Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) presents Walking With Whitman: Poetry in Performance, hosted by Writer-in-Residence George Wallace.

The signature series, now in its 16th season, continues to bring the most intriguing figures in contemporary literature on the national scene paired with local poets on the Walt Whitman stage.

On Thursday, April 16, poets Ngoma Hill and Alan Semerdijian will perform their poetry; musical guest Linda Sussman will perform as well.

NGOMA HILL- Hill is a performance poet, multi- instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, Artivist and paradigm shifter, who for over 50 years has used culture as a tool to raise socio-political and spiritual consciousness through work that encourages critical thought. A former member of Amiri Baraka's "The Spirit House Movers and Players" and the contemporary freedom song duo "Serious Bizness", Hill weaves poetry and song that raises contradictions and searches for a solution to a just and peaceful world.

Ngoma was the Prop Slam Winner of the 1997 National Poetry Slam Competition in Middletown,CT and has been published in African Voices Magazine, Long Shot Anthology, The Underwood Review, Signifyin' Harlem Review, and many more.

ALAN SEMERDIJIAN- Semerdjian is an Armenian-American writer, a musician, and an educator. Recent recognitions include two Pushcart Prize nominations; a Frontier New Poets Award; poems in Poetry International, The Brooklyn Rail, Fence, and Hanging Loose (forthcoming); and a tweet from Kim Kardashian that made his 2020 spoken word album The Serpent and The Crane (with guitarist/composer Aram Bajakian) viral for a day. Semerdijian has been teaching English in public schools for the past twenty five years winning awards for his commitment to education while recording, releasing, and touring in support of several critically-acclaimed collections of music across a range of genres.

LINDA SUSSMAN- Sussman is an award-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist whose music is a mix of alternative-folk and blues that digs deep into our shared human experience. With songs of courage, love, struggles and triumphs, Linda's vocals are frequently compared to Joan Baez, while her self-taught guitar style leans into open tunings, strong fingerstyle and a bit of acoustic slide.

As Ron Cooke (KTAL radio host) says, “Linda makes songs worth listening to. She makes the personal universal and the universal personal.”

Event begins at 7:00pm. Light refreshments served.

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Host or Publisher Walt Whitman Birthplace Association