March 14, 2013: Timebank Presentation

When Penn Timebank’s student founders say “time is money,” they really mean it. Julia Graber, Manon Vergerio, and Meghna Chandra explained the thought behind Penn’s newest (if not first) “network of reciprocity”(Graber) in this Creative Ventures program. A timebank, they noted, values a core economy over a monetary economy, venerating those jobs that seasoned timebank-organizer Marie called “beyond value”: caring for children or the elderly, working in public health, etc. Operating under the belief that “everyone is a valuable asset”(Vergerio), Penn Timebank allows members of its community to trade time as currency in an hour-for-hour exchange; one member’s experience in Georgian language tutoring might be reciprocated with another’s knowledge in computer efficiency, Indian cooking, spiritual/philosophical guidance, or even an ability to offer transportation to IKEA. When asked why Penn was an ideal timebank location, Graber cited Ithaca Hours and claimed, “we were jealous of Cornell.” Other highlights included tips for avoiding timebank-related trouble with the IRS and the social-work implications of coproduction models. To participate, sign up at penntimebank.org, or learn more at penntimebank.wordpress.com.

February 6, 2013: Sensible Nonsense

In her eloquent introduction to this program Sensible Nonsense founder and former KWH work-study student Arielle Brousse reminded us of the legitimate artistry of our best-loved childhood stories — those books so captivating that you’d cart a picnic-basket’s worth of new ones home every week, so cherished that you thought about “losing” the library’s copy, or so resonant that you contemplated “potential misguided memorial tattoos” at the death of a favorite youth author. In this union of intelligent reflection and relatable nostalgia, it was clear that for these readers, children’s literature transcends its recommended age limits. Jess Bergman began with the origins of her love for “hurt-so-good catharsis,” The Velveteen Rabbit, while Isaac Kaplan invoked the power of oral storytelling by recounting his mother’s inventive “Pickle Car” saga about “an average, everyday, human-sized pickle” that just wanted to become a car. Chava Spivak-Brindorf traced her history of children’s-lit-derived lessons, lending insight into what Arielle called Chava’s “idealism that doesn’t wait around.” Victoria Ford described her very own “bad cases of stripes” (similar to the trials of lima-bean-loving Camilla Cream), and bonded with Penn professor Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve over South Carolina connections and young family members’ obsessions with Ninjago. The night concluded with an after-school-snack-laden reception. Get involved at http://sensiblenonsense.us.

January 29, 2013: Edible Books Again!


October 9, 2012: Writing About Art

Marcel Duchamp

Modeled after the ever-popular "7-up" series and 2011's Dylan-fest, Isaac Kaplan (C’15) organized the first ever "Writing About Art" program. It featured eight speakers, each having selected a (different) piece of art by Marcel Duchamp to describe, discuss, deconstruct, contextualize, riff off, etc. Novelist and keeper of the Institute of Contemporary Art’s blog “Miranda”, Rachel Pastan started the evening off right. Her talk on Bicycle Wheel (1913) highlighted Duchamp’s obsession with chance and made the audience want to visit the PMA and give the wheel a spin for themselves. Thomas Devaney utilized his poetical skills to deliver a hilarious, thought provoking way to create your own “personal trap” in the style of Duchamp’s 1917 work The Trap. Reminding us that the digital age hasn’t left Duchamp unscathed, the Writers House’s Lily Applebaum examined hashtags and the digital organization of Why Not Sneeze, Rose Selavy (1921) on the PMA’s website. ICA Staff Member and Penn Alum Grace Ambrose brought her expansive knowledge and charming style together in order to discuss Duchamp’s first work of installation art, First Papers of Surrealism (1942), which challenged the traditional art viewing experience. Student Henry Steinberg (C’13) created his own work of literary assemblage in homage to Torn Paper Self Portrait (1958). Things got explicit in every sense of the word as Philadelphia based artist Francie Shaw gave the crowd a detailed, extensive talk on the finer points of Duchamp’s masterwork Etant Donnes (1946). That same work was the focus of the venerable Penn professor and writer Jean-Michel Rabaté who explained Duchamp’s complex answer to the old question: when is a door not a door?

October 8, 2012: Charlie Morrow

Sound artist, composer, conceptualist

Internationally acclaimed sound poet Charlie Morrow’s pointed gestures and linguistic complexities blurred the lines between performance and preface in this dynamic creative ventures program. After an introduction that spanned the poet’s history with sound, and included speculation on recording as communication between the living and the dead, Morrow removed his characteristic bowler hat for a reading that incorporated mime, speaking in tongues, the language of peepers and toadfish, and systematic patriotic vowel movement, concluding each poem with a quiet nod and a shy smile. Morrow was eager to include the audience in his experimental choruses, noting “a lot of what I’m doing is so obvious it would be more fun if you joined me,” and drew amiable laughter with such pieces as “Counting to Ten, the Long Way” and “Who Knows.” He also shared some of his more visual/graphic work, most notably his recent “Spells” composed of friends’ names. The event concluded with a question and answer session in which Morrow discussed the jingle business, the politics of listening, and the process of hearing a space.


