First Event in NLI USA Signature Speakers Series

A Lyrical Legacy: Yemeni Song and Memory

NLI USA Signature Speakers Series

  • Wednesday
  • November 12th
  • 20:00 - 21:00
Online
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Map

Join Sami Rohr Prize–winning author Ayelet Tsabari and Amalia Kedem, Curator of the Music Collection at the National Library of Israel, for a richly layered conversation in celebration of Mizrahi Heritage Month. Learn how music, memory and storytelling preserve and transform Mizrahi identity. Drawing on readings from Tsabari’s acclaimed novel Songs for the Brokenhearted and rare recordings from NLI’s vast archives, they will explore how Mizrahi voices are reshaping the Jewish cultural narrative.

Part of the NLI USA Signature Speakers Series and SRP Writers Showcase 

This online English-language event will begin at 1:00 pm ET (8 pm Israel time). Registration is free of charge.

 

Online Event

Ayelet Tsabari, winner of the 2015 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her debut novel “The Best Place on Earth,” is most recently the author of “Songs for the Brokenhearted,” winner of a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award, and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction. Her memoir, “The Art of Leaving,” was a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Memoir, and was an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019.

Dr. Amalia Kedem is Curator of the Music Collection at the National Library of Israel. Prior to this appointment, she coordinated the Library’s Sound Archive Preservation and Digitization Project and cataloged archival collections, both written and recorded. She has taught Jewish music at the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, the Open University, and Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. She also lectures on liturgical music.

Inspired by the expanded view of 21st century libraries as centers of lively discourse, NLI USA developed the Signature Speakers Series series to probe issues of our day. In this way, we seek to share the Library’s vast collections, outstanding experts, and leading partners with the broader community.

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature honors the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission of the Jewish experience. The SRP Writers Showcase spotlights the creative, nuanced, and thought-provoking work of the Fellows of the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute.
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