Events
I have planned and participated in dozens of cultural events in five countries including readings, panel discussions, workshops, symposia, book and magazine launches, conferences, exhibitions, theatrical performances, and a weekend retreat.
My roles have included curation, coordinating with participants and venues, promotion and communications, presenting and moderating, and many other related tasks. I have publicly read poetry and prose on many occasions, and have also worked as a voice actor in English and Yiddish.
Since 2020, I have also been involved in organizing virtual and hybrid events, both live and prerecorded, via Zoom, YouTube, and Crowdcast.
Event Types
Talks, Workshops, Courses
Queer Yiddish (2022–ongoing, available in English and Yiddish)
A multimedia presentation about the intersection of queerness and Yiddish from 1877 to the present.
Presenter
XXVI Symposium of Yiddish Studies in Germany: The Search for a Missing Manuscript by Isaac Bashevis Singer
A joint presentation with Ane Kleine-Engel (in Yiddish) about an archival research project
Researcher, presenter
Scolnic Institute: Flying with the Golden Peacock – Yiddish Literature & Migration (2023)
A six-session course (via Zoom) examining fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by Yiddish-speaking immigrants to New York, Melbourne, London, Berlin, and Montreal
Instructor
Arbeit und Leben: Yiddish in Berlin, Past & Present (2023, conducted in German)
A 1.5-hour presentation for a continuing education course
Presenter
VdÜ (German Association of Literary Translators): “Translating Diaspora: Jewish Culture in Textual Practice” (2022, conducted in German)
A three-hour lecture and workshop on Jewish culture, tradition, and translation as part of the association’s annual conference. The workshop centered on a translation exercise using Russian, Italian, French, and English source texts.
Presenter and workshop leader
CIEE Berlin: Guest Lecture on Yiddish History and Germany (each semester since 2022)
A guest lecture for undergraduate students about Yiddish language and literature and the history of Yiddish speakers in Germany, featuring the work of the poet Moyshe Kulbak
Yiddish Sof-Vokh UK: “On the Other Side of the Poem: A Yiddish Writing Workshop” (2022, conducted in Yiddish)
A generative poetry writing workshop as part of the weekend retreat
Workshop leader
Westopia Festival: “Sprachraum versus Doikayt: Berlin and the Case for Multilingual (Post)national Literature” (2021)
Burg Hülshof – Center for Literature, Germany
Keynote speaker
A-Festival (AJAR Press): “Translating the Untranslatable” Workshop (2017)
A collaborative, multilingual poetry translation workshop, Hanoi, Vietnam
Co-organizer and co-facilitator with Greg Nissan
Symposia & Discussions
Literarisches Colloquium Berlin: Berlinglish – Symposium of English-Language Writers in Berlin (2022)
A symposium and reading as part of the Parataxe series, featuring fifteen transnational authors
Guest curator, moderator of one of the panels
American Literary Translators Association (ALTA): Translation Slam (2021)
A virtual translation event launching ALTA’s annual conference and featuring the work of Kurdish poet Bîşeng Ergin alias Keça Filankes
Co-curator along with the ALTA administrative team
“Poetic Vision”: Poems Meet Visual Art, the Sciences, and Film (2021)
Online literary event series including a webinar, a workshop, and a reading
Organizer and moderator
Society of Authors Translators Association Symposium (2019)
Panel on literary magazines during annual literary translators’ conference, London
Panelist and presenter
Polylingual Symposium: “False Friends: Literary Broadening of Horizons” (2018)
Panel with Uljana Wolf, Eugene Ostashevsky, et al., at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin
Panel chair
Internationaler Literaturpreis Award Ceremony: Eliot Weinberger (2018)
Public conversation with the shortlisted essayist Weinberger, his German translator, and Anglophone Berlin writers, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Organizer and moderator
Readings
Yiddish Guerilla Histories (2023)
A group reading of bottom-up histories from 1914 to 2023 including poetry, prose, live music, and book talks by two visiting scholars.
Curator, host, translator
Yiddish.Berlin Reads Avrom Nokhem Stencl (2023)
A reading of and about the Berlin (and London) Yiddish poet, launch of a zine with translations of the poet’s work into English, German, and Hebrew
Reader, translator, co-editor of zine
Venice Biennale Yiddishland Pavilion: “Performing Blackouts”(2022)
A reading of censored theatrical texts
Reader of a Yiddish translation of an except by Amos Kenan
We Refugees Archive: “Experiences of Refugeedom Past and Present” (2022)
A multilingual reading within an event on artistic and literary treatments of escape, arrival, and exile
Reader of a Yiddish text by poet Zusman Segalovitsh
Yiddish.Berlin: “The Newest Yiddish Poetry” (2022, conducted in Yiddish)
A reading of three contemporary Berlin-based Yiddish poets
Reader/poet, co-organizer
Yiddish.Berlin: “Plague | War | Mother Tongue” (2022, conducted in Yiddish, English, and Ukrainian)
A two-week art exhibition and event series on Yiddish themes
Organizer & moderator of “The Yiddish Encyclopedia” book presentation, performer at “Yiddish-Ukrainian Literary Connections”
Book Launch for WTF Berlin by Jacinta Nandi (2022)
A collection of the author’s comedic and provocative essays on German culture
Moderator
American Academy in Berlin: Reading in Honor of Ladee Hubbard (2021)
A hybrid event
Moderator
internationales literaturfestival berlin: Ocean Vuong and Kaveh Akbar (2019)
“Young American Poetry” reading as part of festival
Host
Society of Authors Translators Association Symposium 2019
Panel on literary magazines during annual literary translators’ conference, London
Panelist and presenter
SAND Issue Launches (2017–21)
SAND’s twice-annual issue launch readings in Berlin and online
Co-organizer, moderator
Untranslatable?! (2015)
Reading of new “impossible” translations featuring 9 translators and live music, Berlin
Organizer, moderator
Artistic Performances
Bound with the Living (2023)
An immersive and performative exhibition by Hagar Ophir. I translated the script into Yiddish and recorded a reading of it
Translator, voice actor
My Dear Astronaut (2022)
An interactive performance piece in the drag persona of Bobbe Kosmos including an original Yiddish poem, a ceremony using homemade candles, and a folk song. (Available by appointment.)
Artist, poet, performer
Six Feet Under Poetry (2019)
Immersive, site-specific theater/poetry performance at a cemetery in Berlin, curated by Jos Porath and Corinna Duemler
Producer