'Stay Brave' with Maira Kalman
‘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?"
I say something similar every day to myself. Seamus Heaney's last words to his wife before he died. Noli Timere. Be not afraid. Simply put, go ahead and believe in yourself and do your work.
As a woman-identifying writer, what are the ways that you “stay brave” in your life?
Not being thwarted by insecurities. Insisting that my work has value
Who is someone in your life who models “staying brave” for you?
My late husband, Tibor Kalman. And all children.
What writers, artists, and/or musicians do you look to to foster a sense of “bravery?”
Cezanne and Bonnard for the artist list. Sebald, Nabokov, and Natalia Ginzburg for writers.
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?
Moods are like the weather. A bad mood will leave.
Can you remember a time in your life where you realized your own bravery? How did you use it to propel you forward?
When Tibor died at a young age, I felt that I had ingested his bravery in taking care of the children and working, but perhaps it was my own that I did not know I had.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling brave? What inspires you or motivates you?
I go for many many walks, and I watch murder mysteries at night.
In what ways would you like to be more brave in your creative life?
It is not possible to be brave all the time. We celebrate the inconsistency.
What is your proudest moment of bravery?
Getting out of bed every day!
What are you currently working on?
JOY!
Thank you, Maira!
Maira Kalman is an author and illustrator of books for adults and children, as well as a contributor to the New Yorker and The New York Times.
Leah Umansky is a poet, writer, curator, writing coach, artist and teacher. Her new collection of poems is OF TYRANT out now with Word Works Books. 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 PBS’’ ‘Story in the Public Square,’ The New York Times, POETRY, Bennington Review, American Poetry Review, Minyan Magazine, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day and others. She is a writing coach who has taught workshops to all ages at such places as Poets House, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering and elsewhere. She is working on a fourth collection of poems ORDINARY SPLENDOR, on wonder, joy and love and a hybrid-memoir, DELICATE MACHINE. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.
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"Moods are like weather. A bad one will leave." Love that!