With Bo'u Nashir, Minnesota JCC says 'Come, let's sing!'
Bo'u Nashir means "Come, Let's Sing!" in Hebrew.
Courtesy Riv Shapiro
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All summer, we've been highlighting festivals around Minnesota. If you're a fan of music festivals, you might be focused on seeing a few of your favorite acts all in one place. But what if the point wasn't just to take in a performance, but to sing along?
Bo'u Nashir means “Come, Let's Sing!” in Hebrew. And it's the name of a new event series organized by the Minnesota Jewish Community Center.
Riv Shapiro is the JCC's Arts and Cultural Producer. They're organizing the festival in the Twin Cities. They talked with MPR News guest host Emily Bright about it.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
INTERVIEWER: All summer we've been highlighting festivals around Minnesota. If you're a fan of music festivals, you might be focused on seeing a few of your favorite acts all in one place. But what if the point wasn't just to take in a performance, but to sing along? Bo'u Nashir means come, let's sing in Hebrew, and it's the name of a new event series organized by the Minnesota Jewish Community Center.
Riv Shapiro is the JCC's Arts and Cultural producer. They're organizing the festival in the Twin Cities and they're on the line to talk about it. Hi, Riv.
RIV SHAPIRO: Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, thanks for being here. I understand this is the first year of this festival. What inspired you to make it happen?
RIV SHAPIRO: Oh, well, we've been thinking about a music festival for a while now. We have our Film Festival and our Humor Fest. When I came on to the job, I'm a musician, I'm really into music, and so are other members of my team. So this is something that we've wanted to make happen for a while now and we're really excited to have the resources to do it this year.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, well, in the lead up to the festival, artist Sarah Larson, I know her, she's been on Art Hounds, she's great. She's been teaching a series on Yiddish folk song. We've got a clip from that class.
[SINGING IN YIDDISH]
What did you learn from this series?
RIV SHAPIRO: Well, it was really affirming as our pre-festival series to see that singing together in Jewish cultural music traditions is something that our community is hungry for across generations. So I think my biggest takeaway was not the words and the song traditions, although I love learning new Yiddish words through music and I've definitely had these songs in my head.
It's been seeing that there are members of our community who grew up with Yiddish speaking parents, who used it to talk in code and they want to learn Yiddish, or there are native Yiddish speakers who are having a hard time finding anywhere to hear their native language. And there are also people like me who have been disconnected from that language for generations and are really hungry to reconnect with that. So the power of us all being together in this intergenerational community and the way that song can be a vehicle for us to connect to our heritage in a meaningful way has been so powerful and I'm really excited to see that continue through the festival.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, so partly it's the pleasure of hearing this language and using it, and partly it's the joy of singing together, right?
RIV SHAPIRO: Absolutely.
INTERVIEWER: So Sarah Larson is part of the group, Nanilo, along with Sarina Partridge, and we have a clip of their music too.
[SINGING IN YIDDISH]
That's really beautiful. What do you want people to know about their music?
RIV SHAPIRO: Oh, what do I want people to know about their music? I think I want people to know about that song that harmony is not actually traditional in a lot of Yiddish music, and I think that this is a really great example of one of the goals behind Bo'u Nashir, which is to both preserve cultural heritage and to empower local artists to innovate because Jewish music traditions are always evolving.
Especially in diaspora and being in conversation with the cultures that we are immersed in. So they actually added harmony onto something that maybe traditionally wouldn't have had it. And they've done that with the blessing of some of their teachers. And I want to invite everyone who comes to engage with this culture to know that this is an ever changing and multifaceted music tradition.
INTERVIEWER: I like that. And they're pulling from Jewish European diaspora, right? I mean, from a large area. Yeah. What programs are they each leading during the festival?
RIV SHAPIRO: So Sarina is going to be leading our first program, which is on August 1st, that's next Tuesday at the Westwood Nature Center. It's called Songs to Re-root and Remember. And those are songs about connection to the natural world and ancestors that Sarina has written. They're all original compositions, and they're all easy to learn and taught by ear and welcoming to anyone.
Sarina is an incredible facilitator, so she can really get absolutely anyone singing. And then on Thursday, Sarah Larson will be emceeing our kumzits or community sing, and that will be an opportunity for anyone who comes to share their favorite Jewish song. And we'll also get to hear some live singing sharing out from the Yiddish folk song class.
INTERVIEWER: Nice. Hey, I also want to play a bit of music by David Jordan Harris, who's director of Voices of Sepharad.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING IN A NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Who is David Harris? What program is he leading?
RIV SHAPIRO: David Harris is an absolute force in the Jewish art scene here. He was the Executive Director of Rimon Jewish Arts Council for many, many, many years. And he's also been a cantor and performer. He's a big supporter of the arts here and an amazing artist in his own right. And he has learned Sephardic Jewish music from all across north Africa and the Middle East.
And he's going to be sharing some of those songs along with his stories of learning these songs on his travels and with his teachers on August 6th, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at the Minnesota JCC Capp Center. So no experience is required. It will be a really sweet time to come and to hear these stories.
And also to learn this music together. And we will also be blessed by an oud player there. So it should be a really beautiful, beautiful couple of hours of music making.
INTERVIEWER: Nice, and I want to go out on a song by Klezmerson who is the only non-local actress part of the festival. And before we hear that, can you tell me a bit about them.
RIV SHAPIRO: Yeah, so Klezmerson is a klezmer-jazz fusion quartet that's based in Mexico City. And we're really excited to bring them into town to do a workshop on their process of fusing Klezmer music with traditional Mexican musics. And on August 13th, after that workshop, they'll be playing a show at the Turf Club as part of the Lakeside Guitar Festival after party. So we're excited to have them.
