iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Justine O-S 🪞 @justineodashs.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Taking advantage of Labor Day weekend (🚩) to wax poetic about @miriamudel.bsky.social and her upcoming translation of LABZIK: TALES OF A CLEVER PUP for a moment sunypress.edu/Books/L/Labzik

An American Girl Coconut dog surrounded by white and red flowers, propping up a sticker sheet that says “Labzik (and friends)”

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Christopher Silver @christophersilver.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

My dept is looking to hire a Yiddishist to teach 4 Yiddish language & literature classes in 2026-2027 (& hopefully beyond). Application deadline: June 12. Great opportunity in the best city. I'm available to answer any questions. Please spread the word. mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

Course Lecturer Jewish Studies 281 (Introductory Yiddish 1)

Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

In spring 1917, playwright Jane Rose published the first installment of a Yiddish play offering a portrait of working-class family life & a critique of early-20th-century sexual mores. An excerpt of my translation of CRACKED is now up: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/discover/yid...

Screenshot of the website linked in post. The header image for the page is an old Yiddish-English flyer about birth control.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

"In order for Yiddish to thrive, every Yiddish student must be a teacher, and every Yiddish teacher must be a student." Andy Roshal on peer-to-peer communicative language instruction & variationist, dialect-rich pedagogy. ingeveb.org/pedagogy/pee...

ingeveb.org

Peer-to-Peer Pedagogy: Reflections from a College Campus | In geveb

For there to be a Yiddish-speaking community at Oberlin, someone needed to teach the community Yiddish. It seemed that that someone, despite my inexperience and

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Farbindungen Yiddish Studies Conference @farbindungen.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Introducing our keynote speakers for Farbindungen 2026: Yiddish at Work, taking place Feb 15th-16th, virtually. We're beyond excited and honored to have Caroline Luce and Miriam Udel headlining our program this year. Call for papers and submission form can be found at bit.ly/Farbindungen26Submission

Cartoon-stylized image of a white woman with shoulder length blond hair against a graph paper background. Text is the bio of Caroline Luce.

Image of a white woman with shoulder length gray hair wearing a blue satin coat and hat, against a graph paper background. Text is the bio of Miriam Udel.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

What do the “Father of the Bund” & a Yiddish electrical engineering textbook have in common? Find out: blog.cjh.org/index.php/20... A groysn dank to YIVO archivist Jess Podhorcer & the CJH for the chance to write about the Vilna Technicum and the making of Yiddish-speaking engineers.

blog.cjh.org

Electrical Engineering in Yiddish: The Vilna Technicum (and Beyond)

By Alona Bach, Dr. Sophie Bookhalter Short-Term Graduate Public History Fellow Electrical Engineering in Yiddish: The Vilna Technicum (and Beyond) “Up to this point, there has not been a single b

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

And...we're off! @contrastsmag.bsky.social is a new digital magazine focused on the intersections of science, technology, & society ( #STS, #HistSTM ). Our first issue on "portals" considers passageways between worlds—from apprenticeships to AI, maps to migration. Read the issue: contrastsmag.net

Screenshot of Contrasts website. Text, hovering over a blue-pink holographic background, reads: 01. Portals. Portals are passageways to and between worlds. From the fantastical to the mundane, portals mark the betwixt-and-between. A state of metamorphosis, a threshold ripe with risks and possibilities.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

"Incomplete mourning, being unable to fully talk about what was lost, means that you’re perpetually haunted." — @rokhl.bsky.social on ghosts, IRB forms, Purim shpiels, perfume, and her new play Shtumer Shabes.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Raboysay (/robotsay 🤖)! One more week to send us your Yiddish sci-fi submissions. We're especially keen for pitches for the blog and pedagogy sections — on incorporating Yiddish sci-fi into the classroom, interviews, reviews, blog-length thoughts on techno-messianism or dys/utopia, and more!

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Haim Gottschalk @hgot.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

#PosenLibrary is introducing a new initiative - Posen Library Digital Curriculum Development Fellowship, to help create educational materials for Posen Library digital platform. For more info: www.posenlibrary.com/fellowship #DHJewish #JewishEducation #CurriculumDevelopment

posenlibrary.com

Fellowship

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, curated by leading Jewish studies scholars, is an anthology of texts and images containing thousands of sources—and growing.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Send us your airships, your dystopias, your wired masses yearning to breathe free—af yidish! Submissions for our @ingeveb.bsky.social special issue on Yiddish sci-fi are due Mon, 28 April.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

A Yiddish prank of yore: "Take 2 tsp of cold milk, mix w/ 2 tsp of cold water, squeeze in 4 drops of lemon juice & mix well. Dip a clean handkerchief in the fluid & lightly dampen empty area. Hold it against the sun & you'll see a cartoon." —Der groyser kundes (March 31, 1911), p. 11.

