Episoder
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In Part 2, I continue my rich conversation with Jess on how identities are crafted in relationship to our histories. We share laughter over Yiddish comedic traditions where grief meets hilarity and absurdity. Jess makes insightful connections between death and body humour as possible pathways of Jewish diasporic resistance. They share an excerpt they wrote as a Writer in Residence that was inspired by the passing of their grandparents, or their Bubbe and Zayde. In confronting their own internalized Zionism, they reckon with the devastating material reality and urgency of Israel’s national project of land theft in Palestine.
Jess Goldman is an anti-Zionist Jewish writer, comics artist, and amateur puppeteer based on the traditional, unceded lands of the Sḵwxwú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm peoples. Their writing has been published in Maisonneuve, the CBC, and Room Magazine. A graduate of University of British Columbia’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, their writing explores that sweet spot where Yiddishkayt and queer culture joyfully collide.
Follow Jess @yentlthewriter
Jess’ Rec’s:
Dazzle Camouflage: Spectacular Theatrical Strategies for Resistance and Resilience by by Ezra Berkley Nepon
Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Pale of Settlement by Nathaniel Deutsch
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In Part 1 of the episode, I kibitz (chitchat) with Jess about what it means to be a queer diasporic Jew at this moment and in relation to Ashkenazi history and culture. They touch on the possibilities and limitations of what lies in the past, such as the influence of historical anti- and non-Zionist resistances on liberatory movements today. From this context, Jess troubles Jewish authenticity, or the idea of a single, valid Judaism and how modern Zionism has erased the diverseness and multiplicity of Jewish identities across the diaspora. They discuss the importance for them in embracing a longing for Yiddishkayt (Jewishness), or shtetl (town or village) culture in the Pale of Settlement, including Yiddish language, writing and arts as a path towards cultural rootedness. Together we explore the potentialities of “enoughness” as settler Jews in exile on stolen lands.
Jess Goldman is an anti-Zionist Jewish writer, comics artist, and amateur puppeteer based on the traditional, unceded lands of the Sḵwxwú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm peoples. Their writing has been published in Maisonneuve, the CBC, and Room Magazine. A graduate of University of British Columbia’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, their writing explores that sweet spot where Yiddishkayt and queer culture joyfully collide.
Follow Jess @yentlthewriter
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Mangler du episoder?
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For Little Death's first guest interview, I sit down with my friend and fellow disruptor Ry Sword Avola to talk about the ways they are grappling with death and grief in this moment - from the context of their own familial history, as well as their queer and trans chosen community. They share about the evolution of their spirituality and the curious connections that are made possible across time and space with their loved ones as they transition. We discuss the grief that comes in witnessing gruesome and violent images on social media and how digital spaces can create opportunities for both activation and social harm.
Ry Sword Avola (they/he) is an artist, facilitator, and organizer that helps develop and deliver social justice, emotional literacy, and healthy relationship education. Living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations, Ry is a descendant of Scottish, English and Sicilian settlers. They currently work as a supervisor of a YWCA program called, Dating Safe, that provides healthy relationship and violence prevention classes to secondary school students. Ry also co-facilitates with an initiative called, Real Talk, that holds conversational spaces about dating and relationships for adults with cognitive disabilities. They have a BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies and an MA in Globalization and the Human Condition.
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In Part 2 of the first Little Death interview with yours truly, I share about my experiences growing up with death, as well as the cultural practices and Jewish grieving rituals that surrounded me. I speak about conflating Jewish culture and faith with the racist ideology of Zionism, and the fear-mongering and gaslighting experienced by Palestinian peoples through a normalization of violence in Israeli society. I discuss the interconnectedness between ongoing struggles for Indigenous peoples on these lands and in Palestine. Ending with how liberation in the present can be found in small moments of joy and what dreams I hold for the future to come.
Follow Em @shamelessembodiment
Follow Dvorah @dvorahsilverman
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In the first Little Death interview, my dear friend, Emily Goldsmith, takes over as host. Em is a queer artist, actor, educator, fellow witch, yogi, writer, and comedian. Em asks me the same questions that I will ask others throughout this season: Who are your people? What role does grief and loss play in your life, work, activism and artistic endeavours? And how does this inform the ways you dream up liberatory worlds?
Em and I reminisce on how we first met and why we resonate with the term, “queer platonic partner,” in the radical ways we show up for each other that go beyond conventional friendship. We touch on queer occult practices and I share about my ancestors, transestors, chosen family, and queer community that ground me in an otherwise shaky world.
Follow Em @shamelessembodiment
Follow Dvorah @dvorahsilverman
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In this introductory episode, I want to bring each of you along in the odyssey of how this podcast came to be and the many metamorphoses that had to happen within me, through me and around me to be able to get to this particular moment. In this process, I will share a bit of who I am as a queer anti-Zionist Jewish settler and as a passionate researcher, organizer, and truth teller. As well as the lineages of thought that inform this podcast, from my philosophies, to my eco-based spiritualities and decolonial politics. I will do this in Chapters that tell the story of how Little Death came to be.
