Welcome 2018-2019 LABA Fellows!

  Ronit Muszkatblit, Artistic Director LABA, on this year’s LABA fellows. Welcome to a new year of LABA. A new year of ancient questions. A new year of investigating the two given things we all have in common: Life and Death. From the moment we come into being until the moment we are no more,

Meeting Point on Top of the Hill

Yael Sloma, artist and LABA fellow, travelled through illegal Israeli outposts in the Palestinian Territories. Here are a few of her impressions. PLEASE DO CLICK ON THE IMAGES! The morning after the 2016 presidential elections reminded me of the morning after the Yitzhak Rabin assassination: it felt as if even the trees and stones and cars

The Wound Itself Bestows The Blessing

LABAlive is a unique celebration of art, theater, and Jewish texts. This Thursday, May 31st, at 7.30pm, playwright Amy Handelsman will be showing an excerpt from her work-in-progress, LOVE BY TKO: Life Lessons in the Ring (theatrical excerpts from my memoir). (Click here for tickets!) Below, Amy describes her thoughts on boxing and Judaism. Common

“The machine is a god for making universes”

This coming Thursday, May 31st, LABAlive II will present an evening of subversive art and teachings based on this year’s theme, WAR & PEACE. The evening will feature LABA teacher Liel Leibovitz and works-in-progress by LABA Fellows Tal Gur, Amy Handelsman, and Jacob Siegel. Author Siegel serves up an excerpt from the novel-in-progress he’ll present at the event. from The Cracked Screen

LABAlive IS BACK!

On Thursday, May 31st, LABALive Two will present an evening of subversive art and teachings on this year’s theme, WAR & PEACE. The evening will feature LABA teacher Liel Leibovitz and works-in-progress by LABA Fellows Tal Gur, Jacob Siegel and Amy Handelsman. For those looking for a taste right now, here is 2016-2017 LABA alumna Laura Beatrix

Making Holes in the Torah

2013-2014 LABA alumna Yael Kanarek is an Israeli-American artist. Kanarek spoke to 2016-2017 LABA alumnus Gordon Haber about her female-centric adaption of the Book of Genesis and her upcoming program at the 14th Street Y’s dusk-to-dawn Shavuot celebration on May 19th. The interview has been edited for clarity. I have been adapting Genesis in Hebrew and English.

Patterns of a Parachute Path

On Thursday, May 31st, LABALive Two will present an evening of subversive art and teachings on this year’s theme, WAR & PEACE. The evening will feature LABA teacher Liel Leibovitz and works-in-progress by LABA Fellows Tal Gur, Jacob Siegel and Amy Handelsman. Here Gur serves up a few words and images apropos of his upcoming show.   

Notes on (and Pics of) the In[heir]itance Festival

It’s been a long journey to get to this point: the In[heir]itance Festival is finally up and running at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, and I couldn’t be more excited. Do you have your tickets yet? It’s forty-one performances in nineteen days of five plays created around the country, each inspired by the

Israel at 70: LABA Fellows Look Back with Longing and Sorrow

On the occasion of the Jewish state’s 70th anniversary, we’ve asked our LABA fellows with Israeli backgrounds for their perspectives. Jewish State of Mind // Tal Gur Israeli-American composer and multi-instrumentalist Tal Gur was born in Israel and grew up in an Air Force base in the valley of Jezreel, where the sounds of combat

Passover Musings: Then and Now

The Passover seder, a collective commemoration of liberation and redemption, is probably the most observed Jewish ritual of our time. Here LABA fellow Amy Handelsman reflects on her family’s seders past and present. One of the foundational principles of Judaism is T’shuvah, the concept of circularity and return. We return to the same holidays every year, the