“White Fire–the Art and Play of Midrash: the Journey and Meanings of Exodus“ with Alicia Ostriker If the text does not apply to us it is an empty text…. We take the text in relation to ourselves, understanding ourselves in its light, even as our situation throws its light upon the text, allowing it to […]
“Season of Our Turning: a Generative Poetry Workshop for the Jewish High Holidays” with Rick Chess “The word verse,” writes Edward Hirsch in A Poet’s Glossary, “is traditionally thought to derive from the Latin versus, meaning a ‘line,’ ‘row,’ or ‘furrow.’ The metaphor of ‘plough’ for ‘write’ thus dates to antiquity. Verse may alternately derive from the Latin vertere, ‘to turn.’” Turning and […]
"Poetry of the Cosmic All" with Mónica Gomery Daniela Naomi Molnar calls it “a generosity too large for us to know.” Tracy K Smith refers to “the universe a house party.” And Joy Ladin dubs it an “infinity thick/ as star-sparked honey.” In this workshop, we’ll explore poems as a portal to enormity, interconnectedness, wonder […]
Writing Shekhinah One of the most ancient functions of poetry is to make divine presence perceptible through language. This class will probe the intersections between language, poetry, and the Shekhinah, Jewish tradition's name for divine presence, an aspect of God that who is present in human time, space, relationships, and communities, and shares our lives […]
"'The Psyche is a Labyrinth;’ Exploring Identity in Yiddish Poetry” with Danny Kraft In a 1919 literary manifesto, a group of modernist Yiddish poets known in English as the Introspectivists wrote that “the human psyche is an awesome labyrinth,” filled with thousands of beings and inheritances from the past and present, whose complexities and contradictions […]
"Sacred Objects: Finding the Magic Inside” with Hadara Bar Nadav What objects do you hold sacred? A ring, a key, a house, or a text? This generative workshop assumes that objects hold energy and power in our lives. Consider the torah, dressed in velvet and draped in silver, for which an entire congregation stands, this sacred text that […]
"Spiritualizing the Ordinary” with Yehoshua November Given contemporary poetry’s largely secular leanings, it’s not surprising that few poets today celebrate supernatural miracles, overtly religious experiences, or Divinity, in general. But how does one explain contemporary poetry’s tendency to insist on profound meaning in the ordinary—a tendency that, at times, appears to border on obsession? In […]
"Imagining Jewish History Into Poetry" with Yerra Sugarman The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, before his death in 1940 when he took his own life to avoid being murdered as a Jew in Europe, wrote: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Urging us to recognize […]
"‘no: tongue breaks’: Poetry of the Fragment” with Dan Rosenberg In this generative workshop, we will explore the power of poems that we receive as fragmentary or broken. The subjects of our discussions will range from the unwitting matriarch of the fragment, Sappho, to the violently lapidary short lyrics of Paul Celan, to the contemporary […]
“What Does Love Have To Do With It: A Midrash Workshop” with Alicia Ostriker Torah does not deal with love very often, but when it does, it is life-changing. In this workshop we will read biblical texts dealing with four love-relationships. Writing midrash, we discover what the stories can mean for our own lives, our […]
In this generative workshop we will study and discuss a range of pre-selected passages from classical Jewish texts such as extracts from the Talmud, verses from the Hebrew Bible, and commentaries by medieval and later rabbis. We will then look at how poets have brought language or ideas from some of these texts into their […]
This workshop was held live on December 25, with the aim of transforming a day that can sometimes be lonely or restless for Jewish writers into one rich with meaning, self-reflection, and productive thinking and writing. The session is for poets of all traditions who would like to work with Jewish themes. Participants will discuss […]