Replansky, Naomi

REPLANSKY, NAOMI (1918- 2023). Poet and one-time labor activist, Naomi Replansky was renowned for using her voice to protest social conditions and to explore the personal dimensions of modern life, especially as experienced by women. She published her poems in high-brow journals and in the Left press alike. She was clever, deft with words, directly political, and formalist in style. Issues of social justice, Jewish life, and folk traditions featured prominently.

Born to Jewish working-class parents in the East Bronx. Her mother and two aunts had escaped the pogroms of Tsarist Russia and sought refuge in the United States. As a child, Replansky heard stories of their suffrage activism and in later life recalled “devouring” a book by the Swedish feminist Ellen Key that she found in their apartment. She also remembered the rampant racism and bigotry that punctuated her young adulthood.

Replansky graduated from high school in 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. She was fortunate enough to find a series of jobs in offices and factories, which included a stint as a lathe operator during World War II. Through hard work and savings, she managed to enroll at the University of California, Los Angeles. Somewhere along the line, she joined labor activists and Communists to demonstrate against segregation and support strikes. In the 1950s, she translated works by friend Bertold Brecht, a relationship that brought her to the attention of the FBI. She also published in Left magazines such a Masses & Mainstream and Art and Action.

Replansky published her first collection of poetry in 1952. Ring Song explored, in lyrical yet explicit fashion, such topics as the post-World War II housing shortage and was nominated for a National Book Award. Collected Poems, winner of a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, was published in 2012. In 2015, she and her partner, Eva Kollisch, were presented the Clara Lemlich Award for their life-long dedication to social betterment.

Bellafante, Gina. “They Survived the Spanish Flu, the Depression and the Holocaust. New York Times, March 28, 2020.

Gudas, Eric. “Auguries of Experience: The Poetry of Naomi Replansky.” Los Angeles Review of Books. September 8, 2016.

Naomi Replansky Papers, 1928-2011. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. New York Public Library. http://archives.nypl.org/uploads/collection/pdf_finding_aid/REPLANSKY_PAPERS_finding_aid.pdf