What’s a personal financial and how does it works?
What’s a personal financial and how does it works? Written by Extremely Canadians require a mortgage to invest in a home. However the procedure for getting accepted for a mortgage actually easy. Just be in the an excellent financial health and see criteria to possess money, loans, and you may credit history. Very, what goes on if you are not? Sometimes, an exclusive financial could well be a choice to help you achieve your home ownership goals. A private financial are a loan offered by a single otherwise organization in order to potential homebuyers who are unable to safer a classic loan out-of a lender, such as for instance a financial. These types of money resemble subprime mortgages. Home buyers looks to help you individual mortgages if they have bad credit score plus don’t qualify for conventional fund based on the laws off almost every other mortgage lenders. Personal lenders may comprehend the mortgage since the an capital and this aren’t due to the fact rigorous off credit rating and you will background inspections. An exclusive financial also can make sense if you are to shop for a good book sort of house, that you don’t propose to individual the house cash advance payday loans Smiths Station or property for long, or you enjoys a non-old-fashioned source of income. Individual loans are quick-title, having typical amortization symptoms lasting six months to three decades. It’s considered that, immediately after and work out on the-date payments over so it term, brand new debtor have been in a far greater condition to try to get a home loan of a classic financial. The attention prices provided by personal mortgage brokers include somewhat greater than those given by conventional lenders, but because these brand new payments it is possible to make about style of mortgage is attract-just. With an intention-only home loan, none of one’s fee goes for the dominant, so the overall balance doesn’t smaller over the years, because it would with a routine financial. The entire process of taking an exclusive financial are much faster and easier than just being qualified to own a vintage mortgage. However, know that those people positives include high interest rates, fees, and you may probably far more chance. Best Mortgage Cost inside Canada Compare Canada’s finest mortgage brokers and you may brokers front side-by-front side to see an informed financial cost that meet their you would like Getting a personal mortgage Individual mortgage loans are provided by some body, syndicates, and financial financial support businesses. An experienced large financial company might be able to place you for the reach having a reliable individual financial, you can also look for one to your self. To get a personal home loan is generally shorter and much easier than simply qualifying to own home financing having a financial, you can easily still have to fulfill particular qualifications conditions. To be eligible for a private financial, you need to have: Proof of income: You’ll need to prove that you feel the money needed seriously to build home loan repayments. This will be difficult while you are mind-employed, and you will have to give even more files. Down payment: Usually you may need at least down payment of 15% of purchase price to track down an exclusive mortgage. A sellable assets: If for example the borrower defaults towards the repayments, the lending company should manage to take possession regarding and even offer the home to recoup their financing. When could it possibly be a smart idea to get a personal home loan? When you’re an exclusive financial possess a smaller...
Read MoreConditional acceptance always gives you significantly more criteria you must meet before you can get last recognition to suit your loan
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Conditional acceptance always gives you significantly more criteria you must meet before you can get last recognition to suit your loan The newest conditional acceptance of a mortgage loan doesn’t make sure latest recognition, however it is a stronger laws the candidate would-be accepted than simply prequalification. After you get home financing, the job experience several strategies before it is recognized otherwise refused. After you get to the step of conditional recognition mortgage in the underwriting procedure, you have already popped as a consequence of many of the hoops expected. Here is how and in case you have made it. The borrowed funds rates environment is more erratic now than ever. Here are a few SmartAsset’s financial cost dining table discover a far greater tip of just what sector works out immediately. Conditional Recognition Financial, Outlined There isn’t an item titled a good conditional acceptance home loan. Conditional acceptance is actually one step on the underwriting techniques getting an effective home loan while looking to get a property. Its a number of acceptance regarding underwriter one to says to your your location about mortgage Red Level loans software techniques. Conditional approval is actually an advanced away from recognition than simply prequalification, not as much as final otherwise confirmed approval. When this occurs, you are prepared order your new house. After you found conditional acceptance, you are constantly given particular requirements you must see before you could will get last recognition. A conditional acceptance home loan would be rejected when the pointers becomes identified in the underwriting process that has an effect on the brand new buyer’s capability to spend on underwriter’s advice. By firmly taking to your significantly more obligations, once you is conditionally accepted, it may cause an assertion. If you have an enormous, unexplained financial detachment otherwise put, that could and result in inquiries and you can denial. An identical is true for people who alter work for the underwriting process. Brand new Level out of Real estate loan Approval After a home loan company welcomes your application to own a mortgage loan the application goes toward the underwriters which glance at the individuals aspects of how you will buy home financing. Several things are thought for example credit rating, credit rating, earnings and you may possessions. Since your application entry all these evaluation, you are going to flow involving the after the grade away from mortgage loan acceptance: Prequalification It stage out-of trying to get a mortgage may well not imply far. You are prequalified before the application experiences the newest underwriting, or vetting, procedure. This is the underwriter’s jobs to evaluate the possibility of credit you money to have a mortgage. Prequalification usually means you are one in a team of people which appear to qualify for the borrowed funds. Preapproval During this period of the financial approval process, your credit score and credit score was verified. If you wish to score preapproved to possess home financing, we have found a home loan recognition checklist you will probably find of use. Youre one step closer to approval into mortgage, nevertheless the underwriter’s however might not have evaluated your application. Conditional Recognition When conditional approval try supplied, an enthusiastic underwriter have verified all the info on the application for the loan and you may enjoys best if or not you could potentially pay off the borrowed funds. This is the stage in the event that financial may give you an effective group of problems that you must fulfill ahead of your loan app can be move ahead. You may have to promote financial statements, check stubs,...
