Unlaunch’d Voices, an Evening with Walt Whitman
Cambridge actor, educator, lecturer, and historian Stephen Collins will be performing a one-man show as one of America’s greatest poets. Unlaunch’d Voices: an Evening with Walt Whitman will be performed on Wednesday, October 7th from 5pm to 7pm in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library.
Unlaunch’d Voices, an Evening With Walt Whitman opens with the elderly Whitman on the evening of his seventieth birthday. The audience is a visitor in his room as he prepares for his birthday celebration. Whitman begins to reminisce and to question his success as a man and a poet. He tells us his work has proved to be “less than a failure….” He remembers a mystical experience he had in his thirty-seventh year that inspired him to write poetry. During the telling, Whitman transforms into his young vibrant self and we begin to trace back along with him the experiences that led to the creation of Leaves of Grass, his lifetime work. The first part of the performance explores Whitman’s preoccupation with the self and his resolve to write with “free and brave thought…” We revel with him as he celebrates his body and himself and are confidants as he shares his struggle with his sexual self.
In the second part of the performance, Whitman’s life is changed forever by the occurrence of the Civil War. It is here that he finds “… the most important work of my life…” nursing the wounded soldiers in the hospitals. Through poetry and readings of actual letters, we experience Whitman’s movement from selfishness and selflessness and his growth into a mature artist who is at peace about “himself, God and death.”
Unlaunch’d Voices, an Evening with Walt Whitman was conceived by Stephen Collins and was written and directed by Michael Keamy. The play’s text has its origins in Walt Whitman’s poetry, especially Leaves of Grass, and borrows from actual dialogue from his life. Whitman’s friend and neighbor, Horace Traubel, kept records of their daily conversations in a six-volume collection entitled Walt Whitman in Camden.
Stephen Collins grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds a BA in Literature from UMass Boston and has held lectures and performances at the Boston Public Library, New Hampshire Humanities, and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association. When he is not performing on stage, Collins gives historical tours of Boston as a professionally licensed tour guide. For more information about Collins and his performances, please visit his website at http://unlaunchedvoices.com.
This event is free and open to the public. No reservations or tickets are required. The performance lasts about an hour and will be followed by a Q&A.
The Lewiston Public Library is located downtown at 200 Lisbon Street at the corner of Pine Street. More information on Wednesday’s performance is available by contacting the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3134 or LPLCirc@lewistonmaine.gov.
