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Walt Whitman, gay love and a posthumous novel
The cover of Song of Myself: A Novel by Arnie Kantrowitz
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Tatiana Fernandez/Sentinel Voices
Daniel Dell Blake doesn’t want to fit in. He wants the right to stand out.
But in a small fictional town of Elysium, New York, that’s a dangerous wish.
Blake is the main character in – Song of Myself: A Novel.
He was created four decades ago by a gay rights pioneer – Arnie Kantrowitz.
Now – nearly three years after Kantrowitz’s death – his partner has succeeded in finally getting the novel published.
On an overcast day in New York City’s West Village, Dr. Larry Mass shuffled across the polished concrete floor of the New York City AIDS Memorial.
He’s part of the Stonewall Generation — a cohort of LGBTQ activists who were energized by the Stonewall uprising in 1969.
Dr. Mass is a co-founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and he wrote the first news report on AIDS.
At the memorial – he stopped at the end of an inscription etched into the floor.
“Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged,
Missing me one place, search another.,
I stop somewhere here, waiting for you,” Mass read.
Those are the final lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself,” which is included in his seminal poetry collection Leaves of Grass.
For Mass, Whitman, the poet, is fundamentally entwined with memories of his partner.
“No matter what horror or tragedy you’ve gone through, no matter what pain, no matter what color you are, no matter what religion. He embodies that. He will always be there,” as Mass began to weep.
Dr. Larry Mass reflects on his partner Arnie Kantrowitz’s legacy at New York City’s AIDS Memorial.
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Ryan Benk/NPR
Sitting near the memorial’s fountain, he explained why Whitman’s words have long been so important to many queer people.
“Society does not acknowledge these people in any way, shape or form,” he said. “They have no idea even who they are. And here’s this poetic voice of humanity who keeps saying again and again ‘I am your voice. I am your spirit. I am the grass on which you stand.’”
Mass’s partner – Arnie Kantrowitz – was not only a scholar of Walt Whitman – he considered him part of his life and soul.
That closeness informs Kantrowitz’ novel, “Song of Myself” – and the journey of its protagonist, Daniel Dell Blake.
In the book, a knowing teacher gifts young Daniel a copy of Leaves of Grass, and Daniel carries that collection of poetry along with him – from the home of his tyrannically religious father, to New York City and his first love, to a World War II POW camp, and then back to the U.S., where Daniel is jailed for sodomy.
The character’s experiences mirror the history of gay life in the 20th century.
At a book launch event last month in New York City’s LGBT Community Center, friends and fellow activists talked as much about Arnie Kantrowitz’s life and legacy as the fictional adventure he wrote.
John Adrian took one of Kantrowitz’s gay literature classes at the College of Staten Island in the 1990s.
“He was so open and honest about who he was and I thought ‘he’s awfully bold,’” Adrian said.
Adrian added that the scholar and gay rights activist taught him to be unapologetic.
That characteristic was on full display in a 1973 appearance on Jack Paar Tonite, when Kantrowitz turned a homophobic barb back on the late night host, winning laughs from the crowd and even getting a chuckle from Paar himself.
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It’s that cleverly charismatic version of Arnie Kantrowitz that the gay activist wrote into his own novel, imagining a meet-up with the adult Daniel Dell Blake at a rally.
Kantrowitz co-founded the organization now known as GLAAD – and was recognized in the 1970’s for his autobiography “Under the Rainbow: Growing up Gay.”
But as he got older, he wasn’t as widely known as others in his circle.
Judith Stellboum, who taught literature at State Island College with Kantrowitz, said the man she worked with just didn’t care about publicity.
“He never was pretentious. If you didn’t know about his book he never would say ‘I’m Arnie Kantrowitz and I wrote the first book about … ‘ You know, he didn’t have an ego like that,” she said.
Kantrowitz started writing his Song of Myself in the 1980s – and an editor’s note says that since it’s being published posthumously, the decision was made to only copy edit the story. It also acknowledges that the novel is a product of its time, and could have used sensitivity readers to review some of his characters.
Still, the novel is empathetic and funny and fiercely defensive of all marginalized people – something Kantrowitz was always known for.
Back at the AIDS Memorial, Dr. Larry Mass remembered when his partner gave up on publishing his novel.
“Arnie’s heart was broken that it didn’t find a home in this first go-around, but that happens. It was also happening during the height of AIDS and he didn’t want to bother people,” Mass recalled.
Kantrowitz just thought there were probably more important stories to tell at the time, but Mass thought then – as he does now — that his partner’s words are timeless.
Mass hopes that, just like how Daniel Dell Blake finds himself in Walt Whitman’s words in Song of Myself, maybe some other fellow traveler might some day find themselves in the words of Arnie Kantrowitz.
Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet.
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Kate Green/Getty Images
Actor Jessie Buckley says she’s always been drawn to the “shadowy bits” of her characters — aspects that are disobedient, or “too much.” Perhaps that’s what led her to play Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.
Buckley says the film, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, offered a chance to counter a common narrative about the playwright’s wife: that she “had kept him back from his genius,” Buckley says.
