LA JOLLA, California — Caroline Rothstein’s poems were strong and brash, with unique imagery and vivid descriptiveness. She delivered them with the dramatic fervor of a seasoned actress. They ranged in subject matter from love and personal trauma to world upheavals.
The three dozen people who gathered in the Rehearsal Room of the Lawrence Family JCC to attend her performance were treated to an evening of stimulating spoken words.
Rothstein did her undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and received her Master of Science degree from the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her writing has appeared in such publications asThe Forward, The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post and Cosmopolitan Magazine.
She has taught creative writing and spoken word poetry at Brandeis University’s precollege Bima summer arts-intensive program and has performed and conducted workshops worldwide. Her one-woman award-winning play, Faith, about her experience with an eating disorder, debuted at New York’s Culture Project’s Women Center Stage. She also is a television producer. She is currently producing a documentary called, The Kids.
While in San Diego, she was interviewed on KUSINews and led a workshop with JCompany participants. Joey Landwehr, JCompany Director, was thrilled with her inspiring interaction with his young students. CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, Betzy Lynch, was also in the audience and one of the respondents to Rothstein’s encouragement for audience comments and questions.
An excerpt from Caroline Rothstein’s poem:
FOR YOU
w
I wish on every star that you’ll come
Every picturesque daydream, every self-fulfilling prophesy from a bystander
that morphs into a lifetime epiphany,
every lush mountain range,
every poem, every poem, every poem
I want to share with you eternally.
.
But sometimes, fate chuckles in my eyelids and washes fear away
so love can linger on the dashboard of my daydreams
as reality gives birth to infinity
reminding me that
you are my soul mate………..
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Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sjewishworld.com
