Should i pay my personal mortgage early?
Should i pay my personal mortgage early? When you’re like any People in america, your own home loan is the most your own biggest monthly expenses. Can you imagine what it would be need to n’t have to spend your own financial per month? If you decide to beat the mortgage repayment, you would certainly be able to do so much more with your month-to-month money. Possibly, you might features an excess of money you could purchase or use to evaluate items from the container record. Yet not, when you’re for many, settling its financial may appear like a dream, it’s not constantly the best solution to own residents. To recognize in the event the repaying their financial ‘s the best monetary disperse to you personally, here are some things to consider. Great things about paying your mortgage very early If you’ve sensed paying the home loan very early, then you’ve most likely thought about every gurus it might bring. The pros are very different for everybody, but check out quite common benefits of settling your financial early. Attract savings Mortgage focus could cost thousands or even tens of thousands off bucks over the loan term. Paying the mortgage early frees this money up to have fun with towards the financial investments in place of focus repayments. No matter if paying down your residence very early will mean that you clean out the chance to grab a mortgage interest tax deduction, you can save extreme numbers on the interest. In addition https://paydayloanalabama.com/needham/, as you inch nearer to paying your house financing, a lot more of the percentage goes toward their principal amount, and therefore ount interesting you could subtract. Peace of mind Some Us americans have to retire of the ages 67, they eritrade declaration. The fresh new statement surveyed 2,000 You.S. adults age 40 so you can 79 which have $twenty-five,one hundred thousand regarding investable possessions and discovered you to definitely almost a couple-thirds men and women within forties had lower than $one hundred,000 stored getting senior years. Concurrently, 28% ones inside their sixties got lower than $50,000. Which includes masters suggesting a benefit out-of 12 times your own pre-senior years income, it produces a huge deals pit. Regardless of what far you are out of retirement, you can also absorb this particular article. By paying out of the mortgage very early, you can eliminate the monthly debts out of a mortgage during the retirement. If you find yourself one of the most significant which do not has actually highest advancing years coupons, removing that it costs helps you extend retirement money further. That it ily assurance, as well as include your lifestyle when you look at the senior years. Disadvantages from paying off your mortgage early Just like any big financial choice, you’ll find prospective drawbacks. When you might imagine you to paying your own financial early was suitable disperse to you, make sure to look at the ill effects of attaching up most of the your money in your mortgage. Lacking advancing years coupons If you do not possess higher advancing years discounts and they are offered settling their home loan early, you may want to think again. How come you will want to prevent and you will think about this choice is compound attract. In the spending, compound attention is gained to the dominating and also the demand for your account. Eg, if you decided to lead $six,one hundred thousand a year ($five hundred monthly) to your retirement account plus it was getting 5% desire, at the conclusion of the first year, might keeps $six,three...
Read MoreExperience the secret of your own christmas at Edelweiss Resorts and you will Hotel!
Experience the secret of your own christmas at Edelweiss Resorts and you will Hotel! Holidays During the Bavaria Bedroom could well be open to set aside starting into the using . Do not let this opportunity slip off to activity amazing thoughts. Please be aware that individuals exclusively deal with on the internet bookings. The new booking hook up will be go on our webpages at the given time and date. Usually do not get left behind! President’s Time Sunday Subscribe all of us to have an unforgettable weekend filled with juicy food, real time musical and wintertime circumstances. Experience the thrill from sledding or benefit from the loving flame and you can indoor situations within our Hausberg Resort Household members Nights. See a succulent Southwest buffet since you stone over to the results of a neighbor hood ring. Spend the sunday immersing yourself throughout the beauty and you may society out of Bavaria into any kind of guided tours. Bundle your vacation now and create lifelong memory. Come across Bundles Protect your own 11 otherwise 7 night See package having a easy a vacation in European countries this year. This new Discover plan lets customers to help you modify its getaways at the Edelweiss Hotel. I see your right up at airport therefore handling Edelweiss is as simple as it will become. Then you may choose from our very own directed trips to increase your vacation. Package boasts morning meal daily. At the end of your trip, we get your back once again to this new airport totally casual and pleased together with your choice to help you vacation at Edelweiss. Experience the fresh new Alps Subscribe our annual armed forces motorcycle rally to possess a legendary casino poker focus on from the stunning Alps. Experience companionship and discover road regarding August 23 – twenty-five. Edelweiss Lodge bundles are for sale to site visitors looking for a just about all comprehensive, hassle-totally free experience about Alps. Bundle boasts breakfast, meals and you may knowledge. Regular Travel Book When you take a secondary you open your head to this new enjoy and you may fall apart the stress. The thing is the country a bit in different ways. On vacation, the angle shifts while sense what counts most: relatives, fitness, well-are, and you can glee. Make sure to look for the newest dinners, the latest thinking, brand new sights, and you will the brand new experiencese straight back regarding vacation perception refreshed, everyday and reconnected which have those you like. Below are a few our year guides today! Knowledge The fresh new Germans understand this amazing term: Wanderlust. It means a very strong, attractive need to travel. You know very well what it is like. Cure the Wanderlust to a single your of several guided go out trips. The complete region are running with castles, gorges, monasteries and. Led tours on the area’s most useful sightseeing cities Over 70km from wishing skiing and you can snowboard works Four mountain golf courses inside twenty minutes drive Once-in-a-existence activities instance paragliding Group meetings We do have the space in order to dispersed so you can make an effective and you can safe meeting. With the encouraging Alps since your backdrop, and our conscious staff making certain it all goes to bundle, think of what you could to complete. Flexible and practical, all of our Conference Cardio and you can experience locations are created to complement a great selection of communities, options, and days. Whether you’re planning a tiny meeting away from 20, or something big for the range, you are able...
