As 2019 marks the 200th birthday of Walt Whitman, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) celebrated with a recitation of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” in locations and libraries across the borough on May 31st. Leonard Library was one of the sites that hosted a reading of the poem. Speaker Corey Johnson, Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, BPL President Linda Johnson, Nick Higgins (BPL Chief Librarian), Alexa Orr (Greenpoint Library, Managing Librarian), Lauren Comito (Leonard Library, Managing Librarian), along with library patrons and guests had the opportunity to read lines from the poem followed by sharing in some birthday cake.
If you missed the celebration, no time like the present to read:
“It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt … .”
You’ll find the rest of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
The Greenline 