THE BOOK OF LIFE: City of Light, Part 2

Heidi Rabinowitz14min

Heidi Rabinowitz

00:05

So it's Tikkun Olam Time. And what you just told us about the Theodore Bikel Legacy Project fulfills the mission of this segment of sharing a Tikkun Olam project, but if you thought of anything else that you wanted to share I would love to invite you to do that now. So this, as I always say this is your chance for a little bit of activism and we've already talked about so much activism, but is there any other action that you would like to invite listeners to take to help repair the world?

Aimee Ginsburg Bikel

01:15

Yes, there is. I was thinking about it a lot, how I want to most use this opportunity. And I want to talk about a dichotomy that always needs to be solved for those of us who also want to be very active in Tikkun Olam, and who also cherish the path of the heart, or a spiritual path of making the world a better place by making ourselves better people. I would actually like to take this opportunity in a kind of an interesting contrast and yet compliment to Theo's endless activism and to the activism which I have continued, almost endlessly since he passed away, in protests and events and fundraisers and mailers and letters and speeches. In these exact moments I feel that all of us connecting to peace, inner peace, is very important for the times that we're in, with the thought that the more that us are peaceful, the easier we can birth a peaceful world, what that means to me is remembering to pause during the day to breathe. And usually when we hear that we say oh of course I pause during the day to breathe, but do we? So remembering to pause during the day to breathe, remembering to put our feet down on the ground and to straighten our back and to feel the earth under us and to remember to appreciate the beauty around us and to remember to always try our very best to speak our truth. And to remember as often as we can to return to our heart Even to touch your heart. And remember that we're fighting for a better world, because we love, because we love one another, because we love the earth, because we love ourselves. The fight for a better world is because we love. And so we have to remember to keep that source of love, open. So today in the midst of all of the strong activism and the worry and the concern and the fight. That's my little drop into the ocean is let's remember to always be coming from a place of peace and love.

Heidi Rabinowitz

03:49

I've been asking my guests to help me boost black voices. Is there a black creator whose work you would like to shout out today?

Rebecca Levitan

03:59

Yes, I've chosen to shout out Ntozake Shange, who we actually lost two years ago. She's most well known for her incredible book or some called it a poem and also some called it a musical because a play was made out of it For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. A truly revolutionary work that already the revolutionary newness starts with that spelling of enuf with the F at the end. I remember as a high schooler when I first came across that work how electrified I was just by the spelling of enuf with an F. Something about the courage to throw away those rules, and to say, this is how I experienced it and this is my truth and I gotta say it and no one is going to stop me and I'm writing enuf with an F. The rest of the works in the book are as electrifying. She has been one of those influences that led me on a journey that was so off the beaten track, so unique, sometimes with regrets, you know, what am I doing? Why, why is my life so weird? but I've been propelled forward by many such teachers and she was certainly one of the first ones. And I wanted to call out just another book of hers, a poetry book of hers that I love so much is called Wild Beauty. It's new poems and selected poems that came out in 2016 or in 17. And if you're just finding her poetry for the first time that's a really good book to start with. And then if you don't mind I just have one more book I want to call out, I thought for your show it's also really appropriate. And it's a Native American book and it's by a Native American boy whose name is Aslan Tudor, he was 10 years old when he wrote the book two years ago, and the name of the book is Young Water Protectors, A Story About Standing Rock, and he was with his mom, Kelly at Standing Rock and he wrote this book for all other young activists out there with pictures and with entries from his diary and with explanations and what it feels like to be a young activist, it's a beautiful book and I wish him Aslan Tudor, I wish him well because already at ten he's you know a better writer than most of us.

Heidi Rabinowitz

06:20

Great recommendations. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about that I haven't thought to ask you?

