Conference Schedule

Sunday, November 13

7:00pm Rimon Artist Salon, featuring vocalist Galeet Dardashti

(Off campus event organized by Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council)

Monday, November 14

All events held at the President's Room at Coffman Memorial Union, unless otherwise noted.

9:45am Opening Remarks

10:00 - Noon Emergent Practices and Rituals (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/eL-9JTHSMzM)

Chair: Sara Gardner

  • Galeet Dardashti, "Arabic as Sacred: Emergent Piyyut Practices among Mizrahi Haredim in Israel"

  • Samuel Torjman Thomas, "Performing Gabirol: Reverbations and Resonances"

  • Naomi Cohn Zentner, "Piyyut trend 2.0: a few thoughts in the aftermath of the piyyut revival" (Zoom)

  • Re'ee Hagay, "Anonymous Remains: Toward a Relational Archive of Piyyut"


11:45 - 1:15pm Activating Piyyut Archives (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/vh-JPHoCIJU)

Chair: Michelle Hamilton

  • Gil Hochberg, "Afterlives of Robert Lachman's Archive"

  • Bryan Roby, "Canonical fodder: A Historical Method of Reframing and Categorizing the Piyyut"


2:15 - 3:30pm Piyyut as Embodiment (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/itLEhVz7Z4w)

Chair: Shir Alon

  • Tamar Sella, "Reorienting Piyyut: Embodied Performance and Queer Genealogies"

  • Melissa Melpignano, "Undermining (choreographic) sovereignty: piyyutim as a tactic of dance composition"


4:00 - 5:00pm Hadar Ahuvia, Embodying a Hasidic Piyyut (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/pUuw3a3ClHA)

Participatory workshop and presentation


7:30 - 9:00pm Global Piyyut Concert

Featuring Yair Harel, Rabbi Roly Matalon, Dr. Galeet Dardashti, Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg, Dan Nadel, Dr. Yaron Klein, Ismail Lumanovski, and Satoshi Takeishi

Cedar Cultural Center, Doors open at 7:00pm

RSVP here

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

All events held at the President's Room at Coffman Memorial Union, unless otherwise noted.

10:00 - 11:30am Piyyut in Contemporary Mizrahi Culture (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/SUgbYYK-apY)

Chair: Yaron Klein

  • Edwin Seroussi, "A Street Named Najara"

  • Almog Behar, "Reclaiming Piyyut beyond 'the table surrounded by men': Possibilities of return in the poetry of Shva Salhoov"

  • Yuval Evri, "Reclaiming Piyyut beyond 'the table surrounded by men': Possibilities of return in the poetry of Haviva Pedaya" (Zoom)


11:45 - 1:00pm Mizrahi Documentary Filmmaking (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/Es8u2mV7KBE)

Filmmaker Rafael Balulu in conversation with Daniel Schroeter


4:00 - 6:00pm Keynote lecture: Poet and translator Peter Cole (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/4qQrXyE9ieg)

"A Way of Happening, a Mouth: On Petition and Repetition in Baqashot, or When the Best Translation Isn't Exactly a Translation"

Coffman Memorial Union - Mississippi Room


7:30 - 9:00pm Piyyut Global Workshop (livestreamed at: https://youtu.be/GamExwbWAOI)

Participatory workshop with Yair Harel and R. Roly Matalon

Coffman Memorial Union - Mississippi Room

Wednesday, November 16

7:00pm Trio Mediterraneo (guitarist Dan Nadel, clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi)

This event is part of the Chapel Arts Series

University of St. Thomas, Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas