Origami, Jewish Holiday Music, One-Woman Show Highlight Library Events

September may already be nearly halfway through, but the still has plenty of programs and events going on this month.

On Saturday, Sept. 15 at 2 p.m., master folder Itoko Kobayashi will be giving an origami workshop, and supplies are provided.

The public library provided the following bio of Kobayashi:

Itoko Kobayashi was born in the northern part of Japan’s main island. Her hometown is next to those who suffered from the Tsunami and the nuclear plant. She received her MTS from Drew University in Madison, NJ and is a PhD Candidate in European History of Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan). After giving birth to her child, Itoko started to create origami paper works, which she learned from her grandfather as a child. Her particular style of origami is called triangle or block origami. She folds many rectangular sheets into triangular pieces then assembles them into one work. Some of her works are traditional, but now she creates her own designs. Ms. Kobayashi displays and exhibits in libraries and galleries throughout NJ and NY.

Next up, on Sunday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m., the library will be “Blowing in the New Year and Dancing for the Earth,” according to organizers, when the “eco-music group” Englewinds performs music by Bizet, Ohno, Kriegler and Davol in a program of “opera and dance sure to bring in the Jewish New Year in style.”

Englewinds is an ensemble of wind instruments, piano and percussion; they will be joined for the performance by Flamenco dancer, Eva Conti.

Englewinds performs music of living composers and specializes in music that focuses on the environment. Englewinds concerts promote the awareness of environmental concerns. Since 1998 the ensemble has performed concerts to open a nature conservancy, to celebrate a Peace labyrinth, to protest noise pollution and overbuilding in New Jersey’s wetlands, to heighten awareness of Lenape Native American history, to call attention to diminishing turtle habitat, and to introduce young audiences to sounds of the rainforest and NJ Meadowlands.

Director Sarah Davol, has a passion for both music and nature. While protesting development of wetlands in Teaneck, NJ in 1998, she commissioned music by composers to call attention to the impending development, and Englewinds performed a concert to bring this music to the public. Since then, the ensemble of outstanding musicians has continued to specialize in commissioning and performing music that focuses on the environment. Every Englewinds concert promotes awareness of a community-based environmental organization and/or an environmental concern.

The following weekend, Sunday, Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. the public library presents Dorothy Leeds in the one-woman play, “Good Lessons from Bad Women,” which organizers describe as “the story of Dorothy, a good girl who longs to be a bad girl.”

Dorothy is torn between following in the footsteps of her perfect mother and the virtuous Eleanor Roosevelt, or those of ‘bad’ women including Anne Bonny, Mrs. "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Mae West. This play proves that the wicked are truly irresistible, and invites audiences to be inspired by the lives of women who have dared to color outside the lines.

Dorothy Leeds is a member of the Actors Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, the Dramatists Guild, and is serving on the Board of The League of Professional Theatre Women. Her Broadway credits include Stop the World I Want to Get Off.  A noted public speaker Leeds is the author of The 7 Powers of Questions, PowerSpeak, and Marketing Yourself.

On Sunday, Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. the library celebrates the Jewish holidays with soprano Menorah Winston in a program called “Yiddish Broadway: a Tribute to Molly Picon and Fanny Brice.”

Winston’s bio is as follows, according to the library:

Menorah Winston’s reputation has been steadily rising among her audiences as a gifted, dynamic performer who brings to her music a rare blend of musicianship and dedication. She has had a distinguished career in Romania and Israel as an opera singer and as a recitalist. She started her musical education in Romania and continued in Israel and the United States. Ms. Winston earned four Master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, Hebrew Union College, Lehman College, and Hunter College. She performs as an opera singer and as a Cantor all over the U.S. She also serves as a music teacher in the NYC public schools.

Admission for all of these programs and events is free, but children less than eight years old need to be accompanied by an adult. Seating may be limited in some cases; call 201-592-3614, ext. 4010 for group reservations.

Also note that the library is exhibiting the works of painter Tatyana Gomelskaya during the month of September in The Gallery on the lower level.

Gomelskaya’s figures and portraits are focused on and inspired by her family. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1993 at the age of five, according to the public library.