Akin Ajayi
By Akin Ajayi
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The Schmooze Alba Arikha and Her Artist Father
It was appropriate that the moderator for Alba Arikha’s talk last week at London’s Jewish Book Week was the war correspondent Janine di Giovanni. Di Giovanni is noted for preserving the human dimension in the complexities of conflict. Likewise, “Major/Minor,” Arikha’s recently published memoir, digs deep beneath the surface to explore her tempestuous relationship with…
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The Schmooze Couture as Comedy and Conflict Resolution
Photo by Neta Alonim The iconography of fashion is perhaps not the most obvious tool with which to parse the complexities of the Middle East. Still, everything else seems to have failed; more to the point, style does shares a common vocabulary. So, why not? “InSALAAM, InSHALOM,” a fashion collection and multimedia exhibit curated by…
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The Schmooze Top Israeli Literary Award Goes to Underdog
At a gala ceremony in Tel Aviv January 16, author Haggai Linik joined a select group of literary luminaries when his third novel, “Darush Lahshan” (“Prompter Needed”) was awarded Israel’s Sapir Prize for Literature. Inaugurated in 2000, the Sapir Prize is Israel’s most prestigious literary prize. Awarded by Mifal HaPayis — the National Lottery —…
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The Schmooze Nigerian Theater Troupe Visits Tel Aviv
Crossposted from Midnight East “Development need not be an enemy of culture.” Nigerian theatre director Se-gun Ojewuyi mops his brow lightly as he speaks. It’s a warm afternoon, in the middle of rehearsals for the evening’s performance, but he is composed and unhurried as he reflects on his first visit to Israel. In late October…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Elinor Carucci on Motherhood and Photos
In “Born,” a solo exhibition showing at the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York through November 5, photographer Elinor Carucci presents intimate, at times unsettling, but always unflinchingly candid portraits of herself and her twin children. Born in Israel in 1971, Carucci started taking photographs at the age of 15. She moved to New York…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: ‘The Prize’ Takes the Prize in Peru and Jerusalem
Top prize of the Lima Film Festival that ended on August 12, is just the latest award El Premio (The Prize) by Paula Markovitch has collected on its round of the film festivals. Opening with a long tracking shot, the camera follows a small child struggling along a desolate, windswept beach. She’s trying to rollerskate,…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Swedish Fleshquartet Plays Steve Reich in Jerusalem
Nikita Pavlov Steve Reich’s 1988 composition “Different Trains” is immediately recognizable, even to those with just a passing interest in modern music. The piece has technical virtuosity, a melody intricately constructed using archival speech recordings, and indisputable aesthetic soundness. Beyond these virtues, one senses that deeply personal undertones inform the work. These include Reich’s peripatetic…
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The Schmooze Slideshow: Micha Ullman’s Fixed and Fluid Sculptures
‘Chair’ by Micha Ullman, From ‘Under,’ 2011. Courtesy of The Israel Museum. Despite an almost clinical spareness immediately evident at The Israel Museum’s new Micha Ullman exhibition, one quickly comes to appreciate that the works — individually and as a whole — hint at something more than the stark minimalism they first suggest. Chairs appear…
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