Vox Tablet

Bloomsday Meets Second Avenue

Caraid O’Brien is a Ulysses performer and Yiddish-theater translator

June 15, 2009
(Caraid O'Brien photo by Pablo Aguilar. Bloomsday 2008 by Drew Saunders; some rights reserved.)
(Caraid O’Brien photo by Pablo Aguilar. Bloomsday 2008 by Drew Saunders; some rights reserved.)

Caraid O’Brien was born in Ireland, but after moving to Massachusetts as a girl, she found herself drawn to works by Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. She followed that passion to become one of the foremost translators of Yiddish theater. But she’s still true to her roots, and tomorrow, June 16, she’ll host New York’s Radio Bloomsday—an annual reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses on WBAI. She’ll also perform the role of Molly Bloom in the broadcast. Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry spoke with O’Brien about the links between Irish and Yiddish literature, and about how a nice Irish girl became embroiled in Jewish culture.

To listen to Radio Bloomsday, tune into WBAI (99.5 FM in New York City) or WBAI.org on June 16 at 7 p.m.

Caraid O’Brien photo by Pablo Aguilar. Bloomsday 2008 by Drew Saunders; some rights reserved.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Vox Tablet is Tablet Magazine’s weekly podcast, hosted by Sara Ivry and produced by Julie Subrin. You can listen to individual episodes here or subscribe on iTunes.

More Vox Tablet
See all
→︎