This was a new performance format for me to learn – I’d taped myself reading the essay “The iPad Wars” for City Tales, the annual storytelling reading by LACC students and faculty, and sent it to the organizers for post-production. The show went live on YouTube June 4. Previously published in The Citadel, “The iPadContinue reading ““The iPad Wars” in City Tales 2020, a YouTube storytelling show”
Category Archives: News
“Christmas Dreidels” in The Citadel 2020
“Christmas Dreidels” explores one gay couple’s experience of building an adoptive family built on the richness of Jewish and African American heritages, one in which widely diverse cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds add up to a new, organic whole.
Mujerista Theology, or Finding Sacredness amidst Poverty and Oppression
This post is part of Blessing the Sea 4. Is search for the sacred a class privilege? Or to put it differently, are the opportunities to touch the divine – beyond the formal religious settings open to the masses, like synagogues, churches, or mosques – luxuries afforded only to those who can afford them, andContinue reading “Mujerista Theology, or Finding Sacredness amidst Poverty and Oppression”
Spirit and Spunk of a Merchant’s Wife
This book review is part of Blessing the Sea 4 newsletter. Gluckel of Hameln’s memoir has many layers. Written in simple, vivid language for her children over 300 years ago, it makes a surprisingly fast and lively read. There are anecdotes galore – funny, heartwarming, or bizarre, like when she and her mother give birthContinue reading “Spirit and Spunk of a Merchant’s Wife”
Serialized Blog on Morning Prayers as Meditative Practice
The Applied Jewish Spirituality institute in Jerusalem published my 3-part mini-blog called “Setting the Right Intention with Morning Prayers,” which describes how to set up an individual spiritual practice that combines Jewish morning prayers with mindful techniques.
Article in The Forward: This High Holiday Season, We Are in Charge
Delighted with my first publication in a major Jewish newspaper: an opinion piece in The Forward on the challenges of celebrating Jewish High Holidays amidst the unprecedented synagogue and communal space lockdown. These extraordinary times offer an opportunity to create individual sacred spaces to celebrate the end of one Jewish year and the start ofContinue reading “Article in The Forward: This High Holiday Season, We Are in Charge”
Against Polarization
Something has changed drastically in the last several years in the political debates in the US: not so much the topics, but the debates themselves.
Guest post on engaging bilingual / ESL students in writing
My post on the AWP College Creative Writing Caucus blog synthesizes writing strategies and pedagogical approaches to encourage bilingual/multilingual/ESL college students to write in English. It is based on the discussions at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) 2020 panel I moderated that year. Two Year Caucus Blog
Essay on raising a multicultural family in FamilyEquality.org
Proud to share my guest blog post on the Family Equality website as part of the celebration of the International Family Equality Day (IFED 2020). The cause it celebrates – achievement of equal rights for LGBTQ families everywhere – is very close to my heart as both a gay parent and a former refugee whoContinue reading “Essay on raising a multicultural family in FamilyEquality.org”
‘AWPocalypse of 2020’: A Convention on the Brink of the Pandemic (California Writers Club)
Just came out in the Spring 2020 issue of the bi-monthly California Writers Club Bulletin: my article “A Writers’ Convention That Almost Didn’t Happen” (excerpted on this site), a firsthand account of the #AWP20 congress that barely made it under the wire of the pandemic. Every year, thousands of writers travel to the annual AssociationContinue reading “‘AWPocalypse of 2020’: A Convention on the Brink of the Pandemic (California Writers Club)”