Events

Browse through our regularly-updated calendar to plan your literary outings. Click on events for details.

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Upcoming Events

Ashkenaz Festival presents Boris Sandler & "Abraham Cahan and the Forverts"

ashkenaz_2010
When
Saturday, September 4, 2010 - 6:00pm
Where

Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West

Toronto, ON
Map to Harbourfront Centre

Details

Presented in Yiddish with intermittent English translation. Miss Lou's Room-free.

Can a newspaper influence readers? This year we celebrate the 150th birthday of Abraham Cahan-founder of the '"Forverts" Through decades of its existence the '"Forverts"has maintained a consistent position regarding its relationship to the Socialist movement, Israel and Zionism, Yiddish and Yiddish literature. Today's "Forverts" is a weekly secular Yiddish newspaper reflecting, first and foremost, the cultural aspects of a global Jewish life. Still, the question remains: who are Ab Cahan's inheritors on today's Jewish streets? Two short Yiddish videos with English subtitles will accompany the talk.
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http://www.ashkenazfestival.co...

Ashkenaz Festival: From "Others" to Brothers: Meet The Other Europeans

When
Sunday, September 5, 2010 - 1:00pm
Where

Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West

Toronto, ON
Map to Harbourfront Centre

Details

Meet the fourteen members of The Other Europeans, a unique intercultural group of Jewish and Roma musicians hailing from seven different countries. Over the last three years this unique assemblage of world-class soloists has worked to explore and rekindle the historic musical symbiosis between Klezmer and Lautari musicians, along the way developing into one of the most exciting ensembles in contemporary world music circles. Joined by the entire ensemble, creator and musical director Alan Bern will present the project's vision, objectives and historical context, revealing the challenges and successes encountered over the last three years of cross-cultural collaboration and performance. Featuring perspectives from each group member and video footage of research expeditions by members of the group to Israel and Bessarabia.
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Miss Lou's room- free.

See: http://www.ashkenazfestival.co...

Ashkenaz Festival welcomes Josh Kun

When
Sunday, September 5, 2010 - 2:00pm
Where

Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West

Toronto, ON
Map to Harbourfront Centre

Details

Harbourfront Centre presents a talk with Josh Kun (Los Angeles): "And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl"on Sunday September 5, 2pm, Studio Theatre, FREE.

What started out as a mutual affinity for kitschy Jewish album covers soon became a quest for identity, history, and culture between the grooves of LPs. Together, Josh Kun and his collaborator Roger Bennett embarked on a thrilling journey, scouring the world to collect thousands of vinyl LPs from attics, garage sales, thrift stores and dusty archives. Pieced together, these scratched, once-loved and now-forgotten audio gems tell a vibrant tale spanning the history of Jewish recorded music from the 1940s to the 1980s. Beginning with sacred songs and ending with the triumvirate of Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and Barry Manilow, these LPs also capture forgotten moments in Jewish American pop history - well-dressed cantors singing Christmas tunes, Long Island suburbanites dancing the mambo, and Chassidic prog-rockers. Josh Kun will share projections and audio selections from his forgotten treasure of sound, spanning the good, the bad and the ugly. Kun is associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and co-founder of Reboot Stereophonic, a nonprofit record label dedicated to re-releasing lost classics from the Jewish past.
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More info at http://www.ashkenazfestival.co...

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