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ARTIST AND THOUGHT LEADERS
HADAR AHUVIA facilitates ritual, performance, and education that delve deeply into Jewish heritage and are committed to transformation. Her work has been supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center, the 14th St. Y, Danspace Project, Yaddo and Gibney Dance among others. Her essay “Joy Vey” on choreographing a diasporic identity beyond Zionism is featured in the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness in Dance. Ahuvia is a recipient of a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, was one of Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch in 2019’, and a 2020 New Brooklyn Culture Fellow with collaborator Tatyana Tenebaum. She has performed with Trisha Brown Dance Company, Lucinda Childs Dance, Sara Rudner, among others and currently performs with Reggie Wilson/ Fist & Heel Performance Group, is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College, and is studying eastern european Jewish music with Hankus Netksy.
JULIA BACHA is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker and the Creative Director at Just Vision. She started her filmmaking career in Cairo, where she wrote and edited Control Room (Sundance 2004), for which she was nominated to the Writer’s Guild of America Award. Subsequently, she directed Encounter Point (Tribeca 2006), Budrus (Berlinale 2009), My Neighbourhood (Tribeca 2012), Naila and the Uprising (IDFA 2017) and Boycott (DOC NYC 2021). Julia’s films have been broadcast on PBS, HBO, CBC in Canada, among others. In addition to over thirty film festival awards, Julia is the recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Film Prize, the 2012 Doc Society Creative Impact Award, a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2017 Columbia University Medal of Excellence, and the 2019 Chicken & Egg Award. Originally from Brazil, Julia is a Documentary Branch Member of AMPAS and has given two TED talks, “Pay attention to nonviolence” and “How women wage conflict without violence.”
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN co-founder of Ms. magazine, is a nationally acclaimed writer, activist, and public speaker. The author of twelve books, her articles and essays have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including The New York Times, The Nation, and Huffington Post. She is a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Ms. Foundation for Women; a past president of the Authors Guild and Americans for Peace Now; and has served on the board of the Harvard Divinity School Women in Religion Program and the Brandeis University Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Among her many honors is a Yale University Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, a Matrix Award for excellence in communication and the arts, and an Emmy Award for her work as consulting editor on the TV version of Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be, You and Me. Pogrebin lives with her husband in New York City and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
YONATAN GUTFELD grew up in Jerusalem, where he studied music composition. He was active in the Tel Aviv singer-songwriter scene and toured the country with his band after re- leasing his debut album. Since 2012 Yonatan lives in NYC where he records his songs, teaches and writes music for theatre productions. In 2017 he released Time’s Tyranny, an album of new compositions to Shakespeare sonnets in He- brew translation. In 2019 he released In Exile Even In His Own Room, a selection of songs set to lyrics by poet Ory Bernstein. In 2020 he released Acht U Shtaim, an album of original Hebrew children songs. Yonatan is the Music Director of The New Shul.
NORMAN LEAR was born in 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut, Lear attended Emerson College before flying 52 combat missions over Europe during World War II. Upon his return, Norman began a successful career writing and producing programs like The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Martha Raye Show -- ultimately leading to Lear captivating 120 million viewers per week with his iconic shows of the 1970s and ‘80s — All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
As Lear began witnessing the rise of the radical religious right, he put his television career on hold in 1980 to found People For The American Way. Today, the organization is over one million members and activists strong and continues to fight right-wing extremism while defending constitutional values like free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.
Norman Lear is married to Lyn Davis Lear, and is the father to six and the grandfather to four.
Fabio Tavares he/him (Performer) is a Brazilian physical artist who has lived and worked in NYC since 1999. He has collaborated and performed with Yvonne Meyer, Fisherspooner, Noemie Lafrance, Luis Lara Malvacías, Circus Amok, Laurie Anderson, The Dazzle Dancers, The Daisy Spurs, Stanley Love and Anne Bogart / SITI Company to name a few. Fabio has also danced with the STREB Extreme-Action company for 14 years where he also served as the Associate Artistic Director for a decade. Mr. Tavares is currently a faculty member at Movement Research and at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
His solo work has been featured in the US, Europe and Brazil.
ERIKA SASSON is an attorney and consultant who designs, implements, and facilitates restorative justice practices. She is a practitioner with experience responding to serious harm as well as building positive, effective cultures. She teaches at Vermont Law School, and is also a columnist at New York Nonprofit Media, writing about restorative justice and public policy. Formerly the director of restorative practices at the Center for Justice Innovation, Ms. Sasson oversaw research and practice projects in schools, courts and communities, starting with the launch of the Red Hook Peacemaking Program in 2013. She has developed restorative approaches to serious felony-level violence across New York City, including as a response to sexual assault and homicide. Among her current clients, she is assisting BUILD Chicago with their launch of a Peace and Justice Center, and is working with Violence Intervention Program in the Bronx to develop a restorative response to domestic violence. Originally from Canada, she is raising a family with her husband Misha in Brooklyn, NY.
RAKIA SEABORN - A native of Detroit, MI, Rakia Seaborn is a writer, choreographer and performer whose work has appeared at JACK, Dixon Place, La Mama E.T.C., The Tank, AUNTS, chashama and Brooklyn Studios for Dance. Seaborn has worked with Kathy Westwater, Dianne McIntyre, Rashaun Mitchell, Jodi Melnick, and Meta-Phys Ed. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2007, earning a Bachelors of Art in Dance with a concentration in Choreography, and in 2014, she gained an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Seaborn teaches Movement for Trinity College's Experimental Performing Arts Program at La Mama, Etc. She is a 2018 Mertz Gilmore Late Stage Creative Stipend recipient. Seaborn's latest work, A RUIN had its world premiere at JACK in May of 2022.
RABBI MISHA SHULMAN, Rabbi of The New Shul, is a devoted faith leader, theater professional and activist. Born and raised in Jerusalem, he is the founding director of the School for Creative Judaism (SCJ) and has worked at Congregation Rodef Shalom, The Village Temple, the Shul of New York, the Board of Jewish Education and Educational Alliance. He is an accomplished playwright, theater director and actor, with an MFA from Brooklyn College and an extensive theatrical resume which includes performances in theatres ranging from Off Off Broadway to Lincoln Center to theaters around the globe. He was ordained by an independent committee of five rabbis and five artists after a seven year process that examined the overlap between Judaism, art and social activism.
SAMSAM YUNG is a Brooklyn based dancer choreographer and teacher born in Hong Kong. She has performed for Guido Tuveri, Jessica Pate, Stephanie Landouer, DanceAction, Nimbus Dance Works, Pavel Zustiak, Jacklyn Buglisi, Pascal Lambert, NOT for reTAIL, Estado Flotante, Dance to the People, and Talli Jackson. Since 2013, Samsam has been presenting her own work in New York City and Philadelphia. In 2019, she was in Tel Aviv for Gaga training. Today her movement style and language is product of varied influences including Gaga, authentic movement, release technique and contact improv.
MATERIELS
SHANDA: A MEMOIR OF SHAME AND SECRECY - PRE EVENT
MAY 2, ON ZOOM
On May 2nd Erika Sasson will lead an informal discussion with interested participants in order to explore the range of ideas and responses to the book. This event is free of charge. Please SIGN UP for this “pre” event.
BOYCOTT - PRE SCREENING
Link to watch Peter Hutchinson’s “The Cure for Hate”