Joshua Max Feldman is a writer of fiction and plays. His debut novel, The Book of Jonah, a modern retelling of the Biblical Book of Jonah set in contemporary New York City, was published in the U.S. in February, 2014, by Henry Holt. Amazon named The Book of Jonah the Debut Novel of the Month, and the New York Times praised
Rebecca Margolick and Maxx Berkowitz are a Brooklyn-based integrative and experimental performance collaborative. Rebecca Margolick was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She graduated with an honors BFA in Dance from NYU – Tisch School of the Arts and received the J.S. Seidman Award for Excellence in Dance. Primarily based in NYC, Rebecca is a
On Tuesday, LABA kicked off our year of study around a table in the 14th Street Y’s gorgeous theater, washing down our discussion with food and wine. Each of our fellows and staff brought in a beautiful item and explained its power in an effort to begin to parse our personal relationships to beauty. And then, cracking open our discussion
The idea to spend a year studying beauty was not a new one. We at LABA have spent years contemplating the possibility of having beauty as our theme, but each time we ended up passing on it. Why? We thought beauty was too simplistic, too political and, perhaps worst of all, unlikely to engender new
With just five days until the launch of LABA’s new year and new group of outstanding fellows on Tuesday, we wonder: what does BEAUTY mean to you?
Every year, a new crop of LABA Fellows gathers at the 14th Street Y over noshes and wine to discuss classic Jewish texts and create artwork inspired by our dialogue. After waiting all summer, we are very excited for next week’s launch of the 2015-2016 Fellowship! Our theme is (drumroll, please…) BEAUTY. Stay tuned for
BY SARAH FRIEDLAND During her recent residency at the MacDowell Colony, filmmaker Sarah Friedland engaged in a deep visual meditation of Ecclesiastes (Koheleth in Hebrew). Her tools were the text, a camera and a couple of packets of articulating paper that she found outside a dentist office back in New York City. (These are the
BY BEN GANTCHER Honi the Chalk-Slinger Honi the Circle Maker is a hero, Reb Sheriff, holster packed with magic chalk. But he doesn’t come across that way when you meet him in the two stories we read this year in LABA. Sure, he’s a miracle worker, but in the first story, he’s cast as an
BY JOSH WALETZKY The major culture war of our day sets two worldviews against each other: “fundamentalist” vs. “scientific,” or “religious” vs. “secular.” This culture war has a long history, with roots in the time of the European Enlightenment. The Yiddish tale that served as the starting point for “The Last Dybbuk,” our devised
LABA FELLOW SHAWN SHAFNER TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW COMMUNITY-BASED ARTWORK, FERMENTING MEMORIES AND WHY HE NOW MAKES SURE TO LOOK FOR THE MOON EVERY NIGHT. COME SEE HIS NEW WORK IN “TIME INSIDE US,” 6/4 AT THE Y. Tell us about your project. “Eat Your Feelings” is a community-based artwork that explores how the stories