Read MoreClaiming a lot fewer expenses isn’t the best possible way to alter your own DTI
Claiming a lot fewer expenses isn’t the best possible way to alter your own DTI Side hustles also can boost your earnings. If you book an area in the home, get in on the discussing discount, accept even more freelance work, or promote a product in addition to most of your team, one to extra money helps you away (you should be careful you never claim a lot of costs which have these types of endeavors, either). Flipping brand new software, reducing your expense will lower your DTI. You may be already paying your costs on time, but it is plus best for tackle your financial situation. Build a summary of your financial situation ranging from high rate of interest to help you lowest. Start repaying the individuals higher-appeal expenses, next circulate on the listing too cross him or her regarding. This is certainly in addition to the prime for you personally to perform a funds (you will find a great cost management workbook you could potentially down load for free ). Living a small slimmer can lead to larger payoffs while you are in a position to place that money to your paying down your debts. Before long, men and women thinking-functioning mortgage requirements dont browse very daunting any further since you see you have a healthy and balanced DTI on your side! Inform you a long Care about-A position Records You’ll be due to the fact free-demanding otherwise natural as you like on your own public lifestyle, however, loan providers want to associate its borrowers having surface, stability, and you can obligation. When it comes to self-functioning financial requirements, which means a substantial really works records. Loan providers usually like to see which you have already been at your newest distinctive line of benefit at the least 2 yrs. The new lengthened oneself-employment records, the higher. This is especially valid whenever you inform you a stable or broadening income over that point. This really is genuine not merely having worry about-a position but also for top hustles and other more money supply chatted about very early. While newly self-functioning but in an identical type of work you had been in past times, it will help decrease a smaller background-make sure you ask your mortgage advisor to have details. Promote Most Records The last 2 yrs from taxation statements are just the end of one’s iceberg with respect to worry about-employed mortgage criteria. You can also need also have three to six days regarding private and you can providers membership bank statements and you can a-year-to-go out profit-and-loss (P&L) loans in Muscle Shoals report. It’s also possible to need certainly to give your balance sheet, 1099s out of your spending subscribers, the lately repaid bills, even more years of taxation statements, and you will a page out of your accountant stating your enterprise is however energetic. People who have gaps for the a job history, money losses, otherwise irregularities also can need certainly to address these issues thanks to a letter on the lender. Their accountant can assist with this also. They can along with make it easier to adjust the manner in which you write off business costs if this is hurting your odds of qualifying to have home financing. Self-operating mortgage requirements may sound intimidating because it’s a different techniques versus a whole lot more easy W-2 staff member, yet they’re not as the tricky because they appear. It is on preparing very early therefore you are ready to hit the soil powering when the time comes to apply for a mortgage-that will be information you...
Read MoreAutomobile financing so you can subprime people fell to help you list lows inside Q3
Automobile financing so you can subprime people fell to help you list lows inside Q3 Schaumburg, Ill., – Even after constant subprime bubble gossip, brand new motor vehicle money field will continue to get stronger and you may stronger. Actually, Experian’s most recent Condition of your own Automotive Loans Sector statement suggests that fund offered to help you consumers in the subprime level fell cuatro.5 percent regarding prior season, and you may money to help you deep-subprime consumers fell 2.8 percent on the lower peak towards the list as 2011. Searching especially at put vehicles money, brand new subprime groups watched an amount big fall off. Financing so you’re able to consumers having deep-subprime credit were down 5.3 percent so you’re able to 5.eleven per cent, the lowest there is seen with the record due to the fact tracking first started during the 2007. Newly began money in order to best individuals jumped dos % so you can encompass almost sixty percent out-of auto loans financed when you look at the Q3 2016. Proper and work out doomsday forecasts throughout the good subprime ripple from the vehicles globe, Q3 2016 brings an excellent stark facts examine, said Melinda Zabritski, Experian’s older director out-of automobile finance. It quarter’s declaration signifies that lenders are decreasing the part of loans on the subprime and you can strong-subprime exposure sections and increase brand new percentage so you’re able to customers with good credit. 1st takeaway listed here is to learn the marketplace fact and not getting contributed astray by hearsay otherwise unsubstantiated items. By doing so, lenders, traders and you can individuals are capable of making smarter s or other solutions available to them. For brand new automobile loans, credit unions became its display because of the twenty-two %, heading out-of nine The brand new statement in addition to discovered that mediocre fico scores for the latest and you may made use of auto fund take an upswing. For brand new auto financing, the typical credit rating climbed two factors to 712 for the Q3 2016, establishing the first occasion average credit scores for new auto money flower since hitting accurate documentation most of 723 within the Q2 2012. For put car fund, the common credit history jumped five points to 655. Thirty-date delinquencies had been flat seasons-over-year, on 2.thirty six per cent. Yet not, 60-day mortgage delinquencies was in fact upwards slightly, moving of 0.67 % in the Q3 2015 to help you 0.74 per cent inside the Q3 2016. Borrowing from the bank unions became their express of your own overall loan to help you 19.6 per cent during the Q3 2016. nine per cent for the Q3 2015 in order to a dozen % in Q3 2016. With regards to the declaration, rate of interest develops starred an option character in helping improve borrowing from the bank relationship express. Rates towards average brand new car financing went from cuatro.63 % from inside the Q3 2015 to cuatro.69 percent within the Q3 2016. Borrowing from the bank unions normally have the absolute most aggressive rates of interest, so when pricing diving complete, it’s an organic impulse to possess credit unions observe a rise within their market share, Zabritski proceeded. Having car rates and you will financing buck wide variety ascending, auto buyers are looking for people save they are able to rating. Borrowing unions’ usually all the way down cost are however a nice-looking alternative. Possibly the greatest move off Q3 2015 so you’re able to Q3 2016 was the development during the business to have credit unions Total discover automotive...
