Date Archives 2009

Poetic Style

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I saw 94 year old Sarah Zenis on the upper west side and admired her coordinated outfit. We talked for a while and it turns out that she is a well known poet. She invited me to one of her workshops and I can’t wait.

Here is an excerpt from an article written about her in The Villager:

Poems, alive and thriving, flew around the fourth-floor room at Greenwich House on Tuesday afternoon as they do the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month when “Poetry for You and Me,” the Greenwich House Senior Center poetry workshop, meets.
“I don’t remember missing once in the past 15 years,” said Sarah Zenis, the leader of the Greenwich House workshop. Zenis, a published poet and Lambs Club member, also leads another group that reads poetry at senior centers all around town.
One of her poems recalls the house where she grew up in Lynn, Mass.

I knew I was there.
Footprints scraped on worn pavements,
Dented into deep ridge,
Painful wisps of grass.

Zenis said she began writing poems in grammar school. She graduated from high school during the Depression and began working as a bookkeeper.

The Steinberg Sisters

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I couldn’t wait to get home and write a post about these lovely ladies. My friend Jill and I met the Steinberg sisters while walking around Brighton Beach. The sisters were more than happy to stop for some photos and share some stories with us as well. Both ladies attended FIT when they were younger. They wanted to follow in the footsteps of their father who came from Poland, studied in London and worked in the Garment Industry. They proudly announced that he could, ” Whip up a winter coat in a half an hour.”

We caught the sisters on the way back from a shopping adventure and a trip to the library where they were looking at fashion books. They told us about exciting encounters with several celebrities including Liberace, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, Valentino, and Yves Saint Laurent, who they described as a “quiet man”. When I told them how much I admired their style, they replied that their clothes don’t cost much, but that they have many very pretty things.

The Steinbergs were thrilled to meet us, as they meet few people to discuss fashion with. The sisters who live in the same apartment building, only a few floors apart, made a date to meet with us next week. I’ll share some more photos of these fascinating ladies and hopefully hear some more great stories!

An Afternoon with Leonora Russo

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I met with Leonora Russo today to catch up find and out what she had been up to. She let me know that she had just finished three movie projects and was awaiting what was in store for her next. She looked as wonderful as ever! Check out some more shots of the ever stylish “Queen of Williamsburg” below.

[Photo by Miss Vichan]