Bring Yetzirah to You: Jewish Poetry Salons & Yetzirah Watch Parties
We believe an important part of supporting Jewish poets and Jewish poetry is helping people make connections in their own communities, helping facilitate local networks that encourage and inspire. After all, online friends can’t drop off soup and a good book when you have the flu.
So whether you’d like to hold an event at your synagogue or your home, at a local bookstore or library, with your book club or writing group, or as part of your reading series, we’ve created some materials to assist you in hosting a successful gathering.
Once you’ve got everything planned, send your event’s details to our intern Shelby Sizemore at [email protected], and we’ll add it to our community calendar. In your message, please include:
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- Name, date, and time of the event you’ll be hosting
- Address of the event’s venue
- Names of participating readers, hosts, etc.
- A link to your event (if you have one)
Find our Community Calender here.
*As the programs we create and events we promote are an important part of our fundraising efforts, we’ve included a QR code on these documents linked to our donation page. We’d very much appreciate if you might encourage your community to help support Yetzirah’s literary efforts through their contributions.
For a JEWISH POETRY SALON of featured local readers, perhaps preceded or followed by an open mic, you can download:
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- a template with suggested copy to help you advertise your event
- a set of conversation starters to help spark and guide conversation after the reading
As a suggestion of one way to structure an event, at our very first in-person poetry salon, hosted in someone’s home, we had three featured readers who read about 10-12 minutes each and, after a break for snacks and drinks, invited each person to share a poem of either their own or by a Jewish poet they admire, which was a nice way to get more voices into the room.
For a YETZIRAH WATCH PARTY of one our readings—live or recorded—you can download:
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- a template with suggested copy to help you advertise your event
- a set of conversation starters to help spark and guide conversation after the reading
- a flyer with our readers’ bios to print and hand out (you’ll find each beside its respective reading below)
- the link to our recorded readings
Fall 2022
September 11 (Self-Reflection) Dan Alter, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Joy Ladin, Sean Singer
October 9 (Harvest/Fruition/Fullness) Judith Baumel, David Ebenbach, Erika Meitner, Victoria Redel
November 13 (101 Jewish Poems for the New Millennium anthology event) Nancy Naomi Carlson & Matthew Silverman (editors), Jeffrey Levine, Alan Michael Parker, Amy Small-McKinney, Katherine Smith
Spring 2023
January 15 (Trees/Nature) Rebecca Aronson, Rachel Hadas, Maya Pindyck
February 12 (Wildness) Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Rodger Kamenetz, Jason Schneiderman
March 19 (A Translation Event, co-sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center) Featuring Jennifer Kronovet & Aviya Kushner, with Merle Bachman & Maia Evrona
April 9 (Liberation/Freedom) Janlori Goldman, Dana Levin, Gail Newman, Yerra Sugarman