Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/art/page/22/)
There is a shrinking minority of Israelis who share Erin’s consternation and are willing to question whether the end (Israel) justifies the means (Israel’s “original sins”). This group’s dwindling influence, due in part to the relentless attacks from the hawkish and nationalistic coalition that emerged from the last election, is palpable
In the aftermath of the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zucotti Park in New York, the OWS protesters at Occupy DC in McPherson Square on K Street in Washington DC remain committed even more resolutely than before.
Amidst the contrasting tones and strikingly honest symbols in Bonner’s sculpture series called Exploring the Perpetrator, Bonner confronts the powerful forces that have threatened her spirit and health. By exploring domination, as she calls it, Bonner has been able to find ways to survive her abusive past. She has found profound intersections between her own exploitation and that of our society. Like many before her, she has connected the personal with the political. Bonner invites us to not only recognize the perpetrator that controls our own well being, but also those forces that control our system.
Sometimes even an atheist needs a community soup kitchen. This winter, I will probably need one, and so will many many of my fellow Americans. This winter, when the thin veil of November leaves has finally come down in Chicago, the sand is banked on the beaches against the lake shore wind and the dark comes early, I will be happy for a bowl of soup and a place to eat it where I feel welcome. Like so many this year, for me the recession is grinding down hard, and the things that held me together are beginning to fray, just a little and at the edges, but still, the possibility of coming unraveled hangs over all endeavors while the nights get colder. Like the people occupying parks the whole country over, I am running out of faith in governments and institutions to provide a little grace and shelter while we all wait out the economic troubles we’ve got to endure.
Artist Yoram Raanan seeks to revive life and purpose. His characteristic style drips with vibrant colors and processions of people that practically melt into each other and their surroundings. While his work is inspired by the “Jewish people who are happy in being a part of this sort of resurrection,” he attracts a wide-ranging audience—from Toronto to London to Israel, where he lives.
I am not sure how to convey the power of this poetry collection. I can tell you that once I picked up Love Cake, I could not put it down until I finished every poem, even though I sometimes had to read through my tears. Upon finishing, I immediately had to call a femme friend to read her a poem that reminded me of her. Relocating from my couch to my bed, I sank in and re-read the entire collection. I want to say that the poems tore out my heart.
Mount Tajumulco, Guatemala. tonight i gather with my tribe
to welcomea new year with life & laughter
&the biggest bottle of cheapwine
we could find in Guatemala. we are not at shul
in Crown Heights or Skokie. we are at socialist,
Spanish-language school
in the reddest heart of this highland city
called Quetzaltenango. of the twenty-five students here,
at least ten are of the Hebrew persuasion.
The Israeli soldiers fixated on one of the costumes. They entered the scene, stopped the performance, and demanded the actor remove his shirt. After a discussion, they allowed the play to continue. But the actor had to go on without half his costume. The play was set in the same place it was performed — in front of a security checkpoint in Israel.
As preparations begin for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the Nazis are in a quandary because their best female athlete in the high jump, Gretel Bergmann, is a Jew. In the 2009 German-language feature film, “Berlin ’36,” (commercially released in New York and LA in September 2011) the Nazis force Gretel’s father to fetch her back from England, where she has won a championship. To avoid a boycott of the Olympics by the American team, the Nazis engage in an elaborate scheme to have about 20 Jewish athletes, such as Bergmann, train but then be uniformly disqualified from the team.
New York-based artist and political activist Norm Magnusson applies a personal approach to national issues in a series of paintings entitled “America’s Seven Deadly Sins,” and an ongoing collection of provocative road signs entitled “The I-75 project.” He uses his background in economics, extensive research, shrewd marketing sense, and playful sense of humor to spark dialogue about what’s going on in our country. To see more of Magnusson’s work, visit the Tikkun Daily Art Gallery and visit the artist’s website. Magnusson founded an art movement to describe the goal of his work. funism.