Podcast appearances and mentions of leah umansky

Today's poem is The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I hear in today's poem a spirit of riffing and casting forward in expressive notes. The speaker progresses by way of shifts and variations that ultimately arrives like a jazz solo. It's where I find solace in movement and truth, in an embrace of simplicity.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Tyranny comes in many forms. But Leah Umansky uses her art—poetry—to remind us that whether the tyrant is personal, societal, or political—resistance is possible.   Leah Umansky is a poet, writer, artist and writing coach. She has been an educator for over 15 years and teaches 8th and 10th grade English at a private school in New York. She is also the author of three collections of poetry: “OF TYRANT,” “The Barbarous Century,” “Domestic Uncertainties,” and two chapbooks, “Straight Away the Emptied World” and the Mad-Men inspired “Don Dreams and I Dream.” She is also the creator of “STAY BRAVE,” a monthly newsletter for women-identifying creatives on bravery in the creative life. Her writing has been widely published in such places as The New York Times, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A Day, USA Today, POETRY, Guernica and American Poetry Review.  She has also been the host and curator of the NYC-based poetry series. “COUPLET,” since 2011 and is a graduate of the MFA Program in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The APR team is in a punchy mood on this episode; Elizabeth tries to rein in the conversation as Steven and Hannah riff on topics including Robert Lowell's revision process and the current era of political sloganeering. Also: selections from our July/August 2024 issue, with readings from Leah Umansky and Emily Skaja.

In this episode, Carly Stone writes about David Byrne and mental dislocation, Hazel White writes about systemic violence, Leah Umansky shows us a flame within flame, and Diamanda LaBerge Dramm reads an excerpt from 36 Exposures, by Dominic Jaeckle. With music by Taraka. 1) Welcome to Paradise LostTarakaFind out more here: https://www.taraka.org/2) The Mental Dislocation Is A Wonderful FeelingCarly Stone"This is good. You feel like your head has come off your body. Let your mind rearrange the proportions of the world. "Find the full work here: https://fenceportal.org/the-mental-dislocation-is-a-wonderful-feeling/3) This View/UncomfortableHazel Whitehttps://www.hazelwhite.com/4) Bird of OneLeah Umansky"...be scaredthen, get over it"Find the full poem here: https://fenceportal.org/bird-of-one/5) Excerpt from 36 ExposuresDominic JaeckleFind out more here: https://dominicjaeckle.com/36-Exposures6) Old Gloves, by TarakaThis episode was produced by Ashley Mayne and Jason ZuzgaSupport the show

Our show for Epiphany Literary Journal's EMPIRE Issue was Bushwick Book Club's first collaboration with a periodical. Each songwriter selected a different work from the issue to respond to –– poetry, short stories, visual art and essays. In addition to the live recordings of the songs from the show, we have an introduction from Epiphany guest editor, Sameer Panya and readings from Epiphany writers Celia Bland, Ilya Lebovich and Leah Umansky. You'll hear songs written and performed by Charlie Nieland, Beth Bliss, Susan Hwang, Teresa Toro, Patricia Santos, Lianne Smith, John S. Hall and Ray Brown, plus Sung Uni Lee's soundscape performance. You'll also hear Intros from contributing Epiphany writers sharing their most recent earworms and intros from BBC songwriters sharing their latest reads. We hope you enjoy this convergence of writers, musicians, artistic disciplines and creative communities.

