Please join us and Brooklyn Poets at Smack Mellon on Friday, May 31st, as we celebrate the bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s birth! Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang, Mark Doty and Rowan Ricardo Phillips will read from their work and Whitman’s and introduce the winners of the Whitman Bicentennial Poetry Contest, who will read their winning poems. 

Doors will open at 7:30, and we’ll kick off the festivities with a screening of a film version of Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” featuring Brooklynites reading the poem all over the borough, beautifully created by the Brooklyn Public Library. The event is free and open to the public, and every attendee will receive a free copy of a commemorative chapbook consisting of all the winners’ and judges’ poems. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Contest winner readers include Desirée Alvarez, Marietta Brill, Robin Gow, Constantine Jones, Joanna Lau, Molly Morrow, Eliana Swerdlow, Kelsey Wang and Shamon Williams. 

Cosponsored by the Academy of American Poets and Smack Mellon, in partnership with Happy Birthday, Walt Whitman!, the Poetry Coalition and the Whitman 2019 Consortium.