From the Drama Queen Festival to the 100th Anniversary of Book Week: Weekend Picks
A dramatic opening to Pride Month: the fifth Drama Queen Festival, a week of LGBTQ culture, will take place from today through June 11 as part of Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality Pride events, under the artistic direction of Yuval Koren, Nimrod Danishman and Rom Raznik. At the Triangle Theater and the LGBTQ Center, original LGBTQ works from a range of fields will be presented, including theater, film, performance, dance, drag, stand-up, music and visual art.
Among the events are “Quicky,” a hookup featuring four short plays written especially for the festival; the premiere of the new, unfiltered performance “Benjamin” by fringe artist Benjamin Yom-Tov (“Peacock,” “Narcissus”); gay film screenings; the Lior Tabouri dance company’s premiere of SUCCUS; a conversation with Elad Bar-Noy and Shir Reuven about the hidden rivalry between gay men and lesbians; the exhibition “Amor Shalom,” offering a queer perspective by artists from the LGBTQ community on the concept of peace; and a performance by Shira Zaluf. Raznik says that “this year as well, the festival opens Pride Month in a year of war. In the artistic program, we chose to address the difficulty and pain that the war brings with it, but we decided to emphasize something that is almost no longer said out loud, peace. The wish we grew up on, that we sang in kindergarten, that gave us hope, and that has also become a forbidden, political, controversial word. We believe in the power of creation, and in our power as a community to insist that things here will be better. And there is nothing like LGBTQ culture to remind us that it is possible.”
In the new book The Grandson, Dror Burstein returns to the refined prose he knows how to write. It is a short, local journey story of a father and son on the eve of the birth of a grandson, a chain of generations taking shape within wounded Israeli life, tragic on the one hand and full of grace on the other. Daniel is an insect expert and amateur birdwatcher, divorced and a father, and a new grandfather. His 80-year-old father, Aryeh, is a widower and a retired Israel Aerospace Industries employee. The two meet and set out on a kind of mental and geographical wandering on one morning at the end of Passover, along a route that begins at the botanical garden and ends at Ichilov. Daniel asks himself why a grandson now, why bring children into a world of violence and wars. His father Aryeh looks at things more practically, and writes poems for his grandson. This is lyrical prose that tries to find meaning and significance in life amid the current Israeli reality.
Forty-five years ago, Laurie Anderson entered our lives like an alien whose spaceship crashed on Earth, when she released her first single, “O Superman” (1981). It was the first song released from her monumental performance United States, a four-hour combination of video, music and speech. The song’s surprising success on radio led record companies to court her, and her first two albums contained songs from that same show. Since then, she has described the strange life on this planet in words and sounds, with feigned seriousness and measured irony, in a voice that at times sounds instructive and at others like a secret or a minor punch line. Since then, Anderson, who will turn 79 tomorrow, has continued to mount performances, with each tour mostly containing entirely new material, and then preserve them on records. Sometimes her work is autobiographical and familial, and sometimes political and social. Her new album, then, a triple album on vinyl, an hour and a half on Spotify, is a new project for her. It can be called a retrospective, simply because the phrase “greatest hits collection” is amusing in her context. In recent years, Anderson has been touring concert halls with the avant-garde jazz ensemble Sexmob in a show presenting the best of 45 years of performance and multimedia, and the album Let X=X is a live album documenting those performances. For Anderson’s fans, who may have seen her during her three visits to Israel, it is a tremendous keepsake. For those who do not yet know her, it is an excellent introduction to an extraordinary artist, a genius in her constant innovation, who always manages to surprise with unexpected music, with tremendous insight and brilliant humor.
The Galilee continues to come under fire nonstop, while officially there is still a ceasefire. This is exactly the time to show solidarity and support northern businesses as much as possible. The Galilee wineries, which are approaching the harvest with great concern and have still not fully licked their wounds from previous rounds, are an inseparable part of the local agriculture, tourism, cuisine and culture. Six of them will gather this coming Saturday at the 12th Galilee Wine Fair, at Mishk Ofir in Alon HaGalil, from 11:00 to 15:00, and present their wines. The host winery is Mishk Ofir, along with Kishor Winery, whose wine production involves people with disabilities and therefore deserves support year-round, the excellent organic Latem Winery with its many outstanding wines, the young Pelech Winery from Kibbutz Pelech, one of the most intriguing new wineries around, Stern Winery from Kibbutz Tuval, and Julia Winery from Mi'ilya, one of the few wineries in Israel owned by Arabs. Cheeses from Oshy's cheesery at Moshav Admît, pastries from Adosh from Kibbutz Beit HaEmek, and live music by the Dalia Bareket and Gili Rosenberg ensemble will complete the celebration. Come to drink, eat, and above all, to support.
At Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem, the Hebrew Book Week will celebrate 100 years with the “Book Hospital” festival, from June 8 to 11, under the artistic direction of Liran Lifshitz and Noga Ashd. Among other events, there will be a book fair, illustration workshops and pajama parties with classic bedtime stories. Singer Jimbo J will host a tribute to Yehuda Atlas, actors Neta Roth and Idan Alterman and musician Nadav Hollander will hold a pajama party in tribute to Leah Naor and Maya Barne Goldberg, who wrote the series Cramel, will meet with the series’ director, Roy Segev. In addition, there will be a musical performance by Maur Cohen with members of “Song One,” Nir Gorali and Maya Kosover, and author Eshkol Nevo will hold a storytelling performance.
At the “Book Hospital” event, there will be a meeting with book doctors and a workshop to repair and heal beloved books and restore them. Lifshitz says that “on our shelf there are stories and books more than 100 years old, that survived generations of readers and remained alive. We invited children to send us a letter they would send to their past or would be happy to receive from the future. The letters are a time capsule of the Israeli reality as seen through children’s eyes, one that may still be told at the 200th anniversary celebrations of Book Week. At the ‘Book Hospital,’ the boys and girls will not only meet creators from the world of literature, but will also sew holes in the plot, tighten loose story threads, and repair books that were torn from being read so much.”
From today through Saturday, the ABOUT US 16 lifestyle fair, by entrepreneur and content creator Karin Laufer-Dane, will take place at the Container Building in Jaffa Port. Forty-six designers from various fields will take part, from clothing and shoes to beauty and home design, by both young and veteran designers. Some of the proceeds from the event will be donated to a green farm established to create a rehabilitative environment for former security forces personnel dealing with difficulties.
Among others, visitors will find the beautiful jewelry brand Tangled by Hadar Shelo, who creates handmade bracelets from Japanese glass beads that are also meticulously handmade, some coated with 24-karat gold; the timeless fashion brand KAWAYAN by Anat Hefetz, which focuses on working with natural materials and creates precise, relaxed pieces; the designs of Reut Shamai Cohen for the CHIMI CHARI brand, which also creates unique jackets from recycled garments she dismantles and reassembles with a personal touch; and the beautiful designs of Maayan Bronfman for her brand BOW M. Bronfman likes to incorporate volume even in minimalist clothing, resulting in feminine, timeless pieces with a twist.
