The great American bard Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was not only a literary revolutionary and tireless champion of liberty, but also probably his century’s most high profile advocate of “the manly love of comrades”. In To Walt with Love, Manchester-based male voice choir The Sunday Boys join specialists in literature and modern languages from the University of Nottingham to celebrate Whitman’s life and loves, and his abiding influence on LGBT+ cultures, through poetry, music and image.

Established as a gay role-model or icon even before the word ‘gay’ acquired its modern meaning, Whitman has inspired some of the modern era’s most memorable queer writing, by figures as diverse as E.M. Forster, Allen Ginsberg, and two outstanding modernist poets of Iberia, the Spaniard Federico García Lorca and the Portuguese Fernando Pessoa. His verses have also been set to music by dozens of leading composers, many of whom also identified as gay or bisexual men. Tonight’s event, featuring Whitman settings – both old, and newly composed especially for the Sunday Boys - explores how these artists’ love of Walt enhanced their sometimes troubled relationship with their sexuality, and shaped the identity of an international LGBT+ ‘imagined community.

As our Festival events are free, not everyone who asks for tickets comes to our events. To make sure we have a full house we allocate more tickets than there are seats. Admission is on a first come, first served basis, so please arrive in good time for the start of the event.

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