Finding the Words: Responses to crisis from the Marianne Moore papers & Philadelphia poets - A video recording of a reading by poets from the Kelly Writers House: Bob Perelman, Susan Stewart, Greg Djanikian, Jena Osman, and Tom Devaney. Listen: the entire program 01:15:51 (RealVideo) Jena Osman, "Dropping Leaflets" 00:05:12 (MP3) [more] Tom Devaney, "Fireman's Song" 00:01:04 (MP3) Bob Perelman, Untitled 00:08:35 (MP3) [includes passages from Moore's "Labors of Hercules" and Perelman's Captive Audience] Al Filreis, "Mending the Break in Time" 00:05:18 (RealVideo) See the Writers House calendar entry for more about this event.

During the Second World War, the American poet Marianne Moore sent and received letters describing the thoughts, fears, and actions of a people in crisis. H.D. writes from a London wracked by the Blitz. Joseph Cornell recounts his commute to a munitions factory. Elizabeth Bishop laughs about her inept volunteer work for the Navy. And William Carlos Williams explains the uses of art at a time of disaster. On November 7, The Rosenbach Museum & Library will share these letters with poets from The Kelly Writers House. Reading work that addresses the themes of Moore's correspondence--witness, anger, humor, home life, and uses of art--the poets will provide a voice for our own responses to the current crises. With the Writers House poets, the program included a reading and exhibition of the Moore letters. On November 11, an expanded exhibition opened at The Rosenbach Museum & Library. It included additional letters from the Moore archive, as well as documentation of the poets' readings and response, and Al Filreis's introduction to the reading. After the event Tom Devaney wrote this message to the Writers House "hub," a word of thanks. This program was co-sponsored with the Rosenback Museum and Library. The Rosenbach Museum & Library houses the literary papers, library, and furnished living room of Marianne Moore. The Rosenbach is at once a historic house, a museum with a regular schedule of changing exhibitions and programs, and a research library that attracts international scholars. This 1865 townhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and holds a world-renowned collection of rare books, manuscripts, and fine and decorative arts. Writers House Webcast Archive