Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) invites applications for the annual Gwenn A. Nusbaum / WWBA “Poets To Come” Scholarship Award. The $1500 scholarship is offered in the spirit of Walt Whitman’s poem of that title: “POETS to come!
Deadline April 3, 2023
Applications are sought from those poets at the beginning of their careers, ages 25–35 years. Finalist notified May 15, 2023.
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, April 7th Walking With Whitman will feature poets Canio Pavone, founder of Canio’s Books in Greenport, New York, and Paula Curci, the 2022-2024 Nassau County, New York, Poet Laureate. 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.
Canio Pavone is founder of Canio’s Books, an independent bookstore and one of Sag Harbor’s true institutions. He ran the bookstore from 1980-1999 and can still be found there on select Mondays. The bookstore features new, used and collectibles, is well known as a literary gathering place.
During his tenure at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, Canio taught romance languages, including Italian and Spanish, and was the first teacher on Long Island to be accredited to teach Japanese.
In 1990, he retired from teaching to start his own small press, Canio Editions, dedicated to publishing Long Island Poets and and writers, a notable venture. Canio received an honorary doctorate in letters from Southampton College.
Paula Curci was affirmed the 2022-2004 Nassau County Poet Laureate. She is an award-winning performance poet, radio broadcaster and counselor. Paula is a Journal to the Self™ Certified Journal instructor and co-hosts an open mic at the Long Beach, NY, Library where she spearheads the “It’s a Shore Thing” micro-memoir project.
Presently she hosts and produces Calliope’s Corner – The Place Where Poets and Songwriters Meet on WWW. WRHU.ORG and 88.7FM Radio Hofstra University. Paula also produces What’s the Buzz ®, a public service announcement segment. She currently serves as the Poet in Residence for WRHU. Paula is a co-founding member of the poetry and music band, the Acoustic Poets Network ™ and is known for theg esthetic style of poetry she calls Posics™.
Paula has published three chapbooks: “One Woman’s Cathartic Release in Poetry”, “The Gift of Thanksgiving” and a print version of her CD lyrics called “Done That: Poetry and Posics™” and her work has also appeared in several anthologies. She has also produced three spoken word CDs with the Acoustic Poets Network ™.
As a School Counselor for more than thirty years, Paula directed several youth development service-learning programs. She is a Steer Clear of Bullies© elementary school presenter. Steer Clear is an anti-bullying and violence prevention program provided to schools from the Safe Center of Long Island. She is also a certified Journal to the Self ™ journal writing instructor and has presented Poetry as a Therapeutic tool to counselors at LICAC. She was also a presenter at the WWBA-Pow Wow.
Paula has worked in broadcasting for over twenty years and was awarded a GRACIE from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, for her informational broadcast on the “Female Face of Alzheimers.”
Paula studied Psychology and Communications at Adelphi University, where she is a proud alumnus of both the WE CARE Crisis Hotline and WBAU. She received her Master’s in School Counseling Education and an Advanced Professional Diploma in Educational Leadership from C.W. Post-Long Island University.
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.
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.
Live on zoom. archived on Youtube.
Chuck Joy, publishing fun poetry since 1980. Early poems in Medicinal Purposes and early appearances at the Orange Bear and did graduate from Fordham University (Rose Hill) but born in Cleveland and lives in Erie, about as far away as you can be from Philadelphia and still be in Pennsylvania. More about Chuck: www.chuckjoy.com Chuck Joy, publishing fun poetry since 1980. Early poems in Medicinal Purposes and early appearances at the Orange Bear and did graduate from Fordham University (Rose Hill) but born in Cleveland and lives in Erie, about as far away as you can be from Philadelphia and still be in Pennsylvania. More about Chuck: www.chuckjoy.com
Matt Borczon recently retired from the US Navy and lives works and writes in Erie Pa. He is the author of 17 books of poetry the most recent, PTSD a living will, is available from Rust Belt Press.
Mark Borczon Is a poet from Erie Pennsylvania. He is a custodian at Penn West university. He has 3 children and lives with his long term fiance Janice.