Aimee Ginsburg Bikel

06:28

So, people ask me about this being a children's book. And they say is this subject matter really appropriate for this age? And I want to say that I thought about it a lot myself. It's one thing for it to be read an NPR and to appear in Moment magazine which are both adult things and to say oh this is a children's story but it's adults listening to it. It's one thing to do that. And then to put out a book and choose an age. So luckily, right before the book was actually published I had one of my first presentations to young people at a JCC in Portland. I didn't know if they would connect to it or not, I talked to them very directly, we talked about the importance of learning from history, I asked them who knew where their grandparents were from and they all knew, and I asked them to share something from their grandparent or great grandparents life. And they all had something to share, and I asked them about learning from history and they weren't so sure what that meant. So I asked them to think about, maybe their parents hate it when they do such and such but they do it again and their parents get mad at them again. Well, maybe change! They love that point. I asked them what they knew about the Holocaust and they knew some. And I read them the book and they were very involved, and very moved. And at the end, I asked them if they could think about a time where their heart was closed to someone because of how hurt they'd been. And we did a little meditation where they each thought about that time. And we worked on it, to what extent are we able to wish them well, to open our heart, and also to know that we're not going to behave the way we were behaved to because we don't want anyone to feel the way we feel right now. And they were wonderful, they shared their experiences, their experiences were so profound. And at the very end of the conversation I asked us each to commit to something for Tikkun Olam just like you know just like you do in this show, and their answers were marvelous, they were mostly about the environment, you know, bring cloth bags to the supermarket was probably number one answer a sign of the times, that they committed to all kinds of things from anti bullying to telling their mom to buy organic food. These were middle school kids. I found out, they're very good and ready for this story. So after that I felt much less apologetic and much more confident in presenting it in this way and in the letters that kids, you know teachers always have kids write you letters afterwards. They always say that they loved hearing about the story of Theo from a different time and they were able to connect to it very much, able to imagine what if it had been them. And mostly what they liked was to know that he grew up to be so successful and famous, and that made them feel very happy. Maybe they'll grow up to be successful and famous as well. We said to ages 10 to 120 and I now from personal experience, I'm very comfortable with those ages.

Heidi Rabinowitz

09:41

That's reassuring to hear, because it does feel unusual as a children's book, it doesn't really fit into the usual boxes.

Rebecca Levitan

09:50

Yeah, Theo and I were both very out of the box and nothing that we ever did really fit into any box and so I guess it's not surprising that this book is also kind of out of the box. You have somebody that you didn't ask and I would like to add. When Theo wrote the short story in 2014, and even when he passed away in 15 (thank God he passed away in July and wasn't alive for the elections because that would have given him a heart attack), we could not have imagined the relevance of the story. And the danger that we would all be feeling towards our democracy, towards our civil rights. We didn't know how relevant it would be for children to know that even though you're young, it's never too young to know the truth about our world, which is, it's beautiful. It's full of love. It's full of wonder, but it also can be dangerous. And people can hate each other for no reason at all. And it's all of our jobs, it's our parents' jobs and it's the government's job, but it is also our jobs and even though we might feel a little bit too young for it, what to do. That's how life is. And I think that modern parents, very much want to wrap their children up with a lot of cotton balls and fluff and friendly barnyard animals, and you know lots of beautiful stories that are turned out with a happy ending and I know that I'm a mom, they're so pure they're so sweet. They're so beautiful. Please don't make me be the one to scratch that and to give them the bad news, but actually better the bad news come from me than from someone else. But the good news about the bad news is that we do have the power as human beings to fix the world to change the outcome, there will be that generation, and it might as well be the generation of the kids of now, there will be that generation that will learn how to live in peace, and who will learn to be kind to each other, and who will learn to speak out from a young age, against injustice to tell someone about it and make sure that injustice is corrected, to refuse to take on false hate, to refuse to take on bigotry, to always fight for what's right, there will be a generation that has a majority of kids that are that way and then we will see the beautiful world we've always dreamed to see, but for it to be this generation, they need to be taught it and told it, that these are the dangers, not as if those dangers weren't always present even when Theo wrote the book, but I feel now that it all has very much intensified and that our book came out at a very appropriate time.

Heidi Rabinowitz

12:43

Amy Ginsburg Bikel, thank you so much for speaking with me and Happy Hanukkah.

Rebecca Levitan

12:48

Thank you. It was really such a pleasure to be here and Happy Hanukkah to you as well.

Rebecca Levitan

12:57

Hi. This is Rebecca Levitan, Chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. I'll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast, and I'd like to dedicate my episode to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, may her memory be for a blessing.

Heidi Rabinowitz

13:10

[MUSIC, OUTRO] Don't be a stranger. Say hi to Heidi, at 561-206-2473, or BookofLifepodcast@gmail.com. Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too at @BookofLifepod. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through Bookshop.org /shop/bookoflife to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon, or making a one time donation to our home library, the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. You'll find the links for all of that and more at BookofLifepodcast.com. Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening, and happy reading!

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