\n<\/p>\n
At the time, Epstein had served a sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution and had been banned from donating to Harvard, yet continued to socialize with the university\u2019s academics. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n When New later requested \u2014 and received \u2014 Epstein\u2019s feedback on a rough edit of the interview, she passed along his thoughts without identifying him in a cryptic note to her Harvard staff. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNotes from our woody diplomat,\u201d she wrote in the email\u2019s subject line. <\/span><\/p>\n New long kept her relationship with Epstein under wraps as <\/b>Poetry in America grew. The project, first nurtured with seed money from Harvard, flourished with a cash infusion from Epstein and a significant gift he solicited from a Wall Street friend<\/a>. <\/b>All the while, New hid or downplayed Epstein\u2019s involvement, according to several current and former colleagues, as well as emails shared with the Globe.<\/span><\/p>\n When an employee probed for the identity of the \u201cwoody diplomat,\u201d New demurred, revealing only that it was a mutual friend of Allen\u2019s. In one internal list of supporters, Epstein was referred to simply as \u201cJeffrey.\u201d And after Epstein in 2019 became the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation, in turn, putting a spotlight on a donation he had given to New, she told staff she barely knew him, one employee told the Globe.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, her crowning achievement is at risk. <\/span><\/p>\n A PBS spokesperson told the Globe on Tuesday that it had stopped distributing the series and removed it from its digital platforms. That decision was made last month after the US House released emails from Epstein\u2019s estate that shed light on the extent of Epstein and New\u2019s relationship<\/a>. The show\u2019s fifth season was set to air on PBS stations nationwide in the spring. <\/span><\/p>\n The board of New\u2019s nonprofit, which operates \u201cPoetry in America,\u201d through a spokesperson said the show will need to \u201cconsider alternative distribution channels in the future.\u201d The spokesperson also said the board has retained an outside law firm to conduct a review, <\/b>but declined to comment further.<\/span><\/p>\n Many who worked on \u201cPoetry in America\u201d are feeling shellshocked to learn of the deep <\/b>ties between Epstein and New. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy jaw was on the floor,\u201d said Aaron Blanton, who worked from 2014 to 2018 as a senior creative producer on the project. \u201cI was just disgusted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n New, in a statement to the Globe, defended her work and said she regrets taking Epstein\u2019s money. She did not answer several questions about how she kept Epstein\u2019s extensive role from her staff but did dispute having downplayed his donation when it became public. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTaking the Epstein donation was deeply regrettable,\u201d she said. \u201cFree and accessible programming to spread the joys of poetry as widely as possible is not, and I look forward to continuing this effort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Globe\u2019s investigation sheds new light on Epstein\u2019s reach inside the powerful university \u2014 five years after Harvard published its own report on his ties to the school. In that report, Harvard said it would not investigate Epstein\u2019s $110,000 gift to support New\u2019s work, because the money was not given directly to Harvard, but to her nonprofit. <\/span><\/p>\n But the Globe found Harvard both benefited from and underwrote the work of that nonprofit, Verse Video Education. The nonprofit was housed in office space donated by Harvard until 2019, and its employees worked for Harvard and were partially paid by the university, documents reviewed by the Globe show. Footage produced by New\u2019s team also was often used both for Harvard courses and New\u2019s show. <\/span><\/p>\n Harvard\u2019s 2020 review missed several donations<\/a> made or steered by the disgraced financier. <\/span><\/p>\n In November, Harvard said it would undertake a new review of university figures named in the Epstein emails, including New and Summers<\/a>. The school has declined to comment further on the review, such as who is completing it and the timeline. Harvard has also declined to comment on its ties with New\u2019s nonprofit. <\/span><\/p>\n Among the gifts omitted in the university\u2019s report <\/b>was a large donation that Epstein brokered for New\u2019s work at Harvard <\/b>from private equity investor Leon Black. That gift came to light last month in the emails from Epstein\u2019s estate. In a 2015 email to Epstein, New wrote the donation from Black \u201cchanged everything\u201d for her at Harvard. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me,\u201d New wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n An emerita professor at Harvard who now works for Arizona State University, New told the Globe she was not asked to be interviewed for Harvard\u2019s 2020 review. She said she was unaware when she took Epstein\u2019s money in 2016 that Harvard had banned gifts from him<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was well known that Epstein had an office at Harvard and was involved in Harvard related fundraising,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Summers and New had enjoyed a cozy relationship with Epstein going back to at least 2005, when the couple spent part of their honeymoon <\/a>on Epstein\u2019s private island in the Caribbean. <\/span><\/p>\n In emails that span from 2013 to 2019, Summers and Epstein chatted like pals<\/a>. In one 2018 exchange, Epstein called himself Summers\u2019 \u201cwing man\u201d and gave advice on pursuing a woman who considered the economist a mentor. The two mused about politics, gossiped about common acquaintances, and were in contact up until the day before Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Summers remains a Harvard professor but recently stepped back <\/a>from his teaching duties.<\/span><\/p>\n New started \u201cPoetry in America\u201d as an online Harvard course and later partnered with WGBH, the Boston member station of PBS, to bring the program to television. It also includes <\/b>courses for students from high school through graduate school and training resources for teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n A WGBH spokesperson said the station severed its ties with New in 2023 but declined to elaborate on the circumstances. <\/span><\/p>\n The Globe spoke with 10 people who have worked on \u201cPoetry in America,\u201d several of whom asked not to be named out of concern it would damage their careers to be linked to the Epstein saga.<\/span><\/p>\n Blanton said he started working for Harvard in 2014, moving from the West Coast to take a job video editing for New\u2019s online course. Fresh out of college, Blanton had earned a name for himself in film when he and a classmate at the University of Oregon produced an anti-rape public service announcement that went viral and won a Peabody Award.<\/span><\/p>\n After New founded her nonprofit to expand \u201cPoetry in America,\u201d it paid roughly half of Blanton\u2019s salary, with Harvard covering the balance. He and the team worked out of a first-floor office in the university\u2019s Vanserg building, where Harvard also covered the cost of some office supplies like paper and water, according to records obtained by the Globe.<\/span><\/p>\n For Blanton, working on \u201cPoetry in America\u201d was a culture shock, exposing him to the rarefied world of two high-flying and influential academics in New and Summers. Blanton and the project\u2019s team conducted interviews with celebrities, spent week-long stints editing footage at the couple\u2019s house on Cape Cod, and flew to Aspen for tapings.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a wild couple of years,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Blanton said he was aware of New\u2019s fundraising efforts. Once, he recalled, Leah Reis-Dennis, the project\u2019s cofounder and New\u2019s second in command, referred casually to the show having a \u201cmystery donor.\u201d Blanton now believes she was referring to Epstein. <\/span><\/p>\n Reis-Dennis knew of Epstein\u2019s involvement in the project, writing to him in 2015 to ask for his help securing a release from Allen, emails show. \u201cThank you, and I hope to meet you soon,\u201d she signed off. <\/span><\/p>\n Reis-Dennis, an executive at the broadcast company Audacy who also remains a member of the board at Verse Video Education, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for New said numerous donors to the program have asked to be anonymous and any one of them might be referred to as a \u201cmystery donor\u201d in staff discussions. <\/span><\/p>\n Celebrity interviews such as the one with Allen were a key component of New\u2019s project to make poetry less intimidating and more entertaining to a modern audience. <\/span><\/p>\n In a statement to the Globe, New said that when she pitched PBS on developing the series, Allen, who was coming off a blockbuster year with the success of his film \u201cBlue Jasmine,\u201d was a distinct draw. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n In Allen\u2019s segment, New and the film director debated whether the protagonist in William Carlos Williams\u2019s poem \u201cThis Is Just To Say“<\/i> was apologetic or defiant about eating a bowl of plums his partner had been saving for the morning. <\/span><\/p>\n Epstein had helped New set up the interview, down to the time and location at Allen\u2019s New York City screening room, <\/b>emails between the two show. New reached out to Epstein again to help secure permission to use the footage, even sharing with him a rough cut she planned to present to Allen.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 2016 email titled \u201cnotes from our woody diplomat,\u201d New pasted Epstein\u2019s suggestions. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c1. you are brilliant. I loved it.