ADAR ADORNMENT: A Transformative Purim Costume-Making Party

The month of Adar mandates us to sweeten the dreary depths of winter by dressing up for Purim!

Please join Jews for Racial & Economic Justice for group costume making and masquerade crafting at Adar Adornment: A Transformative Purim Costume-Making Party! There will be free materials and crafting help! Costume Couture Consultations and Disorientation with Jenny Romaine and other stars, dancing, snacks, cocktails, hilarity, and community!

When: March 4th, 4:00 PM - 11:00 PM Where: Building Stories (25 12th St, Brooklyn) and ONLINE! How to get there: Take the F/G to Smith & 9th St. (or zoom in!)

We will provide you with a bonanza of materials to  implement your costume vision, or you can bring  your own! Shake your booty to our groovy tunes while you work. We'll  prep our costumes, and shine out in our Purim excess to  exalt each other with style -- and to offer the world a  raucous invitation to laugh at power! Kids and families are welcome! Alcohol will come  out right after we mark Havdalah at 6:31 PM on  the dot. Partake in our specially crafted Purim cocktail,  or BYOB. Snacks will be provided (in a suave outdoor spot)  and feel free to bring your own! Please note: Covid is not over, despite what certain politicians  have tried to tell us. Here are the specific precautions  we are taking around Covid for the party: Everyone attending the physical gathering must be up-to-date on Covid vaccination and boosters AND take a rapid test the day of the event. Guests will remain masked at all times (drinks with straws under masks), and snacks can be eaten outside. Two Corsi-Rosenthal box air filters will be running at all times. We are limiting the number of people physically gathering on-site to 30 at a time, and we will be staggering entry times throughout the seven-hour event. There will be an online option to zoom into the party and join the festivities from wherever you are! The main goal of this Purim Costume-Making Party is to  HAVE FUN; to get flirty, show off your Purim lewk,  hang with your friends, and dance! Our creative power  and joy are at the center of our organizing for justice  and liberation.    Let’s shake it up! Jenny Romaine (she/her) JFREJ member, director, designer, and puppeteer

Little Amal Visits Chinatown

 Jenny Romaine was a lead artist on the design/collaborative team which created "Embrace the Tangle" to welcome Little Amal during her visit to New York City on September 28, 2022. Her partners included Producer Alex Aron of The Remote Theater Project, designers Ant Ma, I-chen Wang and Hester Yujie Zheng, with technical support from Janet Clancy.

From the announcement of this project:

Little Amal is a giant puppet representing a Syrian refugee girl

who is visiting NYC this month. The Amal team wanted to include

Jewish and Chinese presences in her travels. Our crew of local

artists looked to iconic Lower East Side laundry lines to remember

what we have inherited and to be faithful to it, while flagging a

commitment to being deeply entwined with each other. In our leg

of the walk, Amal will be guided on Orchard Street by an

actor/educator portraying a Greek Jewish immigrant child who

will lead Amal to the Romaniote Kehila Kedosha Janina (the

Holy Community of Janina) Synagogue. On Eldridge Street Amal

will encounter a beautiful web of laundry lines hand printed in

Yiddish, Chinese, and English. We’ll then create a giant ballet

on Eldridge street with Amal, with lines of laundry, a polyphony

of words, and live music.

This public act of commingling (us in n-95 masks) is a street art vow: 

      To stay bound together through the tangle!

      To find unexpected forms of consequential coordination! 

      To create mutual complex webs of kinship that honor our 

separate ways of being! 

https://www.brut.media/us/news/meet-little-amal-45758d97-8258-4d99-a729-9434110d97bd

Year-End Spaghetti Dinner -- in January

 

Tuesday, January 3, 2023, 7:30PM

Judson Memorial Church

Entrance at 243 Thompson Street, NYC

This year we present a benefit jamboree to support our collective, Great Small Works! Attend masked on-site at Judson Church, or from your home live-streamed.

No spaghetti will be served. A NOODLE GROTTO will honor the spaghetti we are not able to offer. And artistic drinks for sale (with straws).

FEATURING:

Original Great Small Works pageantry and a rousing game of puppeteer ancestor BINGO, with prizes!

**MUSIC by Frank London and friends**

Trumpets - Frank London and Stevie Bernstein

Percussion - Onel Matos

Saxophone - Jessica Lurie

Tuba - Ron Caswell

Drums - Aaron Alexander

And, to honor the ancestors --

   *Pura Belpré: Perez and Martina, by Teatro SEA

   *Bernice Silver: Schnitzelbank, created by Great Small Works and performed by Boxcutter Collective

   *Lenon Holder Hoyte: Excerpts from The Harlem Doll Palace by ALVA Puppet Theater

   *Naftule Brandwein: N*A*F*T*U*L*E, a cranky created by Tine Kindermann, Josh Kohn and Michael Winograd. Performed by Shane Baker, Ira Temple, Tine Kindermann and Michael Winograd.

