PRAISE FOR THE PENNSOUND PROJECT
34th Street Magazine
February 24, 2016
If you've ever gone to a Kelly Writers House poetry event, you might not have noticed the staff member on the left of the Arts Café recording the entire experience with a camera and a microphone. Yet, in the contemporary world of poetry, it might be one of the most profound and innovative things that is happening. Right here on campus, nuzzled between windy Locust Bridge and the industrial high–rises, a poetry revolution is on its way. The KWH community's fantastic programming is known for having offerings beyond the old–fashioned ways of your high school English teacher who made you read Ralph Waldo Emerson and the transcendentalist troupe from a dusty paperback book. One of these projects is PennSound, sponsored by the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing.
Two English faculty members have ensured the preservation and distribution of the words of the poets who come to read at the Writers House. In collaboration with the CPCW, Al Filreis and Charles Bernstein created PennSound in 2005—an online archive that digitizes a diverse collection of voices and ideas to make poetry accessible to not only Penn students, but also the general public. It has gained Penn and the Kelly Writers House international recognition for celebrating a diverse array of poets and for bringing poetry into the digital age.
Read the full article here.