Read MoreThe new FRBNY studies utilized data on FRBNY Consumer credit Panel spanning 1999 to 2012
The new FRBNY studies utilized data on FRBNY Consumer credit Panel spanning 1999 to 2012 The alternative factors i have so far showed suggest that the fresh matchmaking ranging from education loan obligations and you will homeownership try a great mirage – or spurious – and you may each other fashion are increasingly being driven because of the some huge, additional, push. But there is however and additionally a powerful restrict story to all the for the. It might be, for-instance, that aggregate-top correlation ranging from student loan personal debt and you can homeownership does not arrive inside private-peak analysis. On top of that, investigation functions and you will quality can get number. Basically, in contrast to traditional understanding, it will be possible that education loan debtors are not any less likely to purchase property than non-debtors, in a fashion that the last look about issue try, in a word, incorrect. For example, Beth Akers duplicated the fresh new FRBNY research playing with investigation in the Questionnaire of User Finances-a lot of time considered to be brand new gold standard dataset to have facts personal debt and you may money in the usa-out-of 1989 so you’re able to 2010. In contrast to brand new FRBNY research, Akers found that, historically, education loan debtors amongst the age of twenty-eight-thirty-two have acquired some lower homeownership costs than simply non-debtors and therefore, in recent times, debtors need got highest costs regarding homeownership than just low-debtors. Put another way, she finds little evidence to the conflict that the outcomes of student loan debt and you can homeownership came up within the or is book so you’re able to that it recessionary months otherwise, in fact, inside the latest age. 19 The typical (median) student loan debtor pays just step 3-4% of its monthly income so you’re able to student loan financial obligation, a figure which includes remained apparently ongoing as early 1990s Such a reason helps make user-friendly feel and have now generally seems to complement in what we understand in the college or university students, who’re more likely to keeps personal debt than just low-college goers. First, many university graduates-that have large levels of student loan debt than just about any other group-have fared really regarding the recession, in accordance with its alternatives who use up all your a degree. Inside 2008, on peak of your own credit crunch, the jobless rates for these which have a degree or maybe more is actually dos.6%, compared to step three.7% for those having a colleagues degree, 5.1% of these with many school however, zero knowledge, 5.7% for these with a high college or university knowledge but zero school, and you may nine.0% for those in place of a highschool knowledge. 20 Additionally, the brand new salary advanced out of a college education remains large. Median annual money to own college or university students last year involved 67% higher than median money for those in just a highschool education ($67,one hundred thousand in the place of $34,000). 21 Eventually, while there are some teenagers just who, including Rachel (talked about more than), features relatively large education loan costs, for almost all young adults debt burdens commonly as the higher. twenty-two Education loan installment burden for these with highest monthly premiums according to their incomes is going to be next faster of the a current Obama administration arrange for money situated payment, which enables step one.6 mil borrowers so you can cover their loan costs on ten percent of their earnings. In other words, beginner personal debt can be burdensome, nevertheless the payoff from a degree...
Read MoreWhat’s a connection Loan and exactly how Will it Works?
