דער טשװאָק – der tshvok – the spike: October/November 2021

for the next two months, i’ll be doing a series of short site-specific performances centered on yiddish songs. they’ll be happening all over nyc: come see a few! all the details are here.

So Much Writing (all available now!)

i have an essay in Milstein’s anthology There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists, alongside an array of other organizers and cultural workers. my piece reflects on using jewish cultural material in justice movement organizing, after more than twenty years experience. Order here from AK Press; or get it at your local bookstore!

another essay, this time on the “fem” part of “trans | fem | aesthetics” for an issue of E-Flux on that theme, edited by Mackenzie Wark. some history, some polemic, some nudzhes for current practice. the issue is here! and a recorded conversation about it all with me, Mackenzie, and Isabel Sandoval is here!

two of my translations of yiddish poems by Roza Gutman – “Stay” and “Hail” – have just come out in the National Yiddish Book Center’s latest translations issue of Pakn Treger, alongside an array of other wonderful work.

a short letter of mine was included in Jewish Currents‘ special section of responses to their editorial on recent approaches to fighting antisemitism. i’m planning to expand it into something longer on the blog here; we’ll see when i get around to it.

finally, right here on the blog, i wrote a long close reading of Torrey Peters’ novel Detransition, Baby. if you’re interested in “trans literature”, in writing by or about trans people, in tragicomedies of manners, or in focused critical attention on work that mostly gets superficial commentary, you might want to read it! (whether or not you want to read the novel is a different kind of question)

PAST: February 7, 2021 – 2 pm (NYC)

A Taste of Oysters of Yiddish Song

a showcase of contemporary yiddish songs, featuring songwriters who will be part of a forthcoming collection i’m co-editing with Adah Hetko and Zoë Aqua: the first songbook to present the fruits of the last forty years of yiddish cultural revitalization! presenting artists Anthony Mordechai Tsvi Russell, Judith Berkson, Shura Lipovsky, Isabel Frey, and Benji Fox-Rosen! RSVP here.