vast collection of Whitman’s work, including his manuscripts, letters, marginalia, scribal documents, photographs, and translations, as well as his published works in their various editions.

Folsom also has been the editor of the Whitman Quarterly Review, the international journal of Whitman Studies–since 1983, and has edited the Whitman Series at the University of Iowa Press, where over twenty-five (25) books on Whitman have been published. He has authored, edited, or co-edited over a dozen books dealing with Whitman, will lead a fascinating and honest discussion about Walt Whitman’s interaction, views, and writings on Native Americans.

This is a FREE event.

 

 

Ed Folsom’s teaching and research have centered on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American poetry and culture. He has been particularly interested in the ways American poets have talked back to Walt Whitman over the years, and how Whitman tapped into American culture in surprising ways to construct a radical new kind of writing. He has written, edited, or co-edited a number of books on Whitman, including Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (Choice “Outstanding Academic Book,” Independent Publisher Book Award for Poetry), Walt Whitman’s Native Representations (Choice “Outstanding Academic Book”), Walt Whitman and the World, Walt Whitman: The Centennial Essays, Whitman East and West, Whitman Making Books / Books Making Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The Sesquicentennial Essays, Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas: The Original Edition, Re-Scripting Walt Whitman (co-authored with Kenneth M. Price), and Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, with a Complete Commentary (co-authored with Christopher Merrill).

Ed has directed or co-directed a number of the major national and international Whitman conferences of the past few decades, including a symposium on Whitman in Translation, the 1992 Walt Whitman Centennial Conference, a 2000 conference on Whitman in Beijing, China, and a 2005 symposium at Iowa on Whitman as a bookmaker. In 2005, the sesquicentennial of the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass, he gave the keynote talks at four national and international Whitman conferences. In 2011, he organized a symposium of ten Whitman scholar/translators from around the world. He helped organize and has frequently taught the Transatlantic Whitman Seminar, held each summer in a different international location.

Ed has also written about twentieth-century American poets like William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin, and Gary Snyder, as well as other nineteenth-century writers like Frederick Douglass and Emily Dickinson. He has been a leader in the development of Digital Humanities, co-editing a CD-ROM archive of Whitman’s work, co-directing the online Walt Whitman Archive, preparing the Whitman bibliography for Oxford Bibliographies Online, and in 2014 teaming up with Christopher Merrill to teach “Every Atom: Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself,’” Iowa’s first MOOC, and in 2016 working with Merrill again to teach a MOOC on “Whitman’s Civil War.”

Winner of Iowa’s Collegiate Teaching Award, the Graduate College Outstanding Mentor Award, the university’s President and Provost’s Teaching Award, and the Regents’ Award for Faculty Excellence, Ed teaches courses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, including a survey of American poetry, and doctoral seminars on Whitman, Dickinson, and the history of American poetry.  He edits the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and the Whitman Series for the University of Iowa Press.

 

 

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This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Date: Sunday, July 16, 2023
Start Time: 1:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 2 – Eugenics Study Of Long Island’s Native Americans

Join us on Thursday, August 17th, for the second event in our WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples: Eugenics Study Of Long Island’s Native Americans featuring Dr. John Strong, PhD.

Eugenics is the discredited 19th century pseudoscience dedicated to “perfecting” humanity by limiting the reproductive rights of those deemed genetically “inferior.”  Emphasis was placed on various ethnicities and races.  Among the many groups oppressed was the Long Island Native American Community.  Between (1910-1939), the Eugenics Record Office was located at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Dr. John Strong, PhD. a noted historian and scholar of American studies has been hailed as “The leading ethnohistorian on Long Island.”  After more than 50 years of teaching, researching, lecturing, and publishing he wrote, America’s Early Whalemen: Indian Shore Whalers on Long Island, 1650-1750.  Strong is also the author of numerous other books, including The Montaukett Indians of Eastern Long Island and The Unkechaug Indians of Eastern Long Island, as well as many scholarly articles about the history, culture, and heritage of the Long Island Native American community.

This is a FREE event.

 

 

John A. Strong

https://www.longislandhistoryproject.org/tracing-the-whaling-design/

https://www.easthamptonstar.com/books/2020430/long-island-books-english-cometh

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/nyregion/finding-the-lost-history-of-the-algonquians.html

 

 

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Meeting ID: 880 0260 6442

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This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Date: Thursday, August 17, 2023
Start Time: 7:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance – Moe Seager, Anna C. Martinez, Linda Sussman

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) presents  “Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance,” hosted by Writer-in-Residence George Wallace. The signature series, now in its 13th season, continues to bring the most intriguing figures in contemporary literature on the national scene paired with local poets on the Walt Whitman Stage.

