In the Bus/Purim Eve:

“Little kids in costume giggle happily
real flower children
and Margalit Tzan’ani sings
‘The Honey in the Groove'”

Today, host Marcela Sulak takes an unusual approach to Purim, reading excerpts from Tikva Levi’s “Purim Sequence,” translated by Ammiel Alcalay. We intersperse the first parts of Levi’s poem, a Purim bus journey, with excerpts from Itzik Manger’s “Songs of the Megillah” — a retelling of the Purim story in the Book of Esther. Tikva Levi was a feminist activist Mizrahi Jew, born in Ashkelon of Iraqi parents. She died in 2012, at the age of 52. Her life was devoted to the educational rights of Mizrahi Jews in Israel.

Text:
Keys to the Garden. New Israeli Writing. Edited by Ammiel Alcalay. City Lights Books, 1996.

Music:
Songs of the Megilla – Itzik Manger
Nafas – Rabih Abou-Khalil

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Adam Sher