Cooper and Lerner cap another great "Paper Bridge"
In a little of a week I will have finished the last course for a new college degree and may have time to think again. Despite the handicap of classes, Judy and I dashed out to Amherst last Thursday to catch Marilyn Lerner and Adrienne Cooper perform "Every Mother's Son", a wonderful multi-media piece featuring songs in Yiddish, Spanish, Hebrew, English, etc., about the human impact of war. The multi-media side is still not quite there, but the music was excellent—much improved over the first presentation I saw at Ashkenaz a while back. This is a show worth booking, especially in these times. I could listen to Lerner or Cooper any day of the week. Hearing them both working with each other is very special. And, as long as I am talking about rising young stars of Jewish music, I also want to call out the excellent guitar of Avi Fox-Rosen, and reeds of Mike Cohen.
We were out of town and missed most of the festival, but congrats to Nora Gerard for arranging another wonderful festival. Congrats also to the National Yiddish Book Center—this festival innaugurated their new hall which Hankus confirms is excellent for dancing, and whose classrooms are a delight to teach in. This is how Yiddish culture, however diluted by the Holocaust and assimilation, grows and thrives.