John O'Keefe brings Walt Whitman to life

Host Michael Rice chats it up with internationally-known playwright, soloist and director John O'Keefe as he attempts to embody the spirit of Walt Whitman in the recitation of Song of Myself.

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Television shows depict Walt Whitman. Musicians allude to him. Schools and bridges are named after him. Truck stops, apartment complexes, parks, think tanks, summer camps, corporate centers and shopping malls bear his name. Yet he is a poet hidden in plain sight. Most of us read him in high school and placed him as the good grey poet, not realizing the depth of his contribution, the profoundness of his message or the startling and erotic nature of his imagery.

In this time of division, red states and blue states, Whitman stands out as the voice of unity. He wrote the first version of Song Of Myself in 1855, when the United States was a mere seventy eight years old and five years from civil war. In spite of the horrendous division, corruption and the incipient collapse of his nation he found a way of celebrating the great experiment that was America. Song Of Myself has been called the Second Constitution of the United States. Whitman celebrated the non-celebrated, life itself, this place, this moment, what you do, how you help or hurt. He embraced the world, the grandness of everyday life, of breathing, of living, of ordinary things, and of work and of pride in it, and the gift of each child, woman and man.

Whitman, father of the Beats, inspiration to Rimbaud, Nietzsche and Bob Dylan, was poetry slamming when Victorians were making prissy couplets and playing hymns on the organ. He was the Original Gangster, self-published, heavily censored, homo-erotic, feminist, abolitionist, one of this country's greatest activists yet all embracing, all loving, and damn, he sounded good. Most of us have gotten Whitman from the page but the only way to know him is to hear him. He loved the human voice and he wrote for it.

John O'Keefe is an internationally acclaimed playwright, director, and solo performer. His adaptation of Song of Myself is a celebration, an incantation, giving the poet voice in this time and place where he is needed so much.