What’s a connection Loan and exactly how Will it Works? Agencies all over the world invest vast amounts of dollars enabling medical and you can place of work structures by way of connecting investment and funds, with respect to the fresh new debtor, delivering flexible payment possibilities whenever specific money issues can be found. Though occupancy costs and you will stabilization of the house are located in flux, IPG brokers normally secure an interim funding solution who does bridge the newest borrower to have an initial-term period up until permanent financial support is placed. The brand new performance and outcome is actually a perfect complement the latest borrower. These kind of deals all are done thanks to brief-term finance , known along with once the connection credit, generally establish to own a period of two weeks to 3 decades, based on if your plan demands large or extended financing. What is actually A connection Mortgage during the Home? What exactly is connection funding? A connection loan or link lending was a term employed by individuals who are in need of to connection the fresh gap anywhere between paying off a preexisting build financing getting development or remodeling property, and you can taking out fully a longer-term traditional mortgage. Industrial a home connection credit is actually a monetary unit with which you can facilitate the acquisition off second property, by establishing a beneficial lien up against a first property. They may be entitled good flaccid particular tough currency finance, with loan terminology which can go up to three age, that have a link mortgage rate of interest between 6% otherwise nine%, and you will LTVs of around 80%. Although this Small-label loan is sometimes used in providers when you are waiting for much time-term money. Customers usually use only them for the home transactions in which instant cashflow needs to be came across. How does a link Mortgage Works? When you look at the easier terms and conditions, link lending brings a simple solution to have people who would like to pick a different possessions, but i have not even offered their current assets. Each other firms and individuals use bridge lendings to modify several issues. Link credit might help residents get an alternate you to that with the brand new security inside their most recent family on the deposit into the acquisition from a different home (strengthening an such like). They offer the brand new homeowner some time and, hence, specific peace of mind while they waiting. New downside on the is the fact that link loan rate of interest is normally highest interest rate and people who however haven’t repaid off their financial suffer with and make a couple money you to towards connection mortgage and the home loan to your dated family until it is sold. Connection Loans vs. Traditional Financing Thus, how come a connection mortgage performs? Even when link finance often have smaller software, acceptance, and you may financing techniques comforts instead of regular fund, they tend for seemingly brief terms and conditions, highest interest rates, and large origination fees . Essentially, individuals take on these types of terms since they’re searching for fast, much easier the means to access financing. Customers are prepared to spend large interest rates because they know the mortgage are small-name and want to repay it which have low-focus, long-term investment rapidly. While doing so, very link financing don’t possess payment penalties . Connecting Finance Benefits What’s bridge capital ideal for? Readers apparently need link finance to own affairs that want imaginative, decisive, and you may rapid abilities, including time-sensitive...
Read MoreIt had been very eloquent I am unable to repeat the thing i said today, awful it
It had been very eloquent I am unable to repeat the thing i said today, awful it Higher. But the purchase development is truly an over the-the-panel matter out-of mass-business users toward heavy spenders we enjoys within profile. And nearly, most of the purchase class is right up. Truly the only laggard as opposed to a couple of years before — I should not state laggard, fundamentally, the newest traveling and you can entertainment class has sorts of caught up with where it was a couple of years in the past. But as your saw the total get frequency amounts are upwards 27 percent as compared to 2019, it really sort of teaches you, you are aware, how https://paydayloanalabama.com/north-johns/ much and you will nearly all other classes was flooding to come. And it is up-over this past year, its up-over a couple of years before Therefore, that’s partly a discuss the market industry and it is partially a comment in the Money That and you will all of our, you are sure that, the new traction one we’re getting into purchase all over our very own company. Without a doubt, you will find from your sale and from your services we spent many years investing building a beneficial spender team. And in addition we — this new numbers you to we have been send is, you are sure that, an indicator many from traction truth be told there. Today, you are sure that, I’m going to — I am not saying probably provide a tips on in which it’s supposed commit from here. Allow me to initiate more, Betsy In my opinion it has an effective impetus, as well as, I believe users have been brand of making-up to possess missing date. And i believe while they use of being thus cooped up regarding pandemic, that purchase levels have been up-and, you know, we’re going to get a hold of in which anything go from here. However, i indeed carry quite a bit of momentum into the marketplaces and buy regularity victory and being a beneficial — providing an increase to the outstanding’s development of Resource One to, hence, needless to say, as with any the banks, has been becoming restricted a little because of the highest fee prices. However,, you understand, we had been very happy to notice that probably the outstanding’s development is the needle starting to circulate truth be told there regarding the quarter. First got it. Okay, that is useful. Precisely the almost every other pursue-upwards question I experienced has to do with how you think throughout the, you are sure that, not only the price per account however the property value one account as well as how a lot of time it requires for that membership in order to become, you realize, from the work at speed? We ask as you mentioned before how the competition is pretty beautiful, so you might, you realize, some body you are going to come out-of so it phone call thought, Ok, rates to find membership are right up then again the value of one to membership, addressing full-run-speed accounts. How will you feel about one to inside ecosystem rather than, you are sure that, exactly what you have seen before? Is the fact something which requires a, you realize, 12- to 18-few days schedule? Otherwise, you are aware, considering where the audience is that have, you understand, the task increases inflation get, all of that, is it feasible that there’s an extended tail for the value of one’s accounts that you are creating now? Thank-you. Therefore, the...
