Writing as Refuge - Anne Frank Center

44 Park Place, New York, NY 10007 USA
www.annefrank.com
Writing as Refuge
A Season of Programs Exploring the
Power of Writing and the Trauma of Exile
SPRING 2016
The Anne Frank Center USA is dedicated to fighting
discrimination and inspiring the next generation to
build a world based on equal rights and mutual respect.
We dedicate this season of
programs in memory of Alan Moore,
AFC staff member and friend.
In 1933, Otto Frank and his family became refugees as they
moved from Germany to the Netherlands to escape the
rise of the Nazis. Five years later, they would try to make
a similar move, seeking refuge in the United States as the
Netherlands no longer remained safe for Jews. This time his
efforts failed, lost in a mire of waiting lists and red tape.
Of the members of the Frank family only Otto would
survive the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, stories like this still abound today. In the
past few years alone, literally millions of refugees from
Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq have left their homes seeking
safety elsewhere. At last count there were nearly 60
million people displaced by conflict worldwide - caught in a
web of violence, extremism, and trauma, despite being “the
lucky ones,” the ones who got out.
Additional support and sponsorship is provided by
the Jewish Art Salon, the Consulate General of the
Federal Republic of Germany, New York, and the
Consulat Général de France à New York.
All events take place at The Anne Frank Center USA
44 Park Place, New York, NY 10007
Reserve your spot by calling 212-431-7993 or emailing [email protected]
Visit our website annefrank.com/comingevents for new listings and updates
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www.AnneFrank.com — Writing as Refuge — Spring 2016 Programs
What can we do in response to this crisis? What is the life
of an exile really like? And what role can art and specifically
writing have in expressing this struggle? These are the
sorts of questions The Anne Frank Center USA will tackle
in its 2016 program season, Writing as Refuge. The series
will feature a screening of the new film No Asylum, which
tells the tragic story of Otto Frank’s desperate attempts
to secure American visas before going into hiding with
his family. It will also include panel discussions with the
refugee advocacy group HIAS, the American Jewish
Historical Society, and the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian
Refugees on the current refugee crisis and our response
to it. Other events will feature a special performance to
mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the opening of our
newest exhibit, Letters from my Grandparents by artist Ruth
Schreiber. We invite you to join us for these programs
which will forever change how you think about sacrifice,
trauma, and power of the written word.
www.AnneFrank.com — Writing as Refuge — Spring 2016 Programs
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Writing as Refuge:
A Season of Programs Exploring the
Power of Writing and the Trauma of Exile
Spring 2016 Program Calendar
Adults $5 and Students/Seniors $3, unless otherwise noted
Space limited. Reservations recommended.
212-431-7993 or [email protected]
All events at The Anne Frank Center USA are free for
Holocaust survivors, veterans and students 15 and under
February 4 - April 15
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Letters from my Grandparents:
The Art of Ruth Schreiber
EXHIBITION
In partnership with the Jewish Art Salon
Opening reception:
Thursday, February 4 6:00-8:00pm
London by Ruth Schreiber
Exhibit can be viewed Tuesday – Saturday
from 10:00am–5:00pm
Ruth Schreiber’s grandparents were among the many Jews in
Europe who made the brutal decision to send their children to safety in England
during Hitler’s rise. In this powerful mixed media exhibit, Schreiber tells their
remarkable story through a series of artworks based on the letters they wrote to
their children while abroad. Moving, illuminating, and deeply meaningful, Letters from
My Grandparents is a powerful tribute to the bonds that can never be broken.
This exhibition is funded in part by the Puffin Foundation, West.
Thursday, January 21
6:30 – 8:30pm
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Letters from Anne and Martin
A special program in honor of
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Join The Anne Frank Center USA as we mark
Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a performance of
our signature theater piece, Letters from Anne and
Martin. Our original production combines the iconic
voices of Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Developed from excerpts from The Diary of Anne
Frank and Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, the
piece evokes the important messages from these legendary figures, as they write of
their hopes and plans for a peaceful and unified world. Following the performance,
playwright, filmmaker and community activist Spirit Trickey will discuss her
mother, Minnijean Brown Trickey’s legacy as one of the “Little Rock Nine” who
participated in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
A Q&A will follow the program.
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www.AnneFrank.com — Writing as Refuge — Spring 2016 Programs
Wednesday, February 10
6:30 – 8:30pm
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On Writing and Remembering
A Talk with artist Ruth Schreiber
In partnership with the
Jewish Art Salon
Artist Ruth Schreiber will discuss her current
exhibit, Letters from my Grandparents, on view in
Auschwitz by Ruth Schreiber
our gallery through April 15. Her art work tells
the remarkable story of the discovery of a box
of letters written by her grandparents between January 1939
and August 1942, to the three of their five children whom they
had managed to send to England on the Kindertransport from
Germany at the height of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Schreiber will explore
her artistic process in bringing four decades and two continents worth of loss,
separation, survival and reunion to life.