Friday, September 1st Walking With Whitman will feature Moe Seager, a poet and jazz & blues vocalist, and Anna Martinez, a slam poet and civil rights attorney . The evening will also feature live music by Singer-Songwriter Linda Sussman.  Join us for this exciting event!

Refreshments will be served. No registration is required. There is a $10 entry fee for this event that will be collected at the door or can be paid in advance, see button below.

 

 

Moe Seager (Paris Calling) is a poet and jazz & blues vocalist who sings his poems on stages in Paris, New York and elsewhere and has recorded 2 jazz poetry cds Seager founded and hosts Angora Poets (Paris) World Caffé, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Paris and was one of the founders of the Fédération des Poètes Paris. Seager has read his work on National Public Radio Weekend Edition, Europe 1 radio Paris and Radio Nova Paris. Seager was a founding member of WYEP fm Pittsburgh, 1973. He has 7 collections of poetry and currently publishes with Onslaught press, Oxford, UK @ Amazon.com. His works are translated in French, Italian, Russian and Arabic. Other poetry collections are issued from the French Ministry of Culture, Dream Bearers, 1990. His collection Fishermen and Pool Sharks, Busking editions, London, 1992 is archived in the Musée d’Art Moderne Paris. His collection One World, Cairo Press in Arabic translation, Samy Stylios translator. 2004. We Want Everything in French translation,  les Temps des Cirises, Paris, 1994. Perhaps, La Maison de la Poésie, Grenoble, France, 2006. Fishermen and Pool Sharks Busking editions, London, 1992. Seager won a Golden Quill Award ( USA) for investigative journalism, In Pittsburgh Weekly 1989 and received an International Human Rights award from m tthe Zepp foundation, 1990 for his war correspondence.

 

Anna Martinez is a mother, grandmother, performance/competitive/slam poet, and civil rights attorney. Born in Los Angeles at the height of its civil rights movements, she was then raised from school age in Española, New Mexico. Anna Martinez has been named the 2022-2023 Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM. She is also the in-house poet at Las Pistoleras Instituto Cultural de Arte in Taos and has held titles as ABQ Chicano/a City Slam Champ, XXX Haiku City Champ, and 2019 City Slam Champ for team Mindwell Slam. She is also on the board of directors for Burque Revolt Poetry Slam and opens her home for free to touring poets. She lives in Albuquerque.

 

Linda Sussman (LindaSussman.com) is an award-winning singer-songwriter whose versatile vocals and guitar style cross boundaries of alternative-folk and blues. Her music, which has ranked #1 on the Roots Music Report’s weekly Alternative Folk Album Chart, spans universal topics from heartache and triumphs to calls for social justice and can be heard on radio programs in both the US and abroad. The many stages she has played range from the iconic New York City venue The Bitter End to Radio Bean in Burlington, VT. Over the past five years, Linda has released four full-length albums and several singles, all of which are available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

 

 

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

Date: Friday, September 1, 2023
Start Time: 7:00 pm EST

Cost: $ 10

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WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 3 – Long Island Native Americans’ Boarding School Experience

Join us on Thursday, September 21st, for our 3rd program in WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Long Island Native Americans’ Boarding School Experience featuring Marguerite Smith, Esq. 

The Indian Boarding School Movement began with the missionary and charity Indian schools in in the New England region in the early 1700s.  Montaukett youth like, David, George, and Jacob Fowler experienced being educated by missionaries during the beginning years of the Great Awakening.  By 1819, the U. S. Government got involved and operated 408 Native American Boarding Schools.

These schools were ostensibly created to help “educate” Indian children; however, according to a government report released in 1969, it was a deceptive attempt, “to separate a child from his reservation and family, strip him of his tribal lore and mores, force the complete abandonment of his native language, and prepare him for never again returning to his people.” Moreover, the abuse of these children was so egregious, it is estimated that as many as 40,000 children died in these institutions.   Despite the enormity of these crimes, most people know very little about either the missionary, charity, or the U. S. Government operated schools.

