Disloyal

Queer Images As Survival Tools: Ariel Goldberg

“The thing that I am fighting against is the same thing that I think that the impulse to found the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1974 was. We are in a life struggle project, which is to stop erasure and build stronger coalitions with people that are battling a lot of repression. And I think that liberatory projects absolutely depend on intergenerational knowledge sharing.” -Ariel Goldberg Last year, the Jewish Museum of Maryland presented an exhibition titled Material/Inheritance: Contemporary Work by New Jewish Culture Fellows [https://www.materialinheritance.com/]. Curated by Leora Fridman and presented in partnership with the New Jewish Culture Fellowship [https://www.newjewishculture.org/], this groundbreaking show featured 30 Jewish artists dealing with themes like chosen and biological family, queer and trans identities, embodiment and sexuality, diasporic homes, ritual reinventions, activist movements, political histories, and so much more. One of the artists featured in Material/Inheritance, Ariel Goldberg, contributed to the exhibition by creating an episode of the Disloyal podcast with co-hosts Mark Gunnery and Naomi Rose Weintraub.  Ariel Goldberg [https://www.arielgoldberg.com/] is a writer, curator, and photographer based in New York City who curated a show titled Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s [https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/images.html#:~:text=Chicago%20Cultural%20Center%2C%20Michigan%20Avenue%20Galleries%2C%201st%20Floor%20East&text=Images%20on%20which%20to%20build%2C%201970s%2D1990s%20presents%20a%20range,trans%2C%20and%20queer%20grassroots%20organizing]. That exhibition, which is on view at the Chicago Cultural Center through August 4, 2024, explores photographic documentation of activism, education, and media production within lesbian, trans, queer, and feminist grassroots organizing from the 1970s through the 1990s. It was commissioned by the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, and was on view at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City last year.  On this episode of Disloyal, Goldberg talks about their research into the Lesbian Herstory Archives [https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/] (LHA) traveling slideshows, reading texts related to that project, and playing audio from interviews they did with the LHA’s Joan Nestle and Alexis Danzig. They also spoke to Disloyal hosts Mark Gunnery and Naomi Rose Weintraub about queer imaging practices, the importance of intergenerational knowledge sharing in queer communities, and ways that images and education fit into social movements. Read Ariel Goldberg's curatorial statement here [https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/dca/exhibitions/images/curatorialessay.pdf]. This episode features “Angry Atthis [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qNVYX8BntQ&ab_channel=e.kasey]” by Maxine Feldman and “Prove it on Me, [https://bellsroar.bandcamp.com/album/bells-roar-ep]” a cover of a Ma Rainey song, by Bell’s Roar aka Sean Desiree [https://www.seandesiree.com/]. Thank you to Helen Thornton and Sean Desiree for permission to include these songs. You can see Ariel Goldberg on Tuesday, May 14, on Zoom or at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn, New York, where they will be hosting an event called Abundant, Rich Lives: Returning to the Lesbian Herstory Archives Slideshow [https://www.newjewishculture.org/events]. Ariel will be in conversation with longtime activists Alexis Danzig and Deborah Edel about the Lesbian Herstory Archives slideshow, and they will screen clips of a recently digitized version of it. The panel will also reflect on media production within lesbian, queer, and trans grassroots organizing of the recent past and its relevance for today’s social movement struggles. Click here for more information [https://www.newjewishculture.org/events].

Courageous Encounters: Disloyal Live On Material/Inheritance

Disloyal is back with a live episode! Mark Gunnery (he/him) and Naomi Rose Weintraub (they/them) hosted a live taping of Disloyal at the Jewish Museum of Maryland on June 1, 2023, to discuss the JMM's latest exhibit, Material/Inheritance: Contemporary Work by New Jewish Culture Fellows [https://www.materialinheritance.com/], with:  * Leora Fridman [http://www.leorafridman.com/] (she/her), writer, educator, New Jewish Culture Fellow, JMM Curator-in-Residence, and curator of the exhibit; * Adam Golfer [https://adgolf.xhbtr.com/] (he/him) filmmaker, artist, and New Jewish Culture Fellow whose work was featured in the exhibit; *  Rabbi and poet Mónica Gomery [https://www.monicagomerywriting.com/] (she/her), who sat on the curatorial panel for the exhibit.  They spoke in front of a live audience at the JMM about the exhibit, the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, the challenges and joys of presenting contemporary art in Jewish spaces, and much more.  Material/Inheritance: Contemporary Work by New Jewish Culture Fellows [https://www.materialinheritance.com/] is an exhibit of boundary-pushing, community-building contemporary Jewish art, and features 30 artists whose work has been supported by the New Jewish Culture Fellowship [https://www.newjewishculture.org/], a national arts fellowship that advances the work of groundbreaking Jewish artists. To learn more about the exhibit, visit materialinheritance.com [http://materialinheritance.com].

Material/Inheritance: JMM Curator-in-Residence Leora Fridman

Disloyal is back! In this episode, co-hosts Mark Gunnery and Naomi Weintraub speak with Leora Fridman about the Jewish Museum of Maryland's newest exhibit, Material/Inheritance: Contemporary Work by New Jewish Culture Fellows [https://www.materialinheritance.com/]. An exhibition of boundary-pushing, community-building contemporary Jewish art, Material/Inheritance features 30 artists whose work has been supported by the New Jewish Culture Fellowship [https://www.newjewishculture.org/], a national arts fellowship that advances the work of groundbreaking Jewish artists. The exhibit runs from March 26 through June 11, 2023. Leora Fridman is a writer, educator, New Jewish Culture Fellow, and the JMM’s Curator-in-Residence. She curated Material/Inheritance.

Rebekah Erev On Love, Magic, Tu B'Av, And The Evil Eye

Welcome back to Disloyal! We’ve been on a production break over the summer, and will be back in your feeds soon with a brand new series about the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s current exhibit Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare.  But this week we have a special episode hosted by Naomi Weintraub (they/them), production assistant for Disloyal and Community Artist-in-Residence at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Naomi speaks with Rebekah Erev about reclaiming Jewish magic, holidays, time, and rituals, and what the summer full moon festival of Tu B’Av can teach us about love in all its manifestations. Rebekah Erev [https://rebekaherevstudio.com/] (they/them) is an artist, a teacher, and a kohenet, Hebrew priestexx. Rebekah is co-creator of the Queer Mikveh Project, a collaborator on the Olam HaBa: Dreaming The World To Come planner project, and creator of the Moon Angels/Malakh Halevanah Oracle Deck and the in progress Golden Oracle.

Family Heirlooms: Annabel Rabiyah And Arielle Tonkin

"If you are able to cook the food you grew up with, you can recreate home wherever you go. " -Annabel Rabiyah In the final installment of our series on A Fence Around The Torah we're joined by two artists who were part of a four-person group multimedia installation for the exhibit titled “I mean…how do you define safety?” Annabel Rabiyah and Arielle Tonkin discuss Jewish Iraqi food, recipes as family heirlooms, assimilation, the roles of food and ritual objects in pushing back against cultural erasure for Mizrahi Jews and more. Here’s what the artists behind "I mean...how do you define safety" said about the installation in their artist statement.   “I mean…how do you define safety?” is a multimedia exhibit of oral history, visual art, and nourishment. It explores what “safety” means for Jews from Arab lands, who after hundreds to thousands of years of relative safety in the region, were torn from their homes, customs, languages, and ancestral roots upon the establishment of the state of Israel. This piece explores the questions, longing, and desires of the women who are descendants of those who left. Although much was lost, stolen, and erased – remnants of our food, language, and other anchors connect us to our ancestors.”   Annabel Rabiyah (she/they) is an urban farmer, chef, and cofounder of Awafi Kitchen, an Iraqi Jewish cultural food initiative based in Boston. Through sharing recipes and making meals, Awafi pays tribute to a lesser-known culinary heritage. In addition to their social media presence, Awafi Kitchen hosts pop-up restaurant events, virtual cooking demos and presentations on Iraqi-Jewish history. Awafi Kitchen is a platform centered on building community between members of the Iraqi diaspora, Jews with lesser-known histories, and anyone interested in the history and stories behind food. Arielle Tonkin (they/she) is a queer mixed ashkesephardimizrahi artist living on Ohlone land in the so-called San Francisco Bay Area. Arielle works to dismantle white supremacy through art practice, arts and culture organizing, and Jewish and interfaith education work. The Muslim-Jewish Arts Fellowship, Arts Jam for Social Change, Tzedek Lab, SVARA, and Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute are among their networks of accountability, collective power, creative collaboration and care.