Synagogues to host ‘For Out of Zion’ concert

AMHERST — The Jewish Community of Amherst, in collaboration with Beit Ahavah Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton and the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, will present the “Ki MiTzion — For Out of Zion Havdalah Concert” featuring the soul-stirring melodies of Hazzan Jessi Roemer.

This event will take place on Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community of Amherst located at 742 Main St., Amherst. For those unable to attend in person, a Zoom livestream will be available.

Hazzan (Cantor) Jessi Roemer’s music weaves together ancient and modern texts with spiritual depth and rhythmic vibrancy. Drawing from her eclectic background rooted in the Washington, D.C. area, her repertoire reflects a fusion of Yiddish, Hebrew, American Folk, cantorial, and Bluegrass-Klezmer influences. Her compositions also bear the imprint of gospel, blues, and Ladino music, resulting in a rich tapestry of sound that resonates with audiences worldwide.

As an ordained Hazzan by ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Hazzan Jessi currently serves as the Cantor of Society Hill Synagogue in Philadelphia.

The concert is made possible through the support of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the National Center to Encourage Judaism.

Tickets are available at a sliding scale of $10-$20 at the door, with free admission for those under 18. Zoom attendees will be invited to make a donation online.

For more information, contact Hazzan Diana Brewer at diana@dianabrewer.net. For Zoom registration, visit jcamherst.org/zoomlinksinfo.

UMass brings on the visual art

AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts Amherst has opened three new exhibits, including one that’s been inspired by a study of materials in the school’s natural history collection.

“Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato,” at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA), includes paintings, sculptures, and video by artist Courtney M. Leonard, a citizen of the Shinnecock Nation of Long Island who explores marine biology, Indigenous food sovereignty, and human environmental impact by investigating the multiple definitions of the term “breach.”

Her exhibit follows a multi-year residency at UMass during which she based her recent work in particular on the life and kinship ties of Staccato, a North Atlantic Right Whale killed by a ship strike in 1999; the whale’s remains are housed at UMass.

Hampden Gallery, meanwhile, has opened “Fabrications and Dreams” by oil painter and printmaker Cynthia Guild, a UMass alumna, and “Obsessive Compulsive Drawings” by artist and musician Gonzalo Silva.

Guild, who earned a BFA and an MFA from UMass, says her new exhibit of oil paintings and drawings juxtaposes “industrial mechanical imagery representing logic” on one side with “dreamy, snowy alpine scenes of nature, representing escape and reverie” on the other.

Silva, a native of Chile who grew up in Melrose, is a bass player and composer who once attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He also took up drawing several years ago, sketching what he calls “my compulsions” on the back of 8.5-by-11-inch cards. “These items are personal to me,” he notes, “like summons, default notices, or support group meeting lists.”

The exhibits run through May 3. An artists’ reception and a talk at the gallery by both artists take place at the gallery April 5 beginning at 5 p.m.

The People’s Tongue

AMHERST — Amherst College’s “Point/Counterpoint” series of public talks, in which speakers engage with Amherst professor and writer Ilan Stavans on a variety of social and political topics, opens its new season today (March 1) with a presentation by John McWhorter, an author and professor of linguistics who writes an opinion column for the New York Times.

The talk, at Stirn Auditorium at 4 p.m., is the first of five for this season. Other speakers include Ukrainian-American poet and translator Ilya Kaminsky and Northampton writer and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki.

The theme for the conversations, “Democracy and the English Language,” concerns what program notes call “one of the remaining threads binding Americans to each other and to their past … But even [the English language] is contested. How did English become American? To what extent is it truly national?”

Stavans, a professor of humanities, Latin American, and Latino Culture and the publisher of the independent company Restless Books, began the Point/Counterpoint series several years ago to host conversations to try and bridge some of the country’s ideological divides.

— compiled by Steve Pfarrer