Singer Jewlia Eisenberg died in 2021 at the age of 50. (Photo/Robin Hultgren)
Singer Jewlia Eisenberg died in 2021 at the age of 50. (Photo/Robin Hultgren)

CJM exhibit and concert to celebrate late singer Jewlia Eisenberg

In honor of the late Bay Area musician Jewlia Eisenberg, the Contemporary Jewish Museum will host an immersive installation and concert of her music on Sunday, Oct. 2.

Titled “Fierce as Death: Queer as the Song of Songs,” the installation is part of Eisenberg’s Queer Piyutim project, which was commissioned by the Creative Work Fund. The installation will include music, artwork, performance and video from Eisenberg’s archive in four separate spaces in the museum.

“For Jewlia, the Song of Songs offered fluidity between male and female voices and suggests a non-binary, queer Eden where people, animals and plants can all be erotic subjects, in constant relation and transformation,” the CJM said in a statement. “In our present moment, the image of a world free of borders and hierarchy resonates now more than ever.”


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Frank London, Cynthia Taylor, Mathias Kunzli, Nina Rolle, Ianna Owens, Jeremiah Lockwood and others will perform Eisenberg’s music during the concert, which will be held in Jesse Square Plaza in front of the CJM.

The installation will open at 12 p.m., and the concert will start at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $18-$126 and can be purchased here.

Eisenberg, who died at age 50 of an autoimmune disease in March 2021, led the klezmer-punk band Charming Hostess for three decades. The band’s last album, “The Ginzburg Geography,” was released in May and consisted of the writings of anti-fascist Italian intellectuals Leone and Natalia Ginzburg set to a variety of musical styles. Eisenberg recorded her vocals during her final months.