Marguerite Smith, Esq., a respected attorney and advocate for health and justice, will introduce you to the experiences of Shinnecock Nation members, who attended boarding schools in the 1900s. Smith has been a member of the Board of Directors of the First Nations Development Institute, since the mid-1980s and serves as one of its representatives on the Board of First Nations Oweesta Corporation. She is an enrolled Shinnecock, and she maintains her residence on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.  Smith has been instrumental in advancing Native rights, economic development, cultural preservation and health promotions of her Native Nation and others.

This is a FREE event.

 

 

Marguerite Smith, Esq. is an enrolled Shinnecock, and an attorney, educator, dispute resolution professional (consulting on policies and procedures and serving as a mediator and arbitrator in various types of community, family and workplace disputes), and an advocate for health and justice, especially in the areas of racial/ethnic and gender bias prevention and intervention, and economic and environmental justice. Marguerite maintains her residence on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on Eastern Long Island, New York, and has been instrumental in advancing various Native rights, economic development, cultural preservation and health promotion efforts of her Native Nation and others. She maintains a law practice based in Suffolk County.

She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the First Nations Development Institute since the mid-1980’s and serves as one of its representatives on the Board of First Nations Oweesta Corporation. In addition to work on tribal recognition and resource rights, and supporting health care and Indian family wellness (including ICWA administration and Family Violence controls) and economic development on her reservation, she is active also in other community groups on and off reservation, including SAMP (the Shinnecock Substance Abuse Mobilization Project), Self-Development of People (a grant-making activity of the Long Island Presbytery), the South Fork Community Health Initiative, and is, in 2006, President of the Board of Directors for her county’s cooperative extension service, the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Association of Suffolk County. She tries to save time to be a good daughter, sister, wife, “stepmom and grandma”, and to many, “auntie”!

 

 

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Meeting ID: 858 6637 3768

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcKUVeEfUC

 

 

This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

 

Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023
Start Time: 7:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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Tom Piazza Book Signing – “The Auburn Conference”

Tom Piazza will be at WWBA in-person on September 29th for a book signing for his new release “The Auburn Conference.”

The Auburn Conference

It is 1883, and America is at a crossroads. At a tiny college in Upstate New York, an idealistic young professor has managed to convince Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Confederate memoirist Forrest Taylor, and romance novelist Lucy Comstock to participate in the first (and last) Auburn Writers’ Conference for a public discussion about the future of the nation. By turns brilliantly comic and startlingly prescient, The Auburn Conference vibrates with questions as alive and urgent today as they were in 1883—the chronic American conundrums of race, class, and gender, and the fate of the democratic ideal.

Date: Friday, September 29, 2023
Start Time: 6:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
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Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance – David Dephy, Vicki Iorio, Josie Bello

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) presents  “Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance,” hosted by Writer-in-Residence George Wallace. The signature series, now in its 13th season, continues to bring the most intriguing figures in contemporary literature on the national scene paired with local poets on the Walt Whitman Stage.

Friday, October 6th Walking With Whitman will feature poets David Dephy, a Georgian/American award-winning poet and novelist, and Vicki Iorio, author of poetry collections and chapbooks. The evening will also feature live music by Singer-Songwriter Josie Bello.  Join us for this exciting event!

Refreshments will be served. No registration is required. There is a $10 entry fee for this event that will be collected at the door or can be paid in advance, see button below.

 

 

David Dephy – A Georgian/American award-winning poet and novelist. The founder of Poetry Orchestra and an author of full-length poetry work Eastern Star (Adelaide Books, NYC, 2020) and A Double Meaning, full-length poetry work with co-author Joshua Corwin. (Adelaide Books, NYC, 2022) The 1st place winner of THE ARTISTS FORUM Poetry Award in New York 2021. His work is going to the Moon in 2024 by The Lunar Codex, NASA, Polaris Trilogy. Poetry on Brick Street. He is named as Literature Luminary by Bowery Poetry, Stellar Poet by Voices of Poetry, Incomparable Poet by Statorec, Brilliant Grace by Headline Poetry & Press and Unique Poetic Voice by Cultural Daily. He lives and works in New York City.

 

Vicki Iorio is the author of the poetry collectionsPoems from the Dirty Couch, Local Gems Press (2013), Not Sorry, Alien Buddha Press (2020) and the chapbooks Send Me a Letter, dancinggirlpress (2015) and Something Fishy, Finishing Line Press (2018). Her poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. Vicki is currently living in Florida but she is NY4EVAH.

 

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, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.

Date: Friday, October 6, 2023
Start Time: 7:00 pm EST

Cost: $ 10

Learn More

WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 4 – Long Island Native Americans and Missionaries

Join us on October 14th for our 4th program in WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples –  Long Island Native Americans and Missionaries featuring Dr. Linford Fisher, PhD.

