These recordings were created by youth audio storytellers of Yollocalli Arts Reach, the youth initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Yollocalli offers youth ages 13-24, free visual arts and digital media programs and events. Yollocalli's audio storytelling and radio program provides an outlet for bilingual and bicultural youth to share their own voice and represent their community through reporting and storytelling. With thanks to Vanessa A. Sanchez, Yollocalli Arts Reach Director. For more information, visit yollocalli.org.

What We Hold: National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago

These recordings were created by Teen Art Connect program at The Contemporary Jewish Museum. Teen Art Connect brings together high school students from diverse backgrounds to explore, connect, and imagine in a creative museum setting. Through reflections on music, food, journeys and more, these young voices share core stories that ground and unite them with past generations. With gratitude to PJ Gubatina Policarpio, Youth Programs Manager, and Elizabeth Mak, multimedia producer.

What We Hold: Teen Art Connect Interns, Contemporary Jewish Museum

These recordings were created by juniors at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, a pluralistic Jewish High School serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The students reflected on the characteristics of their Jewish identities that have been transmitted to them by family members then recorded these stories to capture those memories. With thanks to Dr. Jonathan Ayres, Barbar Roether, Michael Mirelman, Evan Wolkenstein, and Robin Gluck.

What We Hold: Jewish Community High School of the Bay

These recordings were created by teen writers in the School of Literary Arts at the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) during the fall semester 2017 course, "Oral Histories: On Mythologizing & Creating Dangerously." During the semester-long class, OSA students read, discussed, and wrote in response to narratives based in origin myths and oral histories, culminating in interviews with community members. Then, students responded to their interview(s) in a creative piece, mythologizing their own personal and familial histories. With gratitude to Melissa Sipin, OSA Faculty. For more on the School of Literary Arts at OSA, visit: www.oakarts.org/school-literary-arts.

What We Hold: Oakland School for the Arts

These recordings were created by freshman at Contra Costa Midrasha (CCM), a pluralistic Jewish supplemental educational, mentorship and leadership program serving Contra Costa County for teens in grades 8-12. The students reflected on significant elders and/or moments in their lives and the impact of those narratives on their personal identities. With thanks to Julie Rubenstein and Devra Aarons. For more information, visit ccmidrasha.com.

What We Hold: Contra Costa Midrasha

The Beats inspired not only the counterculture's message but its media too, from underground comix and counterculture newspapers to the 'zine revolution and blogs. This lively panel discussion moderated by David Pescovitz (Boing Boing) includes Ron Turner (Last Gasp), RU Sirius (Mondo 2000), V.Vale (ReSearch), and Layla Gibbon (Maximum RocknRoll).

Recorded at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Boing Boing Presents: The Beat Influence On Underground Publishing

Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander’s drawings are informed by the intricately detailed miniature painting of the Mughal and Persian traditions. Discussing her work included in the exhibition "Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art," As she reveals in her conversation with art historian John Zarobell, her work evokes language in order to complicate, not clarify, the narrative of identity and spirituality in our rapidly globalizing world.

More on the exhibition can be found at http://beyondbelief.thecjm.org

Shahzia Sikander in Conversation with John Zarobell

"Work in Progress: Considering Utopia" was an exhibition about the pursuit of ideal ways of life, and artist Elisheva Biernoff was asked to create work reflecting this theme. She discusses her research on the subject and how it led to "The Tools Are In Your Hands," a highly interactive piece that allowed visitors to create their own utopia with clever magnets in an idyllic landscape.

Artist Elisheva Biernoff on Creating Utopia

"Jewish Jersey Italian prom night, Cadillac."

Inspired by Ernest Hemingway's legendary shortest of short stories, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn," SMITH Magazine founder Larry Smith challenged readers to describe their lives in six words. In a special event at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, Director Lori Starr presents her Six-Word Memoir on Jewish Life.

For more Six-Word Memoirs—in words, images, and videos—visit www.sixwordmemoirs.com

Lori Starr: Six-Word Memoir on Jewish Life

Interview with Donald Albrecht, curator of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism.

On view at The Contemporary Jewish Museum through Oct 6, 2014. Learn more → thecjm.org/designinghome

Image: Pond Farm entrance sign and barn/studio. Photo by Anthony Veerkamp. Courtesy National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Pond Farm: A Bit of the Bauhaus in California

Interview with Donald Albrecht, Curator of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism.

