Simon Fraser University professor Mark Winston’s book on his lifetime as a world-leading bee expert – Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive – won this year’s Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. According to the awards jury, Winston’s book “distils a life’s devotion to the study of bees into a powerful and lyrical meditation on humanity. This compelling book inspires us to reevaluate our own relationships both with each other and the natural world. Vital reading for our time.”
Mark Winston (photo from SFU Communications)
In Bee Time, Winston investigates the many influences bees have had on human society, and what we can learn from how bees have responded to their own societal challenges. Earlier this year, the book, published by Harvard University Press, was lauded with a Canadian Science Writers’ Association award.
“I look to the Governor General list every fall for good books to read, so for Bee Time to be on the list is an enormous thrill, and an extraordinary honor,” said Winston, who shares his reflections on three decades as a bee biologist in his award-winning book.
As one of the world’s authorities on bees and pollination, Winston has devoted his career to research and teaching, as well as writing and providing commentary on bees, environmental issues and science policy. Now a professor and senior fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue and founder of the Semester in Dialogue program (launched in 2002), he has written six previous books on topics from bees to the environment, and has been a consistently sought-out expert by national and international media.
“From altering our understanding of agricultural ecosystems to how urban planners are looking to bees to design more nature-friendly cities, I tried in Bee Time to offer practical views about the many lessons we can learn from bees, but also to express how grateful I am to bees for what they’ve taught me about collaboration, communication and interaction,” explained Winston, who continues to write a blog, winstonhive.com. A New York Times editorial he wrote (July 15, 2014) on the book was the most read NYT article for two consecutive days.
Among his many accolades, Winston is a co-winner of the Science Council of British Columbia’s 1992 Gold Medal in the natural sciences for his role in discoveries that resulted in an entirely new understanding of how bees communicate.
Governor General’s Literary Award recipients receive $25,000 and are celebrated at a gala event at Rideau Hall. This year, nearly 1,000 titles were submitted for the seven English-language categories. The awards are presented annually by the Canada Council for the Arts. For more details and a complete list of winners, see ggbooks.ca.
Tickets are now on sale for the 16th annual Chutzpah! Lisa Nemetz International Jewish Performing Arts Festival. The 2016 festival will run from Feb. 18 to March 13, and it will once again showcase theatre, comedy, music and dance performances and workshops by international, Canadian and local artists.
The Chutzpah! Festival’s Dance Series includes Canadian and North American premières from Italy’s Spellbound Contemporary Ballet; Israeli dance company Maria Kong performing their much-lauded Open Source; and New York-based Gallim Dance in their repertory work Wonderland by choreographer Andrea Miller, which Dance Magazine praised as “Gutsy. Wild. Smart. Original.” New to the international scene, New York City’s all-male company MADBOOTS appears in a double bill with a world première from Chutzpah’s resident dance company, Shay Kuebler Radical System Art; and Ballet Kelowna presents works by artistic director Simone Orlando, James Kudelka, Heather Myers and John Alleyne, with Toronto’s Continuum Contemporary Music accompanying (Chutzpah!PLUS, May 4-6).
Baladino (photo by Omri Barel)
The global landscape of music presented this year showcases performers from Israel, Mexico City, New York City, Canada and Cuba. Highlights include Israel’s sister group A-Wa; Juno Award-winners Odessa/Havana; trumpeter and composer David Buchbinder and Grammy-nominated Cuban piano master Hilario Durán joined by a team of jazz and world musicians; Mexico City band Klezmerson; Baladino’s interpretations of Sephardi and Ladino melodies, with Mediterranean-Gypsy grooves, electronics, improvisation and vocals; and Israel’s Victoria Hanna’s ongoing experimentation with the vocal and conceptual boundaries of language, presenting sacred Hebrew texts and spirituals in a modern context, integrating music, spoken word and video. Also on the music roster are Israel/New York jazz artists Rotem Sivan Trio; mandolinist and clarinetist Andy Statman from New York with Jim Whitney (bassist) and Larry Eagle (drummer and percussionist); and Israel’s Avishai Cohen Quartet, featuring award-winning trumpeter Avishai Cohen, described by the New York Times as “an extravagantly skilled trumpeter, relaxed and soulful … deftly combining sensitivity and flair.” (Chutzpah!PLUS, May 7)
Chutzpah!’s theatre and comedy lineup includes a world première from Israeli-Canadian B.C.-based playwright, performer and lighting designer Itai Erdal in collaboration with Maiko Yamamoto (Theatre Replacement) and Anita Rochon (Chop Theatre). The audience will enter the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Dayson Boardroom for a humorous and moving play, A Very Narrow Bridge, that reveals the complexity of living between cultures and family relationships. Erdal re-lives a trial in order obtain a get (religious divorce). Joining him are local actors Patti Allen, Tom Pickett and Ryan Biel.
The festival also features two separate stand-up comedy performances from New York City comedians Jessica Kirson and Jon Steinberg, a perennial favorite on CBC Radio’s Debaters.
New this year, as part of Chutzpah!PLUS (April 2), is a memoir book reading and interview with Jennifer Teege, the bi-racial granddaughter of Nazi commandant Aon Goeth, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List. In her memoir, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me (co-written with journalist Nikola Sellmair and newly translated from German), Teege reveals the moment she discovered her ancestry after being given up for adoption, and recounts how this discovery shook her life to the core.
Celebrating its 16th year, Chutzpah!’s artistic and managing director Mary-Louise Albert said, “Another great year with world premières by B.C. dance and theatre artists and a focus on the continuation of our established and well-warranted excellent reputation of bringing numerous outstanding international music, dance and comedy to our audiences!”
