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Speaker Tom Casey speaks about the importance of the Pine Barrens. Tom is on the board for both the Pine Barrens Society, an environmental advocacy group, and Quogue Wildlife Refuge in southeast Suffolk County. He’s been hiking in the Pine Barrens for more than 40 years. WWBA Trustee and ecopoet Mark Nuccio reads Whitman’s ecopoetry and essays and Singer-Songwriter Linda Sussman performs a musical interlude with environmental lyrics.
Our 2024 Series compares Whitman’s literary celebrations of his native Long Island environment circa 1824 with current conservational commentaries two hundred years later in 2024. Sessions open with a poem or essay by ecopoet Walt Whitman followed by a community conversation led by notable Long Island environmentalists. Programs focus on Environmental Justice issues for Long Island communities which include access to clean water, pollution free environment, and a financially accessible food supply. Walt Whitman heralded the beauty of Long Island and its topological characteristics of the fields, forests, creeks, wetlands, bays, sound and ocean from Brooklyn to Montauk Point. His writings are infused with this environment. Our Series illuminates the agrarian and aquatic-based society in which he was born and which he heralded in his writings, such as “Leaves of Grass” and other publications.