In Dr. Linford Fisher’s book, The Indian Great Awakening, he discusses Native religious engagement, and how essential it is in understanding Native’s involvement in the Great Awakening.  By August 1741, Azariah Horton, born in Southold was employed as missionary by the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK).  He set out from Jamaica for Montauk preaching to numerous Native American clusters along the South Shore.  Fisher will introduce a few lay ministers, exhorters, and educators such as, Paul Cuffee, Cyrus Charles, Peter John, Sampson Occom, and more, as he presents the missionaries serving the Long Island Native American community.

Dr. Linford Fisher, PhD., an Associate Professor of History at Brown University, leads a lively discussion on the relationship between Long Island’s Original Peoples and the missionaries ordained to save their souls!  Dr. Fisher is a noted scholar, received his doctorate from Harvard University in 2008. His essays have appeared in the William and Mary Quarterly, the New England Quarterly, Ethnohistory, the Journal of Social History, Manuscripts, and the Harvard Theological Review. His research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Newberry Library, the American Philosophical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, Harvard University, and Brown University.

This is a FREE event.

 

 

Dr. Linford Fisher, PhD., grew up in the rolling hills of southeastern Pennsylvania. He received his doctorate from Harvard University in 2008 and joined the Department of History at Brown in the summer of 2009. Professor Fisher’s research and teaching relate primarily to the cultural and religious history of colonial America and the Atlantic world, including Native Americans, religion, material culture, and Indian and African slavery and servitude. He is the author of The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America and co-author of Decoding Roger Williams: The Lost Essay of Rhode Island’s Founding Father. Additionally, he has authored over a dozen articles and book chapters. He is currently finishing a history of Native American enslavement in the English colonies and the United States between Columbus and the American Civil War, tentatively titled America Enslaved: The Rise and Fall of Indian Slavery in the English Atlantic and the United States. He is also the principal investigator of the Stolen Relations: Recovering Stories of Indigenous Enslavement in the Americas project, which is a tribal community-centered collaborative project that seeks to create a public, centralized database of Native slavery throughout the Americas and across time.

 

Zoom Information:

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Meeting ID: 859 6264 5011

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This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Date: Saturday, October 14, 2023
Start Time: 10:00 am EST
  • Cost: Free
Learn More

Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance – Lorraine Conlin, Linda Sussman & Open Mic Night

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) presents  “Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance,” hosted by Writer-in-Residence George Wallace. The signature series, now in its 13th season, continues to bring the most intriguing figures in contemporary literature on the national scene paired with local poets on the Walt Whitman Stage.

Friday, November 3rd, Walking With Whitman will feature poet Lorraine Conlin & Open Mic Night! The evening will also feature live music by Singer-Songwriter Linda Sussman.  Join us for this exciting event!

Refreshments will be served. No registration is required. There is a $10 entry fee for this event that will be collected at the door or can be paid in advance, see button below.

 

 

Lorraine (LoFrese) Conlin is the Nassau County Poet Laureate Emeritus (2015-2017) and Vice-president of the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society. She is the Events Coordinator for Performance Poets Association and the host of Tuesdays with Poetry at the Bellmore Memorial Library for more than sixteen years. Since the pandemic/quarantine she arranged weekly poetry workshops via Zoom and continues to arrange them on a bi-weekly basis. Lorraine is an active participant in the PPA Farmingdale poetry workshop and a monthly poetry group gathering of Sisters in Poetry (SIPs). As a longtime member of the Long Island Writers Guild, she now moderates workshops for the group at several libraries in Nassau and Suffolk counties, whose members are a mix of poets and writers. Lorraine promotes poetry and contests on her social media groups and posts photographs of all the events she attends. Lorraine’s poems have been published nationally and internationally. Her work can be seen in many anthologies and literary reviews. Writing is her “Prozac”. Lorraine is a Licensed Customs Broker, and works in the global logistics industry. She lives in Wantagh with her husband.

 

Linda Sussman (LindaSussman.com) is an award-winning singer-songwriter whose versatile vocals and guitar style cross boundaries of alternative-folk and blues. Her music, which has ranked #1 on the Roots Music Report’s weekly Alternative Folk Album Chart, spans universal topics from heartache and triumphs to calls for social justice and can be heard on radio programs in both the US and abroad. The many stages she has played range from the iconic New York City venue The Bitter End to Radio Bean in Burlington, VT. Over the past five years, Linda has released four full-length albums and several singles, all of which are available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

 

 

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, Claire Friedlander Family Foundation, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.