Chutzpah! performances will take place at Rothstein Theatre, Biltmore Cabaret, the J, Fox Cabaret and Frankie’s Italian Kitchen. Single tickets are $21 to $36 and can be purchased online at chutzpahfestival.com, by phone at the Chutzpah! box office (604-257-5145) or Tickets Tonight (604-684-2787). Chutzi Packs are also available: see four different shows of your choice for $89.
Shevy Levy’s Storm Brewing is at Zack Gallery until Dec. 6. (photo by Olga Livshin)
This month, Zack Gallery is dedicated to abstract art. The exhibition Storm Brewing introduces gallery patrons to an unusual artist, Shevy Levy. Nobody looking at her daring, color-splashed paintings, throbbing with élan, could guess that Levy is an amateur artist. In her professional life, she is the owner of a software company, Lambda Solutions.
“I don’t have a formal art education,” Levy said in an interview with the Independent. “I always liked art and design, painted at school, and my mother encouraged my interest in art. She urged me to take classes, to study, but I was drawn to science, too. When the time came to choose between art and science as a career, I chose science and got a math degree. Much more practical,” she laughed. “But art was always in my life. You could say it is in my blood. I heard that math and creativity originate in the same part of the brain.”
Levy has taken classes with many famous artists, first in Israel, where she was born, and then here, in Vancouver, after her family immigrated. “I’m still learning, still enrolling in art courses. It’s a lifelong study,” she said, “an ongoing journey to learn new techniques and skills, develop them. The better your skills, the wider their range, the more they allow you to express yourself.”
Levy’s visual language consists mostly of colorful abstract compositions. Colors flow and clash, tinkle and thrum like an orchestra, twirl like dance strains and float like snowflakes. “I like nature and colors, not so much shapes,” she explained. “When I paint, I don’t plan. I just want to express myself. What color would fit here? What color should be there? It’s all intuitive. I want tons of energy on my canvases and I pour it out through colors.”
Light and darkness interlink in her paintings as they do in our lives, and in her own life, which hasn’t been easy or straightforward. “We came to Canada in 1993,” she recalled. “My husband retired from the Israeli air force and I took a sabbatical from teaching math. Our children were 10 and 15 at the time. We decided to travel for a year and came here. I did my master’s degree at SFU [Simon Fraser University]. We stayed.”
Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The life of an immigrant is never simple. It requires much time and energy to build a new home in a new country, to integrate into a new culture. There was no time for art.
“I painted a lot while in Israel, but when we came here, I stopped for awhile,” she said. “I started painting again about 10 years ago, and now I don’t see myself stopping. I’m busy with my work, I love it, but I love painting, too. I paint in the evenings and on the weekends. It’s my way to meditate, to relax, a distraction from real life.”
Levy also started taking classes again, and every new class offered a new discovery. “I always thought I had an intuition for colors, how they fit together. Then I took a class on colors at Emily Carr, and it explained so much. It was very helpful to know what the colors mean, alone or in different combinations. It is like there is a conversation of colors in my paintings.”
The sense of communication, of wordless discussion through the paintings comes from the artist’s original approach. “I always paint several pieces at the same time. I can’t do just one. I need continuity, from one painting to another. Sometimes I paint on top of older paintings. It might be beautiful, esthetic, but if there is no ‘umph,’ I have to fix it. I need to see a story in each painting, a conflict, a tension, where color clusters interact with empty space.”
For the current show, the story is all about storms – both in art and in life. “The idea for this show was not only to investigate the storms in nature but also to reflect on what storms make us feel,” said Levy. “We are facing storms all the time in our lives. There are darker clouds and lighter moments. But storms are not necessarily black. I wanted to know how a storm would look in pink. Could it be white? It was an exploration of the theme, and every painting has a title that came from music, from songs. I couldn’t live my life without music. I always put on music when I paint. I love classical music, jazz, rock.”
Like notes that build into melodies, the paintings of the exhibit create a concert of colors on the gallery walls. Some pieces are like symphonies, deep and powerful, while others look like doodles coming alive, buzzing with current and bursting with the artist’s emotions.
Levy seems to be drawn towards the darker spectrum of the palette, where happiness is tempered with concern. “Sometimes I force myself into a ‘cheerful mood’ but generally I think life is darker,” she said. “My sister is going through a serious illness now. Maybe the darkness in my paintings comes from it.”
Storm Brewing opened on Nov. 12 and will continue until Dec. 6.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
William Samples and Christine McBeath in People, now at Jericho Arts Centre until Nov. 29. (photo by Adam Henderson)
Character actors are like wine – they only get better with age. Nowhere is this more evident than in the United Players production of English playwright Alan Bennett’s satirical farce People, currently playing at Jericho Arts Centre. Directed by Jewish community member Adam Henderson, it’s cheeky fun served up English style.
Two sisters, Dorothy (Christine McBeath), an aging former model, and June (Kate Robbins), an archdeacon of the local church, have to deal with the decay of their 500-year-old Yorkshire ancestral home, Stacpoole Manor. Dorothy, who lives in the home with her companion Iris (Nancy Amelia Bell), wants to sell off the contents to a London auction house, while June wants to endow the house and its grounds to the National Trust.
The trust is an English charitable institution that preserves and maintains historic homes for the benefit of the “people.” But that means lots of tourists invading the home with their questions and cameras, and Dorothy is a recluse who basically doesn’t like people. By chance, one of her old flames, Mr. Theodore (William Samples), happens upon the manor, and he offers a third option to the sisterly impasse – renting out the home for a porn film shoot. This could get interesting.
