Join us in-person or Livestream on YouTube @WaltWhitmanBirthplace – March 24th, 7:00 – 8:30PM

David Mills reads from his poetry collection, Boneyarn, and shares his poems and narratives about three prominent Black figures who are buried in New York’s City’s African Burial Ground, America’s oldest and largest slave cemetery. Through the voices of the departed slaves, Mills shares stories about George Johnson (the first negro recording star, recording songs with Thomas Edison’s record label), Victoria Matthews (writer for the NY Times), and Millie Tunnell and their historic legacies along with those of Jupiter Hammon (first published negro poet who was enslaved in Oyster Bay, NY).  The burial ground, opened from 1712 to 1795, is located in the vicinity of current day Wall Street and holds fifteen thousand enslaved and free Blacks, some Native Americans and poor whites.  Boneyarn includes writings about childhood chimney sweeps, sailors of the Atlantic, fighters in the Revolutionary War, and those who built the “wall” where Wall Street gets its name.

Mr. Mills holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and NYU. He’s published four collections: Boneyarn ( award -winning and first book of poems about slavery in NYC), The Dream Detective, The Sudden Country and After Mistic. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Brooklyn Rail, Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, Jubilat, Callaloo, The Common, Worcester Review, Brooklyn Rail, Rattapallax and Fence. He has received fellowships from NYFA, Breadloaf, the Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award, a Flushing Town Hall Grant, a Schomburg Library Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship, the Lannan Foundation, the Queens Council on the Arts, the Bronx Council on the Arts, Washington College and The American Antiquarian Society. He lived in Langston Hughes’ landmark home and was a recipient of the Langston Hughes Society Award. He wrote the audio script for the Whitney Museum exhibition: Reflections in Black:100 Years of Black Photography. The Juilliard School of Drama commissioned his play The Serpent and the Dove. He has recorded his poetry on ESPN and RCA Records and had a poem displayed at the Venice Biennale.

Admission is Free.

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

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, March 3rd Walking With Whitman will feature Valery Oisteanu, author of 18 books of poetry, a book of short fiction “The King of Penguins” (Linear Art Press, 2000) and a book of essays (in progress)  “The AVANT-GODS and  Stefanie Maura, whose poems have appeared in anthologies and journals including Southword, Long Island Quarterly, Big City Lit, Silver Birch Press, and Token Entry: New York City Subway Poems. The evening will also feature live music by 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 below.

Valery Oisteanu is a poet, writer, and artist of the avant-garde. Born in USSR (1943) and educated in Romania. He debuted as a poet with the collection PROSTHESIS in 1970(Litera Press, Bucharest). At the age of 20, he adopted Dada and Surrealism as a philosophy of art and life and a few years later English as his primary language. Immigrating to New York City in 1972 he has been writing in English for the past 50 years. He is the author of 18 books of poetry, a book of short fiction:” The King of Penguins” (Linear Art Press, 2000) and a book of essays (in progress):” The AVANT-GODS.  Two new books are just out: In the Blink of a Third Eye (Spuyten Duyvil Press NYC 2020) and Perks in Purgatory (translated in Romanian) Itaca Publishing Dublin 2020 & was chosen best poetry book of the year in Dublin. Over the last 10 years he wrote art criticism for Brooklyn Rail, artnet.com, Whitehot Magazine, and NY Arts. He is also a contributing writer for French, Spanish & Romanian art and literary magazines (La Page Blanche, Art.es, Viata Romanesca, Observatorul Cultural, Artout.ro, levurelitteraire.com, etc) As an artist he exhibits collages and assemblages on a regular basis at galleries in New York and also creates collages as covers and illustrations for books and magazines. He has performed in theater and in poetry-musical collaborations with jazz artists from all over the world in sessions known as Jazzoetry. His work has appeared in international surrealist publications of the last four decades, including: Dream Helmet (1978), What Will Be (Brumes Blondes, 2014) Phala (Sao Paulo, Brazil), The Annual (Phasm Press, 2015) etc

Member of Poets and Writers, Inc. New York (1977-2022)

Founding member of PASS (Poets and Artists Surrealist Society) 1977-2022

“It’s the end of the World as we know it” Award (Vault Literary Society) 2000 award for exceptional cutting edge artists who constantly take risks with their art)

Awarded:  Gold Chivot order of the Chevalier of the Castel for the dissemination of Romanian Avant-Garde in Diaspora, 2010, Republic of Prose Readers, London

Recipient of the Kathy Acker Award, NYC, 2013, for contribution to the American avant-garde in Poetry Performance.

