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An evening with Stefan Kanfer

New York Book Club and Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy invite you to:

An evening with Stefan Kanfer, author of Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America

Thursday, January 18th at 6 PM

Yiddish Theater returns to its home on the Lower East Side with writer/performer/storyteller Stefan Kanfer. In his book Stardust Lost, Kanfer describes the tumultuous history of the Yiddish stage, and brings to life its larger-than-life personalities. In this richly evocative discussion, Kanfer resurrects the forgotten landmarks and vital personalities of the Yiddish Theater, revealing the nightly drama and comedy that played out on stage and behind the scenes.

Herb Latner, a former child actor in the Yiddish Theater and a member of the Yiddish Artists and Friends and Actors Club board, will introduce and host the evening.

As space is limited, please RSVP to bookclub@tenement.org.

Thursday, January 18 at 6 PM
Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Visitors Center & Museum Shop
108 Orchard Street (below Delancey)

The New York Book Club has been created for those whose favorite subject is New York City. Every month it hosts free readings, discussions, and publication parties for books that explore New York ?its history and its role in popular culture, the arts, and the world.

Labels: Art, Entertainment, Events

The Fall Collection Artist Development Forum at the Edgie Jan 27

by Tibi Z. Singer

A free two-hour session with the producers & curators of The Fall Collection providing information to film, music and theater artists on how to get involved in this November's biggest multi-media festival. The Fall Collection Festival will be held this October 27th thru November 17th at the Abrons Art Center in a beautiful 350 seat theater.

At The Educational Alliance Mazur Theater, 197 East Broadway, Lower East Side, New York City Saturday, January 27 11 AM - 1 PM Free

The Fall Collection continues to prepare for the launch their 2007 festival with a free two hour Artist Development Forum (ADF) welcoming film, theater and music artists: filmmakers, screenwriters, directors, playwrights, actors, designers, singers, bands, musicians and DJs. The ADF will be he1d at The Educational Alliance Mazur Theater on 197 East Broadway, Lower East Side, New York City Saturday. January 27th. 2007 at 11 AM.

The ADF will be an informative session hosted by The Fan Collection Producers and Artistic Director Chris Ehrmann discussing what The Fall Collection Festival is, what The Fall Collection did in 2004, p1ans for the festival in 2007 and how to submit creative work and interview for crew & creative positions. 2007 Curators such as Andre Hereford, Lila Yomtoob, Sarah Flynn, Liz Sugarman, Clay McLeod Chapman, Daniel White, and Keri Dexter may also attend.

The Fall Collection was founded in 2004 and is dedicated to seeking out the most promising artists in film, theater and music from around the world to bring them together for three weeks in the Lower East Side. Due to the curatorial, interdisciplinary nature of the festival, The Fall Collection engages audiences in fresh and surprising ways. Around these principa1s, The Fan Collection is building a new kind of downtown performance community.

The Fall Collection's ADF will begin at 11 AM. A Q&A session is scbedu1ed. Free refreshments will be available courtesy total LES cafes and businesses. The Educationa.l A1Iiance is a partner of this year's Fall Collection Festival.

To RSVP for The Fall Collection ADF, email info@thefallcollection.org

Labels: Art, Entertainment, Events

Reading in Lower East Sideistan

Gary Shteyngart

by Pat Arnow

Not every town could pull together a program with local authors who write about the immigrant experience. In New York it's easy. So easy, the New York Book Club, which meets at the Tenement Museum visitors center on Orchard St., lined up a whole series on the subject.

On Wednesday evening novelists Gary Shteyngart and Sigrid Nunez read from their books and answered questions in the visitors' center and shop with the standing-room-only crowd piled in around the counters and shelves.

It would be a mistake to assume that the experience of children of immigrants would be similar. Shteyngart's Russian parents, who emigrated to the U.S. when their son was seven, proudly continued to speak Russian in the home. Nunez has one of those wonderfully complex families. She grew up on Staten Island, is the child of a German mother and a Chinese father who came from Panama. As a child, Nunez learned nothing of her parents' language.

The two authors did have one thing in common. They always felt like outsiders. Like many writers, whether American born or immigrant, they never felt that they could be at home in any country. Shteyngart says he never has felt American. But he does have a sense of belonging in one place. "I feel New Yorkian," he says.

Shteyngart's latest novel, “Absurdistan,” is a dark satire about an obese Russian man stuck in a tiny, oil-rich nation and longing only to get back to the U.S. see my Loho blog review. I'm far from the only one who admired this book. The Times named it one of the 10 best books of 2006.

Sigrid Nunez has written several novels including “The Last of Her Kind” and “A Feather on the Breath of God.”

For more information on Tenement Museum programs, call 212-431-0233 or visit the Museum's website.