The play opens with a glimpse of a porn actor caught in flagrante delicto. Cut to the suave London auctioneer Bevan (Brian Hinson) and then the smarmy National Trust evaluator Mr. Lumsden (Matt Loop) as they traipse through the house eyeing the contents for their respective purposes, each man trying to convince his patron sister of the strength of his option. The audience is introduced to valuable papers, artifacts and a collection of chamberpots famous for their users: George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling and T.S. Eliot, to name a few (with the original contents still intact).
In the meantime, Dorothy, unbeknown to June, opts to let Mr. Theodore and his company into the home to make their film.
The action really picks up in the second act, with the stage transformed into a periodesque bedroom shoot of the porn film Reach for the Thigh (tastefully done, no nudity please, we’re British). Colin (Kevin Hatch) as the male actor and Brit (Charlotte Wright) as his female counterpart (who knits between takes) are hilarious in their four-poster bed passionate romp.
Of course, during the shoot, the bishop (Hamish Cameron) makes an appearance with June to check out the home – luckily, he was having trouble with his new specs and could not really see what was going on. If you haven’t had your fix of double entendres for the night, these scenes ought to satisfy you.
The crew – cameraman Les (Peter Robbins), wardrobe mistress Louise (Demi Pedersen), fashionista grip Bruce (Eric Keogh) and assistant director Nigel (Sidartha Murjani) – rounds out the cast with small, albeit memorable, roles.
McBeath and Samples are superb, and Bell really brings out Iris’ dotty character. Collectively, the actors – many of whom are ex-pat Brits so the accents are authentic – make it all work. The fact that at least half of the cast is over 65 adds to the reality of the production.
The set morphs from decrepitude and decay into sophistication and grace. Kudos to Marcus Stusek for this work and to Marci Jade Herron for her costume designs, from shabby chic for the Stacpoole women (mink coats and sneakers) to edgy togs for the film actors. Charming song and dance routines and nostalgic music from the 1960s (think “Downtown” and Petula Clark) complete the mix.
In the media release, Henderson notes, “We really don’t treat age with much respect, and it’s a youth-obsessed culture. This play goes a long way in dealing with those issues.”
So, you can take the opportunity for deep consideration of contemporary issues or you can just sit back and enjoy a good laugh. Your choice.
For tickets and more information, visit unitedplayers.com or call the box office at 604-224-8007, ext. 2. People runs through to Nov. 29.
Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.
Holocaust survivors who came to Canada after the Second World War remade this country’s Jewish community.
Before survivors arrived in numbers, beginning in 1947, Canada’s Jewish community had a few poorly resourced social service agencies. The demands created by thousands of new arrivals – many with significant emotional and physical challenges – spurred the growth of Jewish communal organizations across the country. In turn, those survivors have had an impact on the community in the successive seven decades that is incalculable. The impact of the Holocaust – and the arrival of its survivors – is perhaps the defining factor in the development of Canada’s Jewish community.
Adara Goldberg (photo from Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival)
“The Holocaust is a watershed moment and the scale of this watershed resettlement was unprecedented,” said Adara Goldberg, a Vancouverite and author of Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955. “Many of the agencies across Canada only came to be as a result of the Holocaust. Jewish Immigrant Aid Services [JIAS] did exist, but this was a small organization that only dealt with small numbers up to this point. Having some 35,000 people come in, in less than a 10-year span, really trampled the organizations.”
Survivors who moved to the United States joined a vibrant Jewish community already in progress, while those who came to Canada found a Jewish community with little infrastructure. What exists of the Jewish community and its social service agencies today was built, in large part, for the survivors and, subsequently, by them.
To an extent, there was an unwillingness among Canada’s existing Jewish community to address the Holocaust experiences of the newcomers – those who did not experience the Holocaust may have been afraid of opening wounds or been unwilling to hear the horrors others experienced. There was also a history in Canada of immigrants getting off the boats and throwing themselves instantly into building a new life, leaving the past behind.
Still, Goldberg said, there was a recognition by people like the head of JIAS that these immigrants had some very particular needs.
“The problem was availability,” she said. “This is uncharted territory. Social workers themselves and the Canadian Jewish community were only learning with the survivors about how to treat victims of trauma … the idea of post-traumatic stress didn’t really exist.”
Getting the newcomers integrated was not only a matter of meeting social needs, she added.
“There is also a legal element to that,” Goldberg said. “The fact is, refugees who came to Canada under the auspices of either the Canadian Jewish Congress, or who received support from JIAS or who had relatives sponsor them, were liabilities. If they didn’t find work, if they didn’t have a home, if they became dependent, they risked deportation. They risked becoming a drain on the existing Jewish community, which was already really reaching its max in terms of what they could do.”
A symbol of success is that very few fell through the cracks, although many of the case studies in the book indicate that some survivors were miserable in their assigned living conditions or workplaces.
There was a realization after the war, as the magnitude of what would come to be called the Holocaust dawned, that Canada had failed the imperiled Jews of Europe in the 1930s, when there was still time.
“After the war, relationships changed and there was significant international pressure on Canada to help do its part in relieving the postwar refugee crisis of Jewish and also non-Jewish displaced persons,” Goldberg said. “On the one hand, we can say this was a humanitarian gesture.… There’s also a practical element that we can’t overlook in that Canada stood to gain something from allowing in the Holocaust survivor refugees. There was a need for skilled laborers and this is how most survivors did come in, they came in for skilled labor posts, so Canada benefited.”