INTERVIEWER: Well, thank you, Riv, and enjoy the festival.
RIV SHAPIRO: Thank you so much.
INTERVIEWER: And we'll hear that song by Klezmerson. This is Lady Plastica.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh my goodness, how fun. Riv Shapiro is Arts and Cultural producer for the Minnesota JCC. Bonus year events, begin next Tuesday, August 1st and run through Sunday, August 13th.
Riv Shapiro is the JCC's Arts and Cultural producer. They're organizing the festival in the Twin Cities and they're on the line to talk about it. Hi, Riv.
RIV SHAPIRO: Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, thanks for being here. I understand this is the first year of this festival. What inspired you to make it happen?
RIV SHAPIRO: Oh, well, we've been thinking about a music festival for a while now. We have our Film Festival and our Humor Fest. When I came on to the job, I'm a musician, I'm really into music, and so are other members of my team. So this is something that we've wanted to make happen for a while now and we're really excited to have the resources to do it this year.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, well, in the lead up to the festival, artist Sarah Larson, I know her, she's been on Art Hounds, she's great. She's been teaching a series on Yiddish folk song. We've got a clip from that class.
[SINGING IN YIDDISH]
What did you learn from this series?
RIV SHAPIRO: Well, it was really affirming as our pre-festival series to see that singing together in Jewish cultural music traditions is something that our community is hungry for across generations. So I think my biggest takeaway was not the words and the song traditions, although I love learning new Yiddish words through music and I've definitely had these songs in my head.
It's been seeing that there are members of our community who grew up with Yiddish speaking parents, who used it to talk in code and they want to learn Yiddish, or there are native Yiddish speakers who are having a hard time finding anywhere to hear their native language. And there are also people like me who have been disconnected from that language for generations and are really hungry to reconnect with that. So the power of us all being together in this intergenerational community and the way that song can be a vehicle for us to connect to our heritage in a meaningful way has been so powerful and I'm really excited to see that continue through the festival.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, so partly it's the pleasure of hearing this language and using it, and partly it's the joy of singing together, right?
RIV SHAPIRO: Absolutely.
INTERVIEWER: So Sarah Larson is part of the group, Nanilo, along with Sarina Partridge, and we have a clip of their music too.
[SINGING IN YIDDISH]
That's really beautiful. What do you want people to know about their music?
RIV SHAPIRO: Oh, what do I want people to know about their music? I think I want people to know about that song that harmony is not actually traditional in a lot of Yiddish music, and I think that this is a really great example of one of the goals behind Bo'u Nashir, which is to both preserve cultural heritage and to empower local artists to innovate because Jewish music traditions are always evolving.
Especially in diaspora and being in conversation with the cultures that we are immersed in. So they actually added harmony onto something that maybe traditionally wouldn't have had it. And they've done that with the blessing of some of their teachers. And I want to invite everyone who comes to engage with this culture to know that this is an ever changing and multifaceted music tradition.
INTERVIEWER: I like that. And they're pulling from Jewish European diaspora, right? I mean, from a large area. Yeah. What programs are they each leading during the festival?
RIV SHAPIRO: So Sarina is going to be leading our first program, which is on August 1st, that's next Tuesday at the Westwood Nature Center. It's called Songs to Re-root and Remember. And those are songs about connection to the natural world and ancestors that Sarina has written. They're all original compositions, and they're all easy to learn and taught by ear and welcoming to anyone.
Sarina is an incredible facilitator, so she can really get absolutely anyone singing. And then on Thursday, Sarah Larson will be emceeing our kumzits or community sing, and that will be an opportunity for anyone who comes to share their favorite Jewish song. And we'll also get to hear some live singing sharing out from the Yiddish folk song class.
INTERVIEWER: Nice. Hey, I also want to play a bit of music by David Jordan Harris, who's director of Voices of Sepharad.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING IN A NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Who is David Harris? What program is he leading?
RIV SHAPIRO: David Harris is an absolute force in the Jewish art scene here. He was the Executive Director of Rimon Jewish Arts Council for many, many, many years. And he's also been a cantor and performer. He's a big supporter of the arts here and an amazing artist in his own right. And he has learned Sephardic Jewish music from all across north Africa and the Middle East.
And he's going to be sharing some of those songs along with his stories of learning these songs on his travels and with his teachers on August 6th, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at the Minnesota JCC Capp Center. So no experience is required. It will be a really sweet time to come and to hear these stories.
And also to learn this music together. And we will also be blessed by an oud player there. So it should be a really beautiful, beautiful couple of hours of music making.
INTERVIEWER: Nice, and I want to go out on a song by Klezmerson who is the only non-local actress part of the festival. And before we hear that, can you tell me a bit about them.
RIV SHAPIRO: Yeah, so Klezmerson is a klezmer-jazz fusion quartet that's based in Mexico City. And we're really excited to bring them into town to do a workshop on their process of fusing Klezmer music with traditional Mexican musics. And on August 13th, after that workshop, they'll be playing a show at the Turf Club as part of the Lakeside Guitar Festival after party. So we're excited to have them.
INTERVIEWER: Well, thank you, Riv, and enjoy the festival.
RIV SHAPIRO: Thank you so much.
INTERVIEWER: And we'll hear that song by Klezmerson. This is Lady Plastica.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh my goodness, how fun. Riv Shapiro is Arts and Cultural producer for the Minnesota JCC. Bonus year events, begin next Tuesday, August 1st and run through Sunday, August 13th.
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