LABAlive Programs
LABAlive III: Broken ID’s
Thursday, November 10 | 7:30 PM
TEACHINGS by Ruby Namdar
LOOK MA, I’M TRANS! by Lili Rosen
LIFE AFTER BEING ALIVE: GHOST STORIES by Elie Lichtschein
EX LIBRIS; A LIFE IN BOOKPLATES by Melissa Hacker
WARLÉ, YESTERDAY, AND TODAY by Andrew Ingall
Lili Rosen (Theater)
Look Ma, I’m Trans!
Look Ma, I’m Trans! is a one-woman show about a trans woman of Hasidic experience. Lili Rosen has worn many hats in her life including a hasidic shtreimel, an Italian fedora, and the big, floppy fashionista hat she wears to the beach. In her new one-woman show she takes us on a journey through her past and present in which she struggles to make sense of her body, soul, and monthly credit card bills.
About Lili Rosen
Lili is a trans actress and Yiddish cultural consultant best known for her work on Netflix’s hit series “Unorthodox”, the critically-acclaimed film “Minyan”, and the award-winning short film “The Binding of Itzik”. She is the past managing director of New Yiddish Rep, in which capacity she translated, produced and/or appeared in many modern and post-modern classics such as God of Vengeance and Waiting for Godot.
Collaborator
Lindsey Hope Pearlman – Director
Lindsey Hope Pearlman is a director and playwright specializing in new plays and musicals. She received a 2022 NYSCA commission for her new play ROAR!. Her play Lucy received an EST/Sloan Commission, and her play Viv is for Vengeance received Honorable Mention from the American Playwriting Foundation Relentless Awards. Co-book writer, MacGyver the Musical. Broadway: Bandstand (Assistant Director). Drama League NY Directing Fellow 2019-2020. London International School of Performing Arts, Hamilton College. Adjunct Professor, Pace University. www.lindseyhopepearlman.com
Elie Lichtschein (Literature)
Life After Being Alive: Ghost Stories
Life After Being Alive: Ghost Stories are based on Elie’s experience this summer teaching “LABA” at New Country Day Camp and telling spooky stories to campers ages 7-12. These stories were designed to be palatable (and affecting!) for all ages and 2-3 of them will be shared tonight. Some of the stories are real (like the one time Elie saw a real ghost!) and some are clearly fictive ideas of what happens to spirits when they vacate the body.
About Elie Lichtschein
Elie is a writer based in downtown Manhattan. He’s the creator of the kids horror podcast The Creeping Hour (GBH Boston / PRX, 2019). His short fiction has been published by Knopf (IT’S A WHOLE SPIEL, 2019) and “Supernatural Tales” (#41, 2021).
Illustrations by Aiko Manzello
Melissa Hacker (Documentary Film)
Ex Libris; A Life in Bookplates
Ex Libris; A Life in Bookplates is an animated documentary film with animation tracing the vanished world of the collection of exlibris, small works of graphic art, that my grandfather created and lost in Vienna between the two world wars. Ex Libris; A Life in Bookplates explores the intimate, intricate universe Marco Birnholz created in his collection, and the exploding world he recorded in his diaries. In 1939, Marco’s collection was seized by the Austrian National Library.
About Melissa Hacker
Melissa is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and writer who works with memory, family history, and loss. Her first film, the feature documentary “My Knees Were Jumping”; “Remembering The Kindertransports” was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination, seen in film festivals, museums, universities, and broadcast worldwide. Awards include a Fulbright in Vienna, and residencies at Yaddo, Millay, Digital Arts Studio Belfast, Playa, and VCCA.
Collaborators
Karen Goldfeder, Composer
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Karen Goldfeder earned her Musician’s Union (Local 802) card as a French horn player at age thirteen, and spent her teen years performing in folk and jazz clubs, doing club dates, and appearing in musicals. Karen’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by The Eastman Chorale, The New York Treble Singers, The Todd Reynolds String Quartet, The Marble Collegiate Church Sanctuary Choir, The Choir of St. Francis Assisi, The Choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal; The Great Neck Choral Society, The Women’s and Girls’ Choir Festival, and Kiitos: A Vocal Quartet. Karen is currently a Masters’ candidate at the Eastman School of Music’s Beal Institute for Film Composition and Digital Media.
Peter Roehsler, Cinematographer
Peter Roehsler founded Nanook Films in 1988. Based in Vienna, he has been a director of photography on documentaries for ARTE, ZDF and ORF. Peter has worked on many award winning films, including ‘Bock for President’, ‘Emigration N.Y. – Die Geschichte einer Vertreibung,’ and ‘East of War’ and ‘Homemade’ with Ruth Beckermann.
Andrew Ingall (Storytelling/Dance)
Warlé, Yesterday, and Today
A slide talk and performance using photography, archival documents, artifacts, and stories to conjure the lives of my cousins Warren Kronemeyer and Leon Ingall AND to facilitate conversations about how we care for LGBTQ+ elders and refugees.