\u201d he wrote. \u201c2. I suggest you need video coaching. if you watch your moving hands, legs. glasses, hair, swiveling, etc. it greatly subtracts from your thoughtful arguments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Blanton replied to New, asking who provided the feedback. <\/span><\/p>\n New responded, \u201cmy friend who is woody\u2019s friend and who got woody to tape with me and is now going (on March 2nd and 3rd when he\u2019s with woody) to encourage him to approve what we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Emails reviewed by the Globe show Allen agreed to the use of the footage in 2016. But the next year, at the height of the #MeToo movement, some staff grew uncomfortable with featuring Allen, who in 1997 had married the daughter of his former partner Mia Farrow and faced accusations of sexually abusing another daughter he and Farrow had adopted. Allen has denied the abuse allegations. <\/span><\/p>\n Several staff members threatened to pull their names from the credits if Allen\u2019s segment aired, according to text messages and interviews. New met with her team in their offices on Harvard\u2019s campus to hear their concerns, according to two people aware of the meeting. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe all drew a line in the sand. We were like, \u2018We\u2019re really, really not comfortable with endorsing Woody Allen by putting him out on air,\u2019\u201d Blanton recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n Blanton said New seemed unconvinced, and the meeting ended without a resolution. But he said soon afterward, New decided to shelve the interview. <\/span><\/p>\n New told the Globe that she and WGBH executives mutually decided to pull the Allen footage<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2018, New wrote to Epstein to say she was sorry about the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI will keep the \u2018bootleg\u2019 episode and hope to release someday,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s so good, and he was so kind to read the poem with me and you were so kind to make it happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Blanton said he was heartened when Allen referenced the ordeal in his 2020 autobiography, \u201cApropos of Nothing.\u201d <\/i>In the book, Allen recounts the many ways he was canceled because of the claims against him. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was cut out of a series on poetry by PBS,\u201d Allen wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n After the internal Allen controversy, Epstein remained involved behind the scenes at \u201cPoetry in America,\u201d including advising New on potential interview subjects, emails show. But in 2019, as Epstein\u2019s renewed legal troubles mounted, his donation to Verse Video Education came under public scrutiny for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n New called a meeting with her staff where she described Epstein as a casual acquaintance who funded education projects, according to one person in attendance. She said she made a donation as restitution for taking Epstein\u2019s money, later announcing it was for more than what Epstein gave her, and that it went to an organization that combats sex trafficking. The person who attended the meeting said New\u2019s justification and response, at the time, seemed reasonable. <\/span><\/p>\n Epstein\u2019s deep ties to New\u2019s work have come as a surprise even to those close to the project.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNever heard anything about it,\u201d said Verse Video Education founding board member Robert Pinsky, an acclaimed poet. \u201cI read about it in the newspaper, and I was quite surprised.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Several former employees, including Blanton, told the Globe they believe New hid Epstein\u2019s involvement from them because she knew they would have protested.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe absolutely knew it would have been a problem,\u201d Blanton said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Deborah Peretz, who briefly worked as an editor on the show, said she was \u201cdisgusted\u201d to learn of Epstein\u2019s role. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never had to stop and think where the money comes from,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s pretty horrifying to think that it came from him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tricia L. Nadolny can be reached at tricia.nadolny@globe.com<\/a> or on Signal at TriciaNadolny.07. Follow her on X @TriciaNadolny<\/a>. Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @fernandesglobe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n var oneTrustActive = true; try { \/\/ Default to granted consent \/\/ FB script decleration if (oneTrustActive && oneTrustConsentObj && oneTrustConsentObj.C0004 === false) { \/\/ We need to call consent before we run init and track At the time, Epstein had served a sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution and had been banned from donating to Harvard, yet continued to socialize with the university\u2019s academics. When New later requested \u2014 and received \u2014 Epstein\u2019s feedback on a rough edit of the interview, she passed along his thoughts without identifying him … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Larry-Summers-wife-downplayed-Epsteins-role-in-her-Harvard-project.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13074,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072\/revisions\/13074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Poetry for the masses<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\u2018A line in the sand\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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