The equation of immigration and Canada’s need for labor is underscored by the fact that there was no ministry of immigration at the time – until 1950, Canada’s immigration policy was administered by the ministry of mines and resources. The influx of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees postwar familiarized the Canadian government and public to the concept of receiving refugees on humanitarian grounds. The first major instance of this reconsideration came in 1956 after the Soviet Union crushed the democratic uprising in Hungary. Canada admitted 37,000 refugees in the course of a year.
Goldberg’s book begins with a refresher on Canada’s abominable record in the prewar period. Chapters then take on topics such as the unique requirements of young orphaned refugees; the double-edged sword of interned “enemy aliens” – Jews from enemy states, mostly Germany and Austria, whose nationality, in the eyes of Britain and its Canadian dominion, trumped their status as endangered victims of Nazism; the various programs under which refugees were admitted to Canada and how established Jewish communities, especially their women’s organizations, cared for refugees’ personal needs; the creation of social clubs and synagogues by and for survivors; the development of an ultra-Orthodox and Chassidic community here; and “transmigrants,” those who came to Canada after a sojourn elsewhere, often in Israel. She has included the stories of survivors who didn’t want to be found; those whose experiences in Europe led them to hide their Jewishness and their past as they began a new life in Canada. It is a monumental work.
A Toronto native, Goldberg wrote the book in fulfilment of her PhD at Clark University in Massachusetts and, while there are differences between the dissertation and the book, which was published in September by University of Manitoba Press, the book avoids the academic jargon that can exclude ordinary readers.
“As a social history that was created with the research that I did both in archives as well as through interviews and other sources, it was written with a wide readership in mind,” she said.
Goldberg eschews statistics in favor of personal case studies both from in-person interviews and records of social service agencies from decades past. The result is an introduction to hundreds of individuals and their stories, as well as a testament to the resilience of the survivors and the history of a small Jewish community rising – not always flawlessly – to the challenge of welcoming tens of thousands of co-religionists who had suffered unspeakable horrors.
The dissertation took about three years to complete and, after Goldberg moved to Vancouver, where she worked for three years as education director at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, she took the opportunity to do additional research that incorporates more local content. The book is enriched by her background as a trained social worker, which underpins a deep analysis of the successes and failures of social service agencies in those early years.
Refugees are the top global news story today and Goldberg sees lessons for the present in her book.
“It’s a very different crisis,” she said. “I think what we can do is, without trying to compare individual experiences, to remember the risk of nativist attitudes and what happened when Canada had very discriminatory, restrictive immigration policies 75 years ago. Canada accepted the fewest number of Jewish refugees of any country in the Western world … Canada had an opportunity at that time to distinguish itself, to take a very restrictive policy and widen the gates. They could have done this and they elected not to. What we can do now is reflect on the result of this inaction. History does not need to repeat itself. Canada can distinguish itself as a world humanitarian leader.
“Similarly,” she continued, “Holocaust survivors have contributed to all aspects of Canadian society. I imagine that so, too, do other refugees to Canada and so will other waves that come in the future. There is so much that we can gain.”
The Vancouver launch of Adara Goldberg’s book takes place on Nov. 25, 5:30 p.m., at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, as part of the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. Admission is free.
Not only is there no quick fix to making a relationship work, but there’s no quick fix for absorbing the main points of Avrum Nadigel’s Learning to Commit: The Best Time to Work on Your Marriage is When You’re Single. Its lessons can’t be summed up in a few bullet points – you’re going to have to read it.
That being said, Nadigel will have to make the audience at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival “fall in love with” his book in less than 180 seconds. He’s part of the event A Literary Quickie, which takes place on Nov. 22, 10 a.m., at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. The brunch event lineup includes authors Richa Dwor, A.D. Gentle, Rosa Harris, Revital Shiri-Horowitz, Paula Hurwitz, June Hutton, Evelyn H. Lazare, Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo and Marina Sonkina. Admission is by donation.
Nadigel has been a therapist for more than 15 years. He received his master’s of social work from McGill University in Montreal in 1997, and did post-graduate training with the Western Pennsylvania Family Centre, which teaches Bowen family systems theory. He also received supervision via Skype from author and family therapist Dr. David Freeman (who died in 2010). In Learning to Commit, Nadigel doesn’t just offer theories, but advice gained from personal and professional experience. Advice that changed his life, and he’s hoping it’ll help others.
Though Nadigel only lived in Vancouver for about six years, from 1999 to 2005, it was here that he first encountered Freeman, who was speaking at a singles event at the J. His words had a profound impact on Nadigel.
“For all I thought I knew about relationships (I was a practising therapist at that time), Freeman debunked many of my own assumptions, for example, that poor communication is the cause of relationship problems,” writes Nadigel. “He introduced novel ideas about romantic love, providing subtle warnings that the very things that cause a young lover’s heart to flutter can, down the road, be the catalyst of dissatisfaction and divorce. He encouraged us to focus on our own interests, because the more interesting we are to ourselves, the more we have to bring to the table in our relationships.”
Nadigel had come out west, lured by the Rocky Mountains. “From that moment on,” he said, “I knew I had to live near mountains, but also in close proximity to a Jewish community. Vancouver was an easy choice.”
He told the Independent, “It was a total ‘head west young man’ move. I was 30 years old. I sold everything I owned, loaded all of my guitars, some clothes and CDs (remember those?) and headed west. No job, no family, no relationship and only one friend in B.C.
“For money, I worked as a child protection worker, and then as an addiction therapist and family therapist…. Most importantly, I took courses at Emily Carr, composed music for films and learned how to mountain bike.”