September 11, 2012: New Queer Jewish Writing: Dan Fishback and Ezra Berkley Nepon

Dan Fishback (C'03) is the 2012-2013 ArtsEdge Resident at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been writing and performing in New York City since 2003. Major works include The Material World (2012), thirtynothing (2011) and You Will Experience Silence (2009), all directed by Stephen Brackett at Dixon Place. Fishback has received grants from the Franklin Furnace Fund (2010) and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists (2007-2009). He is a resident artist at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics at NYU (2012), and has enjoyed previous residencies at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2010-2012), Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Previous works include No Direction Homo (P.S. 122, 2006), Please Let Me Love You (Dixon Place, 2006), Waiting for Barbara (Galapagos Art Space, 2006), boi with an i (Collective: Unconscious, 2004), and Assholes Speak Louder Than Words (Sidewalk Cafe, 2004). Also a performing songwriter, Fishback began his music career in the East Village's anti-folk scene. His band, Cheese On Bread, has toured Europe and North America in support of their two full-length albums, "Maybe Maybe Maybe Baby" (2004) and "The Search for Colonel Mustard" (2007), the latter of which was re-issued in Japan in 2010 on Moor Works Records. As a solo artist, Fishback has released several recordings, including "Sweet Chastity" (2005, produced by César Alvarez of The Lisps), and his latest, "The Mammal Years" (2012). He was a member of the movement troupe Underthrust, which collaborated with songwriter Kimya Dawson on several performances and videos. Fishback's essay, "Times Are Changing, Reb Tevye," was featured in the anthology "Mentsh: On Being Jewish & Queer" (Alyson Books, 2004). His visual installation, "Pen Pals," was featured in the 2011 Soho exhibition of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, for which he later served on the Selection Committee. Fishback frequently teaches workshops on performance composition and queer performance culture. He blogs at thematerialworld.tumblr.com; his regular website is www.danfishback.com. Before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, Fishback wrote a weekly column for the Daily Pennsylvanian, was heavily involved in anti-war activism, and organized events at Kelly Writers House.

Ezra Berkley Nepon is a West Philadelphian writer, performer, and organizer. Nepon recently returned from an East and West Coast tour with her new book Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda, published by Thread Makes Blanket Press and distributed by AK Press. Other creations include the full-length play Between Two Worlds: Who Loved You Before You Were Mine which used themes from The Dybbuk to think about relationships between queer generations in the wake of the AIDS epidemic ("a love letter to the ghosts among us"), and Little Orphan Gender Revolutionary Annie – a 4-act song-cycle about the gender binary oppression of the girls' orphanage, told through toy theater/green screen magic. Nepon is pursuing an MA in Goddard College's Transformative Language Arts Program, and working on a thesis about New Yiddish Theater-maker Jenny Romaine and radical faerie theater-troupe The Eggplant Faerie Players. Visit: www.ezraberkleynepon.wordpress.com.


December 7, 2011: Material Construction

An Investigation in Text and Movement as Artistic Materials

In artistic practice and production, TEXT and MOVEMENT are materials with distinct texture, history, function, possibility, charge. This evening’s program includes five artists, working in choreography, performance, sound and the written word. Through a variety of multimedia performance, “reading” and participatory workshop, each of these artists will lead audience members through an embodied and communal investigation of text and movement: what they are, what they do, the overlap and interstice, the way instances of each construct space, bodies, and community, the possibility of a map, the relationships we find and make.

November 15, 2011: The Henry Ford of Literature

a talk by ArtsEdge Resident Rolf Potts

Join us for a talk by ArtsEdge Resident Rolf Potts on the influence and example of Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, the "The Henry Ford of Literature," whose "Little Blue Books" created a mail-order information superhighway that paved the way for the sexual revolution, influenced the feminist and civil rights movements, and foreshadowed the Age of Information. Free vintage books for program attendees. For more about Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, visit The Believer.

November 10, 2011: Kristina Ford

The Trouble With City Planning: What New Orleans Can Teach Us

After the vast destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faces a rare chance to rebuild, with an unprecedented opportunity to plan what gets built. As the city's director of planning from 1992 until 2000, Kristina Ford is uniquely placed to use these opportunities as a springboard for an eye-opening discussion of the intransigent problems and promising possibilities facing city planners across the nation and beyond. In The Trouble with City Planning, Ford argues that almost no part of our usual understanding of the phrase "city planning" is accurate: not our conception of the plan itself, nor our sense of what city planners do or who plans are made for or how planners determine what citizens want. Most important, our conventional understanding does not tell us how a plan affects what gets built in any city in America.


