ezra berkley nepon

Notes on CAMP

I finally got a chance to see Alexis Mitchell’s excellent 2010 video CAMP, which includes great footage of the 2009 JFREJ Purimspiel “Lower East Shushan: A Purim of Vacant Lots.” So smart! I highly recommend checking it out or programming it if you do that kinda thing. More info: http://alexismitchell.com/camp.html

From Alexis:

CAMP is a 3-part, single channel, experimental, video essay exploring the secrets that underscore my personal relationship to Jewish history and culture. Through a look at 3 camp environments, I engage with a queer re-telling of the traditional Purim story, the censored passages in Anne Frank’s diary, and a haircut given to me by my grandfather in order to reveal the ways in which these secrets haunt the surface of our cultural moments. CAMP is framed through a play on the word ‘camp’ utilizing a camp sensibility amidst an analysis of temporary built environments. Through this frame I engage with what we choose to keep hidden in these contemporary moments, and point to a larger fear of speaking out against injustice as a cause for silence.

Klez Kamp!

Tomorrow, Christmas, I’ll be traveling first to NYC and then to Upstate NY for Klez Kamp, a Yiddish folk arts program that this year (its 27th) focuses on Yiddish Theater. I will be work-studying with Jenny Romaine in the Youth Theater Workshop, where we’ll be building a piece of New Yiddish Theater in four days from the ground up (!). This experience of learning from an inspiring teaching artist will help to fulfill the practicum requirements for my MA program at Goddard.

So far, I know that the show will be inspired by a Yiddish story by Khaver-Paver about a dog named Lobzik who goes with his family to protest economic injustice and learns never to depend on politicians, and a bunch of memes including Denver the guilty dog, and a flowchart of the Declaration of the Occupation (from Occupy Wall Street).

I’m doing a bunch of reading today, trying to find out more about all the references Jenny has made as we discuss this show: the Artef movement, Meyerhold Biomechanics, William Kentridge, Grine Katshke. And I’m finishing up Adventures in Yiddishland:Postvernacular Language and Culture by Jeffrey Shandler – super relevant book.

solstice visions

a neon jew, at hanukah, looks forward to summer

PS I’m honored that my solstice art project was included as a Daily Candy on Reina July’s website http://troublewaiting.wordpress.com/. Daily Candy is  “a treat of what we are troubled by or troubling or invoking or anticipating or anxiously awaiting for each day”, which aligns with the website’s Advent-theme. I’m a neon jew in an advent calendar!

Little Orphan Gender Rev Annie Occupies the New Year!

Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner – Occupy the New Year!!
December 30, 2011, 8 PM
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC
$15 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)

LEGS ON 'OLIDAY
 Little Did Productions
 director/lead puppet designer & builder: Jessica Lorence
 performers/builders/designers: Emily Norton, Luke Santy, Sarah Whalen

 LITTLE ORPHAN GENDER REVOLUTIONARY ANNIE
 a toy theater video by Dr. Kate Sorensen, Niknaz Tavakolian, & Killer Sideburns

 WOLLESONIC MEETS WOLLESCENIC
 light & sound installation by Kenny Wolleson and friends

 THROUGH THE HEADLIGHTS
 projections, music, and dance from Montreal by Zuzu Knew (Design), Julia Thomas (Choreography) & Tyr Jami (Sound), and...
 SYNGJA
 Tyr Jami, manipulated cello, samples, voice & Zuzu Knew, layered overhead projections
 re-interpreted traditional Icelandic folk songs, psychedelic-pop and recordings of the sister team's Icelandic great-grandmother, with analogue projections

 OCCUPY THE HOLIDAYS
 the Occupy Wall Street Puppetry Guild with a holiday tale featuring Mayor Michael Bloomscrooge and the ghosts of Occupations Past, Present, and Future. Performed by members of OWS Arts & Culture

 and...

 MUSIC FOR DANCING by Jessica Lurie and friends!

name announcement greeting card

I changed my name! Thanks to Annie Danger for drawing this beautiful card with my design ideas: an antique “greetings from coney island” postcard, pansies, seahorses… turned out gorgeously and now I’m addressing postcards to mail them out before year’s end and start 2012 with a new name for a new chapter.

puppet uprising!

puppet uprising June 2001 Poster

On December 3rd, I had a great time MC’ing the 11th Annual Puppet Uprising Year End Cabaret! I love Puppet Uprising, and it was fun to realize it’s been around 11 years and that I last MC’ed it over ten years ago in June 2001 as my drag king character Ben Hesherman. Wow time flies!

Excellent performances by idiosynCrazy productions, Sarah Lowry (Missoula Oblongata) & Beth Nixon (Ramshackle Enterprises),  The Agave Opera Company, Geppetta, Charlie Sarks, The Ragdoll Engine,  and musical guest Matthew Schreiber.

Little Orphan Gender Revolutionary Annie out on the town

My video Little Orphan Gender Revolutionary Annie had a fabulous world premiere debut on November 19th at  the MIX NYC Experimental Queer Film Festival!  And save the date for December 30th – it’s screening at the Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner in NYC.

Annie is stuck in the rotten gender-binary girls’ orphanage system, dreaming of a place where ze could thrive. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’m changing tomorrow… I’m not just a girl or gay!” sings Annie. This 13-minute song-cycle performance is based on a play written by Dr. Kate Sorensen and Killer Sideburns and performed at Idapalooza Fruit Jam in 2004. The 2011 video features four toy theater stages created by Dr. Kate Sorensen, green-screen video magic by Niknaz Tavakolian, and Killer Sideburns as a miniature broadway star.

New Article out in Grassroots Fundraising Journal!

Crowdfunding: The New Wave of Online Grassroots Fundraising  Grassroots Fundraising Journal. Nov-Dec 2011, Vol. 30 No.6. Building Our Collective Resources.

There are new tools to raise money online for all kinds of projects, even those without 501(c)(3) status. Get an orientation to some of the hottest crowdfunding sites and how you can make them work for you.

Fall 2011

• Lots of good adventures lately. I was in TN for almost two weeks for Work Hard/Stay Hard. About 100 people came to take part in an incredible work week that included re-roofing the front barn and a million other exciting projects, and we met our fundraising goals!
• A few days after getting back to Philly, I jumped up to NYC to spend a weekend working with The Sukkos Mob and Great Small Works folks to perform in a show on Rosh Hashana themes: “Truth in Gay Clothes: Your Goose is Cooked!” It was a treat to run around with a bunch of Yiddish-speaking chicken puppets at the GSW Spaghetti Dinner and at Dumbo Arts Festival.
• Soon after getting back from NYC, I led a cool fundraising-strategy workshop for Books Through Bars Philly which was especially interesting because they have a huge network of supporters, a proven history of doing powerful work, and a great earned-income stream from selling extra donated books online, so this workshop was less about how to ask for money and more about thinking through what strategies make sense for their collective and larger volunteer base to prioritize.
• I’m finishing my third packet of the semester in my MA program at Goddard and right now I’m writing about Magical Realism as a Tool of Cultural Resilience in Jewish Writing.
• and the really big news is that my video (with Kate Sorensen and Niknaz Tavakolian) Little Orphan Gender Revolutionary Annie will premier next month at MIX, the NYC queer experimental film festival. More info here!