Pramila Venkateswaran, poet laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) and co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002) Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), The Singer of Alleppey (Shanti Arts, 2018), and more recently, We are Not a Museum (Finishing Line Press, 2022). She has performed the poetry internationally, including at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Festival Internacional De Poesia De Granada. An award winning poet, she teaches English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, New York. Author of numerous essays on poetics as well as creative non-fiction, she is also the 2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year. Her critical essays on Dalit poetry appear in recent issues of International Women’s Studies Journal, Journal of Contemporary Poetics, and Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics. She leads writing workshops for breast cancer patients in their healing journey. She is a founding member of Women Included, a transnational feminist association and the current President of NOW Suffolk, Long Island.
Sophia Naz is a bilingual poet, artist, author, editor and translator. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize; in 2016 for creative nonfiction and in 2018 for poetry. Her work features in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets, The Night Heron Barks, Singing in the Dark:A Global Anthology of Poetry Under Lockdown, Berfrois,The Bombay Literary Magazine, Rattle, The Punch Magazine, Poetry At Sangam, Poetry International Rotterdam, The Adirondack Review, The Wire, Chicago Quarterly Review, Blaze Vox, Scroll, The Daily O, Cafe Dissensus, RAIOT, Ideas And Futures, Chapati Mystery, Guftugu, Pratik, Gallerie International, Coldnoon, VAYAVYA, The Bangalore Review, Papercuts, Madras Courier, The Yearbook of Indian Poetry and many others. She has authored the poetry collections; Peripheries (Cyberhex 2015), Pointillism (Copper Coin 2017) Date Palms (City Press 2017) Open Zero (Yoda Press 2021), and Shehnaz, a biography (Penguin Random House 2019). Her website is www.SophiaNaz.com
Indran Amirthanayagam is an award winning poet, editor, publisher, translator, you tube host and diplomat. He has published twenty two books and writes in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian
Usha Akelia has authored nine books that include poetry, one chapbook and two musical dramas. Her latest poetry book is I will not bear you sons, published by Spinifex, Australia. She earned an MSt. in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is the founder of Matwaala (www.matwaala.com) and www.the-pov.com, a website of curated interviews. She was selected as a Creative Ambassador for the city of Austin in 2019 & 2015. She is widely anthologized and has been invited to numerous international poetry festivals all over the world.
Brett Lars Underwood is a St. Louis writer, bartender and promoter of happenings and mishaps. He is the author of MUSH (Spartan Press, 2018) and MUSHARONA (Kung Fu Treachery Press, 2020).
Aaron Belz has an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Saint Louis University. He has published four full-length collections of poetry, most recently Soft Launch (Persea, 2019), and given readings at venues across the country, ranging from universities to comedy clubs. He is online at belz.net and on Twitter at @aaronbelz
Stefene Russell is the food reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. She’s the former culture editor for St. Louis Magazine and was the 2018 poet-in-residence at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Her books include Inferna (2013, Intagliata Press), The Possum Codex (2015, Otis Nebula), and 47 Incantatory Essays (Spartan Press, 2019). Find her on Instagram (@stafene7) or on Facebook or Twitter (@voltarine).
Meeting ID: 871 9242 8811
One tap mobile
+16469313860,,87192428811# US
+16465588656,,87192428811# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
Meeting ID: 871 9242 8811
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc8N6bsmAc
POETS BUILDING BRIDGES is produced by Poetrybay Productions for the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
Sponsored by Humanities NY – Six Wednesday evenings, 6:00-7:30PM – April 12, 19, 26 & May 3, 10, 17 (2023) – ZOOM only
Theme – “Land, Liberty & Loss: Echoes of the American Revolution”
Book – Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War by Lisa Brooks
Sarah Kautz is an archaeologist, historical anthropologist, and preservation planner with nearly 20 years of professional experience. She has worked collaboratively with stakeholders and governments in the United States, Japan, and South Africa to study and preserve heritage sites. Her work seeks to make understandings of the past relevant and useful in our everyday lives. Click here for Sarah Kautz bio.
Facilitator Sarah Kautz presents Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War, a book selection by Humanities NY for their Series “Land, Liberty & Loss: Echoes of the American Revolution.” Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War offers a thought-provoking account of conflict, captivity, resistance, and survival from an Indigenous perspective. Focusing on the experiences of Weetamoo (a female Wampanoag leader) and James Printer (a Nipmuc scholar), this book gives readers fresh insight into commonly heard stories about the period, such as Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, in which both Weetamoo and James Printer appear. In this discussion group, we will consider how legacies of settler colonialism frame American history. We will also explore how Our Beloved Kin opens up new possibilities for re-telling American history.
