Yale Strom and Michael Poff to Discuss the Hidden Victims of the Holocaust, April 10, 2010

Thanks to everyone for making this year's film series a success. Don't miss our March 28, 2010 event at 2pm, University of South Florida, College of Medicine, MDA 1097 (Behind the Medical Clinic)

Film: A Secret
Scholar: Madeline Camara, Ph.D., USF Associate Professor of World Languages
Clinician: Lycia Alexander-Guerra, M.D. Psychiatrist/Psychoanalyst

About A Secret: A Secret follows the saga of a Jewish family in post-World War II Paris. Francois, a solitary, imaginative child discovers a dark family secret that ties his family s history to the Holocaust and shatters his illusions forever. Adapted from psychoanalyst, Philippe Grimbert`s celebrated truth-inspired novel Memory.

About Dr. Camara:

Born in Havana, 1957. BA in Hispanic Lang and Lit in University of Havana, MA in Women Studies in Colegio de Mexico, Ph.d in Hispanic Lang and Lit in SUNY at Stony Brook. Has taught at University of La Havana, UNAM, and San Diego State University, California. Was the founder and editor of literary journal Letras Cubanas, in La Habana (1986-1992). Presently she writes a literary column for El Nuevo Herald. She has received a Rockefeller Resident Fellowship in the Humanities in Florida International University, in 1997, as well as a Fullbright Award Border Program in 2001.She is the author, among others, of Vocacion de Casandra (NY, Peter Lang: 2000) and co-editor of Cuba: the Ellusive Nation (Gainsville, Florida UP, 2000). Next books are La letra rebelde: estudios de escritoras cubanas (Miami:Universal, 2002) and La memoria hechizada (Barcelona:Icaria, 2002) Her present research deals with the image of the mulata as an icon for Cuban identity.

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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Join Yale Strom and Michael Poff as they discuss the hidden victims of the Holocaust


Sunday, April 11, 2010 *Program Begins at 2 PM*

Films: And the Violins Stopped Playing and Purple Triangles
Presenter: Yale Strom, Artist-in-Residence, San Diego State University
Clinician: Michael Poff, MSW, Psychoanalyst

Purple Traingles: Excellent documentary showing that it wasn't just the Jews persecuted during the Holocaust, Jehovah's Witnesses were also victims. They had all kinds of underground printing operations and even some of the songs that we sing presently at the Kingdom Hall were composed in the concentration camps. And the Violins Stopped Playing: Based on a true story, Ramati's novel depicts the atrocities committed by the Germans against the Gypsies during World War II. In the early 1940s, Roman Mirga learns that Gypsies in Germany are being rounded up and shipped to "relocation camps" for extermination. He warns his clan about the impending danger but is able to convince only a handful of them to flee with his family to Hungary. From Publishers Weekly

YALE STROM

“He's a gifted photographer and author, a talented documentary filmma

ker and has his own klezmer band... Strom's multifaceted career is a wonder, and his work schedule is downright fiendish.”

- New York Jewish Week.

“An award-winning musician, author, filmmaker and scholar, this maverick does so many things with such great skill and vision that he's in a league of his own."- George Varga - Music Critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune. " “Through his art, Strom has brought back his spiritual ancestors."

- Time Magazine.

Yale Strom is one of the world's leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer and Roma music and history. Strom's klezmer research was instrumental in forming the repertoire of his klezmer band, Hot Pstromi, based in New York and San Diego. Since organizing his band in 1981, he has composed original New Jewish music that combines klezmer with Khasidic melodies, as well as Roma, jazz, classical, Balkan, Arabic and Sephardic motifs. Strom's compositions range from several quartets to a full symphony. These works have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, and the Ostrava Philharmonic of the Czech Republic. He has composed original music for the Denver Center’s production of Tony Kushner's The Dybbuk ; as well as composing all the original music for the National Public Radio series, Fiddlers, Philosophers & Fools: Jewish Short Stories from the Old World to the New, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. In addition, Strom has composed music for The History Channel, ESPN, and countless other TV offerings. Yale’s thirteen CDs run the gamut of traditional klezmer to "new" Jewish jazz. His CD's have received major rave reviews and been featured on Top Ten Album of the Year lists. In 2006, he was appointed artist-in-residence in the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University. Prior to this appointment, Strom taught for many years at New York University.

