Tell me more: Why “Songs of Ourselves”?

Why hold this celebration on Memorial Day, when I’d rather be at a picnic by the lake? We hear you…. But Memorial Day 2021 is special. May 31, 2021 is both Walt Whitman’s 202nd birthday and the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Memorial Day 2021 is the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd. May is Book Canopy host Mary Johnson’s birthday month, and Songs of Ourselves is how she wanted to celebrate. …And even if you’re on a picnic, maybe you can connect to WiFi for a few minutes.

Whitman is so problematic. Well, yes — parts of Whitman’s work are problematic. He lived in the 19th century and wasn’t woke in a 21st century sort of way. Parts of him weren’t even woke in a 19th century sort of way. It’s not hard to find strains of racism in Whitman. He too often used words we detest to refer to people and groups we respect. But he was also one of the very first American poets to own his homosexuality and has been an inspiration to generations of LGBTQIA+ folks. He also wrote “I am large, I contain multitudes.” What do we do with the man who contradicts himself? This isn’t a Whitman tribute. We’re offering readers the opportunity to edit Whitman wherever his words and thoughts are problematic. Readers can even substitute a completely different poem from a completely different poet if they’d like.

In Lavelle Portner’s excellent article “Should Walt Whitman Be #Cancelled?”, Portner writes that the charge of racism levied against Whitman is particularly fraught because Whitman is also “the poet who in Leaves of Grass sang of American democracy as a project of radical inclusion, the poet who wrote about tending to the runaway slave, the poet who looked upon the enslaved person on the auction block and saw in them their generations of descendants, the poet who declared that the enslaved were the equal of those who enslaved them.”

For more on this question, read “Was Walt Whitman racist?” by Deanna Isaacs, “For the Sake of People’s Poetry” by June Jordan, and “Walt Whitman was a racist?” by Jonathan Poletti. We also find WNYC’s discussion “Walt Whitman Turns 200, So It's Time to Be Honest About His Racism” thought-provoking. In that discussion, poet, writer and archivist Harmony Holiday asks, “What would a black Walt Whitman at that time have sounded like?” That’s an interesting question — and one that we hope some of the readers in our celebration might choose to address. As part of our celebration, can the present demand an accounting of the past? Can we come to be at peace with the fact that perfect people, both in our history and now, are very few and far between? What does it mean to contain multitudes?

I’d love to participate by reading a section during the celebration. How can I do that? Until all fifty-two slots are filled, we’re accepting volunteers. When you register, you’ll be asked if you’d like to read. Answer “yes” and we’ll be in touch. Or drop us an email.



I’d love to participate, but I don’t want to read aloud during the celebration. That’s great, too. Register and drop in at any time. We’re going to start at 1:00 ET and continue till we’re through, breaking for conversation after every ten sections. We’ll be happy to have you with us, and during the breaks we’ll be happy to say hi, and to hear your thoughts on the poems or about what celebrating ourselves means to you.

How long do you think the celebration will last? The Audible recording of “Song of Myself” lasts one hour and fifty-one minutes. That’s without any breaks, reading every word just as Whitman wrote it in his last (usually considered definitive) version of the work. Including breaks, and with some substitutions of other works for Whitman’s words, we don’t know how long we’ll take, but we can’t imagine it will be an entire three hours. Probably closer to two and a half. Join us for as much or as little as you please. And stretch whenever you like!

Where can I learn more about Whitman and “Song of Myself”? We love the University of Iowa’s Whitman Web, which includes analysis of every section of “Song of Myself.” You also might want to check out Jeffrey Gordon’s “Song of Myself: The Paradox of the Project.” We particularly love filmmaker Jennifer Crandall’s Whitman, Alabama, in which people across Alabama look into a camera and share a part of themselves through the words of Walt Whitman.

How often does The Book Canopy hold events? So far we’ve been on a monthly schedule. We’re not sure this rag-tag group of volunteers — writers already committed to intense schedules of writing, reading, teaching, activism, knitting, singing, podcasting — can maintain a monthly schedule. Here on out, we’re committed to at least quarterly events, so look for an event every season, with bonus events as we’re able.