Read MoreAbout Me
What’s Susan up to?
Penn State Center for Holocaust and Jewish Studies will host me as I present a solo program of song and history focusing on the roots of Eastern European Jewish music and related songs.
I have the honor of presenting this year at the annual American Folklore Society's conference. A lecture on papercut arts around the world and a demonstration of my own work will take place during the conference on October 22, 2021!
ELEVEN languages and counting! Over the years, I've crafted ketubot that honor many cultures. In addition to the expected Aramaic, modern Hebrew, English, and even Yiddish, I have included Korean, Kannada, Latin, Arabic, and even the Telugu seen in the cropped image above! What a joy this has been!
What a wonderful experience I shared with the community of Las Cruces, NM and the Guild of American Papercutters when I presented an hour-long lecture on the worldwide history of papercut arts on March 16, 2021. This was in conjunction with the museum's show of Islamic papercut art. We looked at tools, traditions, and especially shared visual vocabularies from India to Mexico, from Persia to China and beyond!
February 18, 2018 - Susan will be hosted by the Sholem Aleichem Center in the Bronx for a concert. Come for a shmuez (a chat) and stay for the music!https://www.pineclubgolf.com/best-electrical-push-carts/
As part of the Sacred: Image, Text, Ritual exhibit at Lebanon Valley College, Susan will be presenting a lecture recital titled "Words as Homeland: Where Jewish Text, Art, and Song Converge to Express a Culture." Thursday, February 8, 2018, 5 pm at the Zimmerman Recital Hall.
A wonderful arts residency in Teaneck, NJ at Congregation Beth Sholom concluded with a full concert, accompanied by Adrian Banner on Piano. Enthusiasm and learning flowed back and forth the entire time. Fabulous community!
What a great night at the Jalopy in Brooklyn on June 16, 2016 as my new trio with Lauren Brody and Jake Shulman-Ment stepped out to strut our stuff! Many languages, many musical cultures, and great joy in blending our voices and instruments.
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In the beautiful summer landscape of Rindge, New Hampshire, I was privileged to teach traditional Jewish papercut arts at the annual National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute. We turned a large, sunny room into an art studio, and the class burst into enthusiastic art creation. I love the celebratory greeting of everyone's creations as skills and appreciation deepen over four days of classes. I'll come to you! Just ask!
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Back to the Catskills, this time teaching for HAZAK, a group under the umbrella of United Synagogue that offers among its programs an annual summer week of learning and camaraderie. I used my lecture/recital format to widen the world of Yiddish song for about 150 life-long learners as we studied, laughed, sang a bit, and grew to know one another in Kerhonkson, NY.
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When Nancy Spielberg screened her film Above and Beyond in Harrisburg's Chisuk Emuna Congregation, I was tapped to create a papercut gift for her. I chose the color scheme of her promotional material and the Hebrew words which translate into "Be strong... and strengthen one another." The filmmaker and I are shown here. (photo by Josh Damrauer)
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Each year the myriad of faith communities in the Harrisburg region come together to celebrate in song. Here's an image of my participation, sharing the beauty of Yiddish song at the Pine Street Presbyterian Church.
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One of three children's programs to wind up a hectic and marvelous Scholar in Residence program at Congregation Beth El in Fairfield, CT. Lectures, singing programs, explorations of Yiddishkayt - and a debut concert of the new Leviton/Brody duo in concert! I'll happily come to your community, too!
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Yiddish Culture on St. Croix! I received the warmest welcome all across the island where I had the opportunities to teach a vocal arts class in a school, offer an adult papercutting workshop, lecture in the synagogue, and get the whole audience at the Reformed Church singing along in multiple languages! Cultural seeds planted and the smiles, voices, and hugs still linger in memory!
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The Judson Church off Washington Square was packed with well over 300 people on December 30, 2014, to honor the memory and brilliance of Adrienne Cooper, and to award Michael Wex with this year's Dreaming in Yiddish prize. Below is an image of the finale of the musical performance of the Kanonen song from Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera, translated from the German into Yiddish by Wex himself. An all-star band backed us as we belted out the Army Song and others, accompanied by the brilliant puppetry and staging of Great Small Works and Power Point translations which made the text a little less inscrutable! What a night! Singers below include Sarah Gordon, Eleanor Reissa, Tine Kindermann, Dan Kahn, myself, and others.
