Posts Tagged ‘books’
Full Moon Week
Lots going on… election sighs and hoorays in sometimes the same breath. Starvation amongst the Snap crew class (which I know well) lest the Good King opens up his heart. And Thanksgiving holidays on possible hiatus till the planes run again.
In the meantime, I discovered a new film about the lungs of the world, Yanuni, by the wonderful director Richard Ladkani, a specialist in films about nature and the need to respect her, centers around Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Amazon who rises from activism to Brazil’s new Ministry of Indigenous People. Juma is a heart filled warrior who wields strength and intelligence while at the same time showing a deep emotional nature and response to all the difficulties that surround her family and her people.
As if she didn’t have enough challenges, her activist husband Hugo has the scary job of destroying illegal mining set ups up and down the Amazon. It’s a romantic and true story about two people fighting for something most of the world seems to have forgotten to protest about….. woke was made an ugly term by you know who but Juma is very awakened to how important the Amazon is to her people and to the rest of the planet.
Even before Halloween has turned the corner, Christmas is blowing in and with it the horrible problem of gift giving. Problem no more…I literally fell into an adorable gift shop that’s down a few stairs on East 53rd. The business card reads, the hunt is over– Chase the Fox, (chasethefox.com) opened by a former nurse from the south. The shop is filled with wonderful objets, from art to candles to Knick knacks you’d love to unwrap –and speaking of wrap, the owner wraps for free for each gift you buy. It smells good and you won’t want to leave, but if you do, there’s an old time dive bar named Stranglove right upstairs.
The Black Madonna Celebrated
by Nancy Cohen-koan
The Black Madonna is an icon of worship that can be traced back to pagan, pre – Christian times. She represents devotion to the Earth Mother, the African Goddess and to a time when people understood God to be female as well as Black. She is still revered in Italy and in New York there were no less than three churches that held worship for the Black Madonna in the East Village.
I.J. Isola, writing for the W.P.A. n 1936, noted: “The New York Black Madonna is credited by believers, with possessing the miraculous curative powers of the original (Sicily and other parts of Italy, Ethiopia, etc.), as is attested by the many votive offerings at her shrine.” Apparently, she could cure many of the parts of the body including arms, legs and breasts. Since pre-Christian times she has been the protector of gays, transgender and LGBTQ+ people, known as Femminielli in the Neapolitan Culture and Galli in Rome(where they were priests of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, or Magna Mater
Alessandra Belloni, a native Roman, studied in New York and realized that her true calling was honoring the Black Madonna through her love of Italian folk music. She learned the ancient tammorriata tradition of the Earth goddess and for 35 years has traveled the globe performing and doing research in this ancient form of empowerment. Along with her partner and fellow musician John T. La Barbera, they create a musical dance installation, as much art as sacred healing. I Giullari di Piazza, founded in 1980, specializes in medieval pilgrimage songs, Southern Italian tarantellas and devotional chants with ritual drumming. This concert celebrates the 45th anniversary of the group’s founding and features selections from its original opera, “Voyage of the Black Madonna,” which was a watershed creation for the company.
I was familiar with Alessandra before the show after watching a PBS program about buying houses in Italy, PBS series “Dream of Italy. She has a devoted following there and by the looks of the audience at St. John the Divine last Friday, one here as well. I saw many women signing up for her goddess -type classes; she infuses spirit and beauty and recognition of the female spirit. What could be bad?
In Alessandra’s show Mystic Rhythms & Sacred Chants for Seven Black Madonnas from Italy to Spain, she and her glorious troupe explore the different incarnations of the Black Madonna with ancient music, dance and stilt performance. It is a festive experience that recalls medieval street theatre, intoxicating and beautiful.
Her voice is deep and soulful and her percussion skills amazing… for this occasion, Giovannangelo de Gennaro from Puglia brought his magnificent voice… a voice perfectly suited for the wonderful acoustics of the chapel in St. John the Divine.
Graceful dancers performed wearing elaborate costumes… characters ranging from virginal maidens to the goddess who can control snakes…dancing with a real one. The Sun God on stilts moved through them, transporting all of us to another time where nature was revered and female power honored.
John la Barbera introduced a song which is based on pre-Christian notations of a melody found in Greece. He expanded on the tune and it was beautiful not only for his arrangement, but the knowledge that its origins are so ancient and yet feels so contemporary.
This magical show is a shoe in for Earth Day performances and must be included in environmental events that remind us of the power of nature and our requirement to love her and be grateful for her bounteous gifts.
Other musicians include: Mara Gerety (vocals & violin), Christa Patton(harp, oboe & recorder) and dancers, Francesco Silvano, Amaraand Mark Mindek (stilt dancer in the role of the Poet Virgil).
The troupe spends part of their time in New Jersey and Alessandra will be offering classes to the fortunate in New Jersey.
As for me, I’m dreaming to buy a place in Puglia and stay as close to the world that honors such a beautiful tradition.
