Category: Whitman in the arts
On July 1st, 2010, the Brooklyn Heights Association hosted “I Do Not Doubt I Am Limitless: Walt Whitman’s Brooklyn” to “channel the psychedelic spirit of poet, journalist, humanist and Brooklynite Walt Whitman, set against the stunning waterfront backdrop on the Pier 1 Harbor View Lawn of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
The Whitman Project is going to videotape a concert by The Dream Brothers tomorrow night in Brooklyn: May 28, 2010.
Stephan David Hewitt and Gary Glickman, known as the Dream Brothers, are touring their recent CD, Full of Life Now, which sets Whitman’s “Calamus” poems to music in a way that straddles the art song and the pop song–to enormous success.
Greg Trupiano and Lon Black are presenting the event in conjunction with American Opera Projects.
· The Great Room at ART-NY in Brooklyn
· 138 South Oxford Street between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue, Fort Greene near the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
· Please come as my guest and bring others with you· Reservations and information: 718-391-8824
FOLLOWED by a MEET THE ARTISTS RECEPTION
A PROMISE to California,
Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon:
Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward
you, to remain, to teach robust American love;
For I know very well that I and robust love belong
among you, inland, and along the Western
Sea;
For These States tend inland, and toward the Western
Sea—and I will also. — Walt Whitman
In June of 2010, The Good Gray Poet will finally keep in his promise, traveling to California to reside in the Chronotopia show at the SOMArts gallery. San Francisco’s Queer Cultural Center has pitched Chronotopia as a chance for artists to respond to gay history, and of course, what such show would be complete without an appearance from the original Bear?
“I receive now again of my many translations,” wrote the bard, “from my avataras ascending, while others doubtless await me.” The avataras in the show will be:
- a three-foot character cutout of the iconic moment from This Beginning of Me when the burning Deathshead Moth perches on Walt’s finger, while Fred looks on in awe
- a 1/6-scale macquette of my “Walt Whitman Animated” character executed by Coraline sculptor Scott Foster of Laika Animation Studios
- a framed three-foot banner for This Beginning of Me
General Picture and LeavesofGrass.Org are pleased to announce that “Coraline” sculptor Scott Foster is completing a 1/6 scale macquette (statuette) of the Walt Whitman Animated character designed by Mitchell Santine Gould for his animated short-in-progress, “This Beginning of Me.” These photos show the clay and hard wax original in an intermediate stage before it was used to make a mold. Using the same techniques he employed at Laika Animation Studios, Scott is currently finishing a mold that enables the production of resin copies. “This unique piece conveys Whitman’s most crucial message to his 21st-century audience: RESIST MUCH, OBEY LITTLE,” says Mitch. “The command is engraved into the base of the model–a giant book that represents Leaves of Grass.”
Scott and Mitch collaborated on the pose, with Mitch’s Sony VAIO laptop in Scott’s studio displaying Reallusion’s powerful, game-changing animation program, iClone. “iClone‘s real-time environment enabled the two of us to define a compelling, realistic artwork,” says Mitch. “Scott guided me in posing the character to bring my concept to life.” By bringing a reference grid into iClone, Mitch was able to print out orthogonal views of the character which Scott then measured to guide his work.
Mitch recently provided a sneak peak of the artwork at a lecture on his animation efforts. A copy of the model painted to match his animated character will be ready well before Whitman’s birthday on May 31. Citing the words of Whitman’s beloved poem, “So Long,” Mitch likes to point out this case of life imitating art:
Camerado! This is no book;
Who touches this, touches a man;
(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
It is I you hold, and who holds you;
I spring from the pages into your arms—decease calls me forth.
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman Animated 1/6 scale statue by Scott Foster
Walt Whitman’s masterpiece “Song of Myself” will be brought to life in neighborhoods throughout his beloved New York in a stirring music-theater adaptation making its world debut this spring.
From May 5-14, Compagnia de’ Colombari will present More or Less I Am in venues ranging from the poet’s Long Island birthplace to Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park. The play is conceived and directed by company founder Karin Coonrod, with music by members of the genre-defying string ensemble Brooklyn Rider. Reflecting Whitman’s celebration of American diversity as encapsulated in New York City, an international mix of actors, musicians, and children will speak and sing Whitman’s words. Members of the audience will also be invited to play a role.
The roving play will meet its audience at diverse locations such as Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, Harlem’s Wadleigh School, and the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan. The tour will kick off with a benefit performance at Bargemusic, a chamber-music hall set in a renovated barge moored beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The show will close with a performance at Joe’s Pub, one of New York City’s most celebrated venues for live music and performance.
Coonrod, whose work has been hailed by the New York Times as “prodigiously inventive,” was the founding director of downtown theater company Arden Party, which was lauded for its inspired reimagining of classic plays. She won widespread acclaim for her epic production of Henry VI at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1996. In 2003 she co-founded Compagnia de’ Colombari, bringing a modern reimagining of the medieval mystery play to the streets of Orvieto, Italy and New York City.
“Whitman intended ‘Song of Myself’ to inspire unity by celebrating America at a time when the country was deeply divided, and today the poem is more relevant than ever,” said Coonrod. “With MORE OR LESS I AM, we will rekindle that celebratory spirit at street level in the city whose diversity Whitman saw as quintessentially American.”
The play’s music is composed by Colin and Eric Jacobson, co-founders of Brooklyn Rider, and Kyle Sanna and Alex Sopp. Cast members include Obie award-winner Michael Potts, Jorge Rubio, Michael Rogers, Elliot Villar, and Sarah Heltzel.
“More Or Less I Am” performance schedule
5 May Wednesday 8PM: Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing BENEFIT LAUNCH $40
6 May Thursday 7PM: Ft. Green Park (Brooklyn) FREE
7 May Friday 8PM: Winter Garden World Financial Center (Manhattan) FREE
8 May Saturday 7PM: Walt Whitman Birthplace Huntington (Long Island) FREE
10 May Monday 11 AM: The Wadleigh School 114th St/Fred Douglass Blvd. FREE
11 May Tuesday 7 PM: The Old Stone House (Brooklyn) FREE
12 May Wednesday 7 PM: Marcus Garvey Park (Harlem) FREE
13 May Thursday 7 PM: Grant’s Tomb (Harlem) FREE
14 May Friday 7 PM: Joe’s Pub (downtown Manhattan) $15
Compagnia de’ Colombari is an international collaborative of performing artists born in Orvieto, Italy, and based in New York City. Colombari is dedicated to new and old works from diverse traditions and cultures, creating spectacles for the public free of charge. The Company is named after the colombari-dovecotes-etched high into the cliff on which Orvieto is poised. The dovecotes, networked one to another against the brutal elements, demonstrate a synergy between the individual and the collective. Colombari plays at the intersection and clash of cultures celebrating the intrinsic kinship of humankind alongside its extraordinary diversity. Generating theater for a new century, Colombari believes that every place is a space for the sacred architecture of theater experience, which ignites performer and audience.