He also came here to meet a local Jewish woman but, he said, “true to [his] commitment-phobic self,” he “couldn’t find anyone in Vancouver (or Victoria, Seattle or Calgary) to settle down with.” Eventually, on frumster.com, he met the woman who would become his wife, Dr. Aliza Israel – from Richmond. At the time, she was living and studying in Toronto. “Anyway, we dated long-distance (perfect for a commitment-phobe), and then I agreed to move wherever her residency would be. She was accepted into the Toronto psychiatry program, and the rest is history.”
The two were married in June 2007 at the J here because that’s where Nadigel first heard Freeman, which led to his rethinking about marriage and other things. “The JCC in Vancouver holds a very special place in my heart,” he said.
And so still does Freeman, one of the people to whom Learning to Commit is dedicated, “for providing me with a lighthouse; a way to navigate the rocky seas of my relationships.”
At least one of the ideas in the book seems counterintuitive – the admonition to not compromise.
“Too many relationship books/ speakers assume that compromise is the key to a successful relationship, and so our culture embraces this opinion – and that’s all it really is. And good people use this to avoid growing … discomfort, fear, etc.,” explained Nadigel. “Compromise is no virtue if it’s the first thing you reach for to avoid difficult discussions or situations. Now, more mature people are able to compromise without feeling like they’re betraying their values/principles, because they’re clear on what they stand for, and what they won’t put up with. They won’t compromise on big-ticket items, and will be willing to face the sting/consequence of staying true to their principles.”
In Learning to Commit, Nadigel writes, “According to Dr. Murray Bowen, togetherness and individuality are two opposing forces that we are all born with. We spend the rest of our lives trying to reconcile their often-contradictory impulses.” A well-differentiated person – someone who is confident of their values and principles, and doesn’t change their opinion or action “just to defuse tension” is able to balance those opposing forces.
“Differentiation is not selfishness,” stressed Nadigel. “It is not about a focus on my needs, damn everyone else. It’s about living a life guided by well-thought-out principles, some of which will address who I want to be/act/think with my partner, children, parents, colleagues, friends, etc. It’s about balancing feelings with good, clear thinking. Actually, one could say that immature, high-feeling-centric people are so fragile that the mere thought of considering another person’s point of view is crushing, whereas higher differentiated people can choose to be guided by their partner’s best interest. But the key here is choice!”
The lessons in Nadigel’s book are relevant for all relationships – in fact, he writes, “one of the main tenets of family systems theory [is]: ‘You will only succeed in future relationships in ways you have already succeeded with your parents, siblings and/or extended families.” They are also useful in dealing with controversy or difficult issues, in developing the ability to hear what you need to hear, even though you may not want to hear it.
To remain open, he explained, “you need two things – curiosity and (if possible) playfulness. These things are very hard to come by in high-tense situations, i.e. acrimonious marriage, Middle East discussions, anything involving high emotions mixed with perceived/real threats. Which is why I believe, as a blogger recently noted while discussing my book: ‘Doing some self-examination and exploration … while we are single might be the best marital therapy we’ll ever have.’ Curiosity and playfulness is much more likely when we’re single, or dating, than when mired in the marital muck of resentment, etc…. I think the best that one can do – in any area – is to share your thoughts as clearly as possible, and without any expectation that people are going to support your thinking or applaud your efforts. When you think about the qualities of great leaders/leadership, these attributes apply.”
In the last couple of months, three new Chanukah-themed picture books have been published. Most recently, out of Mahone Bay, N.S., is Hanukkah Lullaby. Out of New York City are Oskar and the Eight Blessings and The Parakeet Named Dreidel. All three are delightful.
Hanukkah Lullaby, written by Ruth Abrams and illustrated by Tia Mushka, is part of a series of books from Baby Lullaby Publishing. Until this holiday edition, the series – the books of which have various authors and illustrators – has focused only on places: in Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; in the United States, Hawaii and Alaska. Each book, intended for a 0-to-6-year-old audience, has a link to its own song and video. The music for Hanukkah Lullaby was composed by Keith Andrews and the video was made by Jonah Peveril, both of whom have contributed to other lullabies in the series.
Hanukkah Lullaby follows one family’s celebration: enjoying the winter snow, making dreidels, lighting the chanukiyah, dreaming of the Maccabees, eating all the fried treats, spending time with Baba and Zayda, singing songs, telling the Chanukah story and having a lantern parade. The last two pages of the 18-page board book offer a very brief overview of the holiday’s symbols and rituals, and a paragraph summarizing the story of the Maccabees. Abrams’ lyric text and Mushka’s bold, colorful artwork make for a lovely read.
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Oskar and the Eight Blessings (Roaring Brook Press), written by husband-wife team Richard Simon and Tanya Simon and illustrated by Mark Siegel, is for somewhat older readers, ages 4-8.
It begins, “Oskar’s mother and father believed in the power of blessings. So did Oskar … until the Night of Broken Glass. His parents put him on a ship to America. He had nothing but an address and a photo of a woman he didn’t know – ‘It’s your Aunt Esther.’ – and his father’s last words to him: ‘Oskar, even in bad times, people can be good. You have to look for the blessings.’”
When Oskar arrives in New York, it is the seventh day of Chanukah and he wants to reach his aunt’s – 100 blocks away – before she lights the chanukiyah. Along Broadway Avenue, he encounters a woman feeding some pigeons, a newsstand vendor, Count Basie, boys having a snowball fight, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and a Christmas tree seller. He is treated with kindness at every turn, and is able to reciprocate on more than one occasion. Siegel’s rich illustrations beautifully capture the darkness and the hope of Oskar’s journey.
