February 2010
Monday, 2/1
HOLD for the Emergency Reading Series
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Tuesday, 2/2
Jeff Haas discusses the Assassination of Fred Hampton
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
introduced by: Max Apple
co-sponsored by: the Creative Writing Program
Attorney Jeff Haas has spent his career working for justice. In 1969 he and three other lawyers set up the People's Law Office, whose clients included the Black Panthers, SDS, and other political activists. Haas went on to handle cases involving prisoners' rights, police torture, and the wrongfully accused. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and children and continues to represent victims of police brutality.
The Assassination of Fred Hampton is attorney Jeff Haas's personal account of the eighteen-month trial in which he and People's Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton's assassins, ultimately prevailing over FBI stonewalling and unlimited government resources bent on hiding the conspiracy that led to Hampton's death. The book not only tells the story of justice delivered but also puts Hampton in a new light as a dynamic community leader whose dedication to his people and to truth telling inspired the young lawyers of the People's Law Office, solidifying their lifelong commitment to fighting injustice.
Wednesday, 2/3
A reading by Lynn Levin and Lise Funderburg
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
co-sponsored by: Creative Writing
Poet, writer, and translator, Lynn Levin is the author of three collections of poems, Fair Creatures of an Hour (2009), Imaginarium (2005)/, and A Few Questions about Paradise (2000), all published by Loonfeather Press. Imaginarium was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award. Lynn Levin's poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Washington Square Review, 5 AM, Peregrine, and Boulevard. She teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and at Drexel University, where she also produces the award-winning TV show, The Drexel InterView.
Lise Funderburg earned her BA at Reed College, her masters at the Columbia University School of Journalism, and is a creative nonfiction writing instructor in at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers. Funderburg is a regular contributor toO, The Oprah Magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, TIME, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Nation, Salon, and Prevention. In the New York Times review of Funderburg's first book, Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk about Race and Identity, Kyoko Mori said it was "an example of how we can talk about race with feeling, humor, and dignity." Her latest book, Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home (Free Press), is a contemplation of life, death, and barbecue. Of Pig Candy, writer Daniel Mendelsohn says, "Funderburg has achieved something very remarkable in contemporary memoir: a personal narrative that is crisply intelligent rather than cleverly self-satisfied, deeply and meaningfully emotional rather than soppily sentimental." And Edwidge Danticat describes Pig Candy as "a candid and moving memoir of a daughter's deep love for her father both when he is most difficult to love and impossible not to."
Thursday, 2/4
EII: A Playtext
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
A staged reading of selections of EII: A Playtext, by Lee Huttner, this year's Joan Harrison Prize winner. EII challenges our ideas about can and should be put into a script; mucking around with Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, it experiments with language, textuality, and the relation between space, word, and image.
Friday, 2/5
Saturday, 2/6
Sunday, 2/7
Monday, 2/8
A meeting of the Writers House Planning Committee (the "Hub")
5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe
RSVP: to gautsche@writing.upenn.edu
From the time of its founding in 1995-1996, the Kelly Writers House has been run more or less collectively by members of its community. Our original team of intrepid founders — the group of students, faculty, alumni, and staff who wanted to create an independent haven for writers and supporters of contemporary writing in any genre — took for themselves the name "the hub." "Hub" was the generic term given by Penn's Provost, President, and other planners who hoped that something very innovative would be done at 3805 Locust Walk to prove the viability of the idea that students, working with others, could create an extracurricular learning community around common intellectual and creative passions. To this day, the Writers House Planning Committee refers to itself as "the hub" — the core of engaged faculty, student, staff, and alumni volunteers from whom the House's creative energy and vitality radiates. Go here to get a sense of what we do; go here for sound clips and photos from our end-of-year party; go here for a list of campus publications.
Tuesday, 2/9
A reading by fiction writer Sam Apple
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
introduced by: Max Apple
Sam Apple's literary achievements range from publishing novels like Schlepping Through the Alps (2005, Random House), which was a finalist for the PEN America Award, and receiving the 2005 Faux-Faulkner award. Currently the publisher and editor of The Faster Times, Apple was also the editor-in-chief of New Voices Magazine. His writing has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, ESPN The Magazine and Slate. In 2009, he published his second novel, American Parent: My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland (Random House).
- 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM in Room 209: Suppose an Eyes Meeting. For more information, contact Pat Green: patricia78@aol.com.
Wednesday, 2/10
Speakeasy: Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes!
8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Speakeasy is an open mic night held at the Kelly Writers House every other Wednesday evening. It's an opportunity for writers to share their work, or the work of others, in a friendly setting. Speakeasy was founded in 1997 and continues to be an important part of the regular Writers House programming series. We welcome poets, storytellers, singers, musicians, and anything in between to share their voices with us in the Arts Cafe twice a month. As always: Poetry, prose, anything goes!
Thursday, 2/11
Friday, 2/12
Saturday, 2/13
Sunday, 2/14
Monday, 2/15
HOLD for the Fellows Program
Tuesday, 2/16
HOLD for the Fellows Program
Wednesday, 2/17
George Borges Smorgasborg
organized by: Max McKenna
Thursday, 2/18
HOLD for the EDIT series
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Friday, 2/19
Saturday, 2/20
Sunday, 2/21
Monday, 2/22
HOLD for Theorizing
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
LIVE at the Writers House
7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
hosted by: Michaela Majoun
produced by: Erin Gautsche
LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration between the Kelly Writers House and WXPN FM (88.5). Six times annually between September and April, Michaela Majoun hosts a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, along with one musical guest, all from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. LIVE is made possible by generous support from BigRoc. For more information, contact Producer Erin Gautsche (gautsche@writing.upenn.edu).
Tuesday, 2/23
- 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM in Room 209: Suppose an Eyes Meeting. For more information, contact Pat Green: patricia78@aol.com.
Wednesday, 2/24
Speakeasy: Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes!
8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
Speakeasy is an open mic night held at the Kelly Writers House every other Wednesday evening. It's an opportunity for writers to share their work, or the work of others, in a friendly setting. Speakeasy was founded in 1997 and continues to be an important part of the regular Writers House programming series. We welcome poets, storytellers, singers, musicians, and anything in between to share their voices with us in the Arts Cafe twice a month. As always: Poetry, prose, anything goes!
Thursday, 2/25
A discussion with Howard Marks
2:15 PM in the Arts Cafe
introduced by: Val Ross
co-sponsored by: the Critical Writing Program
RSVP to: wh@writing.upenn.edu
Since the formation of Oaktree in 1995, Howard Marks has been responsible for ensuring the firm's adherence to its core investment philosophy, communicating closely with clients concerning products and strategies, and managing the firm. From 1985 until 1995, Mr. Marks led the groups at The TCW Group, Inc. that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and convertible securities. He was also Chief Investment Officer for Domestic Fixed Income at TCW and President of TCW Asset Management Company, the largest of the TCW companies. Previously, Mr. Marks was with Citicorp Investment Management for 16 years, where from 1978 to 1985 he was Vice President and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities. Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp's Director of Research. Mr. Marks holds a B.S.Ec. degree cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in Finance and an M.B.A. in Accounting and Marketing from the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago, where he received the George Hay Brown Prize. He is a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Investment Counselor. Mr. Marks chairs the Investment Board of the University of Pennsylvania.