LABA Blueprint #1 - The Tower of Babel

This year LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y takes on the theme of BLUEPRINT. We begin the journey with the biblical story of The Tower of Babel. Click here to enjoy the first installment of the journal. Meet the stellar 2011-2012 LABA Fellows, whose work you will find in the LABA Journal over the course of the year and in the annual LABA Festival in May. This month Ruby Namdar writes about the ancient men and women's heroic, yet ultimately futile, attempt to make a name for themselves. I write about Patti Smith and endless digital towers of music. Editor and co-artistic director Elissa Strauss writes about our incessant need to turn space into place -- and the tchotchkes on her desk.