Seven beggars
A Live Performance and Video Series
2023–2024
Seven Beggars boldly reimagines an 18th century Hasidic tale by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. From June 27-July 2, 2023, Weitz and her collaborators staged six live street performances in Krakow, Poland and one theatrical production at the Galicia Jewish Museum during the 32nd Jewish Culture Festival. For each performance, Weitz embodied a different beggar from Nachman’s famous story, The Seven Beggars. She was accompanied by a cast of other Ashkenazi diasporic artists, including poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher, musician Ira Khonen Temple, and art director Anna Lublina. Their vibrant reimagining of Nachman’s cryptic tale invited audience participation and combined poetry, music, movement, and visual art to reveal how each beggar’s impairment is actually a blessing in disguise. Using video footage of the live performances, Weitz is currently developing the artwork into a multichannel video installation.
Seven Beggars was supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International, a program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Seven Beggars is also supported by Asylum Arts at The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life. Julie Weitz's My Golem is a project of Fulcrum Arts’ Emerge Program.