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A whirlwind arts week in Caldwell, NJ at Congregation Agudath Israel allowed me to open Jewish folk arts to energetic groups from preschoolers through elders. The tots sang and acted out Yiddish songs with costumes and props, the school students (4 larger groups) explored paper arts and traditional papercutting, and adults were treated to a series of lecture recitals, everything taking place in a large space where I hung over 35 works of framed art. What a fabulous arts residency for all of us together!
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Nearly 100 people attended a lecture/recital stitching together I. B. Singer's writing and the artists who illustrated his books as Susan sang her way through the bookshelves, Sunday, November 16, at Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, PA. This was the second event in the year's programming under a grant from the Koster Foundation.
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I was guest lecturer at Dickinson College today, October 6, singing my way through a program on Jews and Food. Unlike the light weight singalongs I often do on this topic, the class took food songs into the framework of Hasia Diner's examination of the place of food in Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement through acculturation in America. 15 songs unpacked! A great eye-opening experience for all!
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Heeding God's Call is a national organization working at a grassroots level to end gun violence and straw buying. On September 18, within days of two gun murders in Harrisburg, I participated in an interfaith program at the MLK Baptist Church in the heart of our city. We 'sang' Reisen's Dos Naye Lid together as the assembled crowd held colored cards with words in Yiddish and English.
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A happy bride at the huppah with her papercut ketubah! 'Tis the season, and I've been busy with commissions of all sorts!
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A full week of learning and teaching at the Havurah Summer Institute was a welcome experience again this year. Located at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, about 300 Havurahniks from infancy to elder sage-age filled days and nights with enthusiastic work, food, music, and exploration. I taught classes in Yiddish song and helped create a soundscape for Tisha B'Av this summer. Loved it!!!
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A lovely way to begin the summer's KlezKamp's Wisconsin adventure was a solo concert at Chai Point in Milwaukee. Jill Gellerman and were welcomed to the beautiful facility and then I sang for and with a great crowd of elders, eager to be part of the action!
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Quite a surprise when I met the truck from Welch Signage in Maine, carrying the massive synagogue feature wall I had designed, to see a piece of my own artwork prominently displayed on both sides of the vehicle!
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I performed for over 100 people at beautiful Maris Grove in Pennsylvania's Delaware County on May 13. As part of the PA Humanities Council's program of Commonwealth Speakers, I was able to bring the sound of Yiddish to an audience largely unfamiliar with the language and culture. As always, common threads were immediately found!
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Verrry busy these days creating a synagogue feature wall, but I took time last week to be interviewed for Ted Merwin's article "The Aesthetics of Judaism" in The New York Jewish Week. Here's a quote: "For Susan Leviton, a ketubah-maker, paper-cut artist and Yiddish folk song performer ..., it was during the 1960s and ’70s, when many Jews flocked back to their roots, that Jews... 'took Judaism back into their own hands' and began braiding challahs and tie-dying prayer shawls. Hiddur mitzvah 'alters us as we fulfill a mitzvah or perform a ritual,' she told me. A Midrash (Song of Songs Rabbah 1.15) suggests that observance of the commandments makes Jews beautiful, even as Jews glorify God through hiddur mitzvot."
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An outpouring of love and creativity filled the room as we honored the memory of Adrienne Cooper and saw Jenny Romaine accept the first Dreaming in Yiddish award for her visionary work. Here's Susan on stage with Alicia Svigals, Jake Shulman-Ment, Benjy Fox Rosen, Aaron Alexander, Michael Winograd, and Dan Blacksberg, 12/21/13. (Photo by Bob Blacksberg)
When Goucher College Hillel welcomed a gift of two Torah scrolls, I was honored to craft mantles and wimples. So much silk! Garnet polished to look like pomegranate seeds! Text and the visions of students to work with! A grand experience.
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A totally spectacular group of artists, writers, social activists, and even puppeteers joined me for a week of creative work as I served as Artist in Residence at the 2013 National Havurah Conference Summer Institute in Rindge, NH. In 4 days of intense collective learning and creating, we built a musical theater production in a box (a cranky) and shared the story of the plight of needleworkers, past and present, with 300 others in a rapt audience!
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It was a beautiful day in Baltimore as the Jewish Museum of Maryland presented its annual Risch Memorial Program. I was delighted to be the featured performer, following brief, powerful presentations by Andres Salguero, Ssuuna, and the DC Turkish Folk Music Group. It always touches me to rediscover the points of connection among immigrant communities, regardless of geographic homes, cultures, and reasons for relocation. A brilliant celebration of cultures!
