DAWN is Reboot’s all-night culture and arts festival celebrating the Jewish calendar’s best-kept secret – Shavuot. Reboot produced this year’s “choose-your-own” experiential adventure in partnership with the Jewish Emergent Network and LABA’s Into the Night Tikkun Layle Shavuot. DAWN provided something for everyone throughout the 12 hours of music, film, comedy, dance, food and teaching across multiple channels. Dawn provided the opportunity to gather apart for a tradition that Reboot began years ago in San Francisco irl and that will live beyond this pandemic.

This year, we are offering highlights from past two online DAWN festivals and a marquee performance, “Round Midnight Reconsidered” by Bay Area guitarist composer John Schott. Reboot presented DAWN 2021 in partnership with the Jewish Emergent Network and LABA’s Into the Night Tikkun Layle Shavuot and DAWN 2020 in partnership with the Jewish Emergent Network.

To facilitate conversation and study, we have created this discussion guide to accompany our 2022 DAWN Playlist.

Sign up to receive the DAWN 2022 Toolkit

DAWN in Tel Aviv

Sunrise in Israel featuring Nadav Lev on guitar. Video by Elinor Milchan Concept, photography, editing and production by Ronit Muszkatblit. It is one of the highlights of Reboot’s past DAWN celebrations with music, film, comedy, dance, food, teaching and more. Watch here.

The Music of DAWN

A Compilation of musical performances from previous DAWN festivals. Featuring The Milk Carton Kids, Ethan Daniel Davidson, Luther Dickinson and Lamar Williams Jr, The Witch Ones, The Ten Commandments Rescored, Jo Lampert, and Mikey Pauker. It is one of the highlights of Reboot’s past DAWN celebrations with music, film, comedy, dance, food, teaching and more. Watch here.

Thou Shalt: Shavuot Sketches

Avi Amon and Lynne Marie Rosenberg present a series of music, film, and stopmotion animation collaborations, exploring the themes, images, and sounds of Shavuot, as creatively synthesized through an antique piano and one and half Jews. It is one of the highlights of Reboot’s past DAWN celebrations with music, film, comedy, dance, food, teaching and more. Watch here.

I Am Not What I Am

From William DeMeritt, a short documentary of interviews with Jews of Color on poignant life stories of negotiating the complicated boundaries of identity when society often seeks to pit said identities against one another. Featuring: William DeMeritt, Nemuna Ceesay, Noah Keyishian, Juliana Aiden Martinez, and Connie Shi. It is one of the highlights of Reboot’s past DAWN celebrations with music, film, comedy, dance, food, teaching and more. Watch here.

Drunk (and Possibly Stoned) History of Shavuot

As part Dawn, of Reboot’s all-night interpretation of the magical and mighty holiday of Shavuot, we offer a very not sober history of Shavuot as moderated by Alex Grossman with Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue in NYC, comedian Heather Pasternak and writer/comedian Joel Stein. It is one of many highlights of Reboot’s past DAWN celebrations with music, film, comedy, dance, food, teaching and more. Watch here.

Episode 6

The Blewish Dybuk Project

The Blewish Dybbuk Project is a four part adaptation of S. Ansky’s play “The Dybbuk” through a modern Black and Jewish lens by artist Rebecca S’manga Frank.

Eight Hours ‘Round Midnight

An extended meditation by John Schott on Thelonious Monk’s immortal ballad.

‘Til The Light Comes Shining In

Ethan Daniel Davidson, Gretchen Gonzales Davidson and Warren Defever perform the songs “Angel” and “‘Til The Light Comes Shining In.”

Waiting for the Sun to Rise

Luther Dickinson and Lamar Williams, Jr. usher in the dawn with a performance of Waiting For the Sun to Rise.

Equity, Access and the Beloved Community

Reverend Billy Michael Honor (Aspen Institute), Rabbi Sharon Brous (IKAR) and Rabbi Lauren Henderson (Congregation Or Hadash)

The Land of Milk and Honey: Wrestling with an Israel in Crisis during Shavuot

Daniel Sokatch and Libby Lenkinski of the New Israel Fund provide context to the current crisis in Israel and Palestine.

Threshing Floor

Premiering at DAWN, watch this experimental video piece obliquely inspired by the Book of Ruth. The Threshing Floor was an experimental experiment, improvising together apart during a time of plague, taking a usual time of togetherness reverberations and mediations and instead finding a unified voice by sharing ideas across currents, many miles apart, and using the time tested accompanist named chance to take the beautiful wandering vibrations and lace them together into the blanket of sound before you.

The film accompanies the album release on August 27, 2021. Learn more, download the digital file, and buy the LP here!

Episode 1

Wrestling with an Israel in Crisis

DAWN is Reboot’s all-night culture and arts festival celebrating the Jewish calendar’s best-kept secret – Shavuot. During DAWN 2021, we hosted a special conversation with Daniel Sokatch and Libby Lenkinski, of the New Israel Fund to give us context for the ongoing crisis in Israel and Palestine.