But, she adds, “What Maggie O’Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare’s wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people … and give them status beside this great man. … [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.”
The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best actress for Buckley. In it, she plays a woman deeply connected to nature, who faces conflicts in her marriage, as well as the death of their son Hamnet.
Buckley found out she was pregnant a week after the film wrapped. She’s since given birth to her first child, a daughter.
“The thing that this story offered me, that brought me into this next chapter of my life as a mother was tenderness,” she says. “A mother’s tenderness is ferocious. To love, to birth is no joke. To be born is no joke. And the minute something’s born into the world, you’re always in the precipice of life and death. That’s our path. … I wanted to be a mother so much that that overrode the thought of being afraid of it.”
Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.
Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features
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Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features
Interview highlights
On filming the scene where she howls in grief when her son dies
I didn’t know that that was going to happen or come out, it wasn’t in the script. I think really [director] Chloé [Zhao] asked all of us to dare to be as present as possible. Of course, leading up to it, you’re aware this scene is coming, but that scene doesn’t stand on its own. By the time I’d met that scene, I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet, and [co-stars] Paul [Mescal] and Emily Watson, and all the children and we really were a family. And Jacobi Jupe who plays Hamnet is such an incredible little actor and an incredible soul, and we really were a team. …
The death of a child is unfathomable. I don’t know where it begins and ends. Out of utter respect, I tried to touch an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could, but there’s no way to define that kind of grief. I’m sure it’s different for so many people. And in that moment, all I had was my imagination but also this relationship that was right in front of me with this little boy and that’s what came out of that.
On what inspired her to pursue singing growing up
I grew up around a lot of music. My mom is a harpist and a singer and my dad has always been passionate about music, so it was always something in our house and always something that was encouraged. … Early on, I have very strong memories of seeing and hearing my mom sing in church and this quite intense mercurial conversation that would happen between her, the story and the people that would listen to her. And at the end of it, something had been cracked between them and these strangers would come up with tears in their eyes. And I guess I saw the power of storytelling through my mom’s singing at a very young age, and that was definitely something that made me think I want to do that.
On her first big break performing as a teen on the BBC singing competition I’d Do Anything — and being criticized by judges about her physical appearance
I was raw. I hadn’t trained. I had a lot to learn and to grow in. I was only 17. I think there was part of their criticism which I think was destructive and unfair when it became about my awkwardness, or they would say I was masculine and send me to kind of a femininity school. … They sent me to [the musical production of] Chicago to put heels on and a leotard and learn how to walk in high heels, which was pretty humiliating, to be honest, and I’m sad about that because I think I was discovering myself as a young woman in the world and wasn’t fully formed. … I was different. I was wild, I had a lot of feeling inside me. I could hardly keep my hands beside myself and I think to kind of criticize a body of a young woman at that time and to make her feel conscious of that was lazy and, I think, boring.
On filming parts of the 2026 film The Bride! while pregnant
I really loved working when I was pregnant. I thought it was a pretty wild experience, especially because I was playing Mary Shelley and I was talking about [this] monstrosity, and here I was with two heartbeats inside me. Becoming a mom and being pregnant did something, I think, for me. My experience of it, it’s so real that it really focuses [me to be] allergic to fake or to disconnection.
Since my daughter has come and I know what that connection is and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody … as an actress, it’s very exciting to recognize that in yourself and really take ownership of yourself.
I’m excited to go back and work on this other side of becoming a mother in so many ways, because I’ve shed 10 layers of skin by loving more and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter. I’m also scared to work again because it’s hard to be a mother and to work. That’s like a constant tug because I love what I do and I’m passionate and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces that are yet to be filled — and also be a mother. And I think every mother can recognize that tug.
On the possibility of bringing her daughter to travel with her as she works
I haven’t filmed for nearly a year and I cannot wait. I’m hungry to create again. And my daughter will come with me. She’s seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us and it’s a beautiful life. And she meets all these amazing people and I have a feeling that she loves life and that’s a great thing to see in a child. And I hope that’s something that I’ve imparted to her in the short time that she’s been on this earth is that life is beautiful and great and complex and alive and there’s no part of you that needs to be less in your life. You might have to work it out, but it’s worth it.
Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Bruce Campbell
I’m Battling Cancer
Published
Bruce Campbell has revealed he has cancer, but says it’s a type that’s treatable, though not curable.
“The Evil Dead” actor shared the news Monday in a message to fans, writing, “Hi folks, these days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those.” He continued, “It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too.”
Campbell said he wouldn’t go into further detail about his diagnosis, but explained his work schedule will be changing. “Appearances and cons and work in general need to take back seat to treatment,” he wrote, adding he plans to focus on getting “as well as I possibly can over the summer.”
As a result, Campbell says he has to cancel several convention appearances this summer, noting, “Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand.”
He says his plan is to tour this fall in support of his new film, “Ernie & Emma,” which he stars in and directs.
Ending on a determined note, Campbell told fans, “I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch … and I expect to be around a while.”
Neve Campbell in Scream 7.
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Paramount Pictures
The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.
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