Paulina

01/05/2024

Names lost, found, and redirected

01/05/2024

This is the second installment of Paulina Day, drawing from the constellation of stories surrounding the ever-evolving art/life work, Paulina. The Paulina performance and developing film center on a life-changing journey investigating the Holocaust testimony of Paulina Hirsch, and its aftermath.

27/11/2022

Please join me in Brooklyn on December 8th for this event presented by The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life and UnionDocs. My performative presentation of a film-work in process will be joined by a conversation with Annie Berman and a guest-led meditation by Luisa Muhr

*******************
In the fall of 2018, artist/performer Michelle Levy went to Poland to investigate the 1945 Holocaust testimony of a Polish-Jewish woman named Paulina. Her plans went beautifully off-track as a series of errors and coincidences led to an existential reckoning between life and death in which a promise was made. The Paulina Project: A Lifework is a film project in process born of a multi-year performance. For this event, a hybrid performance-lecture, work-in-progress sharing, and conversation with the filmmaker and educator Annie Berman, Michelle will share the story and how it has radically transformed her own life.

This project is made possible by with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. It is a fiscally sponsored project of the New York Foundation of the Arts

This film-in-process emerges from an evolving performance and collaboration with Warsaw-based writer/ artist Patrycja Dołowy, Michelle's partner on a journey across Poland and Ukraine following Paulina's story.

Reserve tickets via the event link on website, or link in bio

19/08/2021

Greetings Paulina followers. We want to share that we have started a fundraiser for people who wish to help support our friends pani Małgosia Łoziczonek and her husband pan Andrzej in Wieliczka, Poland. These two wonderful people have had their lives turned upside down because their home was flooded. The level of destruction was devastating.

If you have been following the Paulina story, we are indebted to pani Małgosia for the miraculous events that happened to us. We had been traveling across Poland following the Holocaust survival account of Paulina Hirsch, when pani Małgosia, by accident (and guided by instinct), entered our lecture in the library in Wieliczka. She invited us to her house, where she introduced us to her neighbor, Stefan Kisielowski, the man who, to everyone's shock, held the key to what we had been searching for. Our lives have been forever changed as a result.

When we got to know the Łoziczoneks better, we learned that, beyond our own experience with them, they are just wonderful people, doing many important things in their community. We are not alone in feeling this way— many have come forward to share the same sentiment.

We have created this fundraiser for all those who, like us, will want to help the Łozyczoneks so that they can return to normal life as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your support and for sharing.

Help Save Our Friends' Home Destroyed by a Flood (for English version scroll down) W wyniku ulewy 5 sierpnia, nasi przyjaciele z Wieliczki, pani Małgosia i Andrzej Łoziczonek zostali bardzo dotkliwie poszkodowani. Powódź doszczętnie zalała piwnicę i parter domu wraz ze wszystkim, co było w ....

15/06/2021

Michelle Levy had a conversation with the New York Foundation for the Arts about how the pandemic has changed the way she and Patrycja Dołowy are approaching the Paulina project.

Conversation with artist Michelle Levy on how her Fiscally Sponsored project, "Paulina," evolved and changed due to the pandemic.

25/09/2020

Our performance-in-process with Kana Theater, directed by Kathleen Amshoff is streaming through October 4th for the Spoiwa Festiwal. This was a big step forward for the project and for the possibilities of how we can share our story. This could not have happened without the amazing support team of Ośrodek Teatralny Kana and Spoiwa Festiwal, Asylum Arts Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN Żydowski Instytut Historyczny FestivALT U.S. Embassy Warsaw Dział Genealogii ŻIH/ Jewish Genealogy at JHI (and so many others!)

29/04/2020

A photo from our anniversary celebration this weekend. One year ago, April 25th, we headed out on the road, following Paulina's story. This Saturday was a welcome occasion for both of us to get back in our uniforms, share a drink, and reminisce about all of the experiences and emotions felt on our epic journey... and to dream together of the time we can reunite and continue our work together.

24/04/2020

With great sadness, we say goodbye to Stefan Kisielowski, entomologist, keeper of bees, and protector of Jewish memory in Poland. A year ago, our journey investigating Paulina's story led us to Stefan, as if he was at the other end of a rainbow. He said to us, there are no accidents, and we agree. We are so thankful for the time we had with him. May his memory always be a blessing.

Please read our incredible story/s about this incredible man:
In English by Michelle Levy: https://www.sheisalone.org/goodbye-stefan
In Polish by Patrycja Dołowy: https://pl.sheisalone.org/goodbye-stefan

Stefan K. has died. The last time we saw him was a form of farewell. He gave us a binder made especially for the two of us, filled with maps, photographs, and instructions; and jars of honey from the bees in his garden. Stefan was an entomologist, which is what first brought him to the old Jewish Ce...

16/11/2019