At a Downtown Loft, a Group of Artists Hosts a Passover Seder With a Twist

After all, the goal of the event wasn’t just to bring a performance art element to the traditional Seder dinner, but also to celebrate the simple art of coming together. In the program, the dinner was deemed a “living and collaborative observance,” and an “invitation to co-create, to make meaning in real time and to honor transition by transforming it.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Performa founder RoseLee Goldberg: “The thing that I like is everyone sits around the table and you can follow your script, or you can improvise,” she said. “Passover is about politics and human nature and emancipation from slavery and there’s this long, long history. With kids and people of all ages, it becomes this amazing conversation that can go on for hours—and that’s the dream.”

After going through the rituals of the Haggadah, including wine drinking, singing, reading, and the chanting of the 10 plagues, more food was passed: shawarma roasted lamb, Moroccan brisket, falafel plate, crispy potatoes, cauliflower couscous, and eventually, flourless chocolate cake, all dreamed up by Blumberg. “My whole life I grew up very traditional, and my whole brand is about honoring tradition while also messing around with it and offering a fun, whimsical take on it,” said Lobel, who helped plan the night with her culinary project Shtick. For her, the event was as much about past traditions as it was moving forward. “I’m opening a space in about a month on the Lower East Side, so this will be my last big, big event like this,” Lobel continued. “And we’re going to go back to our roots and do more intimate dinners.”

As the conversation continued deep into the night, the celebratory feeling wasn’t lost on anyone. “I think we really need joy these days, and the Seder, even though it’s rooted in a story of oppression, is really about coming together and celebrating how we got out of that—and we are able to do that through honing in on joy,” added Whitehead. “Especially under this administration, joy is being stripped from us. By laughing, having fun, and being in community, we’re adding our humanity back. We’re reclaiming that humanity.”