Whitman in Love 26-27

American journalist, essayist, and pioneering poet Walt Whitman took nightly refuge at Pfaff's beer cellar just blocks from the Merchant's House on Broadway at Bleecker Street, a bohemian gathering place where he found community, inspiration, and the human intimacy that shaped his work. In the Museum’s jewel-box garden audiences will encounter the deeply personal love poetry of Walt Whitman in an idyllic theatrical setting that brings them face-to-face with one of the most powerful and revealing strands of his work.

Complimentary refreshments, including hard seltzers, soft drinks, and light snacks will be available before each performance.

Whitman in Love draws from the poet’s “Live Oak, with Moss” — a sequence of poems composed in the 1850s and widely recognized as among the earliest sustained expressions of same-sex love in American literature. Later camouflaged in the Calamus section of Leaves of Grass, the poems trace an emotional arc of desire, tenderness, heartbreak, and resilience. Whitman in Love places these verses in conversation with contemporary voices and personal relationships that shaped Whitman’s inner life and artistic imagination. The result is a theatrical portrait of the poet not as a monument, but as a man: yearning, beloved, vulnerable, and transformed by love.

To attend all three shows with a season ticket – click here or the tab "packages" in the header of this page. 

Not recommended for children under 12.