This event is first in a series this year of special literary events at LACE presented by PEN. In the bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s birth, B.A. Van Sise will present and discuss Children of Grass, a series of portraits of the poets shaping America’s cultural landscape. Riffs on pieces by the poets themselves, the images are unforgettable, including U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo drinking coffee with a horse, and National Book Award finalist Danez Smith covered in red pigment in the middle of a crowded bus. Van Sise, a close living relative of Walt Whitman, is an internationally renowned photographer who has built a lasting tribute to the creativity flourishing in our country. He will be joined in conversation by Agatha French, Brynn Saito and Derrick C. Brown, two poets featured in the book, will join the celebration to read their poetry.