Labels: Art, Events

24 Muslim Artists at Abrons Arts Center

Birds of Intoxication by Samira Abbassy

The Meeting by Seher Shah

Flag by Sara Rahbar

by Julie Muller Stahl

Abrons Arts Center Gallery presents CHANGING CLIMATE, CHANGING COLORS: 24 CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM ARTISTS

24 Muslim artists will uncover their personal insights, beliefs, politics, and methods of defining their individual’s cultural and religious stance within a secular environment at the Abrons Arts Center from January 16 through March 16. Curated by Mareena W. Daredia, Changing Climate, Changing Colors brings together a diverse group of artists hailing from North African, South Asian, Middle and Far Eastern cultures. Their work begs us to reconsider our positions and impressions, while questioning the very foundation of why Islamic and Western societies are at odds. Addressing issues that range from overt political statements and current “Muslim” conflicts, to introspective reflections of personal identity and expression, these artists offer a unique investigation into the routinely overlooked cultural diversity within Islam.

Featuring a wide array of media from performance art to paintings, each artist captures the current misgivings, doubts, fears, desires, and ultimate hopes that continue to evolve through an Islamic lens. Artists include Samira Abbassy, Tareq Abboushi, Sabah Ahmed, Bijli, Diana Al-Hadid, Javid Alibhai, Meher Asad, Bushra Chaudry, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Khadija Daya, Hasan Elahi, Yasmin Etemadi, Huma Gul, Sarah Husain, Masood Kamandy, Yasamin Keshtkar, Asma Arshad Mahmood, Sara Rahbar, Sa’dia Rehman, Hadieh Marjan Shafie, Mo Shah, Tahera Seher Shah, Saba Waheed, and Emna Zghal.

Changing Climate, Changing Colors is inspired by the works of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938), a poet philosopher from India. He regarded art as a dynamic force for expression, as time-changing rather than time-bound and dependent — and the integrity of the self preserved only through constant transformation.

Zamany kay andaaz badlay gayay,
Naya raag hai, saaz badlay gayay.

The ways of Time have been changed,
There is a new tune, instruments have been changed.

- Muhammad Iqbal

Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, (at Pitt street), 212.598.0400, abronsartscenter.org

Julie Muller Stahl is Marketing Director for Abrons

Labels: Art

Polish Socialist Conceptualism of the 70s

by Aukasz Ronduda

Opening: Jan. 7, 6-8
Dates: Jan. 7-28, 2007
Hours: Thurs. - Sun. 1-6 PM

Polish Socialist Conceptualism of the 70s presents a selection of films and documentations of actions, performances and conceptual gestures, most of them unknown, forgotten or excluded from art historical discourse in Poland. The exhibition is structured as an archive representing Soc Art activity during the 70s. Also included is documentation of projects by contemporary artists whose work refers to neo-avant-garde strategies and revitalizes forgotten artistic productions, like the obscure though very active amateur-film movement in Poland in the 60s and 70s, gathered and reinterpreted by Marysia Lewandowska and Neil Cummings, or Solidarity TV from the 80s, reconstructed by Igor Krenz. "Self-organization" is a guiding principle of the show, with equipment being found and lent by New York friends and with the support of Orchard, whose cooperative principles sometimes echo principles of Polish Socialist Conceptualism of the 70s.

Labels: Art

Janina Project: Celestial Structures

by Nikia Redhead

Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is a significant NYC historic landmark built in 1927 and the sole remaining Romaniote Greek Jewish congregation in the western hemisphere. A secular non-profit museum as well as a functioning synagogue, it is one of only seven enduring original synagogues on the Lower East Side where there were several hundred a century ago.

Janina Project: Celestial Structures by Judy Moonelis is a site-specific sculptural installation. Invited by Museum Director Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Moonelis’s work brings a contemporary perspective to Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum, public attention to its needs and the importance of its continued existence in the community. Responding to the site and its cultural history, the artist suspends cone shaped wire and mixed media sculptures from two large skylights. These works draw upon multiple references to the “heavens” including ancient celestial maps, contemporary models of the universe, Gothic vault structures and the geometric/numeric symbolism often featured in sacred spaces.

Judy Moonelis is an established NYC artist whose credits include an international exhibition record, significant public museum collections, major artist grants, publications and visiting artist positions. This project has been supported by Becton College of Arts and Sciences, Fairleigh Dickinson University, where Moonelis currently teaches. www.fduarts.org.

The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Hy Genee, an extraordinary man, former president and lay leader of the synagogue for 30 years, who passed away last year.

280 Broome (off Allen), kehila_kedosha_janina@netzero.net, 212.431.1619 or 516.221.2712, www.kkjsm.org, Museum Hours: Sundays 11am-4pm and by appointment. Opening Reception: Sunday January 7, 1:00-4:00 PM, exhibition runs through June 24, 2007. Synagogue Services: Saturdays at 9am and holidays.

Labels: Art

Gary Burnley, Decoys, Through Dec. 16

by Carol Markel

In his exhibition at Silo, artist Gary Burnley presents a new series of painted collages on paper called Decoys. He began this body of work in 2002 after an extended period of time focusing on public and urban renewal projects. The works on display, selected from a larger group, were intended as preparatory drawings for sculptures, but established their

own primacy along the way.

Untitled Decoy (6), 2006 Mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 in.

Untitled Decoy (7), 2006 Mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 in.

Untitled Decoy (16), 2006 Mixed media on paper, 19 x 22 1/2 in.

Through Dec. 16
Silo, 1 Freeman Alley For more information, please contact Tia Shin at info@silonyc.com or 212.505.9156.

Labels: Art