(AGENPARL) – mar 16 maggio 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 16, 2023
The Merchant’s House Museum
Presents
Whitman in Love
Live Oak, with Moss & Other Poems
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Conceived and Performed by
John Kevin Jones
(A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House)
4 Performances Only!
Wednesday, June 21 – Saturday, June 24
at the Merchant’s House Museum
Half a century following Whitman’s 1892 passing, a secret notebook was discovered containing an early 12-poem series titled”Live Oak, with Moss”which had been heavily revised and incorporated into his later opus “Leaves of Grass.”Performed by Jones, the original series of unrevised poems reveals Whitman’s intimate emotions and his deep vulnerability as he daringly traces a searing romantic relationship with another man. This poem cycle confirms Whitman as a queer icon of his time, andWhitman in Love honors this hidden legacy of “America’s poet.”
Walt Whitman’s life in New York City brought him frequently to the neighborhood of the Merchant’s House. Whitman took nightly refuge at the bohemian Pfaff’s beer cellar, on Broadway at Bleecker Street, where he met his love Fred Vaughan, who inspired some of Whitman’s most romantic verse.
The production’s performance schedule is:
– Wednesday, June 21 at 7PM
– Thursday, June 22 at 7PM
– Friday, June 23 at 7PM – followed by a post-show talkback with participants to be announced.
– Saturday, June 24 at 7PM – followed by a post-show talkback with participants to be announced.
JOHN KEVIN JONES. Kevin is a member of Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and the Dramatists Guild of America. New York: A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House, Killing an Evening with Edgar Allen Poe (Summoners Ensemble), Nothing But Trash (TFTNC), Jeffrey (Lincoln Center), The Winter’s Tale and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Hipgnosis Theatre). Regional: The Pavilion (American Stage), Othello (Arkansas Rep), The Rivals, All My Sons (Kentucky Rep), Angels in America, Gross Indecency (Playhouse on the Square). BA in Theatre Performance from the University of South Florida and MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Memphis.
MERCHANT’S HOUSE MUSEUM. Built in 1832, the Merchant’s House is New York City’s only 19th
century family home preserved virtually intact, with original family furnishings and personal
belongings. A unique survivor of Old New York, the House offers an intimate glimpse of how a
prosperous merchant family and their Irish servants lived from 1835-1865, when New York City grew
from seaport to thriving metropolis.
The Merchant’s House is a National Historic Landmark and in New York City is distinguished as one
of only 121 buildings that have NYC landmark status for both its exterior and interior.
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