“Yossele: a tale in poems” debuts at a poetry chapbook release feature reading and open mic on Tuesday, March 22, at Winning Coffee Co., 111 Harvard Dr. SE.
“Yossele” is based on myths of the golem in 16th century Prague. In Medieval Europe a common accusation against Jews was that they kidnapped and murdered Christian children to use their blood in rituals, particularly the preparation of unleavened bread at Passover. At the end of the 16th century in Prague (in several ways a tolerant and accepting city for Jews) this practice had arisen again, and the chief rabbi of the community, Rabbi Löv, created a golem to defend his people. A golem is unsentient and has no will of his own: only G-d can create a thinking, choosing spirit. The authors have imagined that something goes wrong with the complex creation process, and the creature becomes self-aware. His name was Yossele, a diminutive of Joseph.
The reading features authors Sari Krosinsky and Robert Arthur Reeves and an open mic emceed by Kenneth P. Gurney. It is free and open to the public.
Krosinsky’s poems have appeared in Arsenic Lobster, Contemporary American Voices, Duke City Fix, Main Street Rag, Verse Daily and others. She edits Fickle Muses, an online journal of mythic poetry and fiction. She received an MA in creative writing from the University of New Mexico.
Reeves has been writing poetry since 1965. His poetry has been published in The Chaffin Journal, The Homestead Review, The Blind Man’s Rainbow, Fulcrum, Adobe Walls, Permafrost, Poesia and Skidrow Penthouse, among others. He is the author of nine collections of poetry.