As a collaborator Strom has had numerous world-renowned partners, including Andy Statman, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark O'Connor, Alicia Svigals, Joel Rubin, Hankus Netsky, Peter Sprague, Samir Chatterjee, Salman Ahmad, Gavin Rossendale, Damian Draghici and Kalman Balogh, to name but a few. With Salman Ahmad, Strom is cofounder of the world music ensemble Common Chords and together performed at the United Nations General Assembly in the recent "Concert for Pakistan". He is also the first klezmer violinist to be invited to instruct master classes at the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camps.

Strom has directed seven award-winning documentary films: "At the Crossroads"; "The Last Klezmer" (winner best ecumenical film at the Berlin International Film Festival); "Carpati: 50 miles, 50 Years" (Emmy award); "L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin!"; "Klezmer on Fish Street" (Special Jury Selection, Palm Beach International Film festival; "Man From Munkatsh" (produced for Hungary's Duna TV). He was the first documentary filmmaker in history to be given his own run at Lincoln Center's prestigious Walter Reade Theatre, where his films broke box-office records. Currently, Strom is in pre -production on the feature film "Canaries" and the documentary "Detroit: In Black and White". He co-directed the feature documentary “The Harry Agganis Story”, now in post-production.

Strom 's original stage play . . . from man. . . to beast... to crawling thing , was given a fully-staged workshop in June of 2001 by the Streisand Festival ( La Jolla , California ). His play "The Education of Hershel Grynszpan" was workshopped by the San Diego Rep and the North Coast Rep as well as in New York City , Connecticut and Los Angeles . Yale was featured in the May 31, 2004 issue of Time Magazine for this play, and the scholarship behind it.

As a photographer, Strom has exhibited extensively. His solo photo exhibit The Roma of Ridgewood , about Gypsy communities in Queens, New York, was mounted at the Queens Museum of Art and was the first of its kind in NYC. He has had numerous solo and group photo exhibits (depicting Jewish and Roma life) throughout the U.S. and Europe. His photos are part of many collections including Beth Hatefusoth, The Skirball Museum, The Jewish Museum of NYC, The Frankfurt Jewish Museum and the The Museum of Photographic Arts.

Strom was the guest curator for the Eldridge Street Project's "A Great Day on Eldridge Street". Strom conceived this idea for a musical and photographic celebration of the newly restored landmarked Eldridge Street Synagogue in October 12-14, 2007 with a parade, a historic archival photo shoot, numerous panels and performances and a New York state-wide tour. The historic photo is now available as a poster from the Eldridge Street Synagogue in NYC.

Strom is a dedicated educator and has lectured extensively all over the world. His lectures and concerts at schools across the United States have ranged from how kids can use art to further their understanding of their ever changing world, to an examination of how music can be used to reach across various cultural, ethnic, racial and religious divides, and how to be a professional artist.

Strom's work as an author includes "The Book of Klezmer: The History, The Music, The Folklore" ( Chicago Review Press, 2002), a 400-page history with original photos and sheet music gathered by Strom during his sixty-plus ethnographic trips to Central and Eastern Europe. "A Wandering Feast: A Journey Through the Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe" written in collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Schwartz, is part cookbook, part travelogue (Jossey-Bass, 2005). He is also the author of "The Absolutely Complete Klezmer Songbook" (URJ Press, 2006). His Young Adult books: "Uncertain Roads: Searching for the Gypsies" and "Quilted Landscapes: Immigrant Youth in America Today" have been critically used in schools throughout America. His first illustrated children's book, "The Wedding That Saved A Town" (Kar-Ben, 2008) won the Best Children's Illustrated Book award from the San Diego Library Association. Additionally, he was the author of the klezmer edition of the prestigious "Music Minus One" series of instructional books with accompanying CD's, as well as numerous other photo documentary books. Strom’s music and gregarious personality has been able to reach the multi-ethnic youth of America today and make a genuine difference in opening up their ears, eyes, and hearts.