Biography
Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, composer, performer and Torah teacher. She combines words, music, ritual and performance to create works of experimental beauty exploring the intersection of ancient wisdom texts, feminism, and everyday life. Rabins tours internationally as a musician and performer; her work has appeared at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Joe's Pub.
Rabins' debut collection of poetry, Divinity School, won the APR/Honickman First Book Prize; her second poetry collection, Fruit Geode, was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award. Even God Had Bad Parenting Days, her collection of short personal essays about early parenthood and Jewish spirituality. As a musician and performer, she is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of Biblical women with accompanying curriculum, and A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which began as a one-woman chamber-rock opera and was adapted into an award-winning independent feature film.
A Jewish educator, DIY bar/bat/b'nai mitzvah tutor, culture-bearer and ritualist for over twenty years, Rabins is passionate about progressive Jewish education. She tours internationally as a violinist, singer, lecturer and performer from her home base in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, two kids, and too many houseplants.