Chinese Theater Works with New Year Celestial Rabbit Review

Suggested donation $20, sliding scale.

Buy tickets now to attend on site or online!

Invite a friend!
Make a donation!
Join us on January 3rd!
Help Great Small Works to continue creating puppets, flipping banners and turning cranks, beating drums and blowing horns, writing, teaching, performing, organizing, and dancing in the streets!

Info: 917-319-8104

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Great Small Works also thanks the Puppet Slam Network, NY State Council on the Arts, Scherman Foundation, Mental Insight Foundation, and the Doctorow Family Foundation.

SPAGHETTI RAMADAN

Great Small Works and Fihi Ma Fihi
present their 5th “Spaghetti Ramadan”

Friday, April 29, 2022, 7:30 PM
La Plaza Cultural Community Garden
9th Street between Aves B and C

Suggested donation: $20 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

**Support Spaghetti Ramadan 2022** www.greatsmallworks.org/donate

Mention whether you were referred by a promoter, artist, or a friend and specify if you are purchasing tickets or donating to sponsor the event!

Tickets also available at the door

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Iranian:
Mitra Khorsandi

West African:
Salieu Suso with Jalikunda Music Ensemble

Arabic:
Elsa Saade

The Americas:
Hip Hop, Headliner: Legendary Cyphers
Hip Hop/Fusion: Sounds of the Unseen (Fihi Ma Fihi)

Puppetry/Solidarity: Great Small Works

********************

Bringing our communities together to break bread for Ramadan in classic communal fashion --
Let’s join together outdoors in a beautiful community garden and enjoy artistic jewels from the Muslim world - Arabic, Iranian, West African, Hip Hop/Fusion -- together with Afro-Indigenous, Jewish and Christian spiritual/musical kinship.

This year's Spaghetti Ramadan is the 5th iteration of Great Small Works' and Fihi Ma Fihi's celebration of the Islamic holiday, and the first in real space since 2018. Iftar is the meal that Muslims eat after sunset during Ramadan to break the day's fast. It is one of the ceremonial observances of Ramadan and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together.

For more info: 917-319-8104

Thanks for support from:
The Puppet Slam Network, the Doctorow Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, NYSCA, and DCA's @materialsforthearts.

Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner at the International Puppet Fringe Festival

 

Friday, August 13, 2020

8:00 PM

LIVE and FREE for a limited audience!

Live-streamed online for everyone else!

Due to pandemic restrictions, there will NOT be spaghetti.

Live performance will be presented OUTDOORS.

Featuring:

CHINESE THEATRE WORKS

Excerpts from Three-Scale Zhongkui!

BOXCUTTER COLLECTIVE / BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER

Excerpts from The History of Laughter

BRUCE CANNON

Songs from Harlem River Drive

MUSIC BY PIEDMONT BLUZ

Valerie and Benedict Turner

For free tickets:          http://puppetfringenyc.com

For online viewing:     www.facebook.com/GreatSmallWorks

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/510960066822644

Hosted by your friends at Great Small Works:

John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine, Roberto Rossi, Mark Sussman

**************

Piedmont Bluz

Valerie and Benedict Turner

        Piedmont Bluz is an acoustic, husband/wife duo, ambassadors of Country Blues music and the Piedmont style of finger-picking. Their mission is to help preserve these rural, east coast traditions by educating audiences about this unique aspect of African American culture through musical entertainment.

Boxcutter Collective / Bread and Puppet Theater

        Excerpts from The History of Laughter, a collaboration between Peter Schumann of the Bread and Puppet Theater and Boxcutter Collective (including Lindsay McCaw), initially created during a 3-week residency in spring of 2021. The History of Laughter looks at the role of fear in our society, and how the transcendent power of fools can subvert the crumbling empire and empower the masses to create something new instead. With appearances by Mikhail Bakhtin, Gargantua, the Suffering Valley, Santa Claus, and Satan!

        Boxcutter Collective is comprised of four core members: Sam Wilson, Jason Hicks, Tom Cunningham and Joe Therrien, with an extended family of puppeteers, painters, performers, builders, educators, workers, union organizers, and mischief makers who have been working together in various forms for the last 15 years. You can find them creating and performing original High-Art, Low-Concept political puppet shows in New York City regularly, appearing at The Jalopy Theater and Coney Island USA and beyond! They are currently working on a commission from Handmade Puppet Dreams to create a short film.

