Whitman Symposium to Draw Top Scholars

On September 22 through September 25, The College of New Jersey will host a three-day symposium celebrating the 150th anniversary of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The symposium coincides with the College's own sesquicentennial celebration.

The symposium, which is open to the public, will feature some of the nation's most prominent poets, scholars, and intellectuals and will attract teachers and scholars from around the region. Participants in the event include novelist/ filmmaker Sherman Alexie, poet and critic David Lehman, and the literary scholars Lawrence Buell, Betsy Erkkila, and Ed Folsom. The political theorist Benjamin Barber will also be speaking.

Activities for the symposium include scholarly panels on Whitman, poetry readings, a series of roundtable discussions focused on teaching Leaves of Grass in secondary school classrooms, as well as an Art Faculty Exhibition of original works inspired by Whitman's poems. The various scholarly panels, which will be followed by question and answer sessions, are presented by three scholars and explore Walt Whitman in the contexts of the 19th century, modern artists, and global politics.

As part of the symposium, Stephen Collins will perform as America 's renowned poet, Walt Whitman, in his one-man show "Unlaunch’d Voices” in Kendall Hall on Thursday, September 22, at 9:30 a.m. The performance is free and open to the public.

The Fred Hersch Ensemble will perform Hersch’s original jazz composition, Leaves of Grass, on Friday September 23, at 8:00 p.m. in Kendall Hall. Tickets for this concert will be available at the Box Office in the Student Center beginning August 25.

The symposium is directed by David Haven Blake and Michael Robertson, both professors of English at the College.

All events, except for the Fred Hersch jazz concert on Friday night, are FREE for TCNJ students, faculty, and staff, and NO REGISTRATION is required. The Fred Hersch concert requires tickets, which can be purchased in advance at the box office or on the night of the performance. For more information and a complete schedule of events, please visit the symposium website: www.tcnj.edu/~whitman.