Currently Browsing: January 2010
Chicago Nextbook will host Naama Goldstein and Lara Vapnyar on March 21 as part of their “Readings & Performances” series. The title “I Have Only Just Arrived: New Voices” reflects their wide travels and shared dislocation. Goldstein was 3 when her family left Boston and moved to Petakh Tikva in the ‘80s, whereas Vapnyar’s family […]
Paper Clips, one of the best documentary films of 2005, was released in a deluxe 2-DVD edition on March 7. Looking for a project that will teach her students about tolerance and diversity, the principal at Whitwell Middle School outside Chattanooga, Tenn., chooses to focus on the Holocaust. The designated teachers take courses, read books, […]
From Apr ’06 Spotlight: The DePaul Theatre School did a weeklong run of Alfred Uhry’s wonderful play The Last Night of Ballyhoo in February, at the Merle Reskin Theatre on Balbo. I went to the Thursday-night performance on Feb. 16, but unfortunately the audience Q&A we’d been promised at the end was canceled due to […]
From Apr ’06 Spotlight: Sharon Rosenzweig and Aaron Freeman have just released an adorable new book called How to Say I Love You in Thirty Languages, and they will be signing copies at numerous local venues in the next few months. Sharon received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where […]
From Apr ’06 Spotlight: Rosie Vargas Goldberg will show her new film, Bloom, at the 2006 Chicago Latino Film Festival on April 22 and May 4 at the Facets Cinematheque on Fullerton. This is the Chicago premiere of Bloom, although she also showed it last year as a “work in progress” at a screening sponsored […]
From Apr ’06 Spotlight: The internationally award-winning film The Syrian Bride opens at Chicago’s Music Box Theater on Southport on April 7. Shot in and around the city of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, Bride’s plotline hinges on a Druze woman’s imminent marriage to a man on the Syrian side of the border. Family […]
From Mar ’06 Spotlight: When Liev Schreiber’s terrific adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s award-winning novel Everything is Illuminated was released in theaters last September, the critics yawned and most classified it derisively as “yet another” Holocaust movie. But Illuminated is not about the Holocaust per se, it’s about knowledge of the Holocaust and how that […]
From Mar ’06 Spotlight: Spertus wrapped up their Second City Jewsical weekend with an outstanding group discussion on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 22. Panelists Aaron Freeman, Nate Herman, Sheldon Patinkin, Bernie Sahlins, and Joyce Sloane attacked the topic “Jewish Humor: A Look Back and A Look Forward” with relish, sparring with one another, telling their own […]
From Mar ’06 Spotlight: Chicago Nextbook will host Naama Goldstein and Lara Vapnyar on March 21 as part of their “Readings & Performances” series. The title “I Have Only Just Arrived: New Voices” reflects their wide travels and shared dislocation. Goldstein was 3 when her family left Boston and moved to Petakh Tikva in the […]
From Mar ’06 Spotlight: Chicago cabaret artist Joan Curto performs Of Thee I Sing, Ira: The Lyrics of Ira Gershwin at Davenport’s Piano Bar every Saturday night at 8 in March. Ira says a lot in very succinct and simple ways,” Joan told me. “He was a wordsmith, a very studious guy who did a […]