Demystifying Melville and Moby

Herman Melville’s classic American tale, Moby-Dick, comes alive this Saturday, with a lecture and two walking tours at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. The lecture will start at 10am, and the walking tours will start at 1pm and 4pm.  The lecture will take place in the New Bedford Whaling National Park visitor center at 33 William Street, downtown New Bedford, and both tours will begin in the lobby.  Admission is free for all events.

“Demystifying Melville and Moby,” a talk by Irene Duprey-Gutierrez, will take place at the visitor center theater at 10:00 AM. Duprey-Gutierrez, who holds a doctorate in educational leadership, is a writer and retired English and journalism teacher.

The 1pm walking tour, offered by educator and park volunteer Diane Duprey, will follow Ishmael from his arrival in New Bedford until he takes the schooner to Nantucket where he signs on as a crew member on the “Pequod.”  Along the way the tour will visit sites that Ishmael visited and others similar to ones mentioned in Melville’s Moby Dick.

The 4pm walking tour, offered by park volunteer Peter Hacunda, will give visitors a sense of the New Bedford that Herman Melville would have seen and experienced during his time here in New Bedford.

Moby-Dick has become a part of popular culture throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, popping up in everything from a Led Zeppelin song to The Simpsons to Star Trek. There are many different adaptations of Moby-Dick in a variety of genres. This year, to mark the 160th anniversary of its publication, the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park all come together to celebrate the iconic tale of the great whale in art, on screen, in community and on stage. For more information on these events, go to www.zeiterion.org, www.whalingmusuem.org, and www.nps.gov/nebe.