Luminous Poems inspired by Luminaries Judith and Gerson Leiber

Poetry Series at The Leiber Collection

Tuesday, July 15, and Wednesday, August 13,

5:00 to 6:30 pm

with Museum tours and refreshments at 4 pm

East Hampton, NY: If you haven’t yet stargazed this summer, join us at The Leiber Collection Museum and Sculpture Garden on Tuesday, July 15, and Wednesday, August 13 at 4 pm, for two scintillating evenings of luminous poetry by poets Rosalind Brenner, Dee Slavutin, former Nassau County Poet Laureate Linda Opyr, and Walter Donway on July 15 and poets Sarah Goodman, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Michelle Murphy, and LB Thompson on August 13..

Are you thinking 4 pm is too early for stargazing? Step into the Leiber Museum with your sunglasses on to experience the dazzling Judith Leiber handbag collection and Gerson Leiber’s ebullient paintings, and mosey on the property studded with sculpture. At 5 pm poets will read from their collections and poems inspired by the artistry of Judith and Gerson Leiber, and more.

Museum Tours and Refreshments start at 4 pm.

To reserve free tickets, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/luminous-poems-inspired-by-luminaries-judith-and-gerson-leiber-tickets-1443501865939?aff=oddtdtcreator

Donations to the Judith and Gerson Leiber Foundation are welcome but not required. To donate, please click HERE.

The Leiber Collection is located at 446 Old Stone Highway in the East Hampton hamlet of Springs.

For more information, please visit www.leibercollection.org, email info@leibercollection.org, or call 631-329-3288.

POETS:

Rosalind Brenner is a poet, glass artist, and painter. Her words and images combine imagination and memory, and she has been called by reviewers an “energy painter.”  Her poetry books are: chapbook: All That’s Left, Art House Press 2010, which combines her art and poetry; chapbook, Omega’s Garden, Finishing Line Press, 2011, and full-length books: Every Glittering Chimera, Blue Light Press, 2020; and Life in the Body, Los Angeles Press, 2023.Her poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The Cortland Review and South Florida Journal, among others. Rosalind, with her partner, owns a B&B in East Hampton, NY. She moved to eastern Long Island from New York City because she loves to swim and the scent of fresh air. rb@rosalindbrenner.com

Linda Opyr, the Nassau County Poet Laureate 2011–2013, is the author of nine collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Long Island Quarterly, and The New York Times, as well as other journals, newspapers, and anthologies.She has been featured in the Bailieborough Poetry Festival in County Cavan and the Walking with Whitman Series at the Walt Whitman Birthplace. In 2001, the Suffolk County Legislature presented her with a Proclamation honoring her poetry. She holds a Doctor of Arts degree in English and American literature from St. John’s University.  She may be contacted via her website:  www.lindaopyr.com

Dee Slavutin has written two full-length poetry collections. Wingspan: Search for Food and Suddenly Deciduous, which will be published in 2025 by Finishing Line Press. Dee has a Master’s in Literature (McGill University) and an MBA in Finance (Fordham). At McGill, Dee founded Cyan Line, a poetry magazine, and served as editor. She was a 2024 grant recipient from the Ruth Weiss Foundation as a finalist for her poem Aging in Haiku. Dee curated the East Hampton Poetry Marathon for five years, a summer series of poetry readings. She was the president of a boutique financial services company for 38 years. Dee lives in East Hampton and New York City with her husband, Lee. “I take long walks on Gardiner’s Bay or the Atlantic Ocean, or Riverside Park.  I’m always in formulation and thirst to share. Then, with pencil, I plant, mend, write, and rewrite until the story is told. I love the brevity of poetry, the fluidity, the completeness of the message.”  In the book ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’, Chaim Potok’s character says,”…that additional aching surge of effort that is always the difference between integrity and deceit in a created work.”deeslavutin@gmail.com

Walter Donway’s Collected Poems (Romantic Revolution Books, 2021) brings together his three earlier collections of poems. He is also a novelist and has published memoirs, works on political economy, and is a prolific essay and book reviewer. He resides in East Hampton, New York. wdonway@gmail.com

Sarah Goodman is the 2024-2026 Suffolk County Teen Poet Laureate and is going into her junior year at Commack High School. Her poems have been published in various publications, and beginning in June, she will have a poem included in Northport’s Poetry Path. Sarah also organized and judged the Suffolk Youth Poetry Competition and has compiled an anthology featuring the teen poets who participated.

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan,PhD, is the first woman to be appointed Suffolk County Poet Laureate (2009-2011). She was named Long Island Poet of the Year in 2018. She is the founder and president of the Long Island Poetry & Literature Repository and the editor/publisher of Wyld Syde Press. She has written six chapbooks, a memoir, a children’s book, two full-length poetry collections, collected scholarly essays, and a book titled The Healing Power of Poetry: Living with the Death of a Child. She teaches at Long Island University.

LB Thompson’s poetry and creative nonfiction have received national awards from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker and other literary journals. Her collaborative projects with artist Ellen Wiener have been exhibited in New York and at Vanderbilt University and are part of collections in museums and libraries around the world. LB teaches creative writing at the Lichtenstein Center at SUNY Stony Brook and resides in Greenport, Long Island.

Michelle Murphyholds a BA in psychology and has been writing since her early twenties. For many years, she studied with Pearl London at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village. London was the daughter of Max Schuster, of Simon & Schuster Publishing. She thus was able to provide a unique and privileged experience for students, bringing to the table an astounding variety of well-established and accomplished voices, ready to share their stories and secrets. It was this introduction to the craft of writing fearlessly and from the heart, on all manner of subjects, that greatly influenced Ms. Murphy in her approach to the arts in general. Murphy was a long-time member of the Bay Street Playwriting Workshop led by Bill Burford. She has studied memoir, essay, poetry, and short story writing with Jules Feiffer, Frank McCourt & Roger Rosenblatt. She is a member of: THE DRAMATIST GUILD SAG AFTRA ASCAP, THE AMERICAN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY ~ Elected Lifetime Signature Member, PECONIC HISTORIC PRESERVATION 501(c)3 ~ President &Co-founder. She & her husband, Robert Strada, have resided in Amagansett since 1980, where they raised their two children, Alex & Justin.

Facets  by Dee Slavutin

I am a crystal, one of thousands

snugly fitted in a Judith Leiber minaudiere.

I come from Austria, but I speak French.

Devoted women arrive by subway,

ache with pride when they change into their smocks,

take their seat, lift me as though I am air,

place me, one by one…just so.

I am beauty. I am as tiny as your pupil.

I make your eyes dilate.

I am clutched, doted on, loved.

Sometimes I’m set in an oval egg. 

Carole Burnett’s made me laugh;

Beverly Sills’ sang to me.

In these dazzling eggs there’s room only

for lipstick, which should be ruby red,

like wine to be savored,

a mirror to reflect your perfection,

a key, which you may not need tonight,

a hundred-dollar bill, in case you do.

Leave your cell phone at home,

Instead, watch people watch me.