stimulating, promoting and producing the next generation of Jewish Expression

Adam Davis's Blog (57)

Love, Wine and Song - Adam on Arts & Culture February, 2013

Love is in the air this month, and appropriately, we're in a cultural month of the "one love" spirit of reggae and, Israeli musical fusion. By virtue of proximity to Purim, we can add confusion to that list, with belated latkes served alongside Hamentashen, and things being turned on their head, reversals, and surprise endings... …

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Added by Adam Davis on February 12, 2013 at 10:00am — No Comments

A heart bursting with love and song

Idan Raichel, Israel's…

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Added by Adam Davis on February 6, 2013 at 3:56pm — No Comments

Sephardic Jazz and Confederate Seders

This month JUF News focuses on Israel, and conveniently, Adam on Arts & Culture is able to profile Omer Avital, a rising star drawing heavily on his own Israeli identity in his music performing this month in Chicago. Likewise, with the Civil War being a hot topic these days, a production of The Whipping Man at Northlight is worth its weight in matzoh.

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Added by Adam Davis on January 9, 2013 at 4:46pm — No Comments

December's Musical Maccabees

Adam on Arts & Culture is a monthly article by KFAR founder Adam Davis originally published in JUF News.

Chanukah celebrations remind us to preserve our heritage and keep it alive for our children and future generations.…

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Added by Adam Davis on December 3, 2012 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Adam on arts and culture November

This month, I began writing a new arts and culture column in JUF News. I'm honored to have been called upon and recognized for my work on behalf of Jewish arts, music and culture from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and its leading print and online publication. I hope you enjoy reading it. I will cross post it on this blog and…

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Added by Adam Davis on November 12, 2012 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Sean Altman sings his faith to Sun-Times

In advance of Saturday's show, Jewmongous creator Sean Altman talks to the Sun-Times:

In his liner notes and in his show, Altman, 49, talks about his faith -- or lack of it. He admits he hasn't been much of a believer since he went through the motions of his bar mitzvah. That doesn't mean,…

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Added by Adam Davis on December 21, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments

New Partnership with Old Town School of Folk Music

I am very pleased to announce that in the coming 2010-2011 season, KFAR Jewish Arts Center will partner with the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Together, the organizations will co-present a set of Jewish and Israeli themed events at its as part of the Old Town's free World Music Wednesday concert series, starting with a November 10th performance by… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 15, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Be the future of Jewish culture

As the Jewish New Year begins Friday night, our culture is vibrant and alive in America. No longer relegated to bagel brunches, it is at the core of a contemporary Jewish identity being explored asserted throughout the arts; in the recording studio, on the stage, on film and the page.

KFAR Jewish Arts Center leads this Jewish cultural renaissance in Chicago, connecting artists and performers exploring their heritage through their craft to audiences thirsty for contemporary… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on September 16, 2009 at 5:21pm — No Comments

Emergence of a Jewish Cultural Identity

I read this article a while back, and it struck me as being central to what KFAR is all about. "While the organized Jewish community often identifies Jews by their denominational affiliation, more than half of all Jews in North America resist such categorizations. Defining themselves as secular, these Jews express their Jewish identity in cultural terms." Sounds as though there ought… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 30, 2008 at 6:14pm — No Comments

Yosef Karduner performs...

Word is that Karduner is a zisye (sweet for all you squares) singer in the Breslover Hasidic realm. He's performing in West Rogers Park 7pm, November 2, at F.R.E.E. on Devon. $15, separate… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 30, 2008 at 6:00pm — No Comments

2008 Chicago Festival of Israel Cinema begins!

This annual Chicago Festival of Israel Cinema festival, now in its third year, got underway last evening with a screening of Noodle at Piper's Alley

This year's festival is timed to the 60th anniversary of the Modern Day State of Israel and celebrates "60 Years of Cinematic Achievement" with slate of award winning features, documentaries and retrospectives.

This year's lineup covers a lot… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 30, 2008 at 6:00pm — No Comments

Fragments from a Nonexistent Yiddish Poet

Nextbook posts gems by Jehanne Dubrow voiced as poet Ida Lewin, described by Dubrow as "Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking, and completely imaginary." A sample after the jump:

45.

My smile has gone missing

in the Pale of Settlement.

It wanders the dusty roads,

like a peddler

weighed down with sacks

of cloth and trinkets

that nobody wants to own.

Children throw… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 20, 2008 at 6:00pm — No Comments

Jazz Yizkor and Afrobeat Rosh Hashana

WSJ reviews Afro-Semitic Experience's latest jazz CD, YIZKOR, featuring Chicago's own Alberto Mizrahi, while bluesman Jeremiah Lockwood (Balkan Beat Box) brings together members of Arcade Fire, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for a rock/world/blues/chazzanut fusion project called Sway Machinery with a sound so visceral, it frankly blows me away.… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 16, 2008 at 7:26pm — No Comments

Kol Nidre: love it or hate with it...

Every year, as Yom Kippur starts, one of the most popular and well-known prayers opens the Day of Atonement by convening a Jewish legal court. Kol Nidre (all vows) also has a storied history that includes its share of controversy and surprises.

Slate's Michael Weiss writes how this prayer has oft been misconstrued and used by anti-semites like David Duke, and conversely been performed by dozens of secular performers, including this gem… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 16, 2008 at 5:33pm — No Comments

Beats + Rap + Jews= ?

I'm always at a loss to properly name the varied, ever-growing genre of Jewish Hip Hop. Aside from Socalled and Kosha Dillz, whom KFAR has presented in the past to Y-love and others. JTA's Daniel Sieradski (aka Mobius) recently brought two more acts… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on October 16, 2008 at 5:30pm — No Comments

cool....

Added by Adam Davis on October 3, 2008 at 2:30am — No Comments

World Music Fest wraps with a bang!

Sephardic songstress Mor Karbasi performed an incredible show Wednesday night as part of the 2008 World Music Festival at Martyrs. We've posted some pictures… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on September 26, 2008 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Sweeten your world in 5769

KFAR's 2008-2009 season will be its most ambitious and diverse to date.

This year, KFAR's concert series will bring contemporary, innovative Jewish sounds by world-class musicians and composers from all over the globe to Chicago. Our unique holiday 'Celebrations' will amaze you, and our Artistic Associates program will get under way as well. Add to that plans for a Semitic/Cinematic Film Series and a pliot of our S.H.E.M.A. initiative,… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on September 26, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

The end of the Cantor?

Just in time for the High Holidays, JTA posted two related stories last week about the demise of the Cantor in both the Orthodox and Conservative worlds.

"In today’s economy, cantors are finding it more difficult than usual to find work. That’s… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on September 23, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

DJ AM in a plane crash

from JTA:

"An internationally known Jewish disc jockey survived a plane crash that killed four. Adam Michael Goldstein, 35, known as DJ AM, was hospitalized with extensive burns, CNN reported. He jumped from a burning private plane Friday night as it skidded on a runway in Columbia, S.C.

Also surviving was Travis Barker, a drummer for the band Blink 18; he also had extensive burns. Goldstein, 35, a… Continue

Added by Adam Davis on September 23, 2008 at 1:49pm — No Comments