The Bowls Project: A performance and talk with Jewlia Eisenberg and Charming Hostess June 10, 2010

The Bowls Project was inspired by texts found on Babylonian incantation bowls from1,500 years ago. Simple clay bowls were inscribed with a householder's secrets and desires, then buried under the house. The bowls speak of mysticism and sex, angels and demons, and the trials and joys of daily life. These spiraled Aramaic inscriptions from the Talmudic period open up a larger discussion of the connections between material and literary culture; between canonized and marginalized voices; between ritual power and popular practice; and how music serves as the medium connecting these relationships.

Musical context for The Bowls Project is drawn from the female body, the rich traditions of the Babylonian Jews, and other sources, both Jewish and African, and makes a visceral connection to daily life past and present in the region known today as Iraq. Jewlia Eisenberg composed the music for the project.