The Digital Companion website for Our Beloved Kin includes visualizations and additional content developed by the author, including links to Maps (the full color maps created for each chapter), Documents (images of original manuscripts and other documents associated with each chapter) and/or Connections (maps and documents in historical and geographical context, contemporary images of places and other related media).
Introductions, review the reading list, and discuss the major themes of our readings.
Reading:
Recommended (videos):
Our Beloved Kin–Part 1, The Education of Weetahmoo and James Printer: Exchange, Diplomacy, Dispossession
Reading:
Our Beloved Kin–Part 2, No Single Story: Multiple Views on the Emergence of War
Reading:
Our Beloved Kin–Part 3, Colonial Containment and Networks of Kinship Expanding the Map of Captivity, Resistance, and Alliance
Reading:
Recommended (video):
Our Beloved Kin–Part 4, The Place of Peace and the Ends of War
Reading:
At our last meeting, we will have an open discussion of Our Beloved Kin. We will also discuss how Our Beloved Kin inspires retelling Long Island’s colonial history from an Indigenous perspective.
Reading:
Recommended:
This Series is Sponsored by a Humanities New York Reading and Discussion Grant.
This program is made possible with funds from NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.
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.
Richard Modiano attended the University of Hawai’i and New York University. While a resident of New York City he became active in the literary community connected to the Poetry Project where he came to know Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs and Ted Berrigan. In 2001 he was a programmer at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, joined the Board of Trustees in 2006 and from 2010 to 2019, he served as Executive Director. In that time he produced and curated hundreds of literary events. Richard is a rank and file member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 2019 he was elected Vice President of the California State Poetry Society. The Huffington Post named him as one of 200 people doing the most to promote American poetry. In 2022 the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Labor Coalition awarded Modiano the Joe Hill Prize for labor poetry. His collection The Forbidden Lunch Box is published by Punk Hostage Press.
Iris Berry is a native Angeleno and one of the true and original progenitors of the L.A. punk Scene. She is the author and editor of several books and has a vast fan base for her unique voice and formidable writing style. She’s an L.A. Pop culture historian, actress, and musician. She’s appeared in numerous films, TV commercials, documentaries, and iconic rock videos. In the 1980s & 90s she sang, performed and wrote songs with the Lame Flames, the Ringling Sisters, the Dickies, the Flesh Eaters and Pink Sabbath. She served four years on the Board of Directors for Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center. In 2009 she received her 2nd Certificate of Recognition Award from the City of Los Angeles for her contribution as a Los Angeles writer, and for her extensive charity work. On Friday the 13th of January in 2012 she co-launched with A. Razor their imprint PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS where she continues to champion and advocate for original voices.
S.A. Griffin, co-editor of Beat Not Beat and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Firecracker Award) and Carma Bum progenitor. In 2010 he created The Poetry Bomb, a former Vietnam era practice bomb converted into an art object filled with over 900 poems from around the world in an effort to inspire civil disagreements culminating in The Poetry Bomb Couch Surfing Across America Tour of Words. Named Best Performance Poet by the LA Weekly, in 2011 he was the first recipient of Beyond Baroque’s Distinguished Service Award. His most recent book, Pandemic Soul Music is forthcoming from Punk Hostage Press. Husband, father and USAF Vietnam era veteran, S.A. lives, loves and writes in Los Angeles.
Ellyn Maybe, Southern California based poet, United States Artist nominee 2012, has performed both nationally and internationally as a solo artist and with her band. Her work has been included in many anthologies and she is the author of numerous books. She also has a critically acclaimed poetry/music album, Rodeo for the Sheepish (Hen House Studios). In addition to her band, her latest poetry/music project is called ellyn & robbie. Their album, Skywriting with Glitterhas also received high praise.
