Laura Elkeslassy

We ring in the Jewish new year with a very exciting conversation between Dan and singer, educator, cantor, and activist, Laura Elkeslassy. Laura was born in Paris, is based in Brooklyn, and has been making big waves across the Jewish music world for a number of years. Her new, debut album, Ya Ghorbati / يا غربتي | Divas in Exile, which came out in July, “excavates the music and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from mid-century North Africa. Developed in collaboration with music director [and friend of the podcast] Ira Khonen Temple, the album weaves together North African Jewish folk and sacred music, spanning from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret.” (https://www.lauraelkeslassy.com/)

Laura has a phenomenal and fascinating story about her journey into her North African Jewish roots, including some amazing family and self discoveries and we recommend one of Laura’s many other podcast appearances, such as her visit to WBAI’s Beyond the Pale Podcast. This being Radiant Others, we wanted to get into the backroom, afterparty hang version of a conversation. Dan and Laura talk a lot about what it takes to make a first big studio album, personally and professionally. We get into some granular details about the songs themselves and how Laura discovered the stories and ideas she wanted to sing through them. We find parallels in our experiences and between her North African Jewish worlds and others, including Ashkenazi ones.

We talk about who we make our music for, who we want to make it for, and what impact we dream it could have. And through it all, we go at it with a lot of joy and fun! We at Radiant Others are big Laura Elkeslassy fans and we hope this episode makes you one too.

Music Selections from Ya Ghorbati يا غربتي – Divas in Exile:

1. Rimoun Ramatni – ريــم رمـتـنـــي

2. Abiadi Ana – أبياضي أنا

3. Alalla Yillali – ألالة يلالي

Links