Performance of “Song of Myself” with Johnny Stallings

To celebrate Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday, Johnny Stallings will perform “Song of Myself.” A great poem, and a sacred text, “Song of Myself” is a poem that can change the way you see the world.

Walt Whitman was born on Long Island on May 31, 1819. He published his first book of poems in 1855, titled Leaves of Grass. “Song of Myself” was one of twelve poems included in that edition. Harold Bloom calls Walt Whitman the greatest modern poet and “Song of Myself” his greatest poem. At Whitman’s funeral in 1892, Robert Ingersoll called him “the most eminent citizen of this Republic” and “one of the bravest, sweetest souls that ever lived.”

$20 — all income donated to The Village Zendo

Painting of Walt Whitman by Rick Bartow


Johnny Stallings is an actor, director and writer. He has been practicing meditation and mindfulness for 50 years. He has performed solo versions of King Lear and Hamlet. He is Executive Director of Open Hearts Open Minds, and has directed Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other Shakespeare plays at Two Rivers prison in Oregon.

Johnny encountered “Song of Myself” shortly after graduating from high school in 1969. Walt has been his traveling companion ever since. He has been performing the poem for the past 30 years. Johnny writes, “In addition to its literary merit, no poem has had a greater influence on subsequent American poetry. ‘Song of Myself’ is America’s greatest contribution to the world’s mystical literature. It is the closest thing we have to the Bhagavad Gita or the Tao Te Ching. Walt Whitman is our Rumi.” Johnny predicts that the performance and the discussion which follows will be a nonstop love-in.

Hear more about Johnny’s history with the poem in his Marfa Public Radio interview.

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