Theater Faculty at Yiddish New York

For the second time Luisa will join as a Yiddish New York Faculty member to teach a Theater & Creative Activism workshop together with Jenny Levison and Tine Kindermann.

Course Description: Creative Activism – A hands-on workshop employing theater and multidisciplinary arts led by Jenny Levison (Race Forward) and Luisa Muhr to frame responses to the national divisions— including the overt racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other expressions of hate that have manifested in the past year— and create a place at YNY for art as activism. Rooted in historic Yiddish and Jewish ethics and creative resistance, the purpose of this workshop is to make our activism more creative, and our art more socially engaged.

This multi-session, hands-on workshop will frame responses to the national divisions — including the overt racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other expressions of hate that have manifested in the past year — and create a place at YNY for art as activism. The purpose of this workshop is to make our activism more creative, and our art more socially engaged—raising the effectiveness of both. We will root ourselves in historic Yiddish and Jewish ethics and creative resistance, to inspire us and inform our work in the current political climate. Participants will develop a creative theatrical action in conjunction with Tine Kinderman’s Visual Arts workshop, Signs of Our Times (see below), and perform it. All are welcome— artists of all disciplines, activists of all issues, and everyone else who wants to change the world. A theater artist, filmmaker, and social justice activist who has led and collaborated on creative campaigns for over 20 years, Jenny Levison currently works at the national racial justice non-profit Race Forward, and is a member of the artist council of Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Luisa Muhr is a NYC-based professional actor, vocalist, movement artist, director, educator and co-founder/co-artistic director of the theater and performing arts company FENGARI Ensemble. Tine Kindermann is a noted German-Jewish visual artist based in New York City.

Classes meet daily Sunday - Wednesday unless otherwise noted.