The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association will recognize and thank Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist leader, educator and poet, at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 26, for donating a statue of Walt Whitman to the association.
Ikeda will receive the Champion of Literacy award for his contributions to "lifelong learning" as a poet, author, educator and founder of the Soka Schools system.
In 2009 the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association established the Champion of Literacy Award to recognize the best supporters of literacy.
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“Literary Achiever Champions are individuals who enhance the impact of literacy through their body of work comprised of any writing genre," said Cynthia Shor, director. "They have gone beyond their craft and attained notable success in promoting and nurturing literacy.”
Shor prasied Ikeda’s “zeal for lifelong learning," and cited Ikeda as “exceptionally deserving of the Champion of Literacy title” for having consistently promoted literacy not only through his writing but also through the establishment of research and educational institutes that develop cross-cultural interdisciplinary collaboration on diverse issues.
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The award ceremony will be held at the Whitman Birthplace, with some 300 participants, and will include a musical tribute by a 50-piece youth orchestra and youth chorus and dancers. 400 people are expected to attend the event from 11-1 p.m.
Ikeda is a Buddhist leader, peacebuilder, a prolific writer, poet, educator and founder of a number of cultural, educational and peace research institutions around the world.
As third president of the Soka Gakkai (value-creating society) and founder of the Soka Gakkai International, Ikeda has developed what may be the largest, most diverse international lay Buddhist association in the world.
Ikeda has often recounted how as an 18 year-old living amidst the devastation of post-war Japan, his soul was uplifted and revived by the poetry of Walt Whitman, and has paid tribute to him in many of his writings.
After a visit to the Walt Whitman Birthplace on June 20, 1981, Ikeda wrote in the guest book, “Now I’ve come to the birth-house of Walt Whitman, who, in my youth, always brought a rush of uplift to my heart. What is a poet? What is a poetical mind? Now, returning to my original, natural spirit, I spend a time of contemplation.”