In the author’s note that follows the story, Richard Simon writes about the inspiration for the book and its 1938 setting, including a bit about the real people the fictional Oskar meets along the way.
“Oskar has lost everything,” he writes, “but from his despair he awakens to his freedom: the choice to see the good in his new world. I like to think that this orientation of optimism is the key to our survival, as individuals and as a species. It is how we, as American Jews, have made a place for ourselves beyond the shadow of darkness that tried to destroy us.”
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The playful and imaginative watercolor illustrations by Suzanne Raphael Berkson dovetail perfectly with Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story in The Parakeet Named Dreidel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Intended for kids age 5 to 8, the title character loses his way. As David and his parents celebrate Chanukah, David notices the yellow-green bird outside their window. A cold Brooklyn night, they quickly move aside the chanukiyah (so the bird won’t get burned by its candles), open the window and welcome it in. Initially frightened, the bird settles down, eats some millet, drinks some water, plays a little dreidel – and speaks some Yiddish! “Zeldele, geh schlofen.” (“Zeldele, go to sleep.”)
Despite posting notices around the neighborhood, no one claims the lost bird, who the family names Dreidel. The “photo” montage of Dreidel and David growing up together is wonderful. The bird really does become part of the family.
When, years later, David meets a woman named Zelda at college, it turns out that she is Dreidel’s Zeldele. But lest readers worry that Dreidel leaves David’s parents, the bird becomes part of a larger family when David and Zelda get married, their families come together, and the couple decides to start a family of their own.
All of three of these books are available from chapters.indigo.ca and their respective publishers in hard copy and electronic formats. Hanukkah Lullaby will be available at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, Nov. 21-26, at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
From filming and acting, to walking the red carpet, a group of 5-to-7-year-olds were filmmakers this summer. Their creation? The short Odd Life of Dr. Tooth. (photos from Art City)
It’s not every day that a group of 5-to-7-year-olds creates a movie. But that’s just what happened in Winnipeg this summer at Art City.
Art City was founded in 1998 by local artist Wanda Koop. She saw a need for engaging programming for kids and youth and, being an artist, she thought it would be great if there were a place where they could go to make art for free.
Since its opening, Art City has been providing after-school programs. In the summer, they run all day, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“Part of our model is that our staff and volunteers are mostly all artists,” said Josh Ruth, Art City managing director. “We also hire guest artists to come in and lead workshops, bringing their own art practice, perspectives and methods into the context of our community.”
One of the summer drop-in programs is Green Art, which is held at the park behind Art City. The idea of creating a movie came from the coordinator’s consultation with the kids about what they wanted to do this year. Art City invited as a guest filmmaker Noam Gonick.
“We all know him from his reputation as a filmmaker and he’s sort of a local art star,” said Ruth. “I asked if he would be interested in helping us out and he was really keen. He said the only reason he’d never done anything with Art City before was because he’d never been asked.”
Art City puts the kids’ ideas at the forefront of everything they do. In this case, participants wrote the script, developed the characters, made the costumes and sets – basically, they steered the whole creative process.
“The kids obviously developed their skills in terms of storytelling and understanding how to convey the message they are trying to get across to an audience,” said Ruth. “We feel it has some strong implications in terms of helping to grow literacy – not just reading and writing, but social literacy, and all those sorts of things, and working together in a team. Collaborating in that way always takes patience and problem-solving.
“In terms of working with Noam, he brings a huge amount of expertise, certainly in filmmaking, but in art-making in general. For example, I was in the office one day during the shoot and I overheard him talking to one of the participants who, for whatever reason, didn’t like what he was suggesting they do. And I heard him tell her, ‘You know, if you take direction well, people say you’re easy to work with, and then you’re more likely to get more work in the future. If you don’t take direction well, then people say you’re difficult to work with and that can be bad for your career. So, just keep that in your back pocket.’
“I thought that was a great way for him to shoot straight with the participants, even at such a young age, about the fact there are times when you get to do what you want and other times when you need to follow direction.”
Ruth felt the kids did an amazing job and that Gonick did a great job directing. As well, those involved in the post-production work were also invaluable, people like Ryan Simmons who edited the film along with Gonick, and Andy Rudolph who did the sound production.
Ruth and staff created a première screening of the film that included the stars getting dropped off in a limo, walking down a red carpet, and enjoying champagne glasses full of gummy bears.
“The kids got out of the limo one by one and walked the red carpet,” said Ruth. “Then, they came into Art City, where we had set up a big screen and the kids had made their own VIP lounge passes. I was the security guard.”
Gonick said he felt a little lost at times, due to how Art City runs and the fact that he had very little control over many aspects of the film.
“They were looking for someone to mentor them, but not to bring an original concept to the table, just to help the kids realize their idea,” said Gonick. “Mostly, the shooting process, editing and, really, the idea came out of a workshop that Art City staff and kids did on their own.
“I was mostly just given their script. They cast it themselves and did all the designing ahead of time…. It was like being a director for hire and having 7-year-old producers. Given some of the producers I’ve worked with, the 7-year-old mindset was just par for the course.”
For Gonick, the experience was all about ensuring that everybody felt empowered, had fun and was involved. “You know, you don’t want children to be traumatized,” he said. “So, you just kind of make sure everyone gets to participate and that the ideas are fluid enough that everybody gets a part.”
There was a core group of six 5-to-7-year-olds but, on the morning of the first day of shooting, a seventh child joined the group, so a new role and scenes had to be created on the spot.