Date: Friday, November 3, 2023
Start Time: 7:00 pm EST

Cost: $ 10

Learn More

WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 5 – The Power Of Words – Algonquin Language

Join us on Saturday, November 18th, for the 5th program in our WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples – The Power Of Words – Algonquin Language featuring Chief Harry Wallace, Esq.

In 1791, Thomas Jefferson sat with three elderly Unkechaug women, whom he was convinced were among the last living speakers of their Native language. He transliterated a list of Unkechaug words alongside their English translation, such as animals, plants, body parts, colors, simple verbs, and numbers. Most of this collection was destroyed in 1809, when a thief tossed Jefferson’s papers into the James River while searching for something more valuable.

Long Island Native Americans did not lose their languages, they were stolen like Thomas Jefferson’s papers. Many of thelocal Native American peoples were forcibly pushed from their lands and marginalized, as well as punished for speaking the Algonquin language. Chief Harry B. Wallace, Esq., of the Unkechaug Indian Nation on the Poospatuck Reservation has taught the Algonquin language, since 2016 at Stony Brook University. He co-founded the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project, as part of the linguistics Department. Wallace leads us in an exploration of the meanings and history behind the Algonquin Language. Wallace notes, “One of the things I have learned is that the language was never gone. We just disconnected ourselves from it.”

This is a FREE event.

 

 

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Meeting ID: 830 7235 3953

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Meeting ID: 830 7235 3953

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kUImAImly

 

 

This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

 

Date: Saturday, November 18, 2023
Start Time: 10:00 am EST
  • Cost: Free
Learn More

WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples, Program 6 – Long Island Whalemen Of Color And The Circassian Shipwreck

Join us on Saturday, November 18th, for our WWBA 2023 Series: Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples – The Power Of Words – Algonquin Language featuring Lance Gumbs, NE Vice President, NCAI and Sandi Brewster-walker, Executive Director of the Montaukett Indian Nation & Government Affairs Officer.

Long Island’s whaling legacy is a prominent part of its history, yet the vital role whalers of color played has traditionally been erased from the narrative. As the whaling industry grew on all sides of the Long Island Sound, when a vessel left its home port, the crew would include Native Americans, Blacks, and the descendants of the European settlers, as well as Dutch traders. All the whalemen of color did not come from the east end of Long Island. Some were born in western Suffolk, or Queens (Nassau) counties.

Nathaniel Murray, Robert Young, and Harry Mills were seamen of color born in the old Town of Huntington, which included Huntington South (Amityville). Nathaniel Murray (c1786), an Indian can be found as early as 1815, departing at the port of New York. A year later, a New London Crew List had Nathaniel sailing on the brig Mary Ann to the West Indies. Samuel Havens and Nathaniel Murray also hunted the whale. The Town of Islip was the birthplace of Samuel Havens (c.1781), who sailed on the schooner Sally. Another Indian, Nathaniel Murray (Murry) (c.1786), joined the crew of the brig Mary Ann. These seamen were identified as being part of the over 400 men of color that hunted the whale from Long Island.

Sandi Brewster-walker will discuss her manuscript Gone Whaling: Long Island Seamen of Color, then turn the program over to Lance Gumbs. Lance Gumbs, a Tribal Ambassador of the Shinnecock will discuss the invisible men of the Shinnecock Nation and their relationship with the doomed ship, The Circassian, which ran aground off of Bridgehampton in the winter of 1876. 10 Shinnecock seamen were among those enlisted to offload the ship’s cargo. With a vicious winter storm bearing down on the ship, the crew was forced to stay aboard and lost their lives, striking a terrible blow to the tight-knit Native American community. He is a co-chair of the Annual Shinnecock Indian Powwow and vice president of the National Congress of American Indians for the Northeast Region, as well as a former chairman and senior trustee of the Shinnecock Nation.

This final presentation in the Legacy of Long Island’s First Peoples Series includes a closing reception featuring aperformance by The Montaukett Women Dancers.

This is a FREE event.

 

 

Zoom Information:

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Meeting ID: 880 1758 9612

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Meeting ID: 880 1758 9612

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kxGmrIKVM

 

 

This event is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Date: Sunday, December 3, 2023
Start Time: 1:00 pm EST
  • Cost: Free
Learn More