Book Launch: The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews by Rossi in conversation with Charmaine Broad

Thursday Apr 25, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

POWERHOUSE Arena
28 Adams Street (Corner of Adams & Water Street across from the Archway)
Brooklyn , NY 11201

About the Book.

“I thought I’d heard everything until I read Rossi’s memoir. It’s a story of resilience, acceptance, food, love, chosen family and the chosen people. What more could you want?”
–Judy Gold, comedian, actress, author, and two-time Emmy winner

“Somehow, despite finding herself in tremendously challenging, oppressive, and at times dangerous situations, Rossi holds onto her strength, her rage, her humor, her joy, her neshama (soul) and her heart. . . . This wild ride of a memoir pays tribute to the human spirit. It is an amazing book; I couldn’t put it down.
–Lesléa Newman, author of A Letter to Harvey Milk and Heather Has Two Mommies

Officially designated a “rebel” by The New York Times and “the wildest thing this side of the Mason-Dixon line” by Zagat, Rossi is releasing “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” (She Writes Press, April 23, 2024), her outrageous, queer coming-of-age story. 

Rossi was taught only to aspire to marry a nice Jewish boy and to be a good kosher Jewish girl. At 16 she flowers into a rebellious punk-rock rule-breaker who runs away to seek adventure. Her freedom is cut short when her parents kidnap her and dump her with a Chasidic rabbi — a “cult buster” known for “reforming” wayward Jewish girls — in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Rossi spends the next couple of years in a repressive, misogynistic culture straight out of the nineteenth century, forced to trade in her pink hair and Sex Pistols T-shirt for maxi skirts and long-sleeved blouses and endure not only bone-crushing boredom but also outright abuse and violence.

“The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” is filled with wonderfully rich characters, hilarious dialogue, and keen portraits of the secretive hothouse Orthodox world and the struggling New York City of the 1980s: dirty, on the edge, but fully vital and embracing.

About the Author.

Rossi has been published in outlets including The Daily News, The New York Post, Time Out New York, and Mcsweeney’s, to name a few. She has been the food writer of the “Eat Me” column for Bust magazine since 1998, hosts her own hit radio show on WOMR and WFMR in Cape Cod called Bite This, now in its nineteenth season, has been featured on The Food Network and NPR and has been a popular blogger for The Huffington Post. Her first memoir, “The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi” was published by The Feminist Press to rave reviews. In addition to memoir, Rossi has written two full-length plays, a number of one-act comedies, a one-woman stage adaptation of Queen of the Jews, and launched the Raging and Eating podcast.

About the Moderator. 

Charmaine Broad is an actress, director, and producer right here in New York City! She is an original member of the famous Carnival Girls Productions. She is also a good buddy of the Punk Rock Caterer and is a producer for Raging Skillet, which just had its first off Broadway reading!

RSVP