Purim
I’m quoted a lot in this 2/10 piece on Purim at Tablet Mag: Unmasked: Has Purim replaced Passover as the best holiday vehicle for expressing individual Jewish identity? By Liel Leibovitz
_______________________________________
More about the history of radical queer purimspiels! Wrestling With Esther: Purim Spiels, Gender, and Political Dissidence. Zeek Magazine, March 2006
2010 – Choose your own PURIM! LOVE REVELATION CONCRETE REVENGE
Created by Jenny Romaine and the Spectacle Committee
Presented by: Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, & Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinners
_____________________________________________________
2009 – Lower East Shushan: A Purim of Vacant Lots
haman and the house of cards
How many long-time residents can you fit in a house of cards? Does Mordechai clean behind his ears? Will Esther take a stand? Are all alien nations against gentrification? Will CAAV get back from the Bronx in time? Just how DO you take over a building, anyways? And which one’s Mordechai, and which one’s Haman?
Dancing//Merriment//Food and Drinks//Hop, meine homentashen, and see the show! Workmen’s Circle and JFREJ present in partnership with the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) and CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and thanks to Great Small Works and the New Yiddish Repertory Theater.
Spectacle house band led by Avi Fox-Rosen with Judith Berkson, Lee Free, Mary Feaster. Special appearances by pianist Ray Santiago and master congero and singer Abran Rodriguez, Adrienne Cooper, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Crosmopolitan, Gary Z, Xavier, and more. Star studded performing devising ensemble: Ariel Federow, Katy Rubin, Killer Sideburns (that’s me!), Abigail Miller, Michelle Malka Miller, Seltzer and Salt, Tamar Elster, Ora Fruchter, Abigail Levine, Aleza Summitt, Avi Rose, Rachel Yucht, Sam Wilson, Tine Kindermann, CAAAV Youth Group, WCKinder Shula, Copper Henningfield (the world’s greatest Magician)
____________________________________________________
2008 - 28 Condos Later: A Zombie Purim
starbucks mermaids fight the zombie-buildings
TERRIFYING performance! HORRIFYING costumes! DEVELOPERS that go bump in the night! SPINE-TINGLING drinks! STOMACH-FILLING food by Domestic Workers United! MONSTERS!DANCING! MAYHEM! THEATER! PUBLIC HOUSING! LIBERATION!
Music by: Michael Winograd and Friends, Rebel Diaz, The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, DJ Doom Dub, and more!
Spectacle by: Jenny Romaine! Adrienne Cooper! Daniel Lang/Levitsky! Killer Sideburns! Aleza Summit! Michelle Kay! Rachel Mattson! Ariel Federow! The Sukkos Mob! and many, many more…
In partnership with Mothers on the Move, Picture the Homeless, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), FIERCE, and the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership.
_____________________________________________________
2007 - Roti and Homentaschn: The Palace Workers Revolt! A Purim Carnival Spectacular
vasht/lilith scene
Come see the hidden story of Shusan’s domestic workers revealed! A raucous Purim carnival featuring outrageous performances, traditional Jewish and Caribbean food and drinks, and dancing to the sounds of klezmer, calypso, and marching bands!
Featuring: Music from members of Romashka, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, DJ Tikka Masala, and more; Giant babies; Performance and spectacle courtesy of: the Cultural Committee of Domestic Workers United, Jennifer Miller (Circus Amok), Adrienne Cooper, Ariel Federow a.k.a. Miss JewSA, Daniel Lang-Levitsky, Killer Sideburns, Rachel Mattson, Jenny Romaine and countless others; Lavish drinks! Delicious food!
This event is co-sponsored by JFREJ and Workmen’s Circle in partnership with Domestic Workers United and Great Small Works.
____________________________________________
2003 Suck My Treyf Gender write-up in Philadelphia City Paper
The Jewish holiday of Purim is traditionally a time for dressing in costume and celebrating the execution of an evil politician on the same gallows he had intended for the Persian Jews. In honor of that long-ago reversal, partiers are encouraged to drink until they confuse the story’s righteous hero with its wicked villain. Or was that the wicked hero and the righteous villain?
In that same boundary-smashing, topsy-turvy spirit comes “Suck My Treyf Gender: A Queer, Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Occupation Purim Cabaret.” (Treyf, for the uninitiated, is Yiddish for not kosher.) This perverse night of gender trouble, music and spoken word will be MCed by the New York-based Hadassah Ladies for Homos, a trio of Jewish drag queens following in the unholy footsteps of street-theater pioneers Church Ladies for Choice. Other performances will include a queer retelling of the Purim story, songs by New York drag queen Yolanda and a knock-down, drag-out wrestling match between kosher and treyf.
“On Purim, we celebrate stopping our idiot rulers from making decisions that create genocidal situations,” explains cabaret co-organizer Emily Nepon, who was crowned Mr. Drag King Philadelphia back in 1999 for an inspired portrayal of a heavy metal-loving bar mitzvah boy. With that in mind, the cabaret organizers are donating the proceeds to Jewish and queer activist organizations working for Palestinian rights and against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
