Karen Karbiener to Lead WHITMAN IN LOVE Talkback at Merchant’s House Museum

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NYU professor Karen Karbiener will discuss WHITMAN IN LOVE at the Merchant's House Museum with John Kevin Jones.

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NYU professor and President of the Walt Whitman Initiative , Karen Karbiener, is set to lead a post-show talkback discussion for Whitman in Love - Live Oak, with Moss, conceived and performed by John Kevin Jones (A Christmas Carol at the Merchant's House) for five performances only June 24-28 at the landmark 1832 Merchant's House (29 E. 4th St, Manhattan).

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Karbiener, who collaborated with Brian Selznick, Bestselling author and Caldecott Award–winning illustrator, on the book of never-before-seen Walt Whitman poetry Live Oak, with Moss, will appear following the Friday, June 26 at 6PM performance. Copies signed by both Karbiener and Selznick will be available for purchase.

Celebrate the timeless poetry of Walt Whitman with John Kevin Jones ' tribute, Whitman in Love - Live Oak, with Moss. Jones, best known for his performances over the last 14 years in A Christmas Carol at the Merchant's House (29 E. 4th St, Manhattan), invites you to explore the personal life of Walt Whitman and his lovers. Surrounded by nature we'll raise our glasses to the unrivaled legacy of “America's Poet,” for five performances only, June 24-28, in the Merchant House Museum's jewel-box garden.

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 hidden love making legible his deepest desires. This poem cycle confirms Whitman as a queer icon of his time, and Whitman in Love honors this 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 and who's letters, along with many others, are heard in this evocative performance.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/President-of-Walt-Whitman-Initiative-to-Lead-WHITMAN-IN-LOVE-Talkback-20260610)._