Celebrate Spring with Flannery and Walt!
Compagnia de’ Colombari is excited to ring in the spring season with two events celebrating a couple of our favorite authors: Flannery O'Connor and Walt Whitman!
March 25th is Flannery O'Connor's 100th birthday, and we honor her centennial with a screening, panel and refreshments. On April 3rd, we "celebrate ourselves" with the launch of Whitman on Walls! Anthology Volume 2, featuring poems and drawings from 2023 and 2024 WoW! participants.
Compagnia de' Colombari presents a work-in-process presentation of selected scenes from a theatrical adaptation of REVELATION by Flannery O’Connor, adapted and directed by Karin Coonrod featuring Trezana Beverly, KenYatta Rogers, Stacey Sherrell, Carlton Terrence Taylor, Whitney Andrews, Jo Mei, Ahmad Kamal, and Julian Elijah Martinez.
REVELATION Share-Out
Wednesday, June 4, 2025 at 7pm
St.Paul's Church (234 Congress at Court Street)
RSVP HERE
As a play, REVELATION is performed in three movements: 1) A doctor's office or the vestibule of Hell; 2) A bedroom and a pig parlor or twisting and turning on Earth, like a female Job; 3) Revelation or Heaven's fire. The O'Connor Estate's (from whom Karin Coonrod is the only director granted permission to adapt her work for the stage) mandate is to perform the piece verbatim, as written.
Our presentation is held at St. Paul's Church in Brooklyn, at the intersection of Court and Congress Streets, in the downstairs space. Light refreshments will be served, and a meet-and-greet will follow the performance.
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Whitman on Walls! (WoW!) is a hybrid event that brings living poets and Colombari performers on film together to explore Walt Whitman's iconic words and uncover what democracy and community mean to artists and poets today. It's a drive-in movie meets poetry slam!
In response to the host of performance cancellations in 2020, Compagnia de' Colombari turned Karin Coonrod’s original production of MORE OR LESS I AM into short films. Working with Whitman's iconic poem, "Song of Myself," Colombari created seven short films with actors and musicians around the globe, bringing Whitman’s words to life in startling and beautiful new ways intermixed with live responses from local poets and performers. Colombari plans to tour WoW! in all 50 states of the USA by 2026 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Whitman on Walls (WoW!) Tour Dates 2025:
May 3, 2025, 4-6PM: Williamstown, MA, at The Clark Art Institute (225 South Street). More info HERE.
June 23, 2025, 5-7PM: New Haven, CT, at the Beinecke Library (121 Wall Street). More info HERE.
To better understand WoW! and its effect on poets and communities, please read this marvelous feature by Kate Abbott, "Contemporary Poets Share Songs of Polyphonic Selves," first published in the Berkshire Eagle, May 3, 2025, now on BTW Berkshires covering Colombari's collaboration with Tupelo Press at The Clark.
Whitman on Walls! (WoW!) design created by Kyle Morrissey of White Bicycle
Whitman on Walls! Anthology Volume 2
Book Launch
We are thrilled to announce Volume 2 of the WoW! Anthology published in collaboration with The MFA Program in Creative Writing, The City College of NY, CUNY, and the Henry LUCE Foundation.
Thursday, April 3 | 5-7PM
Shepard 95 | Music Auditorium
The City College of NY
160 Convent Avenue
NY, New York 10031
The evening will showcase screenings of select WoW! films, talks from the contributors, and readings from featured poets. Books will be available for purchase and are complimentary for the featured poets. This event launches the next season of Whitman on Walls! for 2025, as the community project tours NYC and the USA.
Whitman on Walls! Anthology Volume 2 cover design by Zach Stanik and Lauren Gatta
©2024 Mikołaj Cempla, HumanStories.studio
The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies,
in collaboration with Compagnia de’ Colombari, presents
Flannery O’Connor @ 100 Takes the Stage:
A Film, Conversation, & Celebration
A screening of the play Everything That Rises Must Converge, filmed in Rome by Mikołaj Cempla, HumanStories Studio, followed by a panel discussion featuring Karin Coonrod, Mark L. Chapman,
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, KenYatta Rogers, Carlton Terrence Taylor
Tuesday, March 25 | 6:30 p.m.
Fordham University | Rose Hill Campus
441 East Fordham Road | Bronx, New York
Duane Library | Tognino Hall
Join Us! (Please RSVP)
Please contact cacs@fordham.edu for additional information.