BY AIDAN GRAHAM
It was a hairy situation!
Follically gifted New Yorkers
went chin to chin at Fort
Greene Park for the Walt Whitman
Beard and Mustache Competition
on June 8.
Part of a series of events
hosted by the Brooklyn Public
Library, the contest was meant
to celebrate the 200th birthday
of the legendary Brooklyn bard,
who moonlighted as a staunch
beard-proponent.
“The beard is a great sanitary
protection to the throat —
for purposes of health it should
always be worn, just as much as
the hair of the head should be,”
Whitman once said.
Heading the advice of the
famed Brooklyn wordsmith,
unshaven competitors fl ocked
to the Fort Greene playground
to compete in eight facial hairrelated
categories, judged by
professional comedians Sue
Smith, Jordan Temple, and
Murf Meyer.
The event’s marquee honor,
the Good Gray Poet award for
best in show, was bestowed to
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Nayland Blake for his Whitman
esque whiskers.
“It was very exciting,” he
said. “I felt like I was doing some
honor to Whitman’s legacy.”
Blake, who had entered the
competition for ‘Best Natural
Beard’ before taking home the
event’s top honor as consolation,
said he had been training
for this moment for years.
“I’ve had a beard for most of
my adult life, but the last time
I trimmed this particular iteration
was about six years ago,”
he said.
CONTESTED: Bearded contestants pose at the Walt Whitman Beard &
Moustache Competition. Brooklynite Albert Vidal poses with his Walt
Whitman inspired trophy. Photos by Caroline Ourso
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