Kosher Gospel

What exactly is kosher gospel? Can gospel be kosher? Joshua Nelson, a Black Jew living in New Jersey, sure thinks so--he basically created the genre.

Nelson attended a Black Hebrew synagogue growing up and, at the age of eight, he discovered Mahalia Jackson and the style of music known as gospel. He fell in love with the music and Nelson later became well-known as a gospel singer. At the same time, Nelson continued studying Judaism and also spent some time on a kibbutz in Israel. He came to believe that Judaism has often flourished while embracing the cultural context it's grown in and decided to marry these two parts of his heritage--soul music, and Judaism.

Joshua Nelson and the Kosher Gospel Singers

As a kosher gospel singer, Nelson has performed all over with the world, recently at Beth Shalom Synagogue here in Toronto. The concert was part of a tribute to their chazzan, Cantor Moses, for his 10th anniversary with the synagogue. Nelson had a full audience as he belted out Hine Ma Tov to the tune of The Saints Go Marching In, (and on one occasion in the voice of Louis Armstrong), and Siman Tov u’Mazel Tov with a passion you’ve never heard before. His performance brought so much energy to the room, that in addition to clapping along--on the correct beats 2 and 4, I might add--people were dancing the horah around the room.

Joshua Nelson singing with Cantor Ben Meisner from Holy Blossom

Nelson has also taught Hebrew School for 15 years. I have to say I believed him when he said his students never fall asleep in class!

Click to watch video of Nelson and his Kosher Gospel Singers.

Casandra Campbell

(Photos courtesy of Henry Campbell)

Poetry Month at the Forward

National Poetry Month kicks off in Canada and the States today, and New York's Jewish Daily Forward is providing a great way to celebrate. Each weekday in April, the Forward will share new poetry and commentary, and give readers a little something to mull over on the commute to work. In today’s piece, Jew On Bridge, C.K. Williams takes a good, hard look at what Judaism means to him.

The Forward promises a diverse selection of poetry, and whether you like every poem or not, each is sure to give you something to think about. All works will be posted on the Forward’s blog, The Arty Semite, so be sure to bookmark it like we have!

Casandra Campbell

Graphic Details: The Artists, Part 3

In a about 2 weeks Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women will be opening at the Gladstone Hotel. This traveling exhibition has received some great press - the links are available in this post - so I’m getting excited for its arrival. In the meantime, I’ve been reading up on some of the women who are a part of it. Here’s what I’ve learned about the women in this third installment.

Vanessa Davis
Davis, born in West Palm Beach, Florida, is now living in Santa Rosa, California. Though she is young, Davis has already published two books: Spaniel Rage in 2005, and Make Me A Woman in 2010. Make Me A Woman, is like looking into Davis’s diary as she tells intimate stories from her youth .Check out this preview from Drawn and Quarterly and you will definitely laugh out loud! In addition to her own publications, Davis has also done work for The New York Times, Dissent Magazine, and Tablet Magazine, to name a few.

Sarah Gideon
Gideon, who works out of Brooklyn, New York, is best know for her graphic novel, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. It was initially a self-published Zine Gideon created after going on a Birthright trip to Israel. There is a great interview about the new expanded version in Comics Alliance. Gideon was a contributor to Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, and I Saw You...Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections. Gideon has also won an Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent in 2008.

Miriam Katin
Katin, who was born in Hungary during WWII and later immigrated to Israel, now lives in the United States. She has been a graphic artist for many years but only published her first graphic novel--a Holocaust autobiography called We Are On Our Own--in 2006. You can preview the book on her website. Prior to publishing her book, Miriam served as a graphic artist in the Israel Defense Forces, and worked as a background designer for MTV Animation and Disney Studio.

Miss Lasko-Gross
Lasko-Gross, currently working in New York, is best know for her semi-autobiographical graphic novels, Escape from “Special” (2007), and A Mess of Everything (2009). She is a graduate of the Pratt Institute where she began her career by editing the school’s comic book, Star Fish. Lasko-Gross also wrote her own comic series called AIM from 1993-2001, and has contributed to many others including the latest issue of House of Twelve.