Scan of old magazine clipping. A grey box. Underneath, a caption in Yiddish: Take two teaspoons of cold milk, mix with two teaspoons of cold water, squeeze in four drops of lemon juice and mix well. Then dip a clean handkerchief in the fluid and lightly dampen this empty area. Then hold it against the sun and you'll see a cartoon.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

CFP for ContraSTS / Issue: "Portals" / due March 1 ContraSTS is an online magazine run by MIT graduate students, featuring public-facing #STS and #histSTM works at the intersections of science, technology, and society. More info & pitch: contrastsmagazine.github.io

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

What other social and technological futures have we imagined, feared, hoped for—af yidish? Help us imagine, remember, and consider alternative possibilities by submitting to @ingeveb.bsky.social 's special issue on #Yiddish #scifi. Full CFP: ingeveb.org/blog/call-fo...

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Ceryl @politicdormouse.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Margaret Partridge bit.ly/3anO3yg & Margaret Rowbotham en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare... Partners in life & #engineering 1962 wrote joint letter of grandmotherly advice on joys of retirement: designing sports pavilion, converting stately home in2 boys school. Buried together #LGBTHM24 #ValentinesDay

Margaret Partridge (left) Margaret Rowbotham (right) in black and white headshots from late 1920s/early 1930s.

In Praise of Retirement by the Margarets R&P

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

מוראדיק הײַנטצײַטיק מיטן טראָפּ אויף מוראדיק

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

This sounds like a wonderful project — Haslett's correspondence is fascinating, lively, and a crucial part of UK engineering/electric history (with the WES, EAW, and beyond!). #histSTM

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Sarah Biskowitz @sarahbiskowitz.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

It was such an amazing time organizing @farbindungen.bsky.social 2026 with these incredible people!

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

#Farbindungen25 panel 1 — underworlds, shund, and disappointments.

A sketch with notes in Yiddish letters, titled Farbindungen panel 1, with yellow and teal details, a streetscape, a hasty Freud and a mini-Bashevis.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Really looking forward to this #Farbindungen25 panel on Yiddish theater, featuring Rebecca Turner on Jane Rose's NIT MIT ALEMEN (a favorite play!), @bluma.bsky.social on Leivick (!!), and Yael Horowitz on reviving a Polish Yiddish cabaret tune/dance, with @ruthieabeliovich.bsky.social moderating.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Fan studies, Crisco recipes, Yiddish lesboerotica — what more could you ask for in a #Farbindungen25 panel on "Practice as Method"? And with the eyn-un-eyntsike @evejochnowitz.bsky.social moderating, at that! Join us virtually by registering here: bit.ly/registerfarb...

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Farbindungen Yiddish Studies Conference @farbindungen.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Introducing! מיר שטעלן פֿאָר! The second panel of #Farbindungen25 is "Dos heyst taytsh? Unfaithful Translation." Featuring Rebecca Weingart, Uri Horesh, and Pamela Brenner, with Sunny Yudkoff. Register today, link in bio!

A picture of Rebecca Weingart, with a bio and panel details. Long description linked in reply.

A picture of Uri Horesh, with a bio and panel details. Long description linked in the reply.

A picture of Pamela Brenner, with a bio and panel details. Long description linked in the reply.

A picture of Sunny Yudkoff, with a bio and panel details. Long description linked in the reply.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

"Aroysgeshtelt." —Cartoon from April 23, 1920, by Lola (Leon Israel) in Der groyser kundes, a #Yiddish biweekly humor magazine, p. 3.

Yiddish cartoon showing Uncle Sam sitting dejectedly, head in hands, on the steps of a grand building labelled "American Institutions, American Traditions." A copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are lying by his side.

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Sonia Gollance @sgollance.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

This is such a helpful and long overdue piece that demonstrates @annsplaining.bsky.social’s meticulous research about women’s spirituality and spiritual leadership in Jewish Eastern Europe.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

1930s illustrations of Zelmenyaner characters: Uncle Zishe, Uncle Folye, Uncle Itshe, and Tsalke. - Zishe & Fole by Kh. M. Faynshteyn, reprinted in Dos vort [Kovne/Kaunas] (Feb 7, 1936). - Itshe & Tsalke in Shtraln [biweekly children's magazine] (1 June, 1938), p14. Via NLI/HJP.

Black and white (woodcut?) print of man with cap and large beard, working intently at table with springs and other fiddly bits. The caption reads, in yidishe oysyes: Kh. M. Faynshteyn, Feter Zishe.