Gonick was at ease working with the kids, as he has been working with young stars as of late. “They are like any other group of actors,” said Gonick. “Everybody has their own needs and abilities. You just have to be responsive in the moment and get out of them what you can. The difference between this and working in a professional environment with kids is that I was conscientious that I didn’t push them too much.”
The 10-minute film, Odd Life of Dr. Tooth, is a surreal, non-linear story that follows the main character, who is a dentist. It begins with the dentist working on someone’s mouth and commenting on their poor dental hygiene. Then, suddenly, the camera closes in on the mouth of the patient and transports the viewer to outer space. Gonick incorporated this concept of traveling to outer space and animal kingdoms via patients’ mouths as a way to connect the disparate ideas that the kids had. The movie can be viewed at vimeo.com/138120558. For more on Art City, visit artcityinc.com.
Assaf Gavron (photo from JCC Jewish Book Festival)
As it does every year, the 31st annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival offers readers the chance to meet some of their favorite authors. Sean Michaels, the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, starts it all off on Nov. 21 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Rothstein Theatre. Among the festival’s many highlights are Israeli writer Assaf Gavron and American writer Nomi Eve, to whom the Independent had a chance to e-speak recently.
Gavron’s latest novel, The Hilltop (translated into English from Hebrew by Stephen Cohen), deals with one of the most contentious and emotion-laden aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the settlements in the West Bank. It does so with humor and humanity – and an even eye, examining the larger societal issues through the troubled relationship of two troubled brothers. Family, bureaucracy, unintended consequences, and more, factor into the story.
JI: What is it about fiction that allows it to communicate controversial ideas or speak to controversial topics in a way that seems to be more easily received than other media, such as journalism, academia, documentary film?
AG: I think that usually when ideas are termed “controversial,” it is on a simplistic level – when you can sum it up in a sentence or two, it is easy to annoy, or touch a nerve, or whatever. The other forms of media you mention, like journalism or documentary, are also susceptible to this superficiality. Fiction gives you more time, and depth, to really get to the story and to the people behind it. And, whatever the subject is, it can’t remain on the simplistic level. Yes, hopefully it causes more thinking and a better understanding of complexities. I like that about reading fiction, but as to the reason why I choose to write, I think that, over the years, I learned that it is the kind of storytelling I am best at, and most comfortable with.
JI: When I used to ask my grandmother how she was doing, her response often was that she still had her sense of humor – once she lost that, then…. What purpose does humor serve in your writing, or is it “just” a matter of style?
AG: That’s how I write, it is part of me, part of how I communicate. I can identify with your grandmother. I think that it is important, and sane, not to take things too seriously. And not less so, probably more so, in situations that are perceived as sad and difficult and tragic. We must be able to smile. In writing, it is mainly entertainment. It is more fun and enjoyable to read something that makes you laugh. In my books, I would like to entertain as much as anything else, like making a point, educating, etc.
JI: Not everyone can put themselves into someone else’s shoes, something you seem to have mastered in your writing, including your latest novel, The Hilltop. Does that openness and empathy extend into your “real” life? What is it in your personal “toolkit” that allows you to at least write from multiple viewpoints with sincerity?
AG: I disagree. I think everyone can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. This is why people read books, go to movies, read newspapers or even just talk to each other – they are curious about the experiences of others and, when they hear or read or watch them, they are always imagining if it was them, what would they do, how would they react. But it is true that people are reluctant to identify or see the world through eyes of people they perceive as an enemy, or as very different, as an “other,” in the real life. Sure, I hope I’m as open in real life. I think it is crucial to fundamentally accept that there are others, and to attempt to get to know them. I guess that it is no more than this belief that is my “toolkit.”
JI: You write books, translate, create videogames, are in a band … could you share a little bit about your background and how you came to your expertise in these areas?
AG: First and foremost I’m a fiction writer. But I’m also a curious person, like to keep myself interested … so I tend to do other things as well. The band, for example, is a lifelong project of three friends, who decided to do this for the long run, with little interference to our “daily” life. This is why we release an album every six years and not more frequently. Translating and teaching I do sometimes for income and sometimes for interest. The computer game was a one-off project.
JI: Your write-up on Wikipedia notes that you were in Vancouver in 1997, studying “new media.” Do you still have Vancouver connections?
AG: I do! My first cousin lives there with her family. Having family was part of the reason I came, and what I heard and imagined of the city and the school, which offered what I was interested in studying at the time. I had a great year in Vancouver, had a lovely apartment in Kitsilano. That year, I also wrote what would be my second book. I have been back only once since then, in 2003, I think, so it’s been awhile. I’m really looking forward to this visit, my first as a writer.
JI: Where are you and your family currently based?
AG: We are in Omaha, Neb. I have been teaching here for the past year. I’m moving to your time zone, San Diego, in January for six months, and then next summer back home to Israel.
***
The main character in Nomi Eve’s second novel, Henna House, is Adara, born in Yemen in 1918, the year that Imam Yahya took control of the region. He passed many restrictive decrees, including the Orphans Decree, calling “for any Jewish child to be confiscated, converted and quickly adopted by a Muslim family if a father died,” writes Eve. When the story begins, Adara’s father is already ill.
The bulk of the novel follows Adara and her family – notably, two cousins – from the 1920s in Yemen to the early years of Israel, briefly touching upon Operation On Wings of Eagles, better known by its nickname Operation Magic Carpet, when almost 50,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel between June 1949 and September 1950.