On view at The Contemporary Jewish Museum through Oct 6, 2014. Learn more → thecjm.org/designinghome

Image: George Nelson & Associates, Irving Harper, Vitra
Marshmallow Sofa, 1956. Metal, upholstery, and paint. 
31 ¼ in. x 52 ½ in. x 31 ¼ in.

What's Jewish About Midcentury Modernism?

Listen to audio stories from artist Jay Blakesberg behind the photographs on view in "RetroBlakesberg: The Music Never Stopped" at The CJM.

Magazine Covers and Alt Rock

BAM Magazine

Sammy Hagar

Allen Ginsberg

Radiohead

Tom Waits

Yom Kippur and Passover in Jail

Kira and Maggie: Reflections on the Historic Facade

Quinn and Zephyr: Reflections on the PaRDeS wall

Isaac and Esther: Reflections on the Grand Lobby

Joshua and Analuisa: Reflections on the Yud Gallery

A powerful recording of Jessica Prentice—food activist and social entrepreneur—reading her recipe for "Grief Soup." Inspired by Fluxus scores, Prentice reinterprets the recipe format to capture the depth of food—the ingredients themselves and the invisible forces within.

Prentice collaborated with artist Helena Keeffe on "A Menu for Recognizing Invisible Forces," an exhibition in our ongoing series, "In That Case: Harvuta in Contemporary Art." On view through Apr 14. Learn more → thecjm.org/Keeffe ‪#‎havruta‬

Recorded on January 22, 2015. Image: Helena Keeffe, "A Menu for Recognizing Invisible Forces" stills from time-lapse documentation of gathering, 2015.  

A Menu for Recognizing Invisible Forces: Grief Soup Recipe

Danny Scher discusses the rise of stadium rock and the creation of the Shoreline Ampitheatre.
 
Danny Scher worked at Bill Graham Presents from 1975-1999. He booked shows with Bill throughout Northern California and beyond, including Winterland, Days on the Green, motor events, broadway shows, closed circuit boxing, and others. He developed amphitheatres, including Shoreline, Cal Expo in Sacramento, and sites that became amphitheatres in Seattle and Yuba County. It was Danny who envisioned a world-class amphitheatre in Mountain View on what was an active garbage dump. He also introduced major corporations to being sponsors at BGP events. He is one of the founders of the Bill Graham Foundation and is its Treasurer, and produces non-profit fundraising events at his backyard amphitheatre, Coventry Grove.


Danny Scher on Bill Graham, and the Shoreline Ampitheatre

Author and journalist Ingrid Carlberg discusses her award-winning biography about Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman whose heroism in Budapest during the Holocaust saved countless Jewish lives. Presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Sweden.

Ingrid Carlberg is a Swedish author and journalist who worked at Sweden’s most renowned daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1990 to 2010, specializing in investigative and narrative journalism. Her biography of Raoul Wallenberg was first published under the title There Is a Room Here Waiting for You... (Norstedts, 2012) and was awarded the August Prize for the best Swedish work of non-fiction in 2012 as well as the Swedish Academy's Axel Hirsch Prize in 2013 for "a biography of considerable artistic and cultural history merit." Former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi A. Annan wrote a special introduction for the Quercus edition, the first to be published in English. In January 2008, her book Pillret (The Pill, Norstedts, 2008) was awarded the Guldspaden, a prize for the best work of investigative journalism.


Raoul Wallenberg: A Heroic Life

Five-minute audio clip featuring comedians from "Disabled Comedy Only," produced by Nina G., and recorded live at the Impact Hub in Oakland on Oct 30, 2014.  

These audio clips are in conjunction with the "Humor and the Disability Experience: A Stand-Up Comedy Show" on Apr 23, 2017 at The CJM. 
Learn more: https://thecjm.org/programs/117

Dedication: This program at The Contemporary Jewish Museum is dedicated in memory and honor of the legacy of the founder of The Comedians with Disabilities Act, Michael O'Connell.

For a full transcript of the audio clip: https://www.thecjm.org/learn_resources/281

Nina G., the program’s emcee and organizer, is a well-known stuttering stand-up comedian, disability activist, storyteller, children's book author and educator who uses comedy to help people confront and understand social justice issues such as disability, diversity, and equity.

"Disabled Comedy Only" is the first-ever comedy compilation album featuring, as the title suggests, a lineup of all comedians with disabilities. The album is available on most music sites for streaming or purchase. Download Michael O'Connell's set for free at www.cdbaby.com/cd/comedianswithdisabilitie.

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