Downtown Jewish Life to Present INTO THE NIGHT, Contemporary Spin on Tikkun Leil Shavuot

Downtown Jewish Life presents INTO THE NIGHT: a contemporary spin on Tikkun Leil Shavuot, hosted by The 14th Street Y on Tuesday, May 30, 2017, from 7:00pm onward (into the night) at 344 East 14th Street, New York City.

The Tikkun is a night-long journey through culture in the vein of the many vernal "White Nights" of European traditions. The event will feature conversation and ritual led by artists, musicians, shamans, teachers, scholars, and rabbis. Downtown synagogues and community organizations will lead sessions and workshops designed to provoke philosophical discussion with attendees from all backgrounds.

From dance, music and poetry to mixology, text study, sacred chanting, events during the night will provide an environment of thought, culture, creativity, and an extension past one's daily life. While learning deep INTO THE NIGHT we will explore and challenge the notion of Jewish Ritual in inspiring new ways.

The "We the People" Track offers an engaging and revealing look at the issues facing audiences today through an anarchic knitting circle, a civil action / call postcard-making station, monologues by Flux Theatre on immigrations issues, and a reading and workshop on the Constitution.

More than 20 downtown community partners, theater and dance companies, Argentinean Visual Artists, and French Theater Director, Astrid Bas, plus Frank London and Nadav Lev will join in the fourth-annual night-time journey through conversation, culture, and ritual.

"On this holy evening, we are presenting "The Gaga Poems" to share the feminine energy, poetry, and spirit of six women dancers. These are poems about love and hope. They were inspired by my transformative experience of Gaga, a cutting edge dance vocabulary created by the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin." -Lea Fridman & Astrid Bas, Artists

Admission is free and there will be programs for all levels of observance. A photo ID is required for entry. Advance RSVP is recommended. For more information and to reserve a spot, visit www.14streety.org/IntoTheNight.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

We the People Track

* Activate the Constitution || Breathe Free - Flux Theatre Ensemble--a vital part of the indie theater community brings their project "Breathe Free" to our Tikkun. This performance piece will activate our constitution while inspiring a discourse on immigration.

* New York Constitutional Convention - Benjamin Kamine and Atlantic Theater Company's, Abigail Katz read the constitution out loud - workshop

* Anarchic Knitting Circle

* Postcard Party Station - make a postcard for a cause

* Deb's workshop Workshop: Service, citizenship, and the "We the People" initiative against hate

* Citizenshlep: Selected Readings on Jewish Immigration -- Author Gordon Haber invites you to read and discuss selected pieces on citizenship and the Jews from 20th century fiction

Arts/Performances

* Nadav Lev and the Corrections, featuring Jessica Kate Meyers and Frank London

present BIKURIM, a new musical adventure that explores Sephardic, Spanish and Israeli sounds, bringing them together to create a personal, innovative mesh. With Nadav Lev, guitar, Rene Hart, double bass, Satoshi Takeishi, percussion, Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyers, vocal, Frank London, trumpet.

* Israeli Folk Dance Unplugged -- Through dancing and discussion, we will examine the historic and political context of early Israeli folk dances, the choreographers' relationships to the diaspora and European folklore, and the role of appropriated gestures from Jewish Yemenite and Palestinians communities in the creation and dissemination of new national identity.

* REVIVAL -- REVIVAL is a spiritual folk rock performance that speaks to the urgent moral issues of our day and draws from Jewish, Christian, and secular themes of justice and healing.

* The Gaga Poems -- Created by French artist Astrid Bas This work is a choreography of poetry, dance, and music.

* The composer and his Other: Wagner as Yiddish Opera - A concert performance of one scene from A Yiddishe Wagner followed by a discussion.

* Kaleidoscope: What Does Jewish Look Like to You?

Kaleidoscope is a narrative arts monologue showcase that foregrounds the stories of Jews of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Come here a few of the Kaleidoscope cast members perform their monologues and engage in discussion around the intersection of storytelling, Jewish peoplehood, and diversity.

