Penn Projects
The following projects are organized by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts for Whitman at 200:
Walt Whitman, From Photographs to Print: A Series of Three Workshops
January 26, February 9, February 23
As part of Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy, the Common Press and the Penn Libraries are offering a series of three workshops around the creation, translation, and printing of images, which was a major part of the nineteenth century print trade in which Whitman played an important role. Create your take on Whitman’s visage.
January 26: Drawing from Vintage Photographs with artist RA Friedman.
February 9: Cutting a Linoleum Block with artist Barbara Henry.
February 23: Printing from Linoleum Blocks on the Letterpress with printing expert Mary Tasillo.
Birthday Cake Bake-Off
February 26, 2019
Get your tickets now for this historic birthday cake bake-off, eat your weight in cake, and help decide which local bakery will have the honor of making Walt's 200th birthday cake. The winning cake will be featured at Whitman's birthday poetry reading at City Hall on May 31, 2019.
Contestants will be judged on design, taste, and creativity. Nick Malgieri, pastry chef, author, and member of Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, will head the team of judges and be joined by local press.
*Please check back to purchase tickets or contact whitmanat200@upenn.edu to register as a bakery.
Whitman at 200: Looking Back, Looking Forward
March 29 & 30, 2019
This symposium will explore Walt Whitman, his work and his life, from various perspectives. The keynote, “Whitman Getting Old,” will be given by Ed Folsom (Iowa), co-director of the Whitman Archive and editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and the Whitman Series for the University of Iowa Press. Speakers include Matt Cohen (UNebraska, Lincoln), Jay Grossman (Northwestern), Virginia Jackson (UCalifornia, Irvine), Meredith McGill (Rutgers), Don James McLaughlin (UTulsa), Michael Warner (Yale), Edward Whitley (Lehigh), and Michael Winship (UTexas, Austin).
Whitman Vignettes: Camden and Philadelphia
May - August, 2019
The American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) spent the last two decades of his life officially residing across the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey. This exhibition, in conjunction with the 200th anniversary, on May 31, 2019, of the birth of Walt Whitman, focuses on the Camden/Philadelphia connection, both during Whitman’s life and in the decades that followed. Mining Penn’s important Whitman Collection, which includes original paintings by Herbert Gilchrist, son of Whitman’s English admirer Anne Gilchrist, it explores his friendships, his writings, his influence, his collectors, his legacy, and even the naming of his bridge.
We Contain Multitudes: Celebrating Walt Whitman’s 200th Birthday with Poetry, Song, and Cake
May 31, 2019
This community poetry reading, focusing on diversity, will mark the 200th birthday of Walt Whitman, America's "poet of democracy." Whitman's poetry will be interspersed with music and guest appearances and conclude with his bicentennial birthday cake.