Storm: From Whitman's Election Day to Ours

Philadelphia Youth Poets Laureate and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society respond to Walt Whitman's "Election Day: November 1884"

On September 17, #VoteThatJawn held a reading conceived in partnership with the Kelly Writers House and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (PCMS), to explore civic engagement and the youth vote through poetic responses to Walt Whitman's poem, “Election Day: November 1884."

The Kelly Writers House featured original poems by Philadelphia Youth Poets Laureate Soledad Alfaro-Allah, Siduri Beckman, Cydney Brown, Mia Concepcion, David Jones, and Wes Matthews, with music from composer Kenji Bunch and musician Karla Donehew-Perez, and introductions from Philadelphia Poet Laureate Trapeta Mayson.

You can find the Youth Poets Laureate responses to Whitman's poem in the flip book below.

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (PCMS) continued the exploration of Whitman's poem with the October 30th World Premiere/PCMS Commission of "the still, small voice," by composer Kenji Bunch. Harlem Quartet and Catalyst Quartet will perform. Watch the performance below.