Song of Myself: Walt Whitman in Other Words

With all of its American idioms, virtues, and contradictions, what is it about Walt Whitman’s epic verse "Song of Myself" that so deeply resonates across other cultures and languages? In 2013, Christopher Merrill, the director of the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa, launched "Every Atom," a multimedia project to collectively translate the poem in 15 languages, working with fellow poets and translators Luis Alberto Ambroggio and Sholeh Wolpé. Join us for a spirited evening of poetry and music, featuring a performance by internationally renowned musician Sahba Motallebi, as these collaborators explore how Whitman’s radical poetic vision lives and breathes in English, Persian, and Spanish.