Warlé is a multi-platform project that re-envisions my cousins’ mid-century boutique as a pop-up site for discussion, storytelling, and art that inspires action on behalf of LGBTQ+ elders and refugees. Using archival documents, photography, art, artifacts, and stories, my goal is to re-assemble the personal and professional lives of Leon Ingall and Warren Kronemeyer. They co-founded Warlé, a small business on Manhattan’s Upper East Side specializing in antiques, contemporary objects, art framing, restoration, and interior decoration. Leon was a Jewish refugee and fashion designer who fled Bolshevik Russia, relocated to Weimar Berlin, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1940; Warren was a ghostwriter, journalist, antiques dealer, and an operative of the WWII-era U.S. Office of Strategic Services. Leon and Warren left New York City in 1980 and relocated to Townshend, Vermont and became beloved citizens of this rural community. The goal of the newly re-branded Warlé is to facilitate conversations about how we care for some of the most vulnerable populations. www.warleinc.com IG @warleinc
About Andrew Ingall
Andy has been working in arts, culture, and community engagement for over twenty years as a curator, scholar, writer, performer, and producer. He received a B.A. from Columbia College and an M.A. in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. His collaborators have included cultural workers, artists, scholars, faith leaders, activists, health care professionals, and funeral directors. With a background in theater, performance, and museum studies, Andy has organized exhibitions and public programs for The Brooklyn Museum, Electronic Arts Intermix, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, Wave Hill, and other cultural institutions. His writing and research has appeared in Videofreex: The Art of Guerrilla Television (SUNY Press), Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, and other publications.
Collaborators
Walter Perez and Leonardo Sardella
In 2011, Walter Perez and Leonardo Sardella formed the dance company Malevaje in recognition of their shared belief that Argentine tango answers the universal need to connect with others. They have taken part in the International Queer Tango Festivals worldwide and have performed and taught workshops in major cities in the United States as well as in England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Domenican Republic, Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina. They are ranked very high on the list of the world’s leading Argentine tango dance partners who are able to flawlessly and creatively exchange roles as leader and follower.
In 2013, Walter created, with Leonardo as program director, Friends of Argentine Tango, a non-profit organization that promotes and disseminate tango among diverse audiences, bringing programs to schools and senior centers like: YM & YWHA Inwood, Jasa Bronx, Sage Manhattan (LGBT 60+), Isabella, Star, Hanac, and more.
Since 2015, Walter and Leonardo are the organizers of the annually New York Queer Tango Weekend, with 4 days of International guest teachers and perfomers , and social tango parties at various locations around the city.
Music: “Friendship” from Orpheus in Exile: Songs of Vadim Kozin by Marc Almond
Thanks: Mitchell Bloom, Yehuda Hyman, Culture Push, and the LABA NY community Warlé, Yesterday, and Today is a slide talk and dance using photography, archival documents, artifacts, and stories to conjure the lives of my cousins Warren Kronemeyer and Leon Ingall AND to facilitate conversations about how we care for LGBTQ+ elders and refugees.
Arts + Culture + LABA + Theater Staff
Ronit Muszkatblit, Consulting Creative Director + LABA Global
Philip Trevino, Director of Production
Laura Beatrix Newmark, Director of LABA NY
Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Interim Theater Manager
About the 14th Street Y
The 14th street Y is a vibrant community center grounded in the belief that contemporary Jewish sensibilities can be a source of inspiration, connection, and learning for the individuals and families we serve throughout downtown Manhattan. We focus on health and fitness, education and enrichment programs, and innovative arts and cultural programming.
We are committed to the development of the whole person and bettering people’s lives and strengthening individual and family connections by building an inclusive and sustainable community.
The 14th Street Y is part of Educational Alliance’s network of community centers in Lower Manhattan. We believe strong communities can transform lives. Our programs turn strangers into neighbors and provide New Yorkers access to quality education, health and wellness services, arts and culture, and civic engagement opportunities.
About the 14Y Theater
The Theater at the 14th Street Y’s mission focuses on social awareness and change through big picture narrative. Inspired by works that welcome artists of all backgrounds, we place artists as the heart of our community and seek to create an inclusive cultural experience for all.
About LABA: A Global Laboratory for Jewish Culture
LABA is a non-religious house of study whose goal is to function as an international incubator for creativity and to push the boundaries of what Jewish art can be, and what Jewish texts can teach. Through thoughtful study, we engage with the stories of the Bible and classical Rabbinic texts as if they were new. We also fold in secular literature, music and art to help us better see the timeless and radical elements of these sacred texts.
Every year, LABA selects a group of ten fellows for a year-long study of classical Jewish texts centered around a chosen theme. Through the LABA fellowship, fellows are provided an open and creative setting for the thoughtful study of Judaism’s rich literary and intellectual tradition. These creative explorations inform their art and ideas and are presented through live LABA events and online in the LABA Journal.
LABA’s NYC home is the 14th Street Y in the heart of the East Village. Its setting provides fellows the opportunity to engage deeply with the 14Y community, the surrounding neighborhoods, and to show their work to the New York theater and art worlds through installations, gallery shows, workshops, performances, presentations, and panel discussions presented throughout the 14Y and in its convertible Black Box Theater.
To learn more about LABA, visit labajournal.com