Bruce Cannon

        Songs from Harlem River Drive, which celebrates the history and diversity of one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world. Harlem.

        Bruce Cannon is Artistic Director for the Swedish Cottage of Marionette Theater and the President of the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York.

Chinese Theatre Works

        Excerpts from 3-Scale Zhongkui!  -- The Chinese Judge of Hell brings Justice to the Lower East Side. 

        Yuling Fang as Chinese Opera Zhongkui

        Jing Shan as Hand Puppet Zhongkui

        Stephen Kaplin and Harrison Greene as Giant Puppet Zhongkui

        Chinese Theatre Works, co-directed by Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin, brings together Chinese and Western performance styles and techniques. Its programs cut across ethnic and cultural boundaries and aim at sparking interest in Chinese cultural traditions among the wider public, as well as in Chinese Americans who have not had access to this part of their heritage.

Roberto Rossi Offers Toy Theater Workshop(s)

Roberto will conduct sessions throughout the summer through the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.

Session 1: Monday, July 12 - Sunday, July 18, 2021 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

7:00 - 9:00 PM Central Time

Toy Theater 1 (Level 1) introduction to the form, the basic skills concluding with a showing.  Make your first toy theater stage using recyclable materials.  Learn conceptual and design approaches in building an original work. Build basic jointed 2D puppets and moveable set pieces and discover the unique theatrical language of the Toy Theater. 

Sign up here:

https://www.chicagopuppetfest.org/online-workshops/toy-theater-1-session-1-july12-18-with-roberto-rossi/

Session 2: Monday, July 26 - Sunday, August 1, 2021

Toy Theater 2 (Level 2)

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

7:00 - 9:00 PM Central Time

Sign up here:

https://www.chicagopuppetfest.org/online-workshops/toy-theater-ii-session-2-july-26-august-1-with-roberto-rossi/

Session 3: Monday, August 9 - Sunday, August 15, 2021

Toy Theater 2 (Level 2)

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

7:00 - 9:00 PM Central Time

Sign up here:

https://www.chicagopuppetfest.org/online-workshops/toy-theater-ii-session-3-august-9-15-with-roberto-rossi/

We Remember: A Community Covid Memorial

 lease join us on June 8th, 2021 at 6pm for “We Remember: A Community Covid Memorial” Dedication and Activation at Green-Wood Cemetery (5th Ave & 25th Street Entrance, Brooklyn, NY). Twenty NYC community groups are coming together to create a memorial honoring those lost to Covid-19. Join us on June 8 as we honor our dead through music and dance, create a shared space for reflection, and complete the memorial, which will remain up for the month of June.

 

Featuring performance and offerings by:

La Troupe Makandal,
Aeilushi Mistry
Winston "Jeggae" Hoppie,
Mazarte & the Villalobos Brothers, 
Judith Berkson, 
Monica Hope & Kelvyn Bell,
and Brooklyn Roots Lullaby Project.

 

FB event for dedication
https://fb.me/e/EM9YVvZY

With Gratitude,

 

Jenny from Great Small Works / Naming The Lost Memorials
 

Naming the Lost Memorials  is a small team of volunteer artists, activists, and folklorists who have lost loved ones, neighbors, and co-workers to Covid-19. In response to the ever-accumulating numbers of deceased, we have been creating memorial sites in New York City to name and remember victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our work began in May 2020. Now we’ve passed the first anniversary since the first Covid deaths occurred in the United States and the pandemic continues to take lives daily. We know that grieving and mourning are far from finished, even as vaccination brings hope. Our intention is to continue the necessary process of mournfully and respectfully naming those lost to COVID. The virus continues to claim lives and we are continuing the work of creating memorial sites to name and honor the lost.  
Visit our website for helpful instructions and other examples of memorials that we and others have made:

 

https://namingthelost.com/memorials/

List of Community Partners Contributing to the Memorial--  
Hebrew Tabernacle 
Fort Tryon Jewish Center
Flushing Town Hall
Inside Change Arts: Bowery Resident Street Artists & The 5th Grade Formulators of the Bedford Village School 
Building Stories
Bronx Documentary Center
Mazarte Dance Company Inc.
Brooklyn Roots
Guyana Cultural Association of New York
Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts (BIPA)
Makandal: Bridging the Past and the Future of Traditional Haitian Arts  Teachers and Writers Collaborative
Mixteca
Academy of Medical and Public Health Services
The Center For Family Life
JouvayFest
Collective Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders
Worker Justice Project
Caring Majority      
 

Co-Produced/ Funded by Green-wood Foundation, Great Small Works, City Lore, Circus Amok, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Program, CATCH (Center for Art, Tradition, and Cultural Heritage)