Stef Russell talks to Maryville University's Germaine Murray (Professor of English & Humanities) and Dana Levin (Distinguished Writer-in-Residence) as they walk us through "Whitman: Up Close," an exhibit at the May Gallery. The show, on view through October 18, is part of "Whitmania!", a semester-long celebration of all things Whitman on the occasion of his 200th birthday. Germaine and Dana talked about why Whitman considered himself more printer than poet, his love of technology, and his surprising ties to St. Louis. Note: because this is a field recording, there's some mic noise throughout, most noticeably at the halfway point; rather than pull that section (where mic noise overlaps voices), we left it intact, because we didn't want to lose the commentary about naked Walt Whitman (!) and the photographer Thomas Eakins. "Whitmania!" wraps up on November 3 with "Whitman Set to Song," a concert in the Maryville University Auditorium.

Whitmania!
https://www.maryville.edu/whitmania/
https://stlouispoetrycenter.org/whitmania/

The Morton J. May Gallery
https://www.maryville.edu/about/news-and-events/morton-j-may-foundation-gallery/

The Walt Whitman Archive
https://whitmanarchive.org