Description
With Vanessa Hidary (the Hebrew Mamita, pictured at right), Larry Smith (publisher of the Six Word Memoir project), Steve Almond, Lou Cove, Rachel Sklar, and Piper Kerman.
Part performance, part slam, part poetry, part comedy, totally entertaining.
Spoken word events are sweeping the country. Come experience a unique evening with a crew of comedic storytellers who will delight you with their personal stories, songs and poetry. Plenty of audience participation. come prepared to share your own six word memoir (go to http://www.smithmag.net/jewish for examples) or your own story.
About the performers:
STEVE ALMOND
Steve Almond is the author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction. His memoir Candyfreak was a New York Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in the Best American and Pushcart anthologies. His most recent collection, God Bless America, won the Paterson Prize for Fiction. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.
LOU COVE
Lou Cove is author of the forthcoming Man of the Year, a memoir about serving as campaign manager for Mr. November’s bid to become Playgirl Man of the Year 1979. Lou was 13 at the time, and the project was in lieu of a Bar Mitzvah. He is also a senior advisor at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
VANESSA HIDARY
Native New Yorker Vanessa Hidary, aka The Hebrew Mamita, grew up on Manhattan's culturally diverse Upper West Side. Her experiences as a Sephardic Jew with close friends from different ethnic and religious backgrounds inspired her to write "Culture Bandit," the nationally toured solo show that chronicles Vanessa's coming of age during the golden age of hip-hop. From the Bronx to Tel Aviv, Vanessa can be found at high schools, universities, Jewish Federations, poetry lounges, and cultural centers performing speaking about Jewish identity - tackling stereotypes and disecting the complicated question of "What does Jewish look like to you?"
PIPER KERMAN
Piper Kerman is a vice president at a Washington, D.C.-based communications firm that works with foundations and nonprofits. A Brookline native and a graduate of Smith College, she’s the author of the memoir, Orange Is The New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, now being made into an original series on Netflix.
RACHEL SKLAR
Rachel Sklar is a founding editor of Mediaite.com and the former media editor of The Huffington Post. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, The Financial Times, Wallpaper, and elsewhere. She is the founder of two advocacy sites: Change The Ratio, which promotes visibility, access and opportunity for women in new media and tech; and Charitini.com, which promotes social microgiving.
LARRY SMITH
Larry Smith founded SMITH Magazine in January 2006 with the tagline, “Everyone has a story. What’s yours?” SMITH Magazine is home of the Six-Word Memoir project, now a bestselling book series, calendar, board game, live event series and popular lesson plan in classrooms. Larry has edited eight books of Six-Word Memoirs and an anthology, The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure. He speaks on storytelling at companies such as ESPN, Twitter, Dell, Google and Shutterfly, and frequently leads workshops in school and nonprofits.
Cabaret seating. Light refreshments.
Related event:
Mini-performance and workshop with Vanessa Hidary, artist-in-residence
Thursday, March 14 (7:30pm)
Learn the art of storytelling and experience the Hebrew Mamita perform her original work.
Workshop cost: JCC members $5 Nonmember: $8
All JCC arts and humanities offerings are programs of the Ryna Greenbaum JCC Center for the Arts.