Joe’s Pub presents Laura Elkeslassy in her debut album release Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile (vinyl pre-order now available on Ayin Press).

The musical intersections in Laura Elkeslassy’s Ya Ghorbati (يا غربتي), to today’s ear might seem a wistful statement of political and cultural imagination: outdreaming borders and questioning the supposed binary of Arab and Jew. But for early-to-mid 20th century legends like Line Monty, Zohra Elfassia, Habiba Msika, and Salim Halali, they were just the sonic facts of their lives and identities.

These cultural nexuses continue in families like Elkeslassy’s, the Brooklyn-based musician born and raised in France, with ancestral Jewish roots in Morocco. A spellbinding and raucous retro-futurist cabaret, Ya Ghorbati (or “Oh, my exile”) bridges Elkeslassy’s sense of familial longing for what’s lost with an excavation of the music of past North African Judeo-Arab divas. Weaving together folk and sacred music from the Maghreb, ranging from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret, Ya Ghorbati moves across time and space to trace a history of political upheaval and exile.

Elkeslassy launches her much-anticipated studio album of spirited, haunting judeo-arab folk at Joe’s Pub on July 11, with a stellar live band directed by Ira Khonen Temple (music direction and production), playing alongside accomplished instrumentalists Eylem Basaldi (music production), Yoni Avi Battat, Nizar Dahmani, Zoe Guigueno, and Rachid Halihal.

Elkeslassy’s voice and interpretation awaken the sounds of history as a living testimony of what once was and of what could be. Join us in a landscape where borders vanish and music reigns.

Photo Credit: Miriam Goi