Lectures/Workshops

* LABA Buenos Aires presents: BORGES AND THE KABBALAH

Saul Sosnowski and Mirta Kupferminc will talk about this themes while sharing the artistic handmade book they made together with cabalistic concepts, poetry and etchings.

* LABA BA presents in the Gallery: The Other South

Artists from LABA-Buenos Aires will present their work on The Other - Drawings, lithographies, installations and Artist Books.

*Preparing for Revelation Through Sacred Chant with Rabbi Eva

We will joyfully prepare for revelation by opening our hearts and attuning ourselves to the Holy One of Blessings through Sacred Hebrew Chant.

* Holistic Moroccan Belly Dance Workshop

The workshop combines Belly Dance with Moroccan Berber folklore, while focusing on the organic movement of the body and using elements of trance.

* A Talmud Shiur: Humanitarian vs. Halakhic Concerns Regarding Healing on the Sabbath

The gospels claim that the Talmudic rabbis prohibited healing on the Sabbath. We will read Mishnah and Gemara to see if that claim is correct.

* From Dystopia to Utopia: A Jewish Vision of a Better World

Rabbi Ross will draw from his first book, The Ten Commandments, to present a Jewish vision of a better world.

* Dinah in the Age of Trump - Come and learn the less popular Rabbinic traditions on Dinah, and what they have to teach us about being a woman in the age of Trump. Rabbi Bronwen Mullin Bronwen / Town & Village Synagogue.

* Do Not Follow Your Heart! [Numbers 15:39] Our Torah offers important advice about personal restraint, only to be contradicted by Kohelet's admonition to "follow the desires of your heart." Given our over-heated political climate, which way do we go? Join Rabbi Larry Sebert and Dr. Glen Millstein, CUNY Professor of Clinical Psychology, to explore a Jewish perspective on impulse and passion - where they can lead us astray and how they can make things right.

Throughout the night, there will be an open café, a postcard-making station, and LABA BA artists in the gallery.

A full schedule of participants and program can be found below and online at www.14streety.org/IntoTheNight.

Downtown Jewish Life is a network of downtown Jewish organizations and individuals hosted by The 14th Street Y. Downtown Jewish Life experiences welcome people of every background, identity, age, family configuration and religious affiliation (or none), who are interested in finding meaning, values,and community inspired by Jewish sensibilities. Downtown Jewish Life includes: 14th Street Y, American Jewish Historical Society, Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, BASE Hillel, BBYO New York, Brotherhood Synagogue, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue, East End Temple, Educational Alliance, Hazon, Honeymoon Israel, JCP Downtown, Kol Hakfar, The Jewish Plays Project, LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, LAB/Shul, Manny Cantor Center, Museum of Jewish Heritage, The New Shul, Ohel Ayalah, NYU Bronfman Center, The Center for Creative Judaism, Congregation Magen David, The Shul of New York, The Stanton Street Shul, The Sixth Street Community Synagogue, Tamid: The Downtown Synagogue, Town & Village Synagogue, The Village Temple, and YIVO.

INTO THE NIGHT is made possible thanks to the generous support of the UJA-Federation of New York and a grant from the Covenant Foundation.

Teachers, Musicians and Artists: Rabbi Dr. Judith Hauptman, Rabbi Rachel Weiss, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Rabbi David Dunn Bauer, Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein, n, Rabbi Gavriel Bellino, Misha Shulman, Cantor Michael Weis, Dr. Sharon Keller, Rabbi Larry Sebert & Bronwen Mullin, Rabbi David Gaffney, Shira Kline, Amichai Lau-Lavie,, Julie Gayer Kris, Ruby Namdar, Astrid Bas, Nadav Lev, and Frank London.

The 14th Street Y is a cultural center focused on innovation and connection. We play host to some of New York City's most cutting-Edge Theater and dance companies and produce our own original programming through LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture. The center serves more than 20,000 people annually with a variety of community programs and is proud to be a part of Educational Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a 128-year history of serving New Yorkers downtown.