In partnership with the Jewish Art Salon.
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Wednesday, March 9
6:30 – 8:30pm
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Displaced
A special performance by
Girl Be Heard to mark
International Women’s Day
Ticket pricing and further details to come
Through personal stories and those shared with
Girl Be Heard company members from girls
living in refugee camps abroad, the cast explores the injustices that make home
such a fleeting dream for many. Displaced comes at a critical time for both US and
communities abroad, as homelessness and displacement are the highest they’ve
been in decades.
No Asylum:
A series of programs in response to the refugee
crisis in Europe then and now
Girl Be Heard is a nonprofit theater company that brings global issues affecting
girls center stage by empowering young women to tell their stories.
www.girlbeheard.org
Saturday, March 12
Thursday, March 17
1:30 – 3:00pm
6:30 – 8:30pm
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Scrapbooks and Memory
A Family Program on the art of
book-making with Miky Ruiz
No Asylum
The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story
Part of AFC’s Human Rights Film Series
For ages 8 and up.
In 1933 in Germany, when discrimination against the Jews
worsened, Otto moved the family to Amsterdam. But
as the Nazi noose tightened throughout Europe, Otto’s
desperation increased. When the doors to other countries
closed, he turned to the US as their last hope for refuge.
No Asylum, directed by Paula Fouce, is the dramatic and
tragic story of Otto Frank’s desperate attempts to secure
American visas before going into hiding with his family in 1942. Based on recentlydiscovered letters by Otto Frank in YIVO’s archives, No Asylum interviews Anne
Frank’s surviving family about his efforts to seek refuge for his family through
friends, refugee boards and the U.S. State Department. Otto’s letters and the US
State Department responses paint a picture of the world’s failure to respond to
the plight of the Jewish refugees. Followed by a Q&A with the film maker Paula
Fouce, and Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of YIVO Institute for Jewish
Research.
This program is funded in part by the Puffin Foundation, West.
$12 general admission $10 members Booking information to follow
Tickets:
adults $5; seniors/students $3;
free admission for students 15 and under;
$15 for a family ticket (consisting of 2 adults and
2 children, or 1 adult and 4 children)
Sophie’s Book by Ruth Schreiber
Scrapbooks are a wonderful, lasting way of preserving personal and
family memories for future generations. Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young
Girl began as a scrapbook prior to her using it as a journal. Join the AFC
and visual artist Miky Ruiz in creating a personalized scrapbook to store your
mementos and keepsakes. Using a variety of craft materials, with examples of
different scrapbooks available to inspire creativity, participants will complete the
design of a book to take home and keep forever.
The screening will take place at The Museum of Jewish Heritage,
36 Battery Pl, New York, NY 10280
www.mjhnyc.org
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Tuesday, March 29
6:30 – 8:30pm
6:30 – 8:30pm
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For the Sake of the Children: The Letters
Between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus Jr.
A Book Event with Joan Adler
Remember Us
Film screening
In 2007, a file of letters between University of Heidelberg
roommates and lifelong friends, Otto Frank and Nathan
Straus Jr., was found in the archives of YIVO: Institute
for Jewish Research in New York. The letters revealed
for the first time that Otto Frank tried desperately to get
his family out of war torn Holland in 1941, fifteen months
before they went into hiding in the now famous attic at
Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam. The story of the letters
has been published in a book for the first time, enriching our understanding of the
history of the Frank family, and providing us greater insight into this tragic era. Join
us for a reading and conversation with the author Joan Adler, Executive Director
of the Straus Historical Society.
Join us for a special screening of the new documentary film,
Remember Us: The Hungarian Hidden Children to commemorate
Yom HaShoah. Directed by Jason Auerbach and Rudy Vegliante,
this powerful new film focuses not only on who these children
were, but the adults they have become. For this special
screening we are thrilled to welcome, Evi Blaikie, Hungarian
hidden child and friend of The Anne Frank Center, who will introduce the film, and
share some of her own experiences of the war and its aftermath.
