11 Female Voices, From Age 13 to 110, on Why the Vote Matters
“Your right.” “A duty.” “A very sacred act.” A century after suffrage, women reflect on what it means to them.
....When I was 10, in 1928, the campaign of Al Smith (then New York State governor) for president, against Herbert Hoover, was fierce. In my neighborhood, the East Bronx of New York, with a mixed population of Italians and Jews, mostly immigrants, all the kids were for Al Smith. Probably so were their parents. Election propaganda was chalk writings on the walls: “Hoover stinks on ice” was a popular slogan for us kids. Al Smith lost. Later, I learned that one of the main reasons he lost was because he was Catholic. That bigotry stuck in my puzzled, childish mind....
To read the full article, featuring poet Naomi Replansky at 102, former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright, actresses Betty White and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, tennis player Billie Jean King, Cindy McCain, activists, authors, and more, see New York Times 8/28/20.
Naomi Replansky is the author of Ring Song, a National Book Award finalist.
Her Collected Poems is available from publisher Black Sparrow Press, an imprint of David Godine, or from your local or online bookstore.
Naomi Replansky’s poetry rings with reality and wisdom, and it is always
song. Her observant, political wit and gravity are as piercing and as
necessary now as ever – and I would say more so . . . her voice and her
way of reading are among the very best we have.
—Jean Valentine
