Culture at war: The events that will give you hope in the summer

Nine months into a war whose end is not in sight. The cultural recommendations section returns, hoping to encourage the spirit, with the "Meter on Meter" poetry festival, a dance festival in Ashdod, a new and intriguing treatise on the stories behind the canonical children's stories, an illustration exhibition following the book "Someone to Run With", a cluster of exhibitions at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art and summer activities for children at the National Library.

"Meter on Meter" The 16th Jerusalem Poetry Festival A place for singing

The "Meter on Meter" festival, founded in 2008, is dedicated this time to the celebration of new poetry books published in the last year and a half. During the four days of the festival (July 15-18) 70 poets, artists and lyricists will participate, who will take part in 19 meetings including a poetry party, "beer poetry" events and 14 nano-launches of poetry books.

The festival will be opened by Yosef Ozer and Lior Sternberg at the ceremony of awarding a prize for Hebrew poetry named after Chaim Gori Tashpad for poets. The event will take place on Monday 15.7 at 18:00 at "Makom Leshira". 

Among the participants: Aggie Meshaul, Roni Somek, Tehila Hakimi, Amos Noi, Shani Poker, Gilad Meiri, Daniel Oz, Belha Ben Eliyahu, Alex Ben Ari, Noa Shekarji, Tino Moshkovitch, Lee Maman, Kim Midan, Netzer Lau, Maureen Nehedar, Maayan Eitan, and more.

The festival events will be held in businesses, bars and restaurants in the center of Jerusalem. The entrance is free 

"Ashdodance" - the biggest dance festival in Israel Ashdod 

"Ashdodance", the international dance festival is starting for the seventh year with the sign "we will not stop dancing". The festival will last four days between July 15-18. About 2000 male and female dancers from leading dance troupes, folk dance groups and first class artists will participate in the festival in a mosaic of original productions, and unique and intriguing shows.

Among the participants, Sarit Haddad hosts Kobi Oz and Rotem Cohen, Odeya, Shiri Maimon, Marina Maximilian, David Broza, Valerie Hamati, Maya Buskila, May Feingold, Einat Sarouf, Or Cohen, Eric Mishali, Livnat Ben Hamo, and others.There will also be culinary tours and tours of historical sites in the city of Ashdod. The festival events will be held in different centers in the city.

"An act in six stories" | New Podcast in "Kan Podcasts"

"An act in six stories", a new podcast in "Kan Podcasts" about the stories behind the canonical children's books in Israel. In each of his Rachel episodes, Shira Kadri Ovadia and Yuval Malhi will reveal the unknown stories behind the writing of the classics.

The three will describe the story of the birth of a children's book through interviews with the writers, illustrators and publishers. Through the books, they will deal with the story of the entire Israeli culture: how the attitude towards children and their leisure culture changed throughout the years of the state, how the political and social changes affected the values presented by the children's literature of the period, and how the aesthetics of the children's books changed.

The episodes combine interviews, narration segments and archive segments, which combine together into a different documentary story each time.

The first two episodes that aired: "The Lion Who Loved Strawberry" in which Nathan Slor, the son of Tirza Atar, is interviewed and "Ginji" in which Galila Ron-Feder Amit is interviewed. In an episode of "Ginji", Ron-Feder Amit reveals the moment when the idea came to write about the group of children from the Talpiot neighborhood. 

On Thursday, July 11, a new episode of "The Pot Maker" with Alona Frankel will be released.

The indentation is available in all indentation applications 

"Someone to run with": A new exhibition at Tmol Shilshom | Jerusalem

As part of the events commemorating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the unique cafe Tmol Shilshom in Jerusalem, a new exhibition will be presented at the "Kir 1" gallery there. The Jerusalem artist Leora Weisz created eight illustrations as a tribute to the book "Someone to Run With" by David Grossman, in accordance with the plot of the book which unfolds a chase around Jerusalem and reveals the world of homeless boys and girls.

Weisz says: "Ahead of the exhibition, I wanted to create a space walk from the exhibition wall to the rich space of 'The Day Before Yesterday', which is full of objects collected from flea markets and bookshelves. This is how the painted cats appeared, cats lying everywhere. And just as 'The Day Before Yesterday' is very Jerusalem, cats are also Jerusalemites . They are far from cuddly and beautiful, but harsh and hostile, a bit like Jerusalem in Grossman's book, whose young heroes fight for compassion and attention."

Curator: Doron Adar

Ending: 31.9 

Summer activities for children The National Library

A summer full of activities for children at the National Library. In a special collaboration with the Jerusalem Street Orchestra, the library will host during the month of July a series of classical music concerts for the whole family, and Israeli music in original arrangements, sponsored by Neanette and Eli Reinhard.

In the first concert (8.7) the orchestra will bring the magical sounds of Mozart and Mendelssohn;  In the second concert (15.7) the composer Omri Peled will be a guest and with him will be performed the classical piece "Peter and the Wolf" to the sounds of Sergei Prokofiev. The third concert in the series (July 22) - "Israeli Melody" - will bring a celebration of Israeli musical treasures in original arrangements written especially for the orchestra, from Naomi Shemer to Mashina.

From the end of July to the beginning of August (8.8-28.7) there will be a special activity: "Poof story - pillows inspired by children's stories". Nine designers, nine pops and nine stories ("The Emperor's New Clothes," "Utz-Li Gutz-Li," Yosef and the striped shirt and more) will mix together for a colorful celebration of text and textiles, all of which are allowed and should be touched, climbed, played and cuddled.

During the activity, the children will also be able to wander among the giant pillows designed inspired by stories and legends, and even participate in a theater performance or create and design a personal pouf-pillow for themselves. 

The curator of the exhibition is Hagar Raban, and nine textile and fashion designers work with her: Ofir Ivgi, Bat Dzaveli, Talia Shannon Mozes, Neta Bacharach, Naama Ben Moshe, Stav Forges, Anat Friedman, Tamar Nix and Tamara Efrat. 

The activity is intended for children aged 5-11

A new cluster of exhibitions at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art Haifa

A new exhibition cluster was inaugurated at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa. The cluster includes three exhibitions, the central of which is the traveling world exhibition of the "JAPAN FOUNDATION" under the name "Japanese Design Today 100".

At the exhibition you will be able to see about 110 exhibits designed in Japan, some old icons and some new, with all of them having in common the impact that product design has on functionality in everyday life, both in Japan and abroad.

The second exhibition is the solo exhibition of photographer Michael Sela - "Light on skin" - special black and white photographs taken by the artist in Japan. Michael Sela is a young artist living in Japan. When he was 17 years old, he received a Pentax camera as a gift from his father, with which he went on a journey around the world during which he photographed people he met along the way. The photographs presented by Sela are sensitive, unstaged and capture moments in life.

"Japanese Sushi Girls" by photographer Hadva Rokah is the third in the cluster of exhibitions. In Dover 16 photographs in a captivating project of six Japanese-Israeli women who prepared sushi for the fighting soldiers in January 2024, as part of the Swords of Iron War.