More Happening Happenings
On Sunday, September 18, there will be a concert featuring Blue Fringe, Eden & Seth Nadel to benefit the UJA Federation of NY’s Disaster Relief Fund, at the Upper West Side Institutional Synagogue (120 West 76th b/t Columbus & Amsterdam).
Also that night, Pearl Gluck will be hosting the DVD release party for her film Divan: The Couch, at Cinema Classics (332 East 11th b/t 1st and 2nd).
Lest we forget to mention, that evening as well, the latest installment of Hasid Meets Hipster with Brer Brian, Turner Cody, David Herman Dune, Aliza Hava (my sister!), Gill Krasner, Rachel Lipson, Purple Organ, Illinois Payson, and the Wowz at Van Gogh Radio Bar (147 Franklin b/t Java & India, Greepoint).
That same evening, in Chicago, at the Wild Hare (3530 Clark), Balkan Beat Box, Golem & Yuri Lane will be performing as part of the Chicago World Music Festival. The event is co-sponsored by the Kfar Center. More info here.
October 7 & 14th at The People’s Improv Theatre (154 W. 29th b/t 6th & 7th), “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Romantic Comedy tracks the notorious mid-East conflict back to a botched one-night stand at the Geneva Convention. The newly formed country and the aspiring territory totally had sex, then Israel didn’t call, then Palestine was pissed, then Israel totally had some beef with Palestine’s friends, and then some land was occupied…But somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, in the middle of all the wars, and embarrassing run-ins, rebound relationships, and pint-after-pint of ice cream therapy, Palestine and Israel may have found LOVE.”
October 28-31, at the University of Toronto, I will be on a panel as part of ReJewvenation 2005: “What does it mean to create Jewish culture and perform Jewish identity in Europe and North America in the twenty-first century? Ranging from the klezmer revival in the clubs of Warsaw to the Lower East Side irreverence of Heeb magazine, the ReJewvenation workshop will create a space for scholarly discussion of a Jewish cultural renaissance in the making. This workshop will bring together a diverse group of scholars and artists in order to address six major aspects of contemporary Jewish culture: ritual, music, new media, visual arts, literature and performing arts.”
ReJewvenation 2005: “What does it mean to create Jewish culture and perform Jewish identity in Europe and North America in the twenty-first century?
It’s interesting that the event is specifically about Ashkenazi culture in its content and themes (“a dynamic four-day exploration of Ashkenazi Jewish culture”, as the home page indicates), yet elsewhere passes itself as about all of Jewish culture — in fact, the tagline is “The Futures of Jewish Culture”.
That’s more than a little bit offensive, and sadly confirms some of the oft-wrong ranting of Ella Shohat types re: how everything’s an Ashkenazi conspiracy.
Hopefully those who are part of the problem (connected with that event) will choose to become part of the solution (change the titling or, better, the playlist).