Stefanie Maura is a poet, librarian, and founder of the Writing Yoga® method. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and journals including: Southword, Long Island Quarterly, Big City Lit, Silver Birch Press, and Token Entry: New York City Subway Poems. She has facilitated workshops at Hofstra University, Queens College, the New York City Open Center and at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. She was the co-host of Poetry at Cedarmere for several years and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens College. Read more at www.StefanieMaura.com.

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.

Now Accepting Nominations!

The Long Island Poet of the Year Award is an annual award given by Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) to honor a notable and distinguished local poet who actively promotes poetry on Long Island.

Nominations must be received by February 15, 2023

The WWBA Board of Trustees Program Committee will choose the awardee by March 15, 2023. The award will be presented at a reception-reading in April 2023.

Learn more >>

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.

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

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.

Benjamin Daniel Lawless is a friend to people and poetry. He runs Penciled In, a book design and publishing company, and has designed over 60 books since 2005, including founding a 4 issue literary journal called if&when. He wrote two collections of poetry: There is Nothing Poetic About Fish (2008) and The Last Spelling Bee (2011). His third collection, Everything Bubbles to the Surface is due to be released once he takes a breath. 

Dian Sousa is a poet and activist. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals; most recently including The Prairie Schooner, The Banyan Review, Great Weather for Media, American Poetry Journal, The Gavea-Brown Journal of Portuguese American Poetry, and Margins/Margens: A Teaching Anthology of Portuguese Migrant and Ethnic Literature in North America. She has been nominated for two pushcart Prizes. She is the recipient of a Fellowship to the DISQUIET  Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal. She is a former San Luis Obispo Poet Laureate. She’s the author of four books of poetry. She lives and surfs in Los Osos California.

Kevin Clark’s third volume of poems The Consecrations is published by Stephen F. Austin University Press. His second book Self-Portrait with Expletives won the Pleiades Press prize. Clark’s poetry appears in the Southern, Antioch, Georgia, and Iowa reviews, as well as Crazyhorse, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Hotel Amerika, Poetry Northwest, etc. 

Pankhuri Sinha is a bilingual poet, story writer and translator from India. Two poetry collections published in English, two story collections published in Hindi, six poetry collections published in Hindi, and many more are lined up. Has been published in many journals, anthologies, home and abroad. Has won many prestigious, national-international awards, like the Girija Kumar Mathur Award, Chitra Kumar Shailesh Matiyani Award, Seemapuri Times Rajeev Gandhi Excellence Award, First prize for poetry by Rajasthan Patrika, awards in Chekhov festival in Yalta and in Premio Besio Poetry competition in Italy, Sahitto award in Bangladesh, and Premio Galateo in Italy for poetry in mother tongue. Has been translated in over twenty seven languages. She has studied in Delhi University, Symbiosis Pune, SUNY Buffalo, and  the University of Calgary, Canada. She has worked in various positions as a journalist, lecturer and a content editor. Has done writing residencies in Hungary and Bulgaria, and attended the Tranas Literature Festival in Sweden.

Dr. Ratan Ghosh, PhD, an Associate Editor of an International Literary Journal entitled “THE MIRROR OF TIME” (ISSN-2320-012X), Free Lance Writer, Poet, Short Story Writer and a Novelist from India. His poems have been featured in many National and International Magazines, E- Journals, Journals and Paper-Back Anthologies across the globe. He is the state president of Paschim Banga English Academy, an International Literary Organization. He has published three International Books entitled: MY LOVE, THE WEEPING SOUL: SELECTED POEMS by Ratan Ghosh and QUOTABLE QUOTES.