Thursday, April 7 7:00 – 9:00pm
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Yearning to Breathe Free:
The American Jewish Response
to the Refugee Crisis
This event will take place at the
Museum at Eldridge Street
Tickets $12 adults; $10 for students/seniors
Founded in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe,
HIAS (formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) has touched the
life of nearly every Jewish family in America, and now welcomes all who have
fled persecution. From their beginnings in a storefront on the Lower East Side of
Manhattan, a group of American Jews organized to provide much-needed comfort
and aid to thousands of Jews fleeing waves of antisemitic riots. At this special
roundtable event, hosted by the Museum at Eldridge Street, the magnificent
Lower East Side synagogue that provided spiritual renewal and safe haven for the
first wave of Jewish immigrants escaping Eastern Europe, speakers from HIAS,
the American Jewish Historical Society and the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian
Refugees, including newly settled refugees, will discuss the mounting crisis and the
American Jewish response.
The event will take place at the Museum at Eldridge Street,
12 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
www.eldridgestreet.org
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Thursday, May 5
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www.AnneFrank.com — Writing as Refuge — Spring 2016 Programs
Part of AFC’s Human Rights Film Series
Tuesday, May 17
6:30 – 8:30pm
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Undocumented Immigrant Youth:
Listening to Students and
Forging a New Path
A discussion and film screening
with CUNY Professor Tatyana
Kleyn and 2014 AFC SAFA
winner, Carolina Gonzalez
This event, which is free and open to the public, is made possible through the
support of the New York Council for the Humanities’ Public Scholars program.
New York is home to over 750,000 undocumented immigrants, many of whom live in
mixed-status families. This program will address state and national policies through the
lens of some remarkable undocumented youth, to illustrate the realities, challenges
and opportunities they face through high school, college and beyond. The program will
include a screening of Living Undocumented, a 17 minute documentary co-produced and
directed by Tatyana Kleyn, which explores the life of six DREAMers who portray the
realities of our nation’s immigration system and its impact on undocumented students.
Tatyana Kleyn is an associate professor at the City College of New York in the Bilingual
Education and TESOL programs. For the 2014-15 year she was president of the New
York State Association for Bilingual Education and a Fulbright Scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Carolina Gonzalez was the 2014 winner of AFC’s Leah and Edward Frankel Scholarship
Award for her work founding Deferred Action for Dreamers, whose mission it is to help
young, undocumented immigrants in the South Florida community defer deportation
and gain employment authorization. To date the organization has helped over 2,000
applicants from the ages of sixteen to thirty-one. As the granddaughter of Cuban
immigrants, Ms. Gonzalez grew up in Miami with a keen understanding of the challenges
and alienation many new arrivals to America face, especially children.
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Literary Lunches at
The Anne Frank Center USA
Tickets: $20, which includes lunch and
an advance copy of the novel
This spring The Anne Frank Center will launch our Literary Lunches
program – the chance listen to an acclaimed author read and discuss
their new novel and enjoy a light lunch provided by us. The ticket
price includes a copy of the book, which you can pick up ahead of
time so you can have your questions prepared! Our Literary Lunches
this season will feature novelists Peter Golden and Martha Hall Kelly.
Sponsored by Pret A Manger
Wednesday, March 2
12:30 – 2:00pm
Wednesday, May 11
12:30 – 2:00pm
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Martha Hall Kelly’s
Lilac Girls
Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful
debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption,
and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades.
On the eve of a fateful war, New York socialite Caroline
Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French
consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s
world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland
in September 1939. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish
teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she sinks deeper into her role
as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of
watchful eyes and suspect neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
Join author Martha Hall Kelly as she reads from and discusses this remarkable
novel of unsung women and their quest for love, happiness, and second chances.
Lunch provided.
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Peter Golden’s
Wherever There is Light
This sweeping, panoramic tale of twentieth-century America
chronicles the decades-long love affair between a Jewish
immigrant and the granddaughter of a slave. Julian Rose is
only fifteen when he leaves his family and Germany for a new
life in 1920s America. Kendall Wakefield is a free-spirited
college senior who longs to become a painter. Her mother,
the daughter of a slave and founder of an African-American
college in South Florida, is determined to find a suitable match for her only daughter.
One evening in 1938, Mrs. Wakefield hosts a dinner that reunites Julian with his
parents—who have been rescued from Hitler’s Germany by the college—and brings
him together with Kendall for the first time. From that encounter begins a thirtyyear affair that will take the lovers from the beaches of Miami to the jazz clubs of
Greenwich Village to postwar life in Paris.
Tuesday, June 21
4:00 – 8:00pm
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Night at the Museums
Now in its third year, “Night at the Museums” offers
free entry to 15 of Lower Manhattan’s most diverse and
culturally significant institutions – including The Anne
Frank Center USA. Part of this year’s “River to River
Festival,” this unique opportunity will take place on June
21 from 4 to 8 p.m. Many of the sites will offer special
programming and tours.
Join author Peter Golden as he reads from this epic tale of three generations,
two different but intertwined families, and one unforgettable love story.
Lunch provided.
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