Drash little-and-literary hosts Portland launch

By KATIE SCHNEIDER

article created on: 2009-06-11T00:00:00

“I’m sorry some of you are going to stand tonight,” said Roberta Dyer, one of the co-owners of Broadway Books in Northeast Portland. On a warm Tuesday evening in early June, she was addressing an audience that spilled out from the bookstore’s meeting area into the children’s book section. “We usually don’t have this many people.”

The occasion was a reading by 14 contributors to a literary magazine out of Seattle. Drash: Northwest Mosaic offers up poetry, prose and photos from a predominantly Jewish, predominantly Northwest perspective. The magazine seeks “to illuminate and provide connection in our Jewish lives and to educate and entertain both Jews and non-Jews.”

Dyer needn’t have worried. The crowding didn’t seem to bother many. Instead, people called out to familiar faces, introduced themselves to strangers and compared notes on the hamantaschen offered on a front table. Wendy Marcus, editor of Drash who traveled down for the reading from Seattle, commented on the gathering’s unique conviviality. “I feel like I’m in the midst of a family reunion,” she said. “This is the Oregon side of the family.”

In her introduction to the event, Marcus called the content of Drash both “eclectic and electric.” Given the number of contributors, Marcus limited each presentation to four minutes. Many of the poets read from work published in the latest issue of Drash and other sources, showing the depth of their skill.

Certain themes were woven throughout. A number of poets read about the death or debilitation of parents. Betsy Tighe, new to Portland, spoke movingly about carrying her father’s remains in a backpack, along with her hopes that he was in a happier place than he had been when he was alive. Hilda Welch eulogized her father who grew sweet figs. Marilyn Johnson was visibly moved while she read about her mother’s dying wishes, her spoken word more powerful than written words alone.

Persecution and wandering were a theme, as in Ivan Inger’s essay about his grandparents and how they sailed to America looking for the money that grew on trees. Scot Siegel, a city planner from Lake Oswego, captured a single tense moment in the family kitchen when a young boy learned a largely unspoken lesson about what had come before. “I could’ve almost written this about any group who has been persecuted,” Portland psychiatrist Jack Turteltaub said of his work, “but the Jewish people’s history with persecution has been particularly long and sad and difficult.”

In spite of the serious moments, there was also plenty of laughter. “I like to write food poems,” Sharon Lask Munson said before reciting an ode about sitting at an aunt’s table, waiting for the wrath of the Almighty because of the ham on her plate. More laughter came in response to June Fredman, who remarked “there are at least three of you in this room who hope I write better than I play bridge.” Her sly, vibrant delivery sold her poem “Lamentations,” directed at a son who had gone “off the deep edge” religiously.

Michael Schein, director of the LitFuse Poets’ Workshop, offered up a virtuoso performance for “Don’t Say the F Word” in which he responded to censorship by dropping offending consonants until there were virtually no intelligible words left.

When the event ended, people folded up their chairs and ate the remaining cookies. Earlier, chatter had given way to earnest conversation based on the experience of the reading. Drash had formed the connections that it sought, in an entertaining and moving way.

The most recent edition of Drash: Northwest Mosaic is on sale at Broadway Books, located at 1714 NE Broadway, and is available by subscription through Temple Beth Am. Wendy Marcus, who is also music director of Temple Beth Am in Seattle, will be seeking submissions of fiction, non-fiction and poetry for the new edition starting in September. More information can be found at Temple Beth Am’s Web site, templebetham.org.