Suzanne Braun Levine, alive and well in Milford

By Marilyn Rosenthal
MILFORD — Mention the name Suzanne Braun Levine and the list of accomplishments and accolades that come to mind could fill a large podium. Here are just some of them:
First editor of Ms. Magazine (1972-1988)
First woman editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review
Author of numerous books on women, aging, and life-style
Latest book, Can Men Have it all? (What the "Daddy Track" means for women.)
Nationally known speaker (Appeared on Oprah, TED Talks (TEDx Women in 2011 invited by Jane Fonda)
But the best thing about Suzanne is that she brings her talents and energy to Milford.
She and her husband, Robert (Bob) Levine, are founding members, along with Sean Strub and Amy Ferris, of the Milford Readers and Writers Festival (RAW). Last fall was the first annual RAW festival and Suzanne was instrumental in bringing Gloria Steinem to this wildly successful inaugural event. She and Steinem have remained close friends since the Ms. Magazine days.
This year the second annual RAW festival will be held on Sept. 15-17 at a variety of venues throughout Milford.
Suzanne and Bob love Milford. They've been here for about eight years.
While they have a place in Manhattan, they are usually up here five days a week. As she put it, "The area is a center of gravity for me." Bob owned the Bluestone Gallery in Milford with potter David Greenbaum. It closed after four years—mostly because of the economic conditions at the time, but it brought imaginative interesting art to Milford.
"Milford is so wonderful," Suzanne says, "We have developed a circle of terrific friends who are politically active and diverse."
What Milford has gained from Suzanne is a sense of optimistic reality, intelligence, and worldliness.
She is amazingly affirmative in all her endeavors. Many of her books and talks are about second adulthood in women and the aging process. She speaks of "the fertile void," the hallmark of the beginning of second adulthood in women. According to Levine, "The fertile void is a place of confusion in which a midlife woman wanders without a map until she finds her new self."
Levine says about aging, "You become invisible, but the upside is that you become more liberated and don't care what people think. You can do or be anything."
One thing that Suzanne does is re-invent herself. She is currently working on a book for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation focusing on transforming health care for women with disabilities. As she speaks about this new project, you can see the empathy and excitement she exudes. The book is about ten women with Cerebral Palsy and the way they are treated in trying to access normal health care treatments. It is a gigantic problem in our society. (For more information, go to www.yourcpf.org)
This coming Saturday, June 3, Suzanne will be continuing the literary conversation with a story telling program which has become part of the RAW festival.
The story telling event is being hosted by Milford Resident Ruby Lynn Willis, a local performance artist and will be held at 7 p.m. at the TriVersity Center, 201 East Harford St. in the Old Schoolhouse Building, lower level.
She will be reading excerpts from her books and will talk about the "fertile void" but will also encourage audience conversation, wherever it may lead.