Walking With Whitman featuring poets Rommi Smith and Deborah Hauser with musician Rori Kelly to continue our 11th year in this signature series.
Event Video Link: https://youtu.be/_uuTCrPbF4M
WWBA is delighted to present the 11th season of Walking With Whitman, hosted by Writer-in-Residence George Wallace.(All links mentioned in this video are below). The signature series continues to bring the most intriguing figures in contemporary literature on the national scene paired with local poets on WWBA’s Virtual Stage. May’s featured readers are British poet Rommi Smith and local poet Deborah Hauser. Live performance by Long Island Singer-Songwriter Rorie Kelly!
Rommi Smith is an award-winning poet, playwright, theatre-maker, performer and librettist. Winner of numerous prestigious residencies and commissions for institutions ranging from the British Council to the BBC, she is a three-time BBC writer-in-residence. She is the inaugural British Parliamentary Writer in Residence and inaugural Poet-in-Residence for Keats’ House, Hampstead. Her writing is published by Bloodaxe, New York University Press, Seren, Shoestring Press, Route, Oberon Modern Plays, and Peepal Tree Press, among others. In 2018, she founded her own production company and small press: 125th& Midnight. Rommi is finalising her practice-led PhD. A Visiting Scholar at City University New York (CUNY), she has presented her work at institutions including: The Segal Theater, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black culture and City College New York. Her academic writing was first published by New York University Press as part of the groundbreaking book Imagining Queer Methods (2019).
Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Bellevue Literary Review, The Cortland Review, and SWWIM. She has taught at Stony Brook University and Suffolk County Community College. She leads a double life on Long Island where she works in the insurance industry.
Rorie Kelly makes ladybeast music. Her life’s mission is to create music that inspires others to love themselves fiercely and become their own heroes. Rorie’s empowerment anthem “If You Teach a Bird to Sing” led her to perform at the Obama White House and earned her a top 10 staff pick from WFUV’s John Platt. Rorie performs weekly on her livestream Monday Night Muses, and you can tune in every Monday night from 7pm-9pm ET on her Facebook, Youtube, or Twitch page. Her new album Shadow Work is a big, dark, witchy album about healing wounds and shining a light in the darkness. It can be found on all streaming platforms or purchased on her website – shop.roriekelly.com