Read MorePlantation Cellular House Park Title LoansMade Simple
Plantation Cellular House Park Title LoansMade Simple Re-finance your Plantation Cellular Family Park title financing having Titlelo. When you yourself have a concept mortgage during the Plantation Mobile Home Playground but they are disappointed towards the interest rates or perhaps the customer service, Titlelo find a unique lender to refinance your loan. Once reading much more about your current loan and car, we’ll hook up your having a loan provider which can provide greatest prices and a much better feel. When a loan was refinanced, the existing loans is paid down of loan places Sacramento the new financial and you will a special loan is established to exchange the old you to. This new lender will have legal rights with the automobile during the matter of a default for the financing. The lien towards automobile (legal rights to palms in the example of a standard) try transported on dated financial to your brand new one which have the brand new financing. Refinancing is an excellent opportunity to buy the newest cost and you will loan providers, nevertheless will be hard to to get a reliable team timely adequate to suit your need. Titlelo is matches you with a brand new bank within a few minutes and you may decrease your prices forever. Kiss your money problems goodbye. And then make finishes satisfy is hard enough. What will happen when you just cannot get it done? Both unforeseen expenses and you will structured occurrences, such as for example getaways, birthdays, and you can straight back-to-college or university is also most of the throw a spending plan regarding sufficient to get a costs (or expenses) in jeopardy. An initial-title mortgage can provide the money you need to maintain your expense latest when you’re dealing with your more expenditures. When you really need dollars, but do not need to open another credit line, a name financing can be the best services. The loan number is determined by the worth of your car, and that’s dependent on a check from the lender your favor. Titlelo makes it possible to contrast lenders and select one for the most useful rates and choices for you. Still and work out money on the car? No problem. If for example the car isnt yet , paid back, nevertheless however really wants to remove a title financing, Titlelo can work with you locate a solution. A subject loan on the a car or truck that have a currently-productive mortgage might possibly be described as an extra-lien on auto. An excellent lien ‘s the right off possession more property up to other cluster takes care of an obligations. Regardless of if Titlelo does not suggest this type of loan, since it is thought a leading-risk mortgage, we would like to empower you to definitely make the best decision to own your position. We are able to explore all of your current selection and provide you with our top-notch advice, however, after your day, we are going to connect you toward financial you choose. Titlelo spent some time working difficult to build relationships that have lenders offering such special funds when you find yourself however keeping an effective profile. No borrowing from the bank checks needed for Plantation Cellular Domestic Playground term financing. When you’re in need of quick cash, it may not add up to start a different sort of line of credit. Users that happen to be rebuilding its borrowing or planning an upcoming get will most likely not even want a credit assessment to look with the their credit report (aside from within FICO score). An automobile...
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.
____
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!
_____________________________
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.
______________________
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)
___________________
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.
____________
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!
______________________
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!
______________
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.
______________________
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!
_________
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.
____________
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!
________
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.
_____________
A happy bride at the huppah with her papercut ketubah! 'Tis the season, and I've been busy with commissions of all sorts!
___________
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!!!
_____________
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!
____________
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!
___________
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!
_____________
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."
_________
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.
_____________________
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!
____________
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!
________
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!
_________________
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!
__________________
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.
___________________
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.
_________
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!)
__________________
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!
_________
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!
_______________
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???
________________
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...
____
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!
____________________
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!"
___________
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.
__________________
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!
______________________
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.
_______________________
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!
__________________________
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!
_______________________
________________________
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!!
_____________________________
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!
________________________
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!
__________________________
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!
_______________________________
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!
_________________________
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.
_________________________
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!
___________________
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
_