For more information and future performance dates: http://www.alessandrabelloni.com
all photos by N. Cohen-koan
Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
I don’t think we’ve ever seen Stockhausen syndrome quite like the relationship between philosopher Hannah Arendt and her Nazi jailor Karl in Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library. Arendt, as played by a very effecting Ella Dershowitz, has a mind like quicksilver. As soon as she observes jailor Karl’s ego needs to pull rank, she defers and reigns in her erudition in exchange for survival. Karl, once somewhat of a student himself, is in awe of her and we see his struggles to follow orders clash with his own instinctual curiosity. What can a good Nazi do in the hands of such a fine German mind, never mind that she’s a Jew?
Her crime it seems was to have been seen copying images of antisemitism from papers for a group who sends them abroad to advertise what’s really going on in Germany. She is aghast at hearing this…her pure research is what took her to the library and nothing else.
Hannah must balance a nature in pursuit of truth with a writer’s talent for bending the narrative in order to save her own skin. After all, she certainly was not uninterested in Jewish issues and Zionism as she tries to convince Karl. In fact, quite the contrary. Her deception is so sweet…she has an authentic love of German thinking and wouldn’t think of involving her ex-lover Heidegger for help. For every turn Karl makes to accuse her of a misdeed, she does a sharp right or left turn, leaving him in the dust. If she had any crime, it was neglecting her own research to hunt around through the files for a recipe for her mother’s favorite cake. The care and intelligence with which she describes the ingredients and making of the dessert is the same thoroughness she puts into her political theories.
Hannah has one visitor, Drew Hirshfeld, whose character Erich is symbolic of so many Jews who could not believe that their beliefs that they were true Germans meant nothing to the Nazis. He is a lawyer and has heard of her plight through the inner circles. Hannah is surprised that he has come or else pretends. Either way she is not excited to have him represent her, neither wanting her affiliation with anything Zionistic to be recognized nor believing he can do anything to help. He has the shadow of death all over him as he speaks of other lawyers who have been brought down while still trying to convince her and mostly himself that he will survive.
The environment is frightening, yet the humorous banter and cigarette sharing become between Karl and Hannah, gives relief. Through it we feel a razor thin light of hope. Karl has a child of his own and is not unfeeling to Hannah’s concern for her mother also imprisoned. Something stirs between them…perhaps it is their love of dancing or the way Hannah finishes the German folk poem Karl had begun reciting; both touchstones of their common humanity.
The acting is terrific in this play and the simple prison cell set serves as a blank slate for the plethora of ideas that playwright Bader make dance within the walls of the cell.
The play produced by Luna Stage is running at 59 East 59th Theaters until November 10th.
Tuesdays with Morrie
c Jeremy Varner
I can’t remember if I ever watched Morrie Schwartz on the Ted Koppel show as I may have confused him with Andy Rooney who signed off on 60 Minutes. But the book Tuesdays with Morrie was very familiar. It was written by Mitch Albom and explores his very close friendship in the last year of Morrie’s life, when Morrie lay “living” with ALS.
This memory play produced by Sea Dog Theater is a touching story about mentorship, life, and the importance of love above all else. Chris Domig, who is also the artistic director of Red Dog, does a fine job as Mitch, conveying the angst of a young man, unsure of himself and the choices he has made in life which give him success but not peace. He is a gifted jazz pianist who throws over his art for a real career in sports journalism, but something is missing. When he chances upon his old Brandeis professor and learns that he is ill, he makes weekly visits to his coach, enabling them both to put closure on a special relationship that Mitch abandoned while trying to grow up. He starts out the show playing jazz piano, so the audience doesn’t know if he’s a warm up or part of the show.
It’s a tough role…… Mitch is a whiny guy who is frightened of his feelings. He needs the warmth and wit of Morrie to come alive and as played by the fabulous Len Cariou, he eventually does.
Mr. Cariou seems feeble at first, holding onto the piano for balance…but when he opens his mouth, there is so much richness, that even when his character is close to death, you feel you are still with the most alive person in the room, including the audience. When he tells Mitch about trying to have kids, his face takes on the look of someone remembering all the good sex he and Connie, his wife had, while trying. Of course, the one-time demon Barber of Fleet Street is sexy still, with his deep, resonating voice as he goes through the stages of his last year with grace and strength.
Morrie and Mitch’s conversations about life and death are humane and identifiable. Morrie is a man who sees the big picture while understanding that it’s the small gestures that make a good life.
The writing, thanks to Jeffrey Hatcher and Albom is sharp and it’s terrific that Mitch taped those conversations because we really get to hear Morrie’s wit first hand.
Directed by Erwin Mass, the show moves at a nice pace and cleverly uses one main prop. The chair Morrie sits on becomes the symbol of his body’s changes, with Mitch adding foot pedals and a head rest as Morrie becomes sicker. This gives Mitch something to touch and fuss over…until he’s finally able to touch Morrie’s head and surrender to his real feelings of love.
The only pick I have is that Jerry Rubin went to Oberlin College. It was Abbie Hoffman who studied at Brandeis and after seeing this wonderful play, I wonder if Abbie’s life would have been different if he too had been coached by Morrie Schwartz.
Tuesdays with Morrie runs until 4/20 at St. George’s Episcopal Church, located at 209 East 16 St., between 3 Ave. and Rutherford Place
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