Afric McGlinchey is based in West Cork, Ireland. Winner of the 2010 Hennessy Award for Poetry, 2012 Northern Liberties Prize (USA) and the 2015 Poets Meet Politics Prize, her collections include The lucky star of hidden things (Salmon Poetry, 2012), Ghost of the Fisher Cat, (2016) – both translated into Italian – and Invisible Insane (SurVision, 2019). Her most recent publication is a prose poetry memoir, Tied to the Wind (Broken Sleep Books, UK, 2021), for which she received an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary. A freelance editor and reviewer, she also mentors for the Munster Literature Centre and Words Ireland.
Annemarie Ní Churreáin comes from the Donegal Gaeltacht. Bloodroot, published by Doire Press in 2017, was shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award and the Julie Suk Award. She is a recipient of a Next Generation Artist Award and co-recipient of the Markievicz Award. She has received literary fellowships from USA, Germany and Scotland and was Writer-in-Residence at NUI, Maynooth, and Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. The Poison Glen is her first collection with The Gallery Press.
John FitzGerald was born in Cork in 1962. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2014 and was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award in 2015. A chapbook, First Cut, appeared in 2017, followed by Darklight, a limited edition, in 2019. A recipient of a Key West Literary Bursary, John FitzGerald has lived in Dublin, London and Florence, and since 1995 has worked as University Librarian at University College Cork. He lives with his family on their farm in Carrigdarrery, County Cork. The Time Being is his first collection with The Gallery Press.
Stephen Sexton’s first book, If All the World and Love Were Young was the winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2019 and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection. He was awarded the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. He was the winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2016 and the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. Cheryl’s Destinies was published in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.
Paul Koniecki lives in Dallas, Texas. He was once chosen for the John Ashbery Home School Residency. His poems feature in Richard Bailey’s movie “One of the Rough” distributed by AVIFF Cannes. Paul proudly sits on the editorial board of Thimble Literary Magazine. His poems have appeared in Henniker Review, Chiron Review, Gasconade Review, As It Ought To Be Magazine, Trailer Park Review, Poetry Bay, and many more. Paul is currently finishing his MFA at VCFA.
Reverie Koniecki is a writer living in Dallas. She earned her MFA in Poetry and Nonfiction at New England College. Her work can be found at Guernica, Multiplicity, Rigorous, and other places.
M.H. Clay was born outside Royston, England, Cambridgeshire, and has traveled the world, made music, poetry, plays, and worked in corporate America, but his primary badge of self-identification is his art. Having made his professional living in many places throughout the southwestern United States, Europe, and Asia, he credits his experiences during these years of travel with helping to shape his world view, and by extension his writing and literary personality. He has been a thrice-featured poet at the Blackwater International Poetry Festival in Ireland, as well as a panelist at Poetry International Rotterdam. His appearances have included readings for Wordspace Dallas, the Pandora’s Box Poetry Showcase, Lucky Dog Books, Inner Moonlight, Verse & Rhythm, and various open mics around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area since 2003, and, since 2009, has served as poetry editor of the Mad Swirl zine and website.
Meeting ID: 865 9890 0463
One tap mobile
+16469313860,,86598900463# US
+16465588656,,86598900463# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 865 9890 0463
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kC5QveHF1
Live on zoom. archived on Youtube.
WWBA mourns the loss of beloved poet Wendy Barker. We offer our condolences to her family and friends.
With sorrow, Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance on May 5th is cancelled
Join us at WWBA for New York State I Love My Park Day on Saturday, May 6, 2023, 10AM-3PM, and help clean up a local park. Clean out garden beds, prune shrubs, plant flower and vegetable gardens, and power wash walk ways.
Registration Link Coming Soon!
On Sunday, May 7, 2023, 1:00PM, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association presents an in-person event, “Diverse Voices in May,” featuring three distinct poetic voices, Indran Amirthanayagam of Washington D.C., Sara Cahill Marron of Long Island, and Natalie E. Amazan, 2016 WWBA Student Poetry Writing Contest First Place winner. Drawing from their cultural backgrounds and infused with their personal philosophies, these three poets of diverse age, profession, and poetic style will join their voices to reflect the HOPE that each May brings for growth, new life, and change.
Indran Amirthanayagam, who holds a “world record” for publishing three poetry collections written in three different languages, reads from his book “Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant.” Sara Cahill Marron, Associate Editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly and publisher at Beltway Editions, reads from her book “Call Me Spes.” Natalie E. Amazan, published in anthologies, journals, and other publications, reads from her first published poetry collection, “Still.”
