Whitman: Civil War & Peace Poems & Journal Entries

On Saturday, October 21, 2006, 8 PM, the Candlelight Reading Series presents a special program, "Whitman: Civil War & Peace Poems & Journal Entries" recited by Freddy Niagara Fonseca and Steve White, renowned actor and stage director returning to Fairfield, at Revelations Bookstore & Cafe, upstairs, 112 North Main Street, Fairfield, Iowa. Freddy and Steve will be reading selections from Whitman’s poetry and journal entries from around the time of the Civil War.

Whitman, best known for his poetry of course, reaches out movingly and powerfully in his journal entries. His prose style is very straightforward, decidely less verbose than any of his verse, and speaks volumes. He draws you in completely. It is as simple as that.

In one of the entries, Whitman who served as a nurse during the Civil War, writes about his tending two soldiers who as it turned out were brothers, both badly injured after fighting in the same battle but on opposite sides. Both ended up in the same hospital, one ward apart, and died. ‘When I read that the first time,’ Freddy says, ‘I was in tears.’

This reading is a unique opportunity to hear two contrasting sides of Whitman's contribution to the consciousness of America. Admission is free.

PROGRAM

FNF—Eighteen Sixty-One

SW—Opening of the Secession War

SW & FNF—Beat! Beat! Drums!

FNF—My Preparations for Visits

FNF—I Was Looking a Long While

SW—A Connecticut Case

FNF—Bivouac on a Mountain Side

FNF & SW—Come Up from the Fields, Father

SW—Soldiers and Talks

SW—Cavalry Crossing a Ford