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See the project documentary on Openvizor http://bit.ly/openvizoreastlondonsukkah The East London Sukkah 20-29 September 2010 Spitalfields City Farm Buxton Street London E1 5AR United Kingdom Sukkah: A temporary, organic and transient dwelling growing out of Jewish tradition to celebrate the harvest. The Sukkah is a Jewish tradition, built during the festival of Sukkot, in September/October. While there are many rituals surrounding the festival, the building, and living in the Sukkah is the essence of Sukkot. Traditionally Jews eat all their meals and sleep in the Sukkah for the entire week, as well as inviting guests. Symbolically the Sukkah is linked to the tent of Abraham, the Biblical paradigm of hospitality, as well as to the chuppah, the Jewish wedding canopy. In September 2010, we built a Sukkah in Spitalfields Farm, in East London with 150 children and activists from all faiths and backgrounds; temporary, organic and transient dwelling growing out of Jewish tradition to celebrate the harvest. A building across faiths and cultures, coming together under its shelter to share meals, talks, performances and dialogues on food, faith and community. The Sukkah programme included speakers, artists, religious teachers (of many faiths), activists, radicals and mischief-makers to explore and create and explore a temporary and ephemeral society to imagine and dream of alternative ways of living. At the end of an extraordinary week, culminating in dancing to live Klezmer in pouring rain and mud, The East London Sukkah came to an end. Talks on veganism, squatting, anti-aviation activism, faith, migration and the French state, radical Judaism, films on UK eco-activism, the Yes Men and Punk Jews, music from Klezmer bands and Muslim poets and activists Poetic Pilgrimage, meals both real and conceptual, and an amazing number of diverse and wonderful participants. The Sukkah was an experiment in public space - one that was defined, yet open. It was an experiment in religion, suggesting a form of religious practice that is neither fundamentalist, nor acquiesces to the agenda of the Liberal state. It was an experiment in creating dialogue that is respectful but not superficial. To say that the Sukkah succeeded in all its aims would be trite - its aims were frequently utopian, and so the most it could do was provide a fleeting mirage of better and more durable ways of living. Having said that, those who participated in many programmes during the week testified that a heady mix had been created, and that the experience was a week of huge excitement, creativity, and joy. Thanks to everyone who made it happen. A huge thank you to Hackney’s amazing support of our East London Sukkah project situated in Tower Hamlet’s Spitalfields City farm. It is safe to say that without palettes from Dalston Market, branches and twigs from Springfield and Clissold Park and bark chip from Hackney’s trees, this project would have never been as fantastic as it was. We are especially grateful to Dave O’Toole from Hackney Waste, Darrel Abercrombie, head of Hackney parks and open spaces and Mark, Dean, Jim and Steve from the Hackney Tree Unit and their respective team members who are a pleasure to work with. PROGRAM FOR THE EAST LONDON SUKKAH 24 FRIDAY: (FOOD, FAITH AND ART) 6:30-9:30pm Artists and designers explore the themes of food and Sukkot. Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris gives a talk on the “Four Species,” artist Synnove Fredericks cooks up a “conversation meal” exploring the post-kosher rules of future foods (made with Jarred Henderson of London Harvest), artist Antonia Grant’s creates a “Smell Happening,” with music from Poetic Pilgrimage. 25-26 SATURDAY-SUNDAY: (FOOD, FAITH AND ACTIVISM) A packed weekend of workshops, films and talks to give you tool to create alternative ways of living. Come eat, argue, create and organise! SATURDAY 2pm The case for Veganism,’ Vegan London 3pm Sukkah, a Radical Approach with Rabbi Judith Rosen Berry 3.30 ‘Living for free, opting out of the consumer society’ with Kath Hibbert 4pm ‘A Guide to Squatting’ North East London Squatters Network 4pm Permaculture workshop with Ruth Edmunds 4:30pm Climate Camp talk 5pm Ecological activism workshop with Dan Glass from Plane Stupid 6pm Wandering Jews Seudah Shlishit-Havdala (End of Sabbath Sharing Meal) SUNDAY 1:30 Permaculture and the City with Rachel Rose Reid 2:30 The Modern Harvest, a workshop by Jarred Henderson of London Harvest 3pm Family workshop decorating the Sukkah with artist Orly Orbach 3:30 Radical Jewish East End walk with David Rosenberg 4:30 Food Not Bombs Workshop 5:30 Dialogue with David Barrie (The People’s Supermarket), Eike Sindlinger (ARUP), Heather Ring (The Wayward Plant Registry), Richard Reynolds (Guerrillagardening.org), and Vahakn Matossian (Fruit City) 26 SUNDAY 6:30pm FOOD AND FILMS with music from the Deshi Movement and a film programme including: The Yes Men Fix The World, Punk Jews (sne

• published: 01 Nov 2011
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