Watch this gifted family’s creative response to the quarantine.

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/WxYzSvQjui0

Poetry Reading with Distinguished Poet Matt Pasca

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/tYS8NtyhH34

MATT PASCA is a poet, teacher and traveler who believes in art’s ability to foster discovery, empathy and justice. He has authored two poetry collections—A Thousand Doors (2011 Pushcart nominee) and Raven Wire (2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist)—and serves as Assistant Poetry Editor of 2 Bridges Review. In his corner of New York, Matt curates Second Saturdays @Cyrus, a popular poetry series, and spreads his unwavering faith in critical thought and word magic to his Poetry, Mythology and Literature students at Bay Shore High School, where he has taught for 23 years and been named a New York State Teacher of Excellence. Pasca is currently at work on his third poetry collection, tentatively titled Traitor. www.mattpasca.com

Poetry Reading with Distinguished Poet Terri Muuss.

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/QA-INcfsais

Terri Muuss is a social worker, director, performer, speaker & author who has been raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and rape since long before the much needed surge of the #metoo movement. Terri’s first book, a poetic memoir excavating her own experiences with sexual abuse and trauma entitled Over Exposed, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and named Runner Up for the 2018 Eric Hoffer Book Award in Legacy Nonfiction. On stage, Terri has performed her autobiographical one-woman show, Anatomy of a Doll, at conferences, colleges and theatres around the US and Canada since 1998. In 2016, Terri co-edited an anthology of New York women poets entitled Grabbing the Apple and her own poetry has appeared in dozens of journals, including Stirring, Luna Luna, Cagibi, Atticus Review, Paterson Literary Review, Indiana Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art and the inter-continental anthology Veils, Halos & Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women. She has received two Best of the Net nominations, as well as two additional Pushcart nominations. Terri lives in New York with her husband, author Matt Pasca, and her two redheads, Rainer and Atticus. www.terrimuuss.com

Poetry Workshop and Performance with Distinguished Poet Steven Licardi.

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/-TZDe_nlWx4

Based currently in the Blue Ridge Mountains of SW Virginia, spoken word poet Steven T. Licardi will lead a poetry reading and writing workshop that will guide participants down into the void of poetry writing. With a focus on depth alongside process, Steven will assist participants in embracing the gymnastics of poetic writing, developing a nimble approach that frees us from our rigid rituals and staves off inevitable writer’s block. Perfect for first-time dabblers and well-versed performers alike. Specific techniques to be explored include embodied writing, erasure/blackout poetry, the golden shovel, and the unapologetic killing of our little darlings. Participants can be expected to be challenged in a loving, shame-free space that invites kind failure and compassionate confusion to better connect us to our own creativity.

Steven T. Licardi is a social worker, spoken word poet, actor, and performance activist working at the intersections of art and social policy. He (usually) travels domestically and internationally using the power of spoken word to create empathic dialogue around, to confront the realities of, and to assist communities in dismantling the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness. As a child, Steven was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum, an experience that has deeply informed his professional work. In 2018, he released his second collection of poems, ‘a billion burning dreams’ — a work of radical vulnerability and self-love that traces his journey from mental health patient to mental health professional. Since 2016, his ever-evolving performance series “Coup de Mot” has been confronting how mental illnesses manifest out of oppressive social pathologies, with versions appearing in Vigo, Spain in 2016, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 2018, and most recently in Thessoliniki, Greece in 2019. www.thesvenbo.com

Author Kristin McGlothlin discusses her book “Drawing with Whitman” and her inspiration to share Whitman, Cezanne, and other literary/artistic figures with a younger generation.

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/5nlJ8N3FmQ0

Author Kristin McGlothlin discusses her book “Drawing with Whitman” and her inspiration to share Whitman, Cezanne, and other literary/artistic figures with a younger generation. She also talks about her journey in becoming a published author.

This Walt Whitman Birthplace Association event occurred during the 2020 epidemic that led to social distancing. We are delighted to share these events with a much greater audience online. This event would appeal to teachers, educators, children, adults, artists, and “Whitmaniacs” alike. “Drawing with Whitman” is available online on Amazon and in WWBA Gift Shop.

Before becoming a fulltime writer, Kristin McGlothlin worked at the Norton Museum of Art, where she created and taught art classes. She has a B.A. in Art History and a B.A. and M.A. in English. Her M.A. thesis was on the author/illustrator Edward Gorey. McGlothlin wrote and made the artwork for the children’s picture book Andy’s Snowball Story about the contemporary artist Andy Goldsworthy. Drawing with Whitman is her debut middle grade novel. It is the first book in a four-book series titled Sourland Mountain Series. She is currently working on the second book in the series titled Listen that will come out this year.

Distinguished Poet Mary Healey Poetry Reading on Zoom.

Event Video Link:  https://youtu.be/y431oUBiaqU

Mary Healey is a minimalist poet. Her work has been published in Long Island Sounds, Writing Outside the Lines, Whispers and Shouts, and Long Island Quarterly. She has hosted monthly readings at The North Village Bookshop, Hicksville Library and Wyld Chyld Tattoo Parlor. She has participated in the August Poetry Postcard Event for the past six years and has taught a workshop on postcard poetry. She is currently studying the art of poison.