Whitman sampler Walt Whitman impersonator visits BCC English students BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer KAREN BOWES Walt Whitman impersonator Darrel Blaine Ford reads from “Leaves of Grass” at Brookdale Community College on Dec. 14. In the background hangs an 1887 photo of Whitman. Everywhere he goes, Walt Whitman gets the same old question. Are you gay or what? Luckily, the 181-year-old icon takes the question with a shaker full of salt. “I do not know if he was a homosex-ual,” Walt Whitman impersonator Darrel Blaine Ford said recently at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft. “But from everything I’ve read, the conclusion is inescapable.” Whitman’s words became flesh, literally, with Ford’s dead-on take of the Long Island-born poet during a special session sponsored by the college’s English department. About 50 students turned out for the event, a one-night stand of informative facts and insights into the life of the groundbreaking poet. Whitman (1819-92) is best known for his 1855 poetry collection, “Leaves of Grass.” The short book of poems contains such gems as “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric.” Considered vulgar and sexually explicit at the time of its publication, “Leaves of Grass” is now considered a masterpiece. Whitman also penned the poem “O Captain, My Captain,” as a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln shortly after the president’s 1865 assassination. Born into poverty on rural Long Island, Whitman and his family moved to Brooklyn when he was 5 years old. According to Ford, Whitman’s sexuality is more of an issue today than it was during the poet’s lifetime. With his thick white beard, kindly face and rosy cheeks, the 76-year-old Ford could just as easily pass for Santa Claus as he does for Whitman. The only glaring difference is that Ford-as-Whitman prefers the traditional black-on-black suit of a mid-19th century Quaker over the comparatively flashy outfits associated with Santa. Still, when it came time for questions and answers, the inevitable inquiry into Whitman’s sexuality was the first, and pretty much only, real question. “He wasn’t gay because the word and the concept didn’t exist at the time,” Ford told the students. “There were other words — catamite. He revealed himself at a time when that was unlikely.” But by revealing himself, Ford does not mean “coming out of the closet.” Whitman’s work was embraced by almost no one during his lifetime, not because it was thought to be homosexual in nature, but because of its explicit use of language to describe the human body, its functions and human range of emotions. According to Ford, only the highly educated elite, a group Whitman had very little contact with, found the book noteworthy. Harvard-educated Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, was a fan while Whitman’s own mother, literate but uneducated, never even read it. His brother, a colonel in the Union Army, was said to have tried to read it but gave up because “he couldn’t make anything of it,” Ford said. “He came from the very lowest quarters of society,” said the actor. “He had only gone to school for five years in Brooklyn.” Nevertheless, Whitman was far ahead of his time when it came to views on war, slavery and human sexuality. He had what could be considered today a long-term relationship with another man, Ford said. But there are “no eye-witnesses” to attest to this. For students, “Leaves of Grass” can still be controversial stuff. It can also serve as inspiration for anyone who has not quite found their place in life. Whitman, a former journalist, teacher, nurse, printer, newspaper publisher, political organizer and editor, did not publish his first work of poetry, “Leaves of Grass,” until he was 36. “I wrote ‘Leaves of Grass’ between 1850 and 1855,” said Ford, while in character as Whitman. “It was a period of great disappointment for me.” A dedicated abolitionist, Whitman campaigned for presidential candidates associated with the Free Soilers Party, a group opposed to slavery. Whitman’s early exposure to slavery and the roughness of war are also explored in the 1855 edition of “Leaves of Grass,” a work he continued to revise for the rest of his life. Ford read several selections from “Leaves of Grass,” including the following choice that seemed tailor-made for the college audience: “Stand up for the stupid and crazy ... hate tyrants ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church ... the poet shall not spend time on un-needful work. ...”