Out of the Narrows: The Artists' Haggadah:A Visual Midrash

by Susan Dickman (Editor), Berit Engen (Editor), Carol Neiger (Compiler)

Overview

Out of the Narrows: The Artists' Haggadah views Passover visually through the lens of issues plaguing the contemporary world. The Haggadah includes the steps of the Seder with its rituals and liturgy in Hebrew, English, and transliteration, with art as commentary. Evocatively illuminated throughout with original artwork and thoughtful reflections, Out of the Narrows is a visually and thematically engaging addition to the genre. Jonathan Fass of The Jewish Book Council describes Out of the Narrows as "a visual feast ..."born out of the desire to connect the themes of Passover with the realities of celebrating the holiday dur-ing the COVID pandemic" as well as "beautifully crafted." (JBC, March 10, 2021) Out of the Narrows features artwork by members of the Jewish Artist Collective Chicago (JACC), a community of multidisciplinary artists connected through common heritage and committed to sharing ideas, enriching practices, and creating dialogue with community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798765501603
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	12/27/2021
Edition description:	Revision 12/12/2021 ed.
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Susan Dickman has exhibited widely. She has received Illinois Arts Council awards in writing (1998; 2006; 2010), a Pushcart Prize nomination, and been published in Zocalo Public Square, Jewish Writers, Left Hooks, Brain, Child, Lilith, Intellectual Refuge, and Best of the Best American Poetry. The persistence of narrative, holes in the story, and the natural world inspire her to explore the intersection of image and text. Using encaustic and cold wax medium, oils, photographs, cloth, thread, paper, salt, rust, and found objects, she seeks to cover, reveal, and amplify narrative tension to explore memory, loss, grief, joy, the effects of time, and lost spaces surrounding language. www.susanjoydickman.com

Berit Engen began weaving as a child in Norway and now practices this ancient craft of entwining weft (grey, horizontal threads) with warp (colored, vertical threads) in the centuries-old tradition of expounding on Jewish texts (in Hebrew, drash). She finds inspiration for her work in the richness and diversity of the Jewish experience: from the laws of the Torah to modern poetry, from the chanting of ancient prayers to the satire of Yiddish curses, from the ethical wisdom of the Prophets to the black lace adorning Sephardic women.
She compares her linen-yarn tapestries to Japanese Haiku: formally constrained by a miniature size, imagistic, and focused, yet allusive. Her ongoing project, “Weft and Drash—Weaving a Thousand Jewish Tapestries," begun in 2007, consists to date of about 600 pieces. Exhibiting widely, her work is also in the permanent collection of the Chicago History Museum, the sanctuary of Temple Har Zion in River Forest, IL and has been featured in Lilith magazine. www.beritengen.com

Carol Neiger, artist and graphic designer, creates paintings and prints that explore how our past experiences influence the way we see. Her recent works explore the possibility of inherited memory and place, creating works intended to inspire feelings associated with memories that transport us to places we have not been before but feel that we have. A visit to Portugal inspired her about the tfutza, the Jewish diaspora. Discovering that European Jews have been exiled from 109 locations since the year 250 CE, she began to wonder about how Jews relate to the ideas of place and home given this tumultuous history. Carol has exhibited widely and accepts commissions. www.carolneiger.com

Editorial Reviews

If your image of what Passover may be like this year could use a lift, along with your spirits, a stunning new haggadah by a group of talented artists in Chicago could be just what you need. Out of the Narrows: The Artists' Haggadah is a beautifully conceived adaptation of the traditional Passover seder text, accompanied by original contemporary artwork linking the extraordinary times in which we find ourselves to the timeless Passover narrative.

The Times of Israel - Shelley S. Herbert

A beautiful new Haggadah is bringing work by artists at the Jewish Artists Collective Chicago (JACC) to local families just in time for Passover. Out of the Narrows: The Artist's Haggadah includes both text and artwork to depict the Passover story in a unique way. Their new Haggadah aims to further this mission by offering a unique new way of understanding and accessing the Seder guidebook-and providing a fresh take on the Passover story.

JUF News - Yvette Alt Miller

Out of the Narrows as "a visual feast ..."born out of the desire to connect the themes of Passover with the realities of celebrating the holiday dur­ing the COVID pandemic" as well as "beautifully crafted." (JBC, March 10, 2021)

The Jewish Book Council - Jonathan Fass