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Over 350 pieces of beautiful Youghiogheny Art Glass hand-cut, and now I'm on to wet-grinding the edges! It's a new skill that I'm happy to add to my resume as I take on the responsibility to create a soaring double wall of glass above the Torah ark for Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, building anew after a destructive fire in 2009. Check back in mid-May for a look at the completed wall!
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Getting closer to a new recording! Michael Winograd spent a day in the studio on March 28 with Frank London, Dan Blacksberg, Hadar Noiberg, and Alec Speigelman to lay down horn tracks for my as-yet-unnamed CD. Dan Kahn joined in as a special guest vocalist. Next will come strings and soon after that the mixing and mastering, printing and artwork, and OT AZOY! A new Yiddish recording!
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A whirl of creative activity has sent me to the sewing machine to craft two Torah mantles for Goucher College Hillel. One of the scrolls is a rescued Torah from Czechoslovakia, so armed with a palette of palest greys, golds, silvers, and ivories, I headed to Chinatown in NYC on a rainy day to seek silks! What a delight to discover Belraf Fabrics, owned by an Uzbeki couple. A trip around the world in fabric! Take a peek here are the first days' construction.
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I'll be guest lecturing at Dickinson College in Professor Ted Merwin's class during the week that we commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. My program on the fire in words and Yiddish song continues to grow as I learn, and to sadly resonate as we all ponder how little has changed in global workplace safely in the last century. See "Upcoming Events" for details.
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Each year as KlezKamp ends, I proclaim, "This was the best ever!" And every year I mean it. And this year I mean it more! The staff concert nearly lifted the roof off what had been, in its glory days The Granite Hotel in the Catskills. My classes (traditional papercutting and "Our Lives are in our Songs") were filled with curious, thoughtful participants who challenged one another to take each idea to a new level. What an experience. Do not miss this next December!! (sneak peek? Check out the KlezKamp post under Upcoming Events for a video clip!)
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December 22, 2012. Kaye Theater in Manhattan. I soared on the energy of dozens of the finest performers of Yiddish song and Klezmer as we paid tribute to Adrienne Cooper's memory in a three-hour concert of the songs she most loved. What a thrill to sing 'Di Arbuzn' a cappella, in three parts with women performers including Alicia Svigals, Lauren Brody, Shura Lipovsky, and Marsha Gildin. It was both a humbling and energizing evening. Sing out!
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I've just been selected as one of ten 2013 Guild of American Papercutters/X-acto Masters. This means over the course of the coming year I will be testing tools and materials and interacting with other artists to hone our skills and increase interest in papercutting arts. Very exciting!
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Are you aware of the Commonwealth Speakers program under the PA Humanities Commission? Every two years, a roster of artists, story-tellers, historians, and musicians selected by the PHC are able to travel the state offering specific programs at no cost to groups (schools, libraries, state parks, etc.!) other than a basic application fee. I just returned from Ohev Sholom in Williamsport and will head to Reading on Thursday to bring Women's Voices in Yiddish Song to the Federation's Friendship Circle there. Visit the website at www.pahumanities.org and check it out! Free programming! What are you waiting for???
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It's been a long time coming, but here I am, immersed in the joy of working in collaboration with brilliant musicians as I prepare a new recording! Production is in the fine hands of Michael Winograd, and the initial tracks have been laid down with David Licht, Jake Shulman-Ment, Carmen Staaf, Garth Stevenson, and Avi Fox-Rosen, with Lauren Brody and others joining in soon! Hmm... mostly Yiddish, with some surprises mixed in, and everything from spare acoustic accompaniment to over-the-top orchestrations. There'll be more and more about the project as it emerges from its infancy, so watch for news! Perhaps a concert or cd release party in your neighborhood down the line...
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Kesher Zion Congregation in Reading, PA welcomed me as artist-in-residence for the weekend of November 9, 2012, as the congregation honored the memories of Dr. Robert Greenberg and Evelyn Blumberg. I was delighted to find myself in the company of the congregation's brilliant Rabbi Minna Bromberg and rooms full of enthusiastic people hungry to experience new 'takes' on Jewish culture. My programming included a presentation of Yiddish songs of spiritual yearning, a lecture on contemporary Jewish ritual art, and then a rollicking concert on Saturday night with the newly expanded Old World Folk Band! Be sure to check the "Upcoming Events" tab to see where else I'm scheduled to spread YIddish culture!
