Brooklyn Public Library celebrates the bicentennial of Walt Whitman with a full recitation of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" featuring Brooklynites reading Whitman's iconic words

Brooklyn Public Library celebrates the bicentennial of Walt Whitman's birthday with a full recitation of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" featuring Brooklynites (including Parachute’s Director & Poet, Amanda Deutch) reading Whitman's iconic words

Brooklyn Public Library celebrates the bicentennial of Walt Whitman's birthday with a full recitation of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" featuring Brooklynites reading Whitman's iconic words aloud in locations all across the borough he loved, and in our libraries. READERS (in order of appearance) 1. Karen Karbiener 2. Tina Chang 3.

POET, TYEHIMBA JESS WINS THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HIS BOOK, OLIO.

Congratulations to Tyehimba Jess on winning the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his book, Olio (2016, Wave Books).  We are so happy for Tyehimba and can't wait to read what he writes next.

The last time we saw Tyehimba Jess, he was riding on the Wonder Wheel for Parachute Literary Arts event, Poem-a-Rama.  Poem-a-Rama was the first literary event on the landmark Deno's Wonder Wheel in Coney Island.  Sixteen New York City poets rode the Wonder Wheel while reciting poetry or prose to people who rode the iconic wheel along with them.  Tyehimba Jess read on the Wonder Wheel from his (then unreleased) book, Olio.

Hear how sky opens its maw to swallow
Earth? To claim each being and blade and rock
with its spit? Become your own full sky. Own
every damn sound that struts through your ears.
Shove notes in your head till they bust out where
your eyes supposed to shine.

from Tyehimba Jess's poem, "What the Wind, Rain, and Thunder Said to Tom"