Whitman, Buffalo is a celebration of poetry and community. Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) and the Calamus Project worked with filmmaker Steve Rosenthal to film representatives from 20 PPG partner organizations doing three things: describing themselves and their work; talking about PPG’s 20 principles (eight assets and twelve challenges facing Buffalo); and reciting a passage from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” You can watch a brief trailer film here.

“Song of Myself” is one of the world’s greatest poems. In an earthy, open style, Whitman celebrates democracy, love, and radical inclusion. Since its first publication in 1855, “Song of Myself” has moved people all over the world with its radiant vision and “barbaric yawp.”

Whitman, Buffalo was inspired by Whitman, Alabama: a project of filmmaker Jennifer Crandall, who will be visiting Buffalo this fall as part of the exhibition “Embracing Earth: Burchfield & Whitman” at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

The films being screened on August 29 feature:

• Gabriella McKinley, Ujima Company
• Katherine Pfohl, Echo Martinez, Erick Febres Mecado, and Sydney McManus, Massachusetts Avenue Project
• Jennifer Connor, Justice for Migrant Families
• Harper Bishop, Our City Buffalo
• Andrea Alvarez, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
• Saladin Allah, Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center
• Win Min Thant, Open Buffalo
• Ba Zan Lin, Burmese Community Services
• Jessie Fisher, Martin House
• Devonya Havis, East Side Immersion
• Nick Ramirez, Western New York Law Center
• Allison DeHonney, Buffalo Go Green
• Bridget Murphy, Gabriel Nieves, Joey Pucciarelli, and Soon Ho Sim, Extra Extra Pizza
• Samantha Nephew, Buffalo Center for Health Equity
• Dina Thompson, Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition
• DeAnna Eason, Housing Opportunities Made Equal
• Jerome Wright, HALT Solitary Campaign