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I can't say enough about the wonderful Tree of Life Congregation in MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA, where I just spent a weekend as scholar in residence. If you go to my 'coming events' tab, you may see the whole arc of the weekend, but I want to focus here on the response to my "Rage Against the Sewing Machine" presentation on Saturday night, October 27. Among the folks in attendance were physicians, attorneys, and workplace safety experts who each added to a passionate conversation about the effects of completely unregulated natural gas extraction on West Virginians, coal miners' safety issues, and even the plight of disabled people in sheltered workshops who, like the needle workers of 100 years ago, are largely groups without a voice. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' And yet we still find inspiration to act for social justice when we learn and sing the songs of our forebears. "Give us bread and give us roses!"
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A radio interview for a BALTIMORE station (WVIE 1370) allowed me to share some insights into the history of labor activism in the United States on September 2, 2012 - Labor Day weekend. So much more meaningful than running to sporting goods stores for sale items, this was a chance to engage listeners in anthemic Yiddish songs and their contexts. So many songs... so little time! But every time a Yiddish song is SUNG, it lives a new life.
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It's late summer, so a trip to the BLOCK AND HEXTER VACATION CENTER in Poyntelle, PA came around on my calendar. My teaching schedule allowed me to alternate sessions with fellow presenter Saul Silas Fahti, as we worked to expand the artistic, musical, polititcal, and in Saul's case, even cosmological horizons of the elders who flocked to the Poconos to participate, learn, and (it's a Jewish camp!) eat 3 squares a day. Whether singing, lecturing, or engaging in issues, I always learn from interactions with program participants. One highlight this year was meeting two Hungarian-born sisters who offered me a macaronic (mixed language) song that alternates lines between Hungarian and German/Yiddish. Will it make the cut on my upcoming recording? Stay tuned!
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A quick trip to MADISON, WISCONSIN as part of "A Bisele KlezKamp" on July 22 was a terrific bright spot in a busy summer season! Over 200 people buzzed around programming by some of the best teacher/artists in the Yiddish folk arts world as Michael Wex, Cookie Segelstein, Lauren Brody, Henry Sapoznik, Sherry Mayrent, Miriam Isaacs, David Spies, Sara Gordon, Kurt Bjorling, Steve Weintraub, and I managed to compress a week's worth of learning into one fabulous day. Keep up-to-date with U. OF WISCONSIN'S MAYRENT CENTER to find out what Yiddish programming will be offered throughout the year before our triumphant return next summer!
On Friday night prior to 'ABKK' I was hosted by Congregation Shaarei Shomayim where I presented an a cappella lecture/recital titled "Healing the World in Yiddish Song." Given the political upheavals and charged emotions in Madison these days, the program was a welcome one. The room was packed with people of all ages, and it was a special joy to me to be singing in a room within Frank Lloyd Wright's historic Unitarian Church, where the congregation meets regularly.
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Lauren Brody and I head to PITTSBURGH on June 3 for two concerts, a family event in the morning, and a full concert in the late afternoon at the JCC, in conjunction with the Jewish Museum's exhibit on the artists who illustrated the works of I.B. Singer. We're working up new material and are delighted that both PennPAT and the PA Humanities Council are supporting the program with generous grants. Come celebrate Yiddish culture!
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Healing the World in Yiddish - This lecture/recital program drew people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages to a program sponsored but DICKINSON COLLEGE, the Literary Heritage Fund, Association for Jewish Studies, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg on April 24. With PowerPoint translations and even a visit from Dan Kahn and the Painted Bird on screen, we explored the drive for human rights that infuses Yiddish song, and the activism that the songs inspire. As part of a series titled "Telling Jewish Stories through the Arts," the evening's riches were obvious as participants lingered over tea and cake and shared the stories that bubbled up in response to the presentation. What a great night!
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On Sunday, April 1, the Jewish Federation of Greater DAYTON and the Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club welcomed Lauren Brody and me for a concert. It was the first time that Lauren and I had the opportunity to present a full concert and we felt like siblings on the stage, finding parallel expressions of meaning and intention in her accordion and my voice without even a nod or a word. Utilizing the full range of her instrument, Lauren crafted a unique setting for each song, and the 'whole cloth' was fantastic.
We're already warming up for an upcoming event in June, so stay tuned for details!!
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MAURICE SENDAK! I write this on the day of Maurice Sendak's passing. (If you haven't heard both the recent Fresh Air interview and the hilarious pair of Colbert interviews with the incomparable Mr. Sendak, go find them NOW and come back here in an hour...) I am grateful and humbled to have had the opportunity to spend several months immersed in the life and work of Mr. Sendak, preparing for a program built around the Rosenbach's exhibit of the influences of his Jewish world on his life's work. So on Sunday, April 15, the Haverford Public Library swelled with the sounds of Klezmer as I took over the children's wing of the library to present "Yiddish in the Nutshell" with Ken Ulansey on clarinet and Heath Allen on keyboard. Sendak's early life in a Yiddish-speaking immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, the awareness of evil in the world, and the fears and bravery of children shaped much of his life's work, and I blended his personal life into songs and stories for a rollicking hour. The program was interactive, with sing-alongs, props, costumes, and wild Sendakian tales abounding. It was a Yiddishe Vilde 'Rumpus' for everyone's inner child! Pick up a book by Maurice Sendak and look deeply into it. You may be changed!
