PBS has stopped airing Harvard English professor emerita Elisa F. New’s show, “Poetry in America,” after emails released by the House Oversight Committee last month revealed close ties between New, her husband Lawrence H. Summers, and convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein, according to a spokesperson for PBS.
New began “Poetry in America” as an online course at Harvard before bringing it to television through PBS Boston member station GBH, according to The Boston Globe. The Globe reported that Harvard donated office space and partially subsidized employee salaries for the nonprofit housing the show, Verse Video Education, which received a $110,000 donation from Epstein in 2016.
PBS’s decision to distance itself from New comes after a tranche of emails released last month revealed close ties between New and Epstein. The Crimson reported days later that New made a honeymoon visit to Epstein’s island in 2005 with Summers, who stepped back from his teaching role at Harvard after the extent of his ties to Epstein became public.
The fifth season of “Poetry in America” was set to air in spring 2026.
New and Epstein exchanged lengthy emails from 2013 to at least 2018 about potential funding for her personal projects, years after Harvard barred affiliates from taking contributions from him in 2008 — the same year Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
New told the Globe she was unaware of the bar on gifts when she took the donation from Epstein in 2016. She did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.
“Jeffrey, you have been such a wonderful supporter of my Poetry in America project,” New wrote in a 2015 email to Epstein — more than a year after the two discussed a potential $500,000 donation from Epstein to the program.
While Harvard acknowledged the $110,000 donation to Verse Video Education in a 2020 report on Harvard affiliates’ ties with Epstein, its authors also said the University would not examine the donation because it was not a direct gift to Harvard.
But the University failed to disclose its own ties to the organization, which included donated office space and partial pay for Verse Video Education employees, according to the Globe.
Harvard also did not include a donation of an unspecified amount of money to New from Leon D. Black, an executive at private equity behemoth Apollo, brokered by Epstein and revealed in the emails last month.
“The Leon Black gift changed everything for me last year,” New wrote to Epstein in 2015. “It gave me leverage, enabling me to set down a solid Harvard base for my activities by giving the school something to point to.”
“The money did it: as soon as they heard about the gift, they took my project more seriously,” she added.
A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Epstein also helped New set up a 2013 interview with controversial director Woody Allen for “Poetry in America.” After New shared an early edit of the interview, Epstein offered advice via email. New concealed Epstein’s identity as she passed the feedback on, referring to him as “our woody diplomat,” according to The Globe.
According to The Globe, employees at “Poetry in America” felt that it was inappropriate to air the episode as the #MeToo movement hit its zenith in 2017. The interview was eventually pulled, and never aired.
The University last month opened an investigation into Harvard affiliates implicated in the emails, including New and Summers. A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether Harvard would investigate the donations previously made to New’s nonprofit in its new probe.
Summers has already faced swift public backlash for his ties to Epstein. After the emails revealed the extent of his relationship with the disgraced financier — which included asking him for advice in a clandestine relationship with a mentee — he has stepped back or been removed from a number of public-facing roles and left his role as an instructor at Harvard.
A GBH spokesperson confirmed that the station premiered New’s show in 2018 and fully severed ties with New in 2023 over her association with Epstein, but declined to comment further on the decision.
In a GBH article published Wednesday, a spokesperson for New disputed GBH’s framing of the fallout, writing that New decided to sever ties with GBH in 2022 and move the show to Arizona PBS of her own volition.
–Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.
