Whitman, Alabama

Burchfield Penney Art Center | Tower Auditorium

Free and open to the public.

Filmmaker Jennifer Chang Crandall describes Whitman, Alabama as an experiment in using documentary and poetry to reveal the threads that tie us together – as people, as states, and as a nation. She crisscrossed the state of Alabama interviewing diverse residents and asking them to recite verses from Walt Whitman’s great poem, “Song of Myself.” The results are uniquely beautiful and moving. On September 19th she will screen eight of the short films and discuss them, joined by:

• Karen Karbiener, founder of the Walt Whitman Initiative and professor of English at New York University
• Curtis Lovell, artistic director of Ujima Company, composer of songs, and director of films based on Whitman poems
• Sam Magavern, senior policy fellow, Partnership for the Public Good, and founder of the Calamus Project

Additional Events

Walt Whitman’s Open Road [Virtual Event]
September 19, 2024, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Professor Karen Karbiener will offer an interactive introduction to Whitman and his great poem, “Song of Myself.” Participation via Zoom is free and open to the public; register here. 

Embracing Earth: Burchfield & Whitman Guided Tour 
September 19, 2024, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

A guided tour of the exhibition, Embracing Earth: Burchfield & Whitman at the Burchfield Penney Art Center with co-curators Nancy Weekly and Sam Magavern. Free and open to the public.

More on Whitman, Alabama

Whitman, Alabama: A Democratic Documentary is a groundbreaking and ambitious film cycle, offering a complex and illuminating portrait not of one extraordinary American, but of the tapestry of Americans spanning centuries and the United States themselves. "Whitman, Alabama" achieves this through an unexpected union: a marriage between one of America’s canonical poems, "Song of Myself," written in the 19th-century by Walt Whitman, and the lives of 21st-century Alabamians. This film challenges notions of separation by creating a new space — "Whitman, Alabama" — with its own lingua franca that transcends time and place. This project posits that Whitman saw citizenship not as a noun, but a verb. It invites viewers to reflect on America’s cultural and civic identity by joining “Song of Myself” in its journey from the “I” to “You,” making it a vital tool for understanding and experiencing the American experiment.