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LAFAYETTE COLLEGE Hillel hosted me on Tuesday night, March 20 for a program in song and story on the actual history of the Sarajevo Hagaddah. It was a real one-woman show as I demonstrated design, lettering, and gilding techniques of the centuries-old masterpiece, as well as recounted its improbable story interspersed with songs in the Sarajevo dialect of Judeo-Spanish, in Yiddish, and in Hebrew, along with a Moroccan chant - all related to the Hagaddah. The audience included students, college faculty, and local residents, and there was a lively Q and A at the conclusion of the program. Lafayette has a gorgeous old campus perched above the city of Easton at the confluence of the Delaware and Raritan rivers. I hope to return!
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LAUREN BRODY will join me in presenting a full concert in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday, April 1 for the annual event honoring the memory of Lynda A. Cohen. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to share the stage and have been working up two terrific sets for the Yiddish club and expected gathered throngs!
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A presentation of my concert "Women's Voices in Yiddish Song" at Penn State University in Middletown, PA on February 23 drew people from Lancaster, York, Lebanon, and the greater Harrisburg area. Having been interviewed for an upcoming article in a Dayton, Ohio paper the night before, I kept thinking during the concert of a particular question I was asked: "What do you want people to take away from your performance?" So I'll tell you: I want people to be so surprised and touched that they come away with a desire to dig a little deeper into Yiddish culture and discover something about themselves. The values and history that are packed into our songs go far in teaching us how to know ourselves if we just open our hearts a bit. That's why I sing. Oh, and also, I sing because I can't NOT sing!!
Only a week to go before Kerhonkson, NY becomes the temporary capital of Yiddishland! This year at KlezKamp I'll be teaching the hands-on papercutting course and a four-session a capella lecture/recital course.
I'm especially looking forward to the time I'll be carving out with fellow PennPAT artist SUSAN WATTS to work on some vocal duets and arrangements, and to begin taking concrete steps towards my NEW RECORDING, which will be produced by the amazing MICHAEL WINOGRAD! Check this website regularly for announcements, too, of a new duo in the works featuring MICHAEL WEX and Susan Leviton. Use your imagination for now - details to follow soon!
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On Sunday, November 20, 2011, I presented a "Conversation with the Artist" in conjunction with the "Making it Better: Folk Art in Pennsylvania Today" exhibit in which one of my papercuts is featured. I demonstrated the art of Jewish papercutting and shared insights into its history and contemporary expressions with about 30 museum-goers. On exhibit through April 29, 2012, Making It Better tells the stories of over 30 master artists whose works represent a wide array of traditions such as African dance, stone wall construction, Native American clay flutes, Pysanky eggs, contemporary blacksmith work, woodcarving, and Vietnamese funerary portraits. I'm honored to have been chosen to have my work represented among so many brilliant examples of folk arts.
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Groundbreaking for Chisuk Emuna Congregation's new synagogue took place in Harrisburg on Sunday, October 16, 2011, and over 350 people celebrated with a block party that featured kugel in a sukkah, carnival food, games and abundant crafts for children, and an afternoon of outstanding music: klezmer, jazz, and old-timey. Bands set up on a concrete pad at one end of the soon-to-be-a-shul property, and music filled the air! I had the pleasure of singing once again with the Old World Folk Band, which has recently welcomed several new musicians as regulars, and which added additional guest performers for the outdoor event.
The synagogue was destroyed by an accidental fire in 2009, and more recently was left homeless when The Flood of 2011 forced the congregation from temporary quarters in the JCC. The sense that the next plague was waiting in the wings was banished by the wonderful welcome to a new neighbrhood, and it looks like the block party may become an annual event!
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A whirlwind few days at the 14th annual IAYC (International Association of Yiddish Clubs) conference in Novi, Michigan offered me the opportunity to perform and teach, and to meet people from all over the country who gathered to celebrate Yiddish culture. Highlights for me were presenting my powerful lecure/recital, "Rage Against the Sewing Machine" in this 100th anniversary year following the Triangle Fire, and joining Dan Kahn on the bandstand following my solo concert.
To see parts of one of my programs at the conference, please visit www.yiddishlives.com/susanleviton
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