'Stay Brave' with Grace Cavalieri
‘Stay Brave’ is an interview series by woman-identifying creatives for woman-identifying creatives to inspire bravery in the creative life. [Created and curated by Leah Umansky]
How do you interpret the phrase, "Stay Brave?"
Keep writing. EVERY day. Also, read a new poem every day, if you write poetry, as you cannot have more going out than is coming in!
As a woman-identifying writer, what are the ways that you “stay brave” in your life?
As a career woman with four children, I always struggled with my identity, and finally bravery meant knowing that domesticity did not have to dominate your life to have a loving household.
Who is someone in your life who models “staying brave” for you?
Kathi Wolfe, a writer of limited sight who continues to produce newspaper columns and books of poems. Also, Eva Brann, a 94-year old philosopher who writes a book a year and taught for 67 years. She still reads books every day. Age diminishes, but does not defeat!
What writers, artists, and/or musicians do you look to to foster a sense of “bravery?”
All abstract painters thrill me and teach me. I admire musicians like John Cage and still love Bach and the Beatles. I'm amazed at how music is composed and in my next lifetime, I want to attend to that! Poets Hailey Leithauser and Jorie Graham are innovators that astound for their intrepid work. I'm rereading Proust and think his writing journey was pretty brave. Also. I’m reading Euripides for teaching and that kind of bravery in the 400 BC, to think and write like that...only the bold of heart could even imagine such things!
What’s a piece of advice you would pass on to your younger self about “staying brave?” What’s something you know now, that you didn’t know in the past?
I believe productivity is the only way we can overcome self doubt. When we are young, we are confused by "image' and what the world thinks of us, and others. Eventually we find the work is all, and in Buddhism there is one remembrance: "We own nothing but our deeds."
Can you remember a time in your life where you realized your own bravery? How did you use it to propel you forward?
Well, I was a Navy wife for 30 years and that offered many opportunities for bravery, including being in a hurricane, huddled in a motel, alone with 3 children under 5, with a jug of water and a box of vanilla wafers. It’s NOT even my worst adventure!
What do you do when you aren’t feeling brave? What inspires you or motivates you?
I believe in having a network of like-minded people. This is why I love teaching because I am hydrated by the process. It is the same with interviewing poets: the interchange gives me energy and vitality. Creativity is contagious and being with people of like consciousness gives me courage--which I believe might be another word for bravery.
In what ways would you like to be more brave in your creative life?
Experimentation in my poetry and painting is easy for me. I hold myself back in breaking new forms for theater and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it is so public, and opinions are so visible.
What is your proudest moment of bravery?
As a Navy wife, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the men were gone of course, and we were told that Florida (where we lived) would be destroyed. We were told to line the hallways with mattresses and take our children there with a two weeks supply of food. Anyone with several small children would know this was not feasible, so my tiny daughters and I put on dress ups and went outside to play under the Palm Trees.
What are you currently working on?
My selected poems, The Long Game, is now appearing via The Word Works. I work on Haiku daily. I also am working on a book of collaborative poems with poet Geoffrey Himes; plus recording and broadcasting three poets a month on radio and podcast. I also teach 2 days a week!
Thank you, Grace!
GRACE CAVALIERI is Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate (2018-2023.) Her new book is The Long Game: Poems Selected & New (The Word Works.) She founded and still produces the podcast, “The Poet and the Poem” for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 47 years on-air in 2023. Grace was formerly Asst Director for Children’s Programming, Corporate PBS., and senior media officer, NEH. Among other awards she holds the Allen Ginsberg Award and the CPB Silver Medal. She’s an Academy of American Poets Fellow. Grace has written 26 books of poems and plays produced on American stages.
Leah Umansky is the author of three books of poems, most recently the forthcoming OF TYRANT, (The Word Works in April, 2024.) She is currently working on a memoir Delicate Machine, an exploration of womanhood, hope, and heart in the face of grief and a global pandemic. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in such places as The New York Times, POETRY, The Bennington Review, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day and others. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.