Barry Ivker
Barry Ivker (born 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a psychotherapist, literary scholar, poet, playwright, musician, dancer and artist who relocated to Hoover from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Ivker grew up in Philadelphia, graduating from that city's Central High School in 1958 and his bachelor of arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. He earned his master of arts in comparative literature in 1964 at Indiana University, where he also met his wife, Frances Shapiro.
He completed his PhD ("Sexual perversion in eighteenth-century English and French fiction") there in 1968 while working as an instructor in the literature department and at nearby Butler University. After completing his degree he applied for positions at predominantly-black universities in Atlanta and New Orleans. He got a job at the University of New Orleans, soon moving to Dillard University, where he taught for 11 years. Later he taught for five years at Xavier University of New Orleans.
In 1979 Ivker completed a second Master's degree in clinical social work and practices psychotherapy. While in New Orleans, Ivker and his wife became active at Shir Chadash (formerly Tikvat Shalom), a Jewish congregation in Metairie. He also began creating visual art, finding inspiration in the medium of cut paper collages, often with themes from the Torah. His works have been shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art as well as numerous galleries and Jewish institutions in New Orleans.
Ivker is also an accomplished musician (harpsichord and piano) and folk dancer (Cajun, contra and international). His plays have been produced by local theaters and his poems have appeared in international publications.
Publications
- Ivker, Barry (1977) An Anthology and Analysis of 17th and 18th Century French Libertine Fiction. Studies in Sex and Society. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Institute for Sex Research. ISBN 0835702596
- Ivker, Barry (2005) All My Bones Shall Speak: Passover Heggadah. Self-published.
References
- "Deep South File: Artist Barry Ivker Reprints Family Haggadah" (February 26, 2008) Deep South Jewish Voice
External links
- Artist biography at barryivker.com