The Path Worn in the Grass Reading


Photographic evidence from last night's celebration of Walt Whitman's 190th birthday. The Path Worn in the Grass featured 25 poets doing a marathon reading of Song of Myself (...there is no stoppage and never can be stoppage...). It took 2 hours and 45 minutes, and nearly everyone stayed for the entire thing because what could have been a total snooze was compelling and prescient. Whitman's words still hold up today. Many, many thanks to Rupert Fike for organizing this event and Ron Hughes and Composition Gallery for hosting it. 

The readers included Cleo Creech, Theresa Davis, Christine Swint, Tania Rochelle, Stephen Bluestone, Robin Kemp, Kodac Harrison, Beth Gylys, Alice Lovelace, Bill Taft, Franklin Abbott, Amy Pence, Alice Teeter, Karen Head, Karen G. and many others. Be sure to check out Cleo's cool video slideshow of the event below, too!


Comments

January said…
What a great event. Congrats!
Radish King said…
I want to change my name to Alice Lovelace. Such a rockin name.
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Rupert said…
Collin forgot to mention he had a tongue put to his breastbone during his section . . . and his head was athwart some hips too!
christine said…
It was a great evening. So many diverse voices, exactly the way Whitman would have loved to hear it, I'm sure. And you're right, it was not in the least dull. I barely noticed the time at all.
K. said…
What a great idea.

To Whitman lovers, I recommend Daniel Mark Epstein's Whitman and Lincoln: Parallel Lives In Washington, D. C.

Lincoln is known to have read Leaves Of Grass. Among other things, Epstein suggests that it impacted Lincoln's oratory. It's a wonderful book; I actually slowed down my reading of it to stretch out its pleasures.

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