Grand Marais Public Library premieres Patrick Scully’s Leaves of Grass—Illuminated in Grand Marais at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 24. This solo performance by Patrick Scully summons the spirit of America’s great poet, Walt Whitman, revealing Whitman’s many sides: from the furtive— changing genders to “straighten things up,” to the fierce—defying the censors and getting banned in Boston. Whitman is truly an artist for 2017, a poet who loved America, and used his writing to strategically transform what he believed needed to be changed.
Leaves of Grass—Illuminated reflects Whitman’s utopian dreams, and his 19th century tribulations. It focuses on relationships between men, and the forces that seek to deny them. It draws from history, art, literature, even opera, and presents aspects of Whitman’s life, times and work that are fascinating today, now that discussions of male/male relations have finally moved out of the shadows into the light of day.
This show is the product of over 10 years of research and development. A large cast version of this show opened in Minneapolis to critical acclaim in 2014. Scully developed that version into a one-man show in a residency at MANCC at Florida State University in 2015, and premiered Leaves of Grass—Illuminated in New York City and Minneapolis in 2016. He is now, in 2017/18, touring it to 24 communities in Minnesota, with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Legacy Funds.
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