♫ ♬ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Walt Whitmannnnnnnnn, happy birthday to you! ♫ ♬
To celebrate the 200th birthday of the great American poet Walt Whitman, BAPL is partnering with Lehigh University’s English department to host a read-aloud of his great work “Song of Myself” on April 30 from 5:30-8:00pm.
Led by Lehigh professor Ed Whitley, faculty, staff, and community members will each take a section and perform all 52 parts of this moving work. From leaning and loafing and observing a spear of summer grass, to sounding barbaric yawps over the roof of the world, we will sing it all.
Interested in taking a section? Great! Let us know by emailing Library Director Josh Berk and we will add you to the schedule. We are particularly looking for speakers-of-languages-other-than-English to read some translated sections. If you want to perform Whitman in Mandarin or Spanish or Dutch or any language at all, we want to hear from you! You may also choose to just come and listen and enjoy some birthday cake for Walt. For that, there is no registration required. Yawp!
