Penn Arts & Sciences Logo
(from left) sophomore Sophia DuRose, Professor Simone White, graduate student Davis Knittle, and Writers House Director Al Filreis in front of the Kelly Writers House.

Whitman at 200 Symposium featured in Penn Today

The Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy Celebration, a region-wide series of exhibitions and cultural events meant to reassess Whitman and examine his impact on art and society, is featured in Penn Today's article "I Celebrate Myself, and Sing Myself." Led by Penn Libraries, the 200th anniversary of Whitman's birth includes more than 50 partnerships and dozens of exhibitions, performances, and events throughout Philadelphia. 

The main Whitman event on Penn’s campus takes place this weekend, March 29-30, a national symposium “Whitman at 200: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” which will feature panels, student projects, and a pop-up exhibition of his works from the Libraries’ Whitman Collection. The project director is Lynne Farrington, a senior curator of special collections in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

The article also features four Penn scholars for their thoughts about Whitman and his work: English Professor Al Filreis, who is the director of the Kelly Writers House and founder of the online poetry course ModPo; English Professor Simone White; fourth-year doctoral candidate in English Davy Knittle; and English major Sophia DuRose. They are also featured in the video accompanying the story reading excerpts of “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. 

Already celebrating Whitman this semester is the undergraduate course "Walt Whitman and the People’s Press," taught by David Comberg, a senior lecturer in fine arts in Penn’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and Catherine Turner, a lecturer in the English Department.