Posted on: April 20, 2009
Avi Nesher’s The Secrets (Ha-Sodot)
Ancient obstacles, barriers, walls. Ancient stereotypes, prejudices, forced inequalities. Continue to the present day. Continue around the world. A fine Israeli film, The Secrets, explores those barriers and shows the conflicts within traditions, between traditions, in a fresh, often moving way.
The story is not complex, but there are surprises, and those surprises break down walls. A brilliant young Israeli woman, Naomi (played by Ania Bukstein), wants desperately to become a Rabbi someday, like her father. She knows that this is next to impossible, given the ancient strictures of her ultra-orthodox faith. But she also knows that she has studied harder than her male peers, knows the Torah and the Talmud better than they do, and appears to be far more serious about enlightenment. The only barrier for her is her gender.
Naomi’s father has arranged a marriage for his daughter and his best Yeshiva student.…
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Posted on: April 14, 2009
[Guest blogging today, Robert Mueller]
Vanessa Boyd
In high-temperature mellow Vanessa Boyd sings and quizzes and spells, coaxing a super-planing frisson and still more touchy thrill for her audiences in local New York City establishments. I recently heard a dynamite (truly!) performance at a box of a Bengalese food counter way downtown. There was no highlighting, no shadowing, just good acoustical and a capella reaction. Offering song, spoken word and an intriguing assertiveness drama (bordering on the unique), her performing had every bit of that true and unaccountable magnificence that you might not believe coming from her all-at-once sleek and purple and dazzling ukulele accompaniment. These are tonalities to behold, splendors even in their undoing of their “desperate sexuality.”
In the two years or so since her arrival from a Tennessee home-ground, Vanessa Boyd has brought more than her intertwined delights; she has brought an expediency of wonder.…
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Posted on: April 10, 2009
The Poetry of Iranian Women. Edited by Sheema Kalbasi
Celebrated poet and activist, Sheema Kalbasi, has brought out a new anthology of Persian poetry. You can sample a few poems from this collection below.
* * * * *
The Arts know no national boundaries. The Republic of Arts and Letters encompasses the entire world. For too long, those in power across the globe have benefited mightily, cynically from pitting group against group, nation against nation, and we all suffer as a result. We suffer in the lack of understanding that acompanies a parochial vision, a narrow vision, a limited range of experiences. We suffer from the loss of genius and innovation. No government should restrict us from meetings with the widest array of human nature and Nature Herself. Open the doors, the windows!! Open the curtains! Remove the veil!! Cross the seas!…
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Posted on: April 10, 2009
IT’S A MAN’S WORLD TO THE END OF THE END—
I am a woman. Simply.
To look at me is a sin —
I must be veiled.
To hear my voice is a temptation
that must be hushed.
For me to think is a crime
so I must not be schooled.
I am to bear it all
and die quietly, without complaint.
Only then can I be admitted to the court of God
where I must repose naked on a marble cloud
feed virtuous men succulent grapes
pour them wine from golden vats
and murmur songs of love…
Sholeh Wolpé
__________
Time
That old man sitting on the bench
is you, a little boy biking around
Your hair is now white, spread
by the traces of age
and I? My youthful skin
has persistent wrinkles of regret
Mahboubeh Shadzi
__________
THE SECRET
Locks on the bolt
Secrets behind the doors
And the moist Jasmine perfume
Panting at the night
The jar of thirst in a summer afternoon
This musky willow shade and I
These birds and I, do not sing!…
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