Reading of Whitman poem to honor his bicentennial before UCLA centennial kickoff
UCLA Writing Programs and the Center for the Art of Performance are thrilled to present the first-ever west coast “Song of Myself” Marathon reading! This historic event will begin at noon on the top of Janss Steps. The 52 sections of this radically optimistic and seminal poem will be read and performed by UCLA faculty, students, staff, alumni, and members of the larger Los Angeles community.
"On a small stage near the top of Janss Steps, a group of students, professors and alumni will recite all 54 pages of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”
Participants in the marathon reading of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" will cover all 52 sections. The many voices involved should reflect the complexity of the perspectives found in his work, said Amber West, a UCLA Writing Programs lecturer. (Daily Bruin file photo) Participants will celebrate the poet’s 200th birthday alongside UCLA’s centennial anniversary Saturday. Event organizer Amber West, a lecturer for UCLA Writing Programs, said she hopes bystanders on campus will catch some of the reading event while attending Alumni Day events and waiting for the centennial launch. West said she hopes utilizing different voices to deliver each of the poem’s 52 sections will adequately reflect the social efforts of Whitman’s works. His writing was meant to exhibit the beauty and complexity of people’s perspectives and experiences, she said.
“In some ways, we’re trying to have the reading be the embodiment of the spirit of (Whitman’s) work,” West said. “He was so ahead of his time, not only stylistically, but in terms of content.”
West said her idea for a marathon reading stemmed from a similar event in Brooklyn Bridge Park while she was living in New York City. After moving to Los Angeles in 2016 to work at UCLA, West said she realized Whitman’s birthday bicentennial coincided with the university’s centennial and she put together a series of events called “Whitmania.” One of the first of these events was “Whitman Dreams in Color” on April 29, at which students from local universities screen-printed bookmarks and wrote poems on manual typewriters.
West said these events are meant to highlight Whitman’s legacy and idea of radical optimism, which is often misunderstood. The term “radical” is typically used as a political put-down, but the definition refers to the fundamental nature of something – the root of a given issue or concept, West said. Optimism is the sense of what is good and possible in all people, so Whitman’s concept is ultimately about organic connection between human beings, she said."— Jordan Wilson, May 14, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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