Black and white (woodcut?) print of thin man with cap, short dark beard, and spectacles. The caption reads, in yidishe oysyes: Kh. M. Faynshteyn, Feter Fole.

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Farbindungen Yiddish Studies Conference @farbindungen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

#Farbindungen25 Bad Yiddish is in just two weeks! Take a look at the full schedule below to learn more about this year's panels, workshops, and keynote. The conference runs February 2-3. Register here - bit.ly/registerfarbindungen25 Full-text schedule - bit.ly/Farbindungen...

Graphic of schedule for Farbindungen 2025, day 1. A text-only schedule is included in the post above, which includes one line of Yiddish text in Panel 1, but is otherwise written in Roman characters.

Graphic of schedule for Farbindungen 2025, day 2.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

"In the confluence of Christmas and Hanukkah, in the days of the Yiddish New York festival, [Isaac Bashevis] Singer's ghosts and his language live on to haunt us." forward.com/culture/thea... Playing until Jan 15 @ Theatre 154.

forward.com

While Yiddish lives, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s ghost stories may flourish

"Bashevis' Demons" stages three stories from Isaac Bashevis Singer, from the occult to the musings of a rooster.

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In geveb @ingeveb.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Marina Mayorski reviews Ayelet Brinn's A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press: "A Revolution in Type offers a timely and forceful contribution to the study of Jewish history, culture, and gender." buff.ly/3DiHj76

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Truly a wonderful time getting to chat with @sophielizbear.bsky.social about technology & US-American Judaism (and a lot of Yiddish) at the Skirball! (It seems the online version of the paper is footnote-less; let me know if you'd rather read the footnoted version.) Meanwhile, importantly — [cont.]

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Just three more days to send in your proposals for #Farbindungen25 "Bad Yiddish / בעד ייִדיש"! More info & submit: www.farbindungen.com/2025 📷: Di varhayt (29 June 1915), p. 3.

Scan of an add for a room rental in a Yiddish newspaper, with many Englishisms ("a kitshen, leytest impruvments"). The headline reads "Bath Beach" in transliterated Yiddish: "Bed Bitsh"

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

LA-based folks, join me and Sophia Shoulson on December 3 to talk about the intersections of technology and American Judaism in the early 20th century—ft. typesetting, electric lights, timers, printing infrastructure, Yiddish, modernit(ies), and more. 📚💡 www.skirball.org/programs/how...

skirball.org

Howard I. Friedman Memorial Graduate Essay Prize: Electric Yiddishkeit | Skirball Cultural Center

Gain new perspectives on the American Jewish experience as the Skirball awards the 2023–24 Friedman Prize to Alona Bach, author of the essay “Electric Yiddishkeit.”

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

A pair of keynote speakers on Bad #Yiddish who are (unthematically) excellent! From shtetl to shund, looking forward to hearing about how and why Yiddish writers, speakers, and genres get coded as "bad." (Proposals for #Farbindungen25 will be open until November 15th: www.farbindungen.com/2025)

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In geveb @ingeveb.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

On Sunday, October 29th, DraCor released its Yiddish corpus (YiDraCor), making these Yiddish plays highly machine readable and ready out-of-the-box for computational literary study. In this post, Jonah Lubin describes the corpus and its potential. buff.ly/40ljdlo

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · 21/09/2024

Curious about how @LIGO's sites were selected? My dissertation provides the fascinating history! Many years of work that is result of my unique combination of history of science and physics, law, and environmental history expertise. dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/373... #siteselection #histstm

dash.harvard.edu

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

Announcing the #Farbindungen25 (@farbindungen.bsky.social) #Yiddish Studies Conference: BAD YIDDISH Time to ask: "װי 'בעד' קען ייִדיש זײַן?" CFP: bit.ly/Farbindungen... Submit (by Nov 15): bit.ly/farbindungen25

Graphic flyer designed to look like casual handwriting on a piece of notebook paper with a sticky note. Bad Yiddish, Farbindungen 2025, February 2-3, virtual. Proposals due Nov 15. Logos for Farbindungen and the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Matching graphic designed to look like casual handwriting on a piece of notebook paper. A list of Yiddish phrases has been crossed out in red pen: shlekht yidish, beyz yidish, paskudne yidish, reyshiesdik yidish, yidish mit zibn grayzn, bad yiddish, shidiy deb. Bed yidish, which is the last item on the list, is not crossed out, but there is a question mark in red pen by it. Includes title and dates of conference at the bottom.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 15/09/2024

My brilliant HASTS cohort-mate! (Full article: news.mit.edu/2024/mariel-...)

