WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Saturday, May 3 at 4 pm, the Clark Art Institute presents "Walt Whitman Comes to the Clark," a combination film screening and poetry event centering around Whitman's most famous poem, "Song of Myself." 

 

This free event takes place in the Clark's Manton Research Center auditorium.

 

According to a press release: 

 

Whitman's "barbaric yawp," "Song of Myself" celebrates freedom, inclusion, and democracy. Working with this iconic piece, theater collective Compagnia de' Colombari has created seven short films with actors and musicians around the globe bringing Whitman's words to life in startling and beautiful new ways. These films are screened as part of their nationwide Whitman on Walls! (WoW!) tour. After each film, a poet published by Tupelo Press offers an original piece of work written in response to the film—conversing with, talking back to, and wrestling with Walt Whitman.

 

Compagnia de' Colombari is a New York City theater group founded in Orvieto, Italy, in 2004. Springing from the vision of director Karin Coonrod, it involves an international collective of performing artists, generating theater in surprising places.

 

Tupelo Press is an independent non-profit press discovering and publishing works of poetry, literary fiction, and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers.