Jake Marmer
By Jake Marmer
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The Schmooze National Poetry Month: Kabbalah and the Eagles
Poets eat defiance for breakfast — rule-breaking, language-bending, Houdini-like wriggling out of cliché’s confines comes with the territory. In the works of poet-performer-professor Adeena Karasick such poetic freedom-seeking is manifest by dancing between complex academic concepts, pop culture, and shtick. She oscillates from poetics to social commentary in a manner that is darkly funny, parodic,…
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The Schmooze National Poetry Month: ‘Jew on Bridge’ by C.K. Williams
This year, the Forward is celebrating National Poetry Month in style. The Arty Semite will be featuring new poetry every weekday, and it is our great pleasure to kick off the series with “Jew on Bridge” by C.K. Williams, an American poet who has been awarded nearly every major poetry prize, including a Pulitzer in…
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News April Is the Poetry Month
Happy April, the Poetry Month! To the list of festive occasions, picked up in this American goles, or exile ? Thanksgiving, Mardi Gras, the Hotdog Eating Contest day at Nathan?s in Coney Island ? a new one can now be added: April, the Poetry Month. Now in its 15th year, the newly minted holiday was…
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The Schmooze Poetics of Fasting
Each Thursday The Arty Semite features excerpts and reviews of the best contemporary Jewish poetry. This week Jake Marmer introduces “Aggadic Guidelines to Ta’anit Esther.” It is perhaps not surprising that most Jewish holiday poetry out there is either about the High Holidays or Passover. The extensive liturgy and introspection in the case of the…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: John Zorn Goes Beyond Collage With ‘Interzone’
In 2006, when the MacArthur Foundation bestowed its “Genius” award on John Zorn, the panel of judges only underscored what many fans already knew. Zorn’s extensive output as a composer of avant-garde music, a first-rate saxophone player, and a leader of a group of downtown New York musicians, has been vastly important and influential. His…
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The Schmooze Metaphysics of Landscape: Four Poems by Jennifer Barber
Each Thursday, The Arty Semite features excerpts and reviews of the best contemporary Jewish poetry. This week, Jake Marmer introduces four poems by Jennifer Barber. “All forms of landscape are autobiographical,” wrote poet Charles Wright, and indeed, some poets, while describing natural or urban landscapes, tend to use words that echo with metaphysical sensations evoked…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Shakin’ That Melancholy With the Afro-Semitic Experience
Jewish and African-American cultures have met on musical ground on many occasions — just think of Cab Calloway’s forays into Yiddish, Nina Simone’s covers of Hebrew folksongs, or most recently, the collaboration of Fred Wesley, David Krakauer and Socalled as Abraham Inc. David Chevan’s Afro-Semitic Experience, however, is different. The project unapologetically focuses on religious…
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The Schmooze Poetry in the Mikveh: Three Works by Aaron Roller
Each Thursday, The Arty Semite features excerpts and reviews of the best contemporary Jewish poetry. This week, Jake Marmer introduces three poems by Aaron Roller. Notorious for having their heads in the clouds and their hearts set on unearthly matters, poets have, nevertheless, often designated physical spaces as makeshift shrines for their inspirations. Just think…
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