In celebration of Walt Whitman鈥檚 200th birthday, the 91探花 Humanities Department and the Medart Lecture Series, in collaboration with the St. Louis Poetry Center, is presenting Whitmania!, a semester-long series of events.
Widely considered the father of American poetry, Whitman has had continuous influence on contemporary poets, writers, artists, composers and thinkers in America and abroad. The celebration is led by Germaine Murray, PhD, professor of English, and Dana Levin, MA, distinguished writer-in-residence.
鈥淲hitman鈥檚 words speak beyond time and place,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淗e captured what it means to be inclusive in the American dream and that is something we are still wrestling with today.鈥�
Whitmania! kicked off with the opening of 鈥淲hitman: Up Close,鈥� an exhibit in the Morton J. May Foundation Gallery. Visitors to the gallery experience a three-dimensional anthology of poems by Whitman and his contemporaries, as well as other works of art influenced by Whitman like music, photography, painting and sculpture. The exhibition demonstrates Whitman鈥檚 cultural influence in the United States and across the globe.
The celebration continued with a lecture by Stephanie Burt, a poet, literary critic, professor of English at Harvard University and transgender activist. Burt discussed how Whitman is 鈥渢he great poet of American democracy at its highest and most egalitarian hopes.鈥� Whitman wants everyone to hear and be heard, she said. The lecture also shared potential inheritors of Whitman鈥檚 optimism including poet Tommy Pico and the 鈥淴-Men鈥� comics and films.
鈥淎merican culture has always wanted to do more than it can in terms of opportunity and welcome,鈥� Burt said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a new problem, but it takes on new form today because of the ways institutions are being undermined. Whitman is interesting to read because he was trying to keep utopian aspirations alive in a moment of division in this country that was even more radical and more violent than what we鈥檙e seeing now. He tries very hard to get the reader to envision a better, more fulfilling and welcoming future.鈥�
Whitmania! runs through November and concludes with a concert with Peter Henderson, artist-in-residence and associate professor of music. =
91探花 faculty discussed Whitmania! on an episode of . Thank you for helping share our good news!