Singing Whitman

Walt Whitman was a queer poet who lived from 1819 to 1892.  Over the course of his life, he wrote one book of poetry: Leaves of Grass.     He published the first edition in 1855.  In the six subsequent editions (1856, 1860, 1867, 1871, 1881, and 1892), he revised the text and added many more poems.   Since 2006, I've been setting these poems to music and singing them. On this page, you can find the poems that I've set to music so far.  This is an ongoing project.

Articles about this project

Here are some performances.

2015   March 9: Matthew Siegel "Blood Work" Book Release event April 21: University of San Francisco (with D.A. Powell) May 3: Home of Lavanya Mahendran   2014   March 21: "Under the Golden Gate" Show. MORE. April 19: Kevin Simmonds' "Bend To It" Book Release September 4: Hemlock Tavern (with Carletta Sue Kay and Lonesome Leash). MORE   2013 January 25: San Francisco Queer Open Mic (with Tim Xonnelly) MORE. March 7: Rutgers University April 27: Peter Max Lawrence’s Apartment July 11: Home of Matthew Siegel August 16: "Whitman! Whitman! Whitman!" 2013 edition September 16: Home of Zack Haber October 19: LitCrawl Show: “Ex-Verba” (with Michael Zapruder, Jorrit Poelen, and Exray) MORE.   2012 January 14: Philly Radical Faeries Urban Gatherette February 16: SOMArts // Truong Tran & Peter Max Lawrence “At War” MORE. Febuary 21: San Francisco Conservatory, Prof. Matthew Siegel's class  March 30: Philip Huang & Theo Knox “Fart of Gold” MORE April 15: Peter Max Lawrence “Whatever you want” IHTF MORE. May 6: Irina Zadov & Abe Epton “Open feast” May 25: “Whitman! Whitman! Whitman!” 2012 edition June 22: Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, Pride Shabbat July 18: Smack Dab feat. Eric Sasson and Daniel Redman MORE. August 5: Jon Sugar’s Birthday party August 9: Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, “Singing Whitman” September 8: Home of Nephi Niven (NY) September 19: Home of Mindy and MJ Rosenberg (DC): fundraiser for “Yes on 6” and Maryland Equality October 7: Home of Bob Guter & Garrick Ohlsson, “Whitmania”   2011   March 4: Congregation Ner Shalom April 12: San Francisco Public Library ("The Chants Resuming")  April 23: Collage Theater (“Passover in Performance”) June 22: Home of Professor Esther Schor (NJ)   2010   March 7: Artfag Potluck MORE. October 17: S.P.I.E.S. – Subterranean Performance Investigation Salon November 13: Home of Bob Guter and Garrick Ohlsson November 22: Theater Pub (with Ryan Hayes)