January 2020
Wednesday, 1/1
Thursday, 1/2
Friday, 1/3
Saturday, 1/4
Sunday, 1/5
Monday, 1/6
Tuesday, 1/7
Wednesday, 1/8
Thursday, 1/9
Friday, 1/10
Saturday, 1/11
Sunday, 1/12
Monday, 1/13
Tuesday, 1/14
Wednesday, 1/15
Thursday, 1/16
Friday, 1/17
Saturday, 1/18
Sunday, 1/19
Monday, 1/20
Tuesday, 1/21
A reading by members of Suppose an Eyes
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
Suppose An Eyes is an ongoing workshop for poets sponsored by the Kelly Writers House. Formed in 1999, the group meets two evenings per month, providing a way for poets to explore, share and improve their work as part of a supportive community of writers. In addition to workshop meetings, Suppose An Eyes members plan and perform poetry readings throughout the greater Philadelphia area. The group is open to poets of all ages, writing styles and backgrounds.
Wednesday, 1/22
Why Is It So Hard to Write Plays about Climate Change?
A conversation with Madeleine George
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
hosted by: Sam Friskey (C'20)
sponsored by: The Kerry Prize
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
Madeleine George's plays include The Sore Loser, Hurricane Diane (Obie Award), The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Pulitzer Prize finalist; Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Susan Smith Blackburn finalist), Precious Little, and The Zero Hour (Jane Chambers Award, Lambda Literary Award finalist). Madeleine is a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Two River Theater in New Jersey, and the Fellow for Curriculum and Program Development at the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College.
Thursday, 1/23
A conversation with SOPHIE LEWIS
12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Co-sponsored by: the Creative Writing Program and the Gender and Sexuality Reading Group
rsvp: wh@writing.upenn.edu or (215) 746-POEM
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
Sophie Lewis is a writer, occasional translator and part-time faculty member at the Philadelphia branch of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Sophie's interdisciplinary work tends to blend feminist theory and cultural criticism, interrogating work, nature, and reproduction in a queer utopian mode. Her essays have appeared in many journals (both academic and non-academic) including Signs, Feminist Review, Gender Place and Culture, and Viewpoint, Boston Review, The London Review of Books, and The New York Times. She is also a member of the ecological writing collective Out of the Woods, and an editor at the journal Blind Field. Books she has translated from German include the popular Communism for Kids by Bini Adamczak. Her PhD from the University of Manchester was in Geography, and she also holds two degrees from Oxford University - in English Literature and Nature, Society and Environmental Policy respectively - as well as a Master's in Politics from the New School for Social Research. Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family is her first book.
PHILADELPHIA CARTOONISTS
Brodsky Gallery Opening
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
The Brodsky Gallery is an art gallery integrated with the ground floor of the Writers House, featuring four - six exhibits per year, curated by students and other community members. Exhibiting a diverse array of art media, artistic practice, and cross-disciplinary programming, the Brodsky Gallery at KWH seeks to engage Penn students and the broader Philadelphia community with the interrelationships between literary and visual arts. Thanks to the generosity of Michael and Heidi Brodsky, whose support makes our gallery space possible, the Brodsky Gallery is a permanent project of Kelly Writers House.
Friday, 1/24
Saturday, 1/25
Sunday, 1/26
Monday, 1/27
LIVE at the Writers House
WXPN radio show
7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration of the people of the Kelly Writers House and of WXPN (88.5 FM). Six times annually between September and April, the Writers House records a one-hour show of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art for broadcast by WXPN. “LIVE" is made possible through the generous support of BigRoc and is produced by Alli Katz.
Tuesday, 1/28
On the Clock: lunch with Emily Guendelsberger
Kauders Lunch Series
12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or (215) 746-POEM
Emily Guendelsberger has worked at Philadelphia City Paper, the Onion’s A.V. Club, Philadelphia Weekly, and the Philadelphia Daily News, and has contributed to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, Politico magazine, and Vice. Her book, On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How it Drives America Insane, is a bitingly funny, eye-opening story of finding work in the automated and time-starved world of hourly low-wage labor.
Wednesday, 1/29
Lunch with Joshua Whitehead
12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Hosted by Davy Knittle
RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or (215)-746-POEM
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
This reading and conversation, organized by the LGBT Center, is co-sponsored by the LGBT Center; the School of Social Policy and Practice; Annenberg; the Alice Paul Center; the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program; The Penn Women’s Center; the Penn Museum; the Department of English; Greenfield Intercultural Center, the Graduate School of Education; the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation; and Penn Dental.
Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-nêhiyaw, Two-Spirit member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer and Jonny Appleseed. Currently he is an ABD doctoral student at the University of Calgary (Treaty 7) where he focuses on Indigenous literatures and cultures with a specialization in gender and sexuality. His forthcoming book, Making Love with the Land, a creative non-fiction manuscript that details Indigeneity, queerness, and mental health, is slated to release in 2021 with Knopf Canada.
Breaking Through: Peter BD and Rachel James
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
hosted by: Simone White
listen: audio recording of this program via our YouTube channel
Curated and hosted by Simone White, the Breaking Through series features poets on the verge of publishing their first books for conversations about poetics, influence, and the future of poetry.
Peter BD is a writer on the internet and the author of the book milk & henny.
Rachel James is a poet and artist. She has presented her work in the United States, Canada, and Europe including at Miguel Abreu Gallery, The Poetry Project, Essex Flowers, The New Gallery, and Totaldobže. A collection of her poems is forthcoming from Wendy's Subway.
Thursday, 1/30
Mind of Winter
5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe
RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM.
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
In January of every year, the Writers House Planning Committee embraces the post-holiday doldrums with a celebration of winter's comforts, inspired by Wallace Stevens's chilly poem, "The Snow Man." We gather here at the Writers House, stoke a big fire in the parlor, simmer several big pots of soups and stews, and share our favorite winter-themed readings with one another. Let it snow!