Leah Umansky is the author of two book-length collections, The Barbarous Century (2018), Domestic Uncertainties (Blazevox, 2012), and two chapbooks, Straight Away the Emptied World (Kattywompus Press, 2016), and the Mad Men-inspired Don Dreams and I Dream (Kattywompus Press, 2014). Her writing has been widely published in places like The New York Times, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A Day, USA Today, POETRY, Guernica, and American Poetry Review. She has been the host and curator of the New York City-based poetry series COUPLET since 2011, and is a graduate of the MFA Program in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. Leah has become well known for her poetry inspired by TV series, such as Mad Men, Westworld, and Mr. Robot. Many of her Game of Thrones-inspired poems have been translated into Norwegian and Bengali. In 2013, Flavorwire named her #7 of 23 People Who Will Make You Care About Poetry, and her chapbook Don Dreams and I Dream was voted one of The Top 10 Chapbooks To Read Now in 2014 by Time Out New York. Leah has been a middle and high school English teacher for fifteen years and has also taught workshops at The Poetry School, Hudson Valley Writers Center, and Memorial Sloan Kettering's Visible Ink Program. She is also a collage-artist who has designed all of her book covers. In ‘Where are the Stars?', one of the poems in her collection The Barbarous Century, Leah writes: ‘The self is mapped in certainties. I am certain that I can measure this in words.' Those kind of certainties are consistent preoccupations of Leah's work: hers is a poetry that frequently asserts ‘I am…', ‘I will…', ‘This is what I mean…', and there is a self-confidence and ambition in her writing, especially in a poem like the first we look at together, ‘Unleashed', that makes an interrogation of the self possible, especially the female self. In that poem and elsewhere, Leah explores the way that people change and suggests that such change can be immensely rewarding if we risk embracing it. This is sometimes an idealistic poetry that seeks to celebrate what is good in the world (at one point in our conversation, Leah says that ‘there's always room for celebration'), but it is also a realistic one. With its desire to show what it's like to be alive, Leah's poetry is also happy - and sometimes seems compelled - to call out those things and those people who live meanly and selfishly, such as the ‘tyrant' in her recent work - a thinly-disguised version of Donald Trump sometimes, but often a much broader figure of someone, usually a man, who has no sense of decency. And often that examination of goodness is bound up with questions of gender and in particular - as is evident in a poem we discuss, ‘[Of Men]' - in the relationship between men and women. Just as these poems challenge traditional and obsolete notions of gender roles in their subject matter, so too their form bends and sometimes dismantles poetic conventions. Leah brings a tremendous energy and virtuosity to her work and to the way she talks about her work, and I think that comes across clearly in this interview. Please do check out the poems, which you can find on the Poetry Centre website - just look up the Podcast page - and seek out Leah's work. There are links to her books, her website, and her social media on the Podcasts page too. Thank you for listening!

Leah Umansky is a poet, collage artist, and self-described Game of Thrones and Mad Men super fan. I recently read Leah's latest book, the full-length poetry collection The Barbarous Century, and was struck by the exuberant use of language—it brought me a lot of joy. In our conversation, Leah and I talked about her book, her fascination with pop culture, and the power of story. Then in the second segment, we had a very spoilery discussion about the HBO series Westworld. (Conversation recorded June 21, 2018.) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Leave a review Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr Show Notes: Leah Umansky Vote.org Leah Umansky - The Barbarous Century Leah Umansky - Events Leah Umansky - “Stranger Is” Leah Umansky - Domestic Uncertainties This Is Just to Say - Kaveh Akbar Tori Amos Game of Thrones Mad Men Eyewear Publishing Jeanette Winterson T. H. White - The Once and Future King Vice - "Dolores from ‘Westworld’ Is the New Khaleesi" Halfway There Westworld Melissa Broder - The Pisces

Mad Men and Winning Women: the Christmas special in which we talk about tap-dancing in the office, channel our inner Roger Stirling and fight over who’s the most Peggy. Plus: our favourite episodes and a Mad Men poem. Full shownotes - including the best Mad Men GIFs, Dr Mona Rautelin's work on cryptic pregnancies and Leah Umansky's poem - are available at www.tomorrowneverknowspod.com Get in touch: we're on Twitter as @TNKpod (also @lottelydia and @emmaelinor) and Facebook (@TNKpod). Send us an email at tomorrowneverknowspod@gmail.com or subscribe to our newsletter!

At Chapbookapalooza, our headliner goes first. And here she is with a stunning collection of poetry that subverts pop culture by placing it in direct conversation with everything it hints at but is too shifty to engage outright. With Elegant and cerebral verse, Leah Umansky shows us in Don Dreams and I Dream (Kattywompus Press, 2014) that nothing is surface-level when minds are involved. Her unforgettable speaker engages with the fictitious Don Draper and everything he stands for in our consume/consumer/consumed reality. This book will make you happy. Don’t you want to be happy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Chapbookapalooza, our headliner goes first. And here she is with a stunning collection of poetry that subverts pop culture by placing it in direct conversation with everything it hints at but is too shifty to engage outright. With Elegant and cerebral verse, Leah Umansky shows us in Don Dreams and I Dream (Kattywompus Press, 2014) that nothing is surface-level when minds are involved. Her unforgettable speaker engages with the fictitious Don Draper and everything he stands for in our consume/consumer/consumed reality. This book will make you happy. Don’t you want to be happy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices