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History is all around us, especially in Whitman’s Brooklyn. I am aware that New York City has many historical landmarks but I didn’t realize the significance of Fort Greene and how Whitman helped create it.
The class met at the park, along the way I saw Walt Whitman projects across the street. We met in the spot below near the small building:
We where greeted by people from the Whitman Project.
The CUNY Walt Whitman class had the pleasure and privilege to be guided by artistic director Greg Trupiano. He gave us some background
We first spoke about Leaves of Grass. The artistic director (Greg Trupiano) pointed out some physical qualities of the first book and an image of Whitman. Most people in the 19th century, especially writers like Emerson dressed in a very professional manner. Whitman instead is dressed in a working man’s clothes. He looks like a regular blue collar worker in his book of poems. This is more significant then I thought and one of the reasons that Whitman is seen as the people’s poet.
Blue Collar Whitman
Mr. Black who is another person affiliated with the Whitman project read a poem from Whitman’s Collection. I didn’t get a chance to record his passionate reading but I think one of my classmates capture it with a flipcam.
The next discussion was about setting type. The image below is a keep sake that Greg Trupiano gave the class from his own private collection.
We then dicussed the reasons why Whitman pushed for the creation of Fort Greene. To summarize:
1. He felt the Wallabout Martyrs deserved a proper monument.
2. He used his influence as the editor of the Daily Eagle to persuade people to support his cause.
3. He lived in the area and thought that people should have a park to enjoy.
Fun Anecdote # 1
I learned about how the terms uppercase and lowercase came about. Uppercase or capital characters are higher and harder to reach then lowercase when people use to set type; makes sense.
Fun Anecdote #2
“Having a copyright doesn’t mean you wrote the book.”
Fun Anecdote #3
Leaves of Grass was banned in Boston in the early 1880s which added to the book’s controversy. Subsequently, the 1880 copy was the best selling edition of Leaves of Grass.
We made our way torward The Tombs which you can see in the video below.
The Tomb is really an incredible piece of history. Some of the old bones from the old memorial wihch just fell apart over time.
Best picture I took in my life… ever
A look at the momunent from a distance
Our tour concluded with a walk around the Brooklyn neighborhood and a look at 99 Ryerson street. It’s the last piece of history in New York that Whitman lived in that is still standing today. Students from Pratt currently inhabit the building.
Resources: These are additional links to learn more about Walt Whitman and the park
[2]Wikipedia is a decent place to start when looking for leads and additional information regarding a topic. It is by no means authoritative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Greene
nicole | MySpace Video This tour of the park and of Brooklyn was such an inspirational day. Living in NYC I never knew Brooklyn was filled with such rich history.
This was such a great day for learning being inspired. The music and the lyrics added more adventure to my day in Brooklyn.
We took a Whitman tour, guided by a Whitman specialist; we walked from Fort Greene Park to 99 Ryerson Street. 99 Ryerson Street was one of many addresses in Brooklyn which Whitman called home; he lived at this location in 1855. We walked down Myrtle Ave which was the route Whitman would have taken on his way to work or on his way to the ferry. We walked by houses that stood there at Whitman’s time, houses he must have known. In the picture above I’m sitting on the same stoop Whitman had once sat on, probably after a long walk back home, or maybe on a sunny morning, watching people walk by on their way to work or kids running by playing. To the right (where I’m facing) is now an elevated highway which was definitely not there in 1855, and almost all the houses on the block were probably not there either. No cars would have been parked there, maybe a horse drawn carriage, and the streets we not paved. As I sat there on the stoop, I pictured Whitman at the age of 36 sitting on the steps with me, conversing with me about leaves of grass.
After reading my first post on Franklin Evans, I think I alluded to some important details. Franklins Evans was a novel written by Walt Whitman before he released his celebrated poems, Leaves of Grass. A Google search of Franklin Evans yields almost no content related to Whitman while Song of Myself is a Whitman trademark. Professor Gold stated that most people still don’t know that Walt Whitman wrote Franklin Evans. Whitman even denied writing Franklin Evans at one point but this was proven false. That is one of the reasons the novel is over looked.
Franklin Evans is a novel about intemperance or alcoholism as we call it today. Intemperance has always been a problem in society and it’s vividly described by Whitman as one of the worst evils man can commit. Through the narration of the protagonist Franklin Evans, Whitman shows us the dark side of drinking. The progression of Alcoholism starts destroying Franklin’s life and affecting his loved ones. Evans loses jobs, destroys his marriages and goes to jail as a result of his brandy escapades.
From the offset of the novel, Franklin is always observing the affects of alcohol on people’s lives. His first description of drunkeness was speaking of a farmer who had gone astray due to drinking. Franklin Evans was not drinking at this point, and then he met Colby and that was soon to change. When Colby asks Franklin to join him for a drink, he obliges and goes along with it. He regrets this action and thing come full circle at the end of the story.
I can trace the outset of all frailties, as well all the calamities that have befallen me in life, to that fatal night when Colby drew me into the drinking place; where, amid music and gayety, the first step in my downward road was taken.
Franklin makes drinking seem as an almost inescapable force to that drags down young men in Cities. Many in the novel have fallen prey. This novel is an attempt to encapsulate the many misfortunes a man can meet when he drinks. Franklin Evans stroke of luck saves him, only to sucumb to drinking again. In the conclusion, Whitman calls this novel an experiment. It is not only a look at drinking but a short treatise on temptation in the 19th century. Many temperance groups appeared during the 19th century that discouraged drinking and other vices. This novel is arguably influential and is one of the first pieces of fictional literature that could have been called the Washingtonian Manifesto.
We had our second Whitman tour last week and I really enjoyed it. As a class we met at the Fort Greene Park which had monument dedicated for British Prison ship prisoners. A professional team greeted us. Leader of the team Greg Trupiano was passionate person about Whitman’s work. It was obvious he knew very well about Whitman and the history. After hearing about Whitman and Fort Greene park a wonderful voice Nicole sang us couple songs including The National Anthem, followed by a reader who read passages of Whitman. After all, it was interesting to know that some of the bones were collected from the shore and put into a room right on the stairs of the monument. Then we walked through the streets where Whitman lived through the myrtle avenue. We arrived at the address 99 Ryerson Street, where well known Whitman’s least changed place is is. The place looks very knew outside, however we were told just renovated outside, inside is still is the same as Whitman’s time. Over all, it was a great tour of Whitman in the neighborhood.
Last week the class met at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. A park with a significant history. A site of the Revolutionary War fort, and monument dedicated to the prison ship martyrs, who where held by the British.
As I walked up the grand stairs looking at the monument, it felt like the monument was a “light house” showing the direction. We all met in front of the Visitor’s Center. There was Greg Trupiano the leader of the tour. A very knowledgeable and inspiring person. The tour started with an Nicole, a opera singer who sang Oh Freedom. Mr. Trupiano started the tour with history of the park, and made connection with Walt Whitman history. In the meanwhile Mr. Trupiano had invited a reader, who read loud the passages from Whitman. In that beautiful fall day, Whitman passages were powerful throw the voice of reader.
Walt Whitman loved the Brooklyn, and he also wrote about the Fort Greene Park saying that “Brooklyn needs lungs.” He was concerned about the future, and the people of his city.
After we moved down to the entrance of the vault were the bones of the prisoners are buried. Tour leader explained that in the crypt was only one full body skeleton, who is believed to be Benjamin Romaine. The bones are collected from the shore, what is now know as Navy Yard.
From there we moved to the intersection of the Myrtle Avenue and Portland Avenue, where Whitman lived. Now there is the new building build by the city and named “Walt Whitman Houses.”
The final destination was the 99 Ryerson Street the only house that stand, where Whitman lived. The building has gone through some changes and it is not exactly the same, as it was, when Whitman lived there.
