Harbin, China | Past/Present
Opening Tuesday, April 30 at Museum at Eldridge Street, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through October 4.

The Museum at Eldridge Street exists at the intersection of Manhattan neighborhoods with diverse cultural histories, and has always tried to honor that with events like their annual Egg Rolls, Egg Creams, and Empanadas Festival spotlighting Jewish, Chinese, and Puerto Rican foods and traditions. The museum’s latest exhibition has the same spirit, but takes viewers to a small city in northeast China called Harbin, where a community of Jewish immigrants flourished in the late 1890’s. The exhibition traces this community’s presence in Harbin over the decades alongside works by contemporary artist Steven Lane, who has worked in Harbin’s synagogues and often utilizes Chinese archival material in his work.

A popular tactic for those in support of abortion access is emphasizing that when a fetus is aborted, it is more akin to a small clump of cells than anything already living. But The Appointment, Alice Yorke and Lightning Rod Special’s musical about the American abortion debate now running at New York Theater Workshop Next Door, leans in the other direction. The show’s ensemble consists of a group of fetuses, complete with swinging umbilical cords, that couldn’t be more alive.