Screenshot of a professional portrait photo of a woman, with a caption underneath reading: HASTS student Mariel García-Montes researches the internet's impact on society, especially regarding privacy and young people. "I would love to be part of a generation thinking about what technology would look like if we put the public interest first," she says.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 23/07/2024

CFA: "Yiddish Technologies in Text and Context" Join me & @sophielizbear.bsky.social at NeMLA in Philly, March 6-9, 2025, to talk about the intersections of #histtech and #Yiddish! Abstract submissions due Sept 30. Panel description + submit: cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S...

Scan of page from Yiddish electrical textbook showing Yiddish text, formulas, and circuit diagrams.

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Bathsheba Demuth @brdemuth.bsky.social · 26/04/2024

“What Russia took – the lives of animals – can regenerate. But the act of taking has a legacy even if the most visible scars have faded. No theft is free.” Some new Yukon River writing in Granta granta.com/where-the-la...

granta.com

Where the Language Changes | Bathsheba Demuth | Granta

‘I am on the hunt for the Russian Empire, or what traces might still exist of its colonial enterprise.’ Bathsheba Demuth travels the Yukon river, following the history of the fur trade and the Nulato ...

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

"There’s something intimate in sitting with and attempting to translate the words of someone you’ll never know personally but whose writing directly resonates with you, your family, and your community’s experiences."

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

Very proud of my gevezenem-Yiddish-student Nathan Bernstein, whose art/poetry installation "Lider un kunst" is on display at Brandeis Apr 6-14: www.brandeis.edu/stories/2024... If you're in the Boston area, drop by!

brandeis.edu

Bringing Yiddish culture to life through poetry and art

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 25/03/2024

NEW BOOK TALK! My next book "The 'Deafness Problem' in Modern Britain" will be published by McGill-Queen's UP in 2025. Two chapters discuss how the concept of hereditary deafness were shaped by eugenics policies in deaf schools & clinics. Contact me if you'd like me to discuss DEAF EUGENICS 👇

A graphic with faded background showing a pedigree chart for a deaf family with several generations of deafness. Superimposed on top is the title DEAF EUGENICS: Medicine & hereditary deafness by Jaipreet Virdi

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In geveb @ingeveb.bsky.social · 23/03/2024

CFP[urim]: Farbinduckn Annual Conference (2025) In our fourth annual gathering, we aim to build the future of the field, cultivate it, harvest it, and then feed the milled grains to fowl. In doing so, we hope to incubate the next generation of downy Yiddish scholars.

ingeveb.org

CFP[urim]: Farbinduckn Annual Conference (2025) | In geveb

In geveb is an open-access digital forum for the publication of peer-reviewed academic articles, the translation and annotation of Yiddish texts, the exchange of pedagogical materials, and a blog of Y...

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In geveb @ingeveb.bsky.social · 23/03/2024

It seems like every few years, the same astonished article on the revival of Yiddish is published across the various news outlets. Why not be efficient and just keep republishing the same article yourself?

ingeveb.org

Mad Libs | In geveb

The only Yiddish revival story you’ll ever need.

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In geveb @ingeveb.bsky.social · 26/02/2024

Eyshe Beirich reviews Mikhl Yashinsky's original Yiddish play Di psure loyt khayim: "I would argue that Yashinsky’s play is less a play about a Messianic Jewish missionary and more a play about the very limits of Yiddish culture itself."

ingeveb.org

Review of The Gospel According to Chaim by Mikhl Yashinsky | In geveb

Eyshe Beirich reviews Mikhl Yashinsky's original Yiddish play Di psure loyt khayim.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 18/02/2024

Ayelet Brinn & Miryem-Khaye Seigel launch #Farbindungen24 w/ a keynote ft. drag king Pepi Littman; the roles of women translators & secretaries in the history of the US Yiddish press; shtumer alef as queer. "Interrogate gender truisms!" & "Ask questions instead of nec. answering them."

Page of digital notes titled "Shtumer Alef," showing notes from talks by Ayelet Brinn and Miryem-Khaye Seigel, with sketch of drag king Pepi Littman in the middle in a bowler hat and suit.

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 11/02/2024

You can still catch the livestream of Sasha Denisova's zany, tender MY MAMA AND THE FULLSCALE INVASION at the Wilma Theater (co-production with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). This weekend only, anywhere in the world. 🇺🇦 www.lolst.org/my-mama?uid=...

lolst.org

My Mama — The League of Live Stream Theater

The critically acclaimed world premiere streams LIVE from Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater

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Alona Bach @bachwards.bsky.social · 06/02/2024

A long-awaited chance to hear @bluma.bsky.social speak about Leivick (!) in conversation with Hannah Block Wickham on tkhines and Daniel Kraft on Zeitlin. It's going to be brilliant and ikh ken zikh koym dervartn, khevre.

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