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| This photo of Walt Whitman was taken in the mid-1860s when he
lived in Washington, D.C. It is now part of the archive at Ohio Wesleyan University.
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D.C. Celebrates Whitman: 150 Years of ‘Leaves
of Grass’
www.washingtonart.com/whitman/walt.html
March 29
Grace Church, 1041 Wiconsin Ave., NW
7:30 p.m.
Poetry reading featuring poets Mark DeFoe, Grace Cavalieri, Sarah Browning and
Hilary Tham reading from their and Whitman’s work.
April 7
Chapters, 445 11th St., NW
7 p.m.
Poetry reading featuring poets David Bergman, Myra Sklarew and Rosemary Winslow
reading from their and Whitman’s work.
April 14 & 15
Fords Theater, 511 10th St., NW
9:15 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Dramatic readings of Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain!”
along with the story of Lincoln’s assassination.
April 16
Friends Meeting of Washington, 2111 Florida Ave., NW
10 a.m.
A meditation session based on Whitman’s own meditation practices. Limited
to 20 people. RSVP to ananda001@aol.com.
April 16
George Washington University’s Marvin Center, 800 21st St., NW
Noon - 5 p.m.
A marathon reading of the 1855 edition of “Leaves of Grass” by area
poets, scholars, actors and politicians.
April 17
7th and F Streets, NW
10 a.m.
A walking tour featuring the sites where Whitman lived and worked while living
in D.C. led by Martin Murray and Craig Howell.
April 20
Catholic University’s Hannan Hall, 620 Michigan Ave., NE
4:30 p.m.
Poetry reading by David Bottoms, winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy
of American Poets, and Patricia Gray, Saundra Rose Maley, Judith McCombs, Kim
Roberts and Richard Sharp.
April 23
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Public Library, 901 G St., NW
12:30 p.m.
Sherwood Smith reads selections of Whitman’s work and talks about his
connection to D.C.
May 4
Brookland Visitor’s Center, 3450 9th St., NE
7 p.m.
The Brookland Poetry Series looks at Whitman’s work and the poets that
he influences, especially the Beat poets. Hosted by Michael Gushue and gay spirituality
and civil rights advocate Dan Vera.
May 7
Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E St., NW
10:30 a.m.
A tour of the historic cemetery which includes the grave of Whitman’s
partner Peter Doyle and many of the Civil War soldiers he befriended. Led by
Martin Murray and Steven Carson.
May 16
Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 E. Capital St., SE
7:30 p.m.
Gay poet Mark Doty and Anne Waldman celebrate Whitman’s birthday with
this reading of their and his work. $10.
May 25
Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St., NW
12:30 p.m.
Luncheon and poetry reading featuring David McAleavey, Clarinda Harriss, Linda
Joy Burke and Robert L. Giron read from their own and Whitman’s work.
$15.
May 31
Library of Congress Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave., SE
noon
Whitman birthday celebration featuring Robert Aubry Davis reading from “Leaves
of Grass.”
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HOME > ENTERTAINMENT > FEATURE
By: BRIAN MOYLAN COMMENTS
 
continued...
lonely
night, so I thought I would go in and talk with him … we were familiar
at once — I put my hand on his knee — we understood. From that time
on, we were the biggest sort of friends.”
In the same year, Whitman was fired from his job because of his “obscene”
poetry. While often cloaked under the guise of male “comrades” and
the concept of “adhesion,” (which Whitman borrowed from the faux-science
phrenology), Whitman’s poems were often explicit about same-sex love.
First published in 1860, the “Calamus” poems, named after a wild
plant that resembles an erect penis, are Whitman’s most homoerotic. In
the first of the series of 51 poems, Whitman says their purpose is “to
tell the secret of my nights and days,/ To celebrate the need of comrades.”
The poem “City of Orgies” in the series is a paean to cruising
in New York where Whitman talks about the “frequent and swift flash of
eyes offering me love,/ Offering response to my own — these repay me,/
Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.”
Afterwards, Whitman tried to cover his tracks a bit, changing the pronouns
in some poems in subsequent editions. In 1890, he went so far as to say a homosexual
reading of the “Calamus” poems was “damnable” and claimed
to have fathered several children.
Though it’s hard for anyone to prove that Whitman had sexual relations
with men (as Murray says, we don’t have Doyle’s “stained blue
jeans”) it’s undeniable that his affections were for men and it
does not appear that he ever had a romantic relationship with a woman, according
to various scholars.
In 1865, a friend arranged for him to get a job at the Attorney General’s
office and Whitman published two of his most famous poems, “Oh Captain,
My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,”
both tributes to Abraham Lincoln.
In 1873, Whitman suffered a stroke and was moved to Camden, N.J., to be entrusted
to the care of his brother, George. Doyle stayed behind with his family, though
he continued to correspond with and visit Whitman.
Whitman remained in New Jersey for the rest of his life, often traveling to
give lectures on Lincoln’s assassination —thanks to Doyle, who was
in the audience at Ford’s Theater the night the president was killed and
gave Whitman an eyewitness account.
Whitman also received many male visitors at his home (which is now a museum),
including Oscar Wilde in 1882. He died of pneumonia in 1892 and is buried in
Camden.
THOUGH HE’S BEEN dead for more than 100 years, Whitman’s influence
is still felt today.
“The way Whitman could make a connection across the ages to us still
living, it’s like he’s reading over your shoulder,” says Saundra
Rose Maley, a local poet and English professor at Ge
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