Women of Chelm
"By the twentieth century, various collections of stories- even novels- spread the wisdom of the wise men of Chelm throughout the world. But the women of Chelm, only now and then, could be seen peeking out from behind the long black coats of the men."
The Women of Chelm step out from the shadows in this staged adaptation of Jenny Tango's 1991 artist's book Women of Chelm. This Mother's Day weekend, real-life mother-daughter duo Suzanne Bernstein and Miryam Coppersmith bring the eccentric women of Jenny's world to life through theater, dance, music and puppets! All are welcome.
Creative team
Jenny Tango
Photo: Robert Bunkin
Creator of Women of Chelm
Jenny Tango is a visual artist working collaboratively and individually in painting, communications media, artist's books and comic strips on gender issues in mythology, ethnicity, and popular culture. Jenny attended Cooper Union, NYU Institute of Fine Art, and Brooklyn College. She has been painting and drawing since 1946. Jenny and her partner Robert Bunkin have been together since 1973 and live at Westbeth Artist Housing.
If art is autobiography, then it seems that I have truly been an artist since childhood. https://westbeth.org/artist-page/jenny-tango-painter/
Robert Bunkin
Image: Jenny Tango
Host
Figurative painter, art historian and curator, Robert Bunkin is a native New Yorker. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, undergraduate degree from the CUNY BA/BS Program, MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Bunkin lived and studied in Florence, Italy between 1986-88. He returned to Italy in 2000 to perfect his fresco technique at the Tintori Laboratory for True Fresco in Vainella (near Prato) on a Parsons School of Design Faculty Leave Grant. He has also spent some time studying and teaching in Beijing. https://westbeth.org/artist-pa...
Miryam Coppersmith
Photo: Johanna Austin
Creator/Performer
Miryam Coppersmith (she/they) is a Philadelphia-based performance artist, dance leader, and Jewish educator. She leads and teaches Yiddish dance at festivals, synagogues, and celebrations around the country. Her solo dance/theater piece Mirele Lernt Zich Yiddish was hailed a "must-see performance" by The Dance Journal and has since been performed in Phoenix, AZ and Catskill, NY. Miryam has studied with the Worker’s Circle, YIVO, KlezKanada, Mitsui Collective, Yiddish New York, LabShul, and Hebrew Union College. They have performed with Vervet Dance, Theatre Ariel, Rabbinic Arts Company, Janna Meiring, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and others. miryamcoppersmith.com
Suzanne Bernstein
Photo: Harvey Wang
Creator/Performer
Suzanne Bernstein is the cantor of Temple Israel Reform Congregation of Staten Island, where she first met Jenny Tango and Robert Bunkin many years ago. Ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cantor Bernstein has also been on the clergy team of congregations in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Long Island, and New Jersey, and she occasionally sings at her home synagogue in Catskill, NY. She was the subject of Harvey Wang’s delightful short documentary, “The Cantor’s Last Cantata.” But her children, Chaya and Miryam, are her life.