JI: Research is an essential part of your creative process, but you also said in one interview that reality limits your creativity. How did you navigate the need for both research/reality and imagination in your two novels, seeing as both are rooted in “real” historical spaces?
NE: History is much more than a backdrop in my fiction. It also provides soul and substance. But I never let myself feel straightjacketed by history. I make things up and let my readers know that this is fiction, not academic research that they are reading. In Henna House, the fact that I have a first-person narrator also helped me navigate this terrain. My narrator uses her memory and imagination to construct her own version of the past. Memory is porous, and doesn’t always hold truth. Memory is powerful and often finds truth in unlikely places.
JI: Have you reached your 100 Book Clubs goal?
NE: I did book club #143 tonight – it was a Skype visit to Toronto. I love my book club visits. Readers are my wildest dream, and I feel lucky each time I get to chat with a new group.
Nomi Eve (photo from JCC Jewish Book Festival)
JI: In Henna House, you write about Mizrahi Jews. What is your background? Did you have a mix of traditions growing up, given that your father was from Israel?
NE: My family is Ashkenazi, but I have a Yemenite aunt. It is from her that I learned to love Yemenite Jewish culture. But most of what I learned about the history of the Jews of North Yemen and Aden I learned through my own research. The most fascinating things that I learned were about henna traditions, and the Orphan’s Decree. Both of these things became central to the plot of my book.
JI: Your two novels are both set in the past. What appeals to you about the past and imagining what it might have been like?
NE: I find it easier to write about the past than about the present. The past feels multi-dimensional to me, whereas the present feels one-dimensional. I think that I am attracted to the fierce power of memory and the perspective gained by the passage of time.
Assaf Gavron in conversation with Marsha Lederman takes place Sunday, Nov. 22, 8 p.m.; tickets are $18. Nomi Eve speaks with Israeli-Canadian writer Ayelet Tsabari on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at an intimate gathering at 6:30 p.m. ($16) and to a book club and book-lovers event at 8 p.m. ($18); to attend both, the price is $30. For tickets to these and other festival events, call 604-257-5111 or drop by the J in person. For tickets and the full festival lineup, visit jewishbookfestival.ca.
From Hofesh Shechter’s barbarians trilogy. (photo by Gabriele Zucca)
Before barbarians was even created, DanceHouse had included the Hofesh Shechter trilogy in its 2015/16 season.
“Programming work before you have had the chance to view and experience it yourself is always risky,” DanceHouse producer Jim Smith told the Independent in an email interview. “Programming work that has not even been completed or performed, some would say is even way beyond this risk, primarily because no one can speak to the work other than the artist who is in the process of making it. However, if we believe in an artist, if we have a relationship with their work and we can see they have developed a track record, then agreeing to present their new work before you get to see it is one of the highest compliments you can offer them. It also allows our audiences the opportunity to see work that is very fresh in its life, before it has been performed elsewhere around the world.
“In the current DanceHouse season,” he continued, “there are two artists whose works were confirmed before they were completed. Hofesh Shechter is one, and the other is Crystal Pite, with her collaboration with Jonathon Young of the Electric Theatre Company and their production titled Betroffenheit (which we will see in February).” Completing the season is Companhia Urbana de Dança in April.
Smith described Hofesh Shechter as “part of an international generation that is currently defining how dance is being made and carving out the state of the (dance) art.” He included Israel’s Sharon Eyal, the United Kingdom’s Wayne McGregor and Vancouver’s Pite in this generation of artists.
The Hofesh Shechter Company was at DanceHouse in 2009. Hosting the company again is very satisfying, said Smith, as it allows local “audiences the chance to see how his work has developed and evolved, allowing them to have a deeper relationship with his work.”
In promotional material, barbarians is described as being about “intimacy, passion and love.” In an interview with artslandia.com, Smith described it as “loud, visceral rage.” Acknowledging the potential incongruence, he said, “I would offer that in exploring the extremes that lead to my characterization of loud, visceral rage, it creates a contrasting space for notions of intimacy, passion and love to emerge, rather than simply being portrayed. I have heard Hofesh himself describe experiencing his work as a series of images that move faster than the mind can necessarily process or think through. He also says his work often reveals frustration and buried hope, and a lot of different emotions that relate to humans under pressure. I think barbarians could be viewed/experienced in this fashion.
“The barbarians program is three distinct works, which makes for a different flow to the evening, rather than one longer single work. There is highly precise movement, and there is baroque music, which gives the effect of things being controlled. However, there is also a sense of things breaking free and getting out of control. The last work on the program is a duet made for two long-standing dancers in the company, which I think reveals the collaborative approach between dancer and choreographer, and also the admiration that exists within those particular relationships.”
DanceHouse has hosted more than one Israeli choreographer or company over the years. Is there an Israeli style?
“There has been much discussion and observation about the work that is of Israeli dance artists and the Diaspora. (For example, Hofesh now resides in the U.K.) Many dance observers would say that it is Ohad Naharin of Batsheva Dance Company that is the central figure who led the Israeli dance domination that has been going on for the past number of years. Artists such as Shechter, but also Sharon Eyal and Andrea Miller – all of whom have been on the DanceHouse stage – are part of a generation that studied and worked with Naharin and Batsheva, and have gone on in the wake to carve out unique and distinctive choreographic voices. I don’t think there is an element or style that we can point to that characterizes or typifies the Israeli work, rather it is a larger sensibility, which you appreciate from experiencing a number of works of these artists and, of course, being able to contrast them with different work.”
barbarians is at Vancouver Playhouse Nov. 13-14, 8 p.m. For tickets, visit dancehouse.ca.
