There are nine Walt Whitman-related sites near my house. I mapped out a 5K course that passes each one. It starts near a modest, unmarked home Whitman lived in when he published Leaves of Grass and ends at Fulton Ferry landing, where a line from Whitman's great poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is cut into panels on the railings.
The house is quite a story. The journalist Paul Berman helped to uncover its existence in a 1995 New Yorker article. Here's the link, but you'll need a subscription to read it. (Alternatively, check out this this Poetry Foundation article on 99 Ryerson.)
Berman knocked on the door of the house:
The door opened and two brothers peered out. I introduced myself and told them the exciting antiquarian news that in their own home the greatest of American poets had once lived—more than a century ago.I love Brooklyn. And I love my neighborhood.
Then one of them—it was Mr. Clifford Richardson, a highly trained electrician (as I later learned) with a sideline as a "Watongo," reggae singer—cocked his head and asked, in the accent of St. Kitt's, "How do you know there isn't a great poet living here now?"
(And for once, I won a 5K. First prize was an electronic edition of Leaves of Grass. And of course the t-shirt.)
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Pat -- I'm really enjoying your blog! While 17 or 18 miles is too far for me, I've done chunks of the runs you're photographing, including an amazing stretch of Flatbush Ave. I've passed that "We Care Why Don't You" sign many times. Now I'm inspired to run into Brownsville, untried territory for me (I usually head into Bushwick). What kind of responses have you had from taking photos in running gear?
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoy it.
I've had a couple of people make friendly jokes--a guy who was in my frame asked me "do me justice." Another said it wasn't fair for me to take his picture because he didn't say cheese. And there was that one unhappy security guard at Bronx Community College.
Generally, I try not to make people the subjects of my shots--I'm not slick enough with a camera to go playing Walker Evans, especially while running.
I'm helped in all this by the fact that it's winter. There just aren't as many people on the streets. Things may get weirder in summer.