The tour of Ft. Greene Park led by Greg Trupiano was not only informative but inspirational. I left the tour with a much greater understanding of Ft. Greene because of the information presented. The tour began at the visitor’s center in Ft. Greene Park and Greg began to present the history and relevance of Whitman to this park. What was especially pleasing was that Greg brought along a gentleman who read selections of Whitman with great presence. It is always great to hear Whitman spoken aloud, as I believe he wrote it to be spoken aloud. In addition there was in attendance a member of the conservatory, Charles, who had quite a bit to contribute about the park. During the presentation Nicole sang Whitman’s words. She is a professional Opera singer. Her voice resonatedwithin me long after the tour had ended. The fourth person in attendance was an expert on Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy. She was also able to contribute her knowledge to the experience. The prison ship martyr’s monument in Ft. Greene Park is over the crypt of bones from the prisoners’ ships in the harbor. There is one full set of remains, the of Benjamin Romaine, and the vault can only be opened by the great great great great granddaughter of Benjamin Romaine, Vicki Romaine. There are lots of other bones in the crypt, but none as complete. They washed up on the shores of the old Navy Yard, and in the morning the prisoners ships would turn over thir dead and they would be buried in shallow graves where the old Navy Yard is today. The water would uncover the bones and the remains were collected for this crypt. There was lots of talk of the Old Jersey. Whitman writes in New York, “the principal of these prison ships was the old Jersey, a large 74-gun …the one which seems to have been most relied on was the old Jersey. The British took a great manyAmerican prisoners during the war-not only by land, but also by their privateers, at sea. When a capture was made in any of the waters near enough, the prisoners were brought with the vessel to New York. These helped to swell the rank of the unhappy men, who were crowded together in the most infernal quarters, starved, diseased, helpless, and many becoming utterly desperate and insane.-Death and starvation killed them off rapidly” (31). More men died on these ships than died in the entire Battle of Brooklyn. When word got back to Great Britain about these deaths it brought a lot of shame on the soldiers. The anonymity between American and Great Britain remained up until the first World War. After the great presentation at the crypt, we moved on to Whitman’s only standing residence in Brooklyn, 99 Ryerson Street. We gathered across the street and had a question and answer exchange. It is our understanding that everybody who lives in their is quite aware that this is Whitman’s house. Many of the tennants have been students of Pratt. Then we walked back towards CUNY as a group. It was a beautiful day for a tour, and we all left more inspired than we had arrived three hours earlier.
Walt Whitman’s novel, Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times, Walt Whitman explains the dangers of addictions such as alcohol. This temperance novel which Walt Whitman openly denies as his own, I believe is a way of including the effects that alcohol had on his own life. Walt Whitman, I believe, included this information indirectly and changed the names of the characters so that he can tell his story but at the same time not embarrass his family. One of the things that I believe that sparked this temperance novel was the result and the effect he saw that alcohol had on his father that he experienced as a young boy.
The story Walt Whitman presents his audience with this dramatic tale of a country boy that ultimately is heading on a road of destruction. Franklin, the country boy travels to the city and gets caught up in drinking alcohol. As time proceeds everything begins to crumble. Franklin eventually loses his wife, his job and his freedom, as a consequence of getting involved with a gang of thieves. Franklin after his release from prison turned to alcohol which leads him into a regrettable marriage to a Creole slave. Franklin’s wife Margaret ends up killing herself because her husband has an affair with a widow from the North, whom Margaret poisons out of a jealous rage.
Whitman tells people when asked about the novel, that he wrote the novel while he was intoxicated, drinking cocktails. That may be true because he is an exceptional writer. He told people not to take this novel seriously. Whitman preached and practiced the ability of temperance throughout his life. Walt Whitman was known to participate in a number of temperance movements such as the meetings and parades of the Washingtonians, who made up the older American Temperance Society. Although he denounced this novel, this was not the only Temperance tales Walt Whitman wrote.