November 5, 2011: The Creative Economy

Join the Kelly Writers House and panel moderator Peter Decherny, associate professor of Cinema Studies and English at the University of Pennsylvania, as we talk about how "The Creatives"—out-of-the-box, big picture thinkers and problem solvers—are driving the new economy. Panel guests will include Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia; Cheryl J. Family (C' 91), Senior Vice President/Brand Strategist of MTV Networks; Veronica Jerkiewicz (C'04), Performance Coordinator of the UPenn Department of Music and Co-founder of Classical Revolution; and Alex Mulchay, Owner of Red Flag Media and Founder of GRID magazine, a local free magazine that focuses on urban sustainability. Advance registration not required, but seating is limited. Reception to follow. Please RSVP to whhomecoming@writing.upenn.edu or (215) 746-POEM.

November 2, 2011: Judy's Turn

Taking a twisted approach to 1960s teen pop, Judy's Turn is a cyclical one-act play examining the love triangle between a good girl, a bad girl, and a high school jock. You would cry too, if it happened to you. Judy's Turn was first performed as part of the 2011 fringe festival/Alternative theater festival.

Written and directed by Violette Carb. Starring Brooks Russell as Johnny, Ansley Sawyer as Julie, and Markie Reichert as Judy.

October 27, 2011: Flash Fiction Flash Mob

Inspiration comes in a flash. So do floods, and so do mobs. Immortality, too, in flashes photographic or cryogenic. Grins & knives flash, and a frowned-upon kind of trench-coated person, and loud bits of jewelry and expensive fashions. Flashes can illuminate or blind, solidify or disintegrate, define or erase, overflow or disappear.

And what is the relationship between writing & time? How much time does it take to write? How much time do we get back by reading? Or is it the other way around?

Whether you think of yourself as a "writer" or not, we're sure that you've got some creative urges you're dying to indulge. So come one and come all! Join us for an evening of group writing exercises that will explore some unconventional ways of approaching writing, exercises that will push you a little outside your usual frame of mind and free you up for some exciting creative possibilities. It'll definitely be more than a little silly, but you can't look dignified while having fun, y'know?

A series of three writers' workshops-in-miniature, each run by a different leader, each lasting about half an hour, will give you the opportunity to create short works in a short time alongside a group of other busy scribblers as we test different angles of approach to the page & each other. These extemporaneous writings will be later collected into a small anthology and made available over the web—and perhaps even a small chapbook! Participants will receive copies to commemorate the event.

There'll be tea & cookies & other munchable things, too. It'll be cozy!

Our inaugural Flash Fiction Flash Mob exercise leaders are Sam Allingham, Timothy Leonido, and Thomson Guster.


October 15, 2011: Re:Activism in Philadelphia

We are pleased to announce the first round of play of Re:Activism in Philadelphia, brought about through the collaboration of the Kelly Writers House's Creative Ventures program, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the University of Pennsylvania's Urban Studies department.

Created by Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor of Design and Technology at Parsons and Design Director of PETLab, Re:Activism is a big urban game designed to involve its participants in their city's history of activism and public protest. The game requires its players to move about the city performing challenges at sites relevant to the history of activism, highlighting the continued significance of protest sites through conducting interviews with passersby, staging reenactments of past protests, and making creative use of protest tactics (e.g. creation of protest signs, distribution of literature) in order to gather points.

Originally designed for play in New York City, Re:Activism Philadelphia will take its players on a unique journey through Philadelphia's rich history of activism, celebrating the legacy of protest while educating its players with instances of historical activist causes, such as the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (formed in 1833), as well as engaging them in more familiar contemporary issues, such as the school budget protests at the Criminal Justice Center in March of 2011.

The event will begin at 11:30 AM at the ICA (118 S. 36th St.) and end at the Kelly Writers House. Accept the challenge and join us for Re:Activism Philadelphia!" To RSVP, go to www.icaphila.org.

Re:Activism is a game that explores a city's history of protests, riots, and other forms of political unrest. Players competitively navigate sitesof local struggle and resistance, documenting activism-based challenges with cellphones and using SMS. This interactive game allows participants to "play their city," drawing parallels between struggles, unearth moments of local radical history, and theatrically subvert business-as-usual. Re:Activism is a collaboration between ICA, Kelly Writers House and the Department of Urban Studies, and is supported by the Office of the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. RSVP required, visit www.icaphila.org for more details.


October 5, 2011: An Edible Book Party

The Kelly Writers House hosts an Edible Book Party celebrating works of art inspired by books and created in kitchens. All are welcome to join the festival to browse the library of edible titles or to contribute their own. Edible books could show up as depictions of literary characters or scenes, interpretations of titles or themes, or sculptures of actual books. Prizes will be awarded in a variety of categories, including "most punny," "most literal" and the "creative spirit award." Come hungry, come curious, and apply to Erin Gautsche for grocery funds to create and display your favorite story as an Edible Book.