Watch for more information about the contributors to Graphic Details in the weeks to come and don’t forget to check out Michael Kaminer's Graphic Details blog!

Casandra Campbell

Graphic Details: The Artists, Part 2

There are 24 days until the opening of Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women at the Gladstone Hotel. This travelling exhibition has received some great press - the links are available in this post - so I’m getting excited for its arrival. In the meantime, I’ve been reading up on some of the women who are a part of it. Here’s what I’ve learned about the women in this second installment.

Sarah Lightman
Lightman was born in London, England and is one the curators for Graphic Details. In addition to being an artist and curator, she is also a researcher and journalist, currently completing a PhD on autobiography in comics. Lightman’s comics document her life experiences, often focusing on her relationships and interactions with others. She is also the director of a comics forum called Laydeez do Comics. You can listen to a recent interview of Lightman by Cartoon County on the Mindless Ones website.

Corinne Pearlman
Pearlman, who works out of the United Kingdom, has been a regular contributor to the Jewish Quarterly since 2002. Her comic strips, Playing the Jewish Card, explore her identity as an assimilated Jew. Pearlman is also a partner in Comic Compnay, an organization that produces and distributes health information, and the coordinator for Cartoon County, the Sussex Cartoon and Comic Strip Artists Association. Pearlman has also created a cartoon about this exhibition where she explores the idea that Jews find confession appealing.

Racheli Rottner
Rottner was born in Netanya, Israel in 1882. Rottner has published art in a number of magazines, taught classes, and has even published her first graphic novel, The Other Side of the World. Her graphic novel is autobiographical, and tells the story of her time spent in Australia. A synopsis is available from The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature.

Ilana Zeffren
Zeffren, who works out of Israel, is the creator of Sipur Varod - Pink Story, an autobiographical story of the historical struggles of gays and lesbians in Israel. Zeffren also publishes a weekly comic strip that features her girlfriend and two talking cats in an Israeli magazine “Rishoomon”. They’re in Hebrew, but you can view the comics in her flickr photostream.

Michael Kaminer
Michael Kaminer, co-curator of Graphic Details - who is not a Jewish woman - is not one of the featured artists but he does talk about how this exhibit came to be in this interview with Jewish Women’s Archives. Check it out!

Watch for more information about our contributors to Graphic Details in the weeks to come and don’t forget to check out Michael Kaminer's Graphic Details blog!

Casandra Campbell

Graphic Details: The Artists, Part 1

In exactly one month, Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women will be opening at the Gladstone Hotel. This travelling exhibition has received some great press - the links are available in this post - so I’m getting excited for its arrival. In the meantime, I’ve been reading up on some of the women who are a part of it. I decided first to look at the contributors living in Canada. Here’s what I learned.

Bernice Eisenstein
Eisenstein was born in 1949 in Toronto. Both of her parents were Holocaust survivors who met in Auschwitz and later immigrated to Canada. Her graphic novel, I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors, explores her experience growing up knowing her parents’ past and how it influenced the relationship she had with them. While Eisenstein’s career has been in illustrating, she uses both drawing and writing in her graphic novel to share her intimate thoughts as she comes to terms with her parents’ experiences and the Holocaust. There is a lovely interview with Eisenstein about I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors on the Pan Macmillan website.

Sarah Lazarovic
Lazarovic was born in Montreal and currently lives in Toronto. Lazarovic describes herself as a cartoonist, illustrator, and filmmaker, and is currently working on her first graphic novel, a memoir about growing up in Florida. Lazarovic has made many animated films which have appeared on CBC television, and is the creator of The Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada. She also draws cartoons for the Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto Star, the National Post. Check out her most recent Post submission.

Miriam Libicki
Libicki was born in 1981 in Columbus, Ohio, and now lives in Vancouver. Miriam moved to Israel when she was 17 to serve in the army. Her comic book called jobnik! details her experiences in the Israeli army and is available on her website. When she’s not putting together the latest issue of jobnik!, Libicki works as an illustrator, and even teaches courses on comic books. Listen to Libicki talk about her work in this podcast from The Association of Jewish Libraries.

Watch for more information about our contributors to Graphic Details in the weeks to come and don’t forget to check out the Graphic Details blog!

Casandra Campbell