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Jonathan Goldstein: Love Lost & Love Found
December 11 2003, 7:30 PM
Zeitgeist Café, 171 S. Jackson Street, Seattle
This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein makes his first Seattle appearance for Nextbook, with readings and performances from his original works. For many, Goldstein is the wry, self-effacing voice at the other end of the radio. As a contributing editor for This American Life, Goldstein has offered up tales on everything from what it would be like to date Lois Lane (think it's easy trying to measure up to Superman?) to sharing real life snippets about daily adventures with his girlfriend's young daughter. Author of Lenny Bruce is Dead and co-author of Schmelvis: In Search of Elvis Presley's Jewish Roots, Goldstein will read from original works on love lost and love found, with musical accompaniment by klezmer/gypsy violinist Sandra Layman.
Peter Manseau, Jeff Sharlet & Peter Trachtenberg: A Heretic's Bible
February 19 2004, 7:30 PM
Zeitgeist Café, 171 S. Jackson Street, Seattle
Who says the Bible wasn't just a rough draft? Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau, editors of the online magazine, KillingTheBuddha.com, left the serenity of their backwoods bungalows to find out where Americans find God. (Among their discoveries: some find God in dirt; others on their tummies.) At the same time, Sharlet and Manseau, both alums of the National Center for the Yiddish Book, asked authors such as Francine Prose and Melvin Jules Bukiet to write their own versions of books of the Bible. The result is Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible, an exploration of faith in America by writers who admit to being "embarrassed to be caught in the 'spirituality' section of a bookstore." Sharlet and Manseau share their "psalms" and are joined by the eternally put-upon Peter Trachtenberg, reading from his re-interpretation of Job. With musical interludes.
Loolwa Khazzoom: An Evening of Poetry and Song from North Africa and the Middle East
March 31 2004, 7:30 PM
Zeitgeist Café
171 S. Jackson Street, Seattle
April 1 2004, 7:00 PM
Mercer Island Library
4400 88th Avenue SE, Mercer Island
Loolwa Khazzoom, founder of the Jewish Multicultural Project, leads musicians Ruth Hunter (kanoun), Christos Govetas (oud) and Will Dowd (dumbek), in an evening of poetry and songs performed in Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, Aramaic and Hebrew—bringing to life an aspect of Jewish culture largely unknown in America, where Jewish history has often been reduced to the story of European Jews. Khazzoom's writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, and elsewhere, and she is, most recently, the editor of The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage (Seal Press).
Tova Mirvis
April 28 2004, 7:30 PM
Zeitgeist Café
171 S. Jackson Street, Seattle
Tova Mirvis's debut novel, The Ladies Auxiliary, depicted the tight-knit Orthodox community of Memphis, which is scandalized by the arrival of an unconventional New York convert. Mirvis revisits this tension between tradition and modernity in her new novel, The Outside World. Bryan, the son of observant but liberal parents, becomes ultra-Orthodox; but his new values are challenged as he courts Tzippy, a young woman longing to escape from her highly Orthodox background. Mirvis, who was raised in Memphis and currently lives in New York, reads accompanied with nuptial-inspired klezmer music from Laurie Andres (accordian) and Carl Shutoff (clarinet).
Mary Potter Engel
May 6 2004, 7:30 PM
Shoreline Library
345 NE 175th St. Shoreline
May 13 2004, 7:30 PM
Zeitgeist Cafe, 171 S. Jackson St., Seattle
Co-Sponsored by Elliott Bay Book Company
Local author Mary Potter Engel reads from her new story collection, Strangers and Sojourners. Set in the rural culture of South Carolina, Engel's stories feature the eclectic inhabitants of Coosawaw County—black and white, Jewish and Christian, straight and gay—as they try to make sense of suffering, and religious belief, in their lives. Engel, who earned a Ph.D. in Christian theology, is also the author of A Woman of Salt, a novel which alternates midrashic commentary and the story of a Jewish woman in conflict between her mundane secular life and her passionate longing for a spiritual one.
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