Prasanna Kumar is a trilingual poet (English + Hindi+ Telugu) whose poetry appears in more than 20  National and International anthologies.A social worker by profession, Prasanna’ s poetry is translated into Arabic, Chinese, Hungarian,and assamese languages. Had a book to his credit “Pearl of Euphoria” co-written with Mari Felicis- Philippines.  He received many accolades from several poetry forums in Latin countries, France, Egypt, Morocco, Italy, and the US. He holds a Masters degree in Commerce and lives in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Rutherford NJ Red Wheelbarrow Poets:  Anton Yakovlev  |  Frank Rubino  |  Arthur Russell  |  Don Zirilli

Anton Yakovlev’s latest poetry chapbook is Chronos Dines Alone (SurVision Books, 2018), winner of the James Tate Prize. He is also the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Criterion, The Hopkins Review, upstreet, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. His book of translations The Last Poet of the Village: Selected Poems by Sergei Yesenin came out from Sensitive Skin Books in 2019.

Frank Rubino co-hosts a poetry workshop and organizes readings at The Red Wheelbarrow Poets in Rutherford, New Jersey. Rubino’s poems have been published in Thimble, Chaleur, The Aesthetic Apostle, and DMQ Review, and he was the featured poet in The Red Wheelbarrow’s 2021 annual journal.

Arthur Russell is the winner of Brooklyn Poets Poem of the Year (2015) and a runner up for the same award in 2021. His poem “Jaime” placed second in the Allen Ginsberg Award (2021). For the Red Wheelbarrow Poets of Rutherford, NJ, he is the co-leader of the weekly workshop, co-director of the monthly reading series, and co-editor of the annual journal. His chapbook Unbent Trumpet was published by Nutley Arts Press (2017).  

Don Zirilli (zirealism.com) was a finalist for the James Tate Prize and a nominee for Best of the Net and the Forward Prize. He edited Now Culture and is on the board of Red Wheelbarrow Poets, Inc. His poetry was published in The 2River View, Anti- poetry magazine, ART TIMES, Nerve Lantern, Posit, River Styx, and other periodicals and anthologies. He and his wife live in a tranquil corner of New Jersey with two dogs and a cat. His chapbook Heaven’s Not For You was published in September 2018 by Kelsay Books.

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

As part of WWBA’s Intersections: African American Voices of Democracy Series, New York City-based performance poet Malik Work will offer an introduction to hip hop and perform his own works. In collaboration with Westbury High School, English Dept. Chair Dr. Nicolette James will coordinate with WWBA Trustee Dr. Susan Fishbein, working with students to create and perform their own hip hop poetry.

The Community is invited to perform their own hip hop poetry at the open mic.

Malik Work is a NYC based, born and raised actor-writer-musician. He is a founding member of The Real Live Show, a groundbreaking jazz/hip hop conglomerate. He’s written and performed a hip hop musical called Verses @ Work, a one-man show that toured last year with the Public Theater, and has garnered him a nomination for Best Solo Performance at the AUDELCO Awards. His recent television credits include Broad City on Comedy Central and Blacklist: Redemption on NBC. Malik is also the voice of Planet Word, an immersive museum of the English language in Washington D.C. He’s composed and performed poetry for Webby Award-winning project People Not Property, an historic preservation and educational website for Historic Hudson Valley. He’s recently created a film interpretation of the first published African-American writer Jupiter Hammon’s An Essay on Slavery. The piece is on exhibit at Preservation Long Island’s Joseph Lloyd Manor, which is recognized as a national Literary Landmark.

Register to come to the event: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GYWV_IejXCGFCgb_Y7bNIORZbdcft_c1R21WM6HKlJk/edit

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81375087078

This event has a $5 suggested donation:

Sponsored by HNY SHARP Action Grant