Indran Amirthanayagam produced a “world record” in 2020 publishing three poetry collections written in three different languages. He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. He has published twenty two poetry books, including Isleño (R.I.L. Editores), Blue Window (translated by Jennifer Rathbun) (Diálogos Books), Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks.com), The Migrant States, Coconuts on Mars, The Elephants of Reckoning (winner 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize), Uncivil War and The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly (www.beltwaypoetry.com); writes https://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com; writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture and the Macdowell Colony. He is the IFLAC Word Poeta Mundial 2022. In 2021, he won an Emergent Seed grant. His poem “ Free Bird” has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and he hosts The Poetry Channel https://youtube.com/user/indranam. His new book, Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia, has just been published by Dialogos Books. Another collection, Powèt nan po la (Poet of the Port), is forthcoming. Indran publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com).
Sara Cahill Marron is the author of Reasons for the Long Tu’m (Broadstone Books, 2018), Nothing You Build Here, Belongs Here (Kelsay Books 2021), and Call Me Spes (MadHat Press 2022), and is the Associate Editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly and publisher, with partner in poetry Indran Amirthanayagam, at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com). Her work has been published widely in literary magazines and journals such as Gravel, Atlas + Alice, Meniscus, Cordella, Newtown Literary, South Florida Poetry Journal, Golden Walkman, Lunch Ticket, and other anthologies, available at www.saracahillmarron.com.
Nathalie E. Amazan (she/her) is a Haitian American poet and writer from Long Island, New York. Nathalie’s writing strives to move people to recognize the power within our souls to love, be loved, and change to create more peaceful ways of being. When Nathalie was 17, she was a Grand Champion of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Poetry Contest. Since then, she has performed in several venues and has been published in anthologies, journals, and other publications including in the Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Poems by Muslims (Strange Inc. Press), Button Poetry’s 2021 Video Contest, Jabberwocky Undergraduate Literary Journal at UMass Amherst, and the Falastin Magazine by the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC). One can find her writings at natamazan.com andnatamazan.medium.com. One can connect with her by looking up her handle, @natamazan, on all social media platforms.
This program is made possible with funds from Poets & Writers, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.
Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) announces a day of poetry featuring our 2023 Poet in Residence, Kwame Dawes, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. Kwame will facilitate a three-hour Master Class in poetry writing from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm and a one-hour poetry reading from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm at the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site, located at 246 Old Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station, NY, 11746. The 2023 annual Poet-in-Residence program is proudly sponsored by Bethpage Federal Credit Union.
Workshop (includes reading) – Members $55/Non-members $65
Class Audit – Members $20/Non-members $25
Reading – Members $10/Non-members $15
“The poet’s language is vivid and visceral; his courage and honesty blaze a path in poem after poem. This is the music of survival and transcendence. Indeed, the poetry of Kwame Dawes makes the impossible possible.” —Martin Espada
“Kwame Dawes is one of the most important writers of his generation who has built a mighty and lasting body of work…” —Elizabeth Alexander
“Majestic is the word that comes to mind reading the finely wrought poems of Kwame Dawes…a sublime talent is needed to fashion poems of such capacious grace and energy.” —Terrance Hayes
Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica. He is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and plays. As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of Ghana, citing in an interview his “spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music.” Indeed, his book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley.
Dawes is an actor, playwright, and producer, an accomplished storyteller, broadcaster, and was the lead singer in Ujamaa, a reggae band. Fifteen of his plays have been produced, and he has acted in, directed, or produced several of these productions himself, most recently One Love at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Commissioned by Talawa, Britian’s leading black theatre company, and inspired by Rogert Mais’ classic novel Brotherman, One Love takes us to the heart of the Jamaican soul, as actors, dancers, singers, life musicians, and a DJ draw on influences such as Bob Marley and Lee “Scratch” Perry to tell this powerful parable of desire and denial. Through the years, Dawes has collaborated with musicians and artists to create a dynamic series of performances based on his poetry that have proven to be some of the most compelling and challenging presentations of poetry being performed today. Wisteria is a multimedia performance with composer Kevin Simmonds, who set the poems from Dawes’ book of the same name, to music. The result is an evening-length performance that explores the life of women who lived through the Jim Crow period in Sumter, South Carolina.
