When: Friday, April 4, 2025, 7pm-9:30pm
Where: Walt Whitman Birthplace/State Historic Site/Interpretive Center, 246 Old Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station, NY 11746
Admission: $12 upon entry
Light refreshments served: yes
More info: Walt Whitman website; tel. 631-427-5240

Performers:

Hussein Habash is a Kurdish poet, born in 1970 in Afrin and now based in Bonn, Germany. His work has been translated into over 25 languages and published in more than 150 international poetry anthologies. His books include:

Drowning in Roses (2002)
Fugitives Across the Evros River (2004)
Higher than Lust and Tastier than the Loin of a Deer (2007)
Delusions to Salim Barakat (2009)
A Flying Angel, Texts about the Children of Syria (2013)
Quince Fever (2019)
Dead People Arguing in the Halls (2020)
Drunken Trees (2022)
Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan (2021)
Bored Tired Statue, Divan in Kurdish (2021)

Habash has participated in major poetry festivals worldwide, from Colombia and France to China and India. He has received numerous awards, including the International Best Poet Prize (China, 2016), the Hamid Bedirkhan Award (2022), the Bosnian Stećak Award (2022), and literary honors from Bangladesh and Morocco (2024).

Adah Hetko is a Yiddish singer/songwriter, dance leader, translator, and educator based in Boston. She leads the Yiddish song ensemble Levyosn (Ashkenazi Hebrew for “Leviathan”), which released their debut album, Levyosn’s Lullaby, in 2023. She also performs with th ensembles Soloveychicks and Eight Foot Babka. Adah is a regular faculty member at Yiddish New York and has studied Yiddish song with leading Yiddish singer sand songwriters. Visit her site AdahHetko.net

Josie Bello is a performing songwriter based in Huntington, NY. Her music is a mix of thoughtful lyrics and folk-style melodies. Visit her site JosieBello.com.

Hosted by George Wallace. A presentation of the Walt Whitman Birthplace/State Historic Site/Interpretive Center.