Franklin Evans of The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times. I found the story to be quite dark as has been very often my feelings throughout this course. It is a tale or warning against the use and abuse of alcohol. What I found missing was the lack of mention of other vices in a large city that can lead a farm boy astray. It focused only on alcohol. Whitman’s story of a boy raised out of Long Island who comes to the Big City to stake his claim is often troubling. We follow the young lad through his trials and tribulations with alcohol from his first drink with his buddy Colby to his sobriety with the Temperance movement. Along this journey there was many a grim tale of death, destitution, poor judgement, and the loss of one’s character. The tales at the beginning of the novel were about others. The first spoke of a hale and hearty farmer and his children growing up around him, “Unfortunately, he fell into habits of intemperance. Season after season passed away; and each one, as it came, found him a poorer man than that just before it. Everything seemed to go wrong. He attributed it to ill luck, and to the crops being injured by unfavorable weather. But his neighbors found no more harm from these causes than in the years previous, when the tippler was as fortunate as any of them. The truth is, that habits of drunkenness in the head of a family, are line an evil influence…” (6-7). As they proceeded along their journey a tale was told of alcohol amongst the Native Americans, “‘The greatest curse,’ said he, growing warm with his subject—’the greatest curse ever introduced among them, has been the curse of rum! I can conceive of no more awful and horrible, and at the same time more effective lesson, than that which may be learned from the consequences of the burning firewater upon the habits and happiness of the poor Indians. A whole people – the inhabitants of a mighty continent – are crushed by it, and debased into a condition lower than the beast of the field. Is it not a pitiful thought? The bravest warriors—the wise old chiefs—even women and children—tempted by our people to drink this fatal poison, until, as year and year passed away, they found themselves deprived not only of their lands and what property they hitherto owned, but of everything that made them noble and grand as a nation! Rum has done great evil in the world, but hardly ever more by wholesale than in the case of the American savage.’” (10). I found myself lost by the tale of the Indians as the talk of alcohol left the dialogue and turned to a story of revenge, thereby not only not fitting in with the Native American tale of temperance but the entire book. Upon arrival in New York the story lends itself to Franklin Evans’ own experiences and observations. Colby, who traveled from the country with Franklin Evans, introduced Franklin Evans to the drinking scene, “Those beautiful women-warbling melodies sweeter than I ever heard before, and the effect of the liquor upon my brain, seemed to lave me in happiness, as it were, from head to foot!” (27). He began drinking regularly with Colby. He finds employment and eventually loses it dues to the side effects of intemperance. We find Franklin Evans to marry his landlady’s daughter, Mary, and intemperance ate away at their marriage. Mary was of delicate temperament and could not survive the marriage to a drunkard. Whitman writes, “Then came the closing scene of that act of the tragedy. My wife, stricken to the heart, and unable to bear up longer against the accumulating weight of shame and misery, sank into the grave-the innocent victim of another’s drunkenness” (50). Through the horrors of alcohol he found himself embracing the glorious temperance pledge which is defined as nothing stronger than wine. He found himself taking up or participating in a burglary in which he was readily caught and found himself in jail. He was given reprieve due to his association with the Marchion family of which he saved their child from drowning in the past. Mr. Marchion got him off. The Marchion share with him their own tragic experiences with alcohol. They had pledged temperance. He left the city and went to live in the country in Virginia where, although he was not partaking of alcohol stronger than wine, his judgement was still off. He fell in love with a Creole slave, married her, fell out of love with her, fell in love with a Mrs. Conway, “her light hair, blue eyes, and the delicacy of her skin, formed a picture rarely met with in the region” (84), and nothing but jealousy and rage and ultimately death ensued. Franklin Evans headed back to New York. He visited his first employer, Mr. Lee, who was all too familiar with the dangers of alcohol and, understanding Franklin Evans predicaments and battle with intemperance, being in the city without employment, Mr Lee left him upon his death comfortable property. He still visited the Marchions, as he still considered them friends, and shared his stories with them of his time in Virginia and his marriage to the Creole and the death of Mrs. Conway, and they (the Marchions) had moved deeper into the temperance movement (which was a movement of reformers of which only abstinence would suffice). I find the tale a bit of a stretch as I have first hand knowledge of the disease of alcoholism.
We had our second Whitman tour last week and I really enjoyed it. As a class we met at the Fort Greene Park which had monument dedicated for British Prison ship prisoners. A professional team greeted us. Leader of the team Greg Trupiano was passionate person about Whitman’s work. It was obvious he knew very well about Whitman and the history. After hearing about Whitman and Fort Greene park a wonderful voice Nicole sang us couple songs including The National Anthem, followed by a reader who read passages of Whitman. After all, it was interesting to know that some of the bones were collected from the shore and put into a room right on the stairs of the monument. Then we walked through the streets where Whitman lived through the myrtle avenue. We arrived at the address 99 Ryerson Street, where well known Whitman’s least changed place is is. The place looks very knew outside, however we were told just renovated outside, inside is still is the same as Whitman’s time. Over all, it was a great tour of Whitman in the neighborhood.