Meet Leah Kogen Elimeliah

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Kogen Elimeliah a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Leah with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Being an immigrant, coming from then Communist Russia, I think growing up I had a different understanding of what it means to work hard, learn to be responsible, reliable, a leader, organized, and overall committed to the work I do, any work. For me it is crucial to stand firm by my convictions, including a strong work ethic, which really sheds light on one’s character, their interaction with others and showing how much one actually cares about the work that they do. It happens to be that when I put my mind to something or have worked throughout my life at jobs that I didn’t even particularly enjoy, I knew I had a responsibility, whether for what I stood for or what I was meant to be doing.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am originally from Moscow. I immigrated to the US with my family in 1989 as an asylum seeker, escaping religious persecution under the Communist Regime. My family wasn’t even religious, we were just identified as Jews and that meant we were unwelcome and seen as the “other,” a threat to the country. We arrived to New York and I have lived in this great city ever since.

I am poet & writer, I have been writing since I was twelve, its how I learnt to manage my feelings, work through life changes and challenges, its how I realized I needed to express myself. I am also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The City College of New York & John Jay College. Currently I teach creative writing and world literature. At John Jay College, I work in the Prison to College Pipeline, a program designed for those who are incarcerated and who want to advance in their education and possibly prepare themselves for work and life once they leave the prison system. I am also the founder & director of WordShedNYC Reading Series which I started in 2018 when I was getting my Master’s in Creative Writing at City College. I wanted to provide a platform for writers and artists who felt that they had no place to share their work and have their voices heard. It was an important endeavor for me, since when I was a child who immigrated to the US, I also felt like perhaps no one was interested in what I had to say or who I was and so this creative series that I have been running has be at the forefront of my creative career. I want to make sure that my platform that I hold for artists isnt based on money making or status, everyone is welcome, you dont need to be a well “established” artist in order to be recognized as an artist and have your work shared with others. Community building is a huge part of all the work that I do.

As a poet and writer I have also collaborated on various poetry/visual/dance projects with independent artists, experimenting with cross genres, multimedia & poetry. I have performed at Howl! Arts, La Mama Experimental Theatre, The Red Stage organized by Creative Time, The NYC Poetry Festival, The Higher Ground Arts Festival, LatchKey Gallery, Roscioli, City College of New York, The Trops & more, & was selected as a Public Humanities/Arts Graduate Fellow for the Zip Code Memory Project supported by Columbia, CCNY, NYU, Yale & the Social Science & Humanities Research Council.

I have also volunteered as a mentor with Girls Write Now, a nationally award winning leader in arts education writing and mentoring organization, working with teenage girls one on one who are interested in writing careers.

Currently I am crafting my debut poetry collection, working on a group art exhibition “Notes from Daughters,” and a documentary/experimental film for the show. My work often focuses on identity, language, immigration, intergenerational trauma, sexuality and culture.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important qualities I think one must live by are: Integrity, Communication, and an openness to listen and explore dialogue.

One must always have integrity particularly when focusing on a certain mission, a problem, or an idea. You have to stand by your word, believe in what you are doing, while also being honest and true to the idea. Don’t always search for outside reasons that might seem exciting or rewarding like status or money. Not everything is about money and status. As a matter of fact, throughout my life I have been in several situations where I learnt that lesson, and I am grateful to have had those opportunities which confirmed my belief.

Communication is key. We all communicate in many forms. Being able to use various forms of language (body, words, eyes, actions) to communicate with co workers, artists, leaders, professors, parents, friends, requires different approaches and styles. We must be able to adapt easily to those around us so we can have easier interactions, learn to respect the other and find commonalities that will enhance the foundational communication skills which will lead to your overall success.

Lastly, Learning to listen, being open, learning how to participate in dialogue. This doesn’t just mean in literal terms, like a conversation. Dialogues happen in books, politics, classrooms, work spaces, in the park and even inside our own minds. We must be able to make room for more than one interpretation of and idea, a belief, a system, a people. Without dialogue we fail the simple task of being open to others. Without the other we are left to decipher on our own the most simple understanding of who we are as individuals since there is no reflection or reciprocation produced – and that’s a lonely existence.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Through out my journey I found many obstacles which were quite overwhelming. I wasn’t able to go to college right after high school, because I got married and had kids really young. So I had to compromise. Then when I decided to go to college because I realized education and expansion of the mind was important to me, it was quite difficult to do as a young mother, but I remained steady in my belief and gave myself room to fail, to learn, to heal, to continue. When I wanted to go to graduate school, I couldn’t because I had to work, take care of my children, and my sick mother. I was going through some very challenging times during an eight year period and felt like I was losing myself, but again, I pushed myself through, knowing that nothing is permanent, holding on to the dream I had for myself, not giving up, but rather, finding ways and strategies to attempt at and succeeding at fulfilling those dreams, those aspirations. The key to life at least for me is to really stick to what you want, what you believe and what you hope for. If you keep at it, even if the pace is slow, even if it seems impossible, if you just tell yourself that eventually I will get there, it will happen.

We live in a society where fast paced, endless labor, endless entertainment, endless desires keep us moving in an unimaginable speed. That tends to be too much for the human body and mind. Often times, people lose themselves whether mentally, physically or emotionally. The goal is to pace and recognize that you don’t have full control and sometimes its ok to surrender to circumstances, that eventually you will be able to come out of whatever the struggle is, and that’s when you grab on to the dream and take it to the next level.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wordshednyc.org
• Instagram: @leahelimeliah & @wordshednyc
• Linkedin: leah elimeliah