Bill Murray and the Brooklyn Bridge: Two New York City icons, united by poetry.
The 66-year-old actor will lead the annual Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge on June 12, which raises funds for Poets House, it was announced Monday.
It’s an event Murray has rarely missed. “Bill came to us through [Poets House vice president] Frank Platt — they were neighbors,” Poets House executive director Lee Briccetti told amNewYork on Monday.
“Bill fell in love with the event, with the serendipity of reading the poems on the bridge, and he’s proved himself to be a great supporter of Poets House,” she added.
Briccetti said after the first pilgrimage across the bridge in 1996 the event became “an instant tradition.” The walk, during which poetry is read under the bridge’s archways, is “incredibly powerful; reading poems about New York City in the very places they’re set,” Briccetti said.
Participation in the walk costs $250 and includes a dinner at 26 Bridge. Murray, who donated seed money for the Poets House library in the ’90s, will be among the honorees at the dinner.
Poets House, now in its 30th year and based in Battery Park City, boasts a 70,000-volume library of poetry and last year saw 80,000 visitors walk through its doors.
For more information about the event, visit poetshouse.org.