In 2022, Dawes was named the 2022 Brittle Paper Literary Person of the Year. Until July 2011, Dawes was Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts, and founder and executive director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He was the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and is the Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year. Dawes is currently the Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska, where he is a Chancellor’s Professor of English, a faculty member of Cave Canem, and a teacher in the Pacific MFA Program in Oregon.
In 2009, Dawes won an Emmy for LiveHopeLove.com, an interactive site based on his Pulitzer Center project, HOPE: Living and loving with AIDS in Jamaica. It has also won other accolades, including a People’s Voice Webby Award, and was the inspiration for the music/spoken word performance Wisteria & HOPE which premiered at the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina. In 2011, Dawes reported on HIV AIDS after the earthquake in Haiti; and his poems, blogs, articles, and documentary work were a key part of the post-earthquake Haiti reporting by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting that won the National Press Club Joan Friedenberg Award for Online Journalism.
Of his sixteen collections of poetry, his most recent titles include Nebraska (UNP, 2019), Duppy Conqueror (Copper Canyon, 2013), shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award; Wheels (2011); Back of Mount Peace (2009); Hope’s Hospice (2009); Wisteria, finalist for the Patterson Memorial Prize; Impossible Flying (2007); and Gomer’s Song (2007). Progeny of Air (Peepal Tree, 1994) was the winner of the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection in the UK. Other poetry collections include Resisting the Anomie (Goose Lane, 1995); Prophets (Peepal Tree, 1995); Jacko Jacobus, (Peepal Tree, 1996); and Requiem, (Peepal Tree, 1996), a suite of poems inspired by the illustrations of African American artist Tom Feelings in his landmark book The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo; and Shook Foil (Peepal Tree, 1998), a collection of reggae-inspired poems. His book, Midland, was awarded the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize by the Ohio University Press (2001). Dawes was a winner of a Pushcart Prize for the best American poetry of 2001 for his long poem, “Inheritance.” His seventeenth collection, City of Bones, was published in 2017 along with two UK releases Vuelo: Poemas, a translation of Gustavo Osorio and Speak from Here to There: Poems written along with John Kinsella. He was also among the 2018 recipients for the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry.
He has published two novels: Bivouac (Akashic Books, 2009 & 2019) and She’s Gone (2007), winner of the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Best First Novel. In 2007 he released A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative. His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today, and Double Take Magazine.
Dawes is also the editor of several anthologies: Bearden’s Odyssey: Poets Respond to the Art of Romare Bearden (Northwestern University Press), A Bloom of Stones: A Tri-Lingual Anthology of Haitian Poems After the Earthquake (Peepal Tree Press), New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Boxset (Akashic Books), When the Rewards Can Be So Great: Essays on Writing and the Writing Life (Pacific University Press), Hold Me to an Island: Caribbean Place: An Anthology of Writing, Home is Where: An Anthology of African American Poetry from the Carolinas (Hub City, 2011), and Red: Contemporary Black Poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2010).
He is a regular blogger for the Poetry Foundation; his blogs can be read at www.poetryfoundation.org.
This program is made possible with funds from Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Claire Friedlander Family Foundation, NY State Parks, Suffolk County, Town of Huntington, and NYS Council on the Arts through Huntington Arts Council.
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.
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.
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.
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
Meeting ID: 836 6692 8150
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,83666928150# US (New York)
+16469313860,,83666928150# US
Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 669 444 9171 US
Meeting ID: 836 6692 8150
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbUP2AoQr
Live on zoom. archived on Youtube.
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.
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.
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.
Summer Hours (starting June 15th)
Monday – Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday/Sunday 11am-4pm
Winter Hours (starting Labor Day)
Wednesday – Friday 1pm-4pm
Saturday/Sunday 11am-4pm
Closed on: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day
Adults: $8
Seniors, military, and groups: $7
Students: $6
Children ages 5 and under: Free
246 Old Walt Whitman Road
Huntington Station, NY 11746
Copyright © 2023 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association. All Rights Reserved.