In Conversation: Jessica Chapnik Kahn on 'Madre'

“God throws us out suddenly/Lovingly, the garden ends…”          — Jessica Chapnik Kahn, MADRE

Celebrate motherhood, memory and the feminine divine with writer and poet Jessica Chapnik Kahn in conversation with the Museum’s own Aleksandra Stanek. Centred on Jessica’s poetry collection MADRE, and drawing on connections with current exhibitions ZAHALKAWORLD: an artist’s archive and Tree of Life: Four Perspectives, discover myriad pathways into creation from art-making to birth. Explore questions of tangible and intangible inheritances, complex identities and the mystical with these talented creatives. 

Jessica Chapnik Kahn is an Argentinian-Australian writer, singer-songwriter and actor who trained at the Atlantic Theatre Company Acting School in New York. She has performed across stage, television, and film, released two albums under the moniker Appleonia, and earned an ARIA award nomination. As a writer, Jessica is the author of the poetry collection MADRE, the children’s book Lenny and the Ants, and co-author of A Repurposed Life, which was longlisted for an ABIA Award. In 2025, she was a featured speaker and performer at TEDxSydney, and her collaborative work The Fire Always Says Yes had its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House.

Aleksandra Stanek is the Curatorial Assistant at the Jewish Museum of Australia. A visual arts practitioner, Aleksandra has international experience spanning exhibitions across Europe, writing for leading art and design publications, and a Master’s in Sculpture from London’s Royal College of Art. Working at the intersection of contemporary art and lived Jewish experience, she worked at Goldstone Gallery on the exhibition October 7: Atrocity, Antisemitism and Resilience, and with Jewish artists in the post-October 7 landscape.

Image: Romina Mandrini