Dystopia producer Kristen Gallagher writes: "Toshi is a percussionist. His idea of percussion includes everything in the room and his full body. He has been running the avant garde music project at highwire gallery for years and also runs a list serve for improv acts throughout the phil-balti-wash dc area. He will be accompanied by a sax and synthesizer. This is not to be missed."

The workshop will be led by Paul Sherman, a former journalist who has published stories in The New York Times, Time magazine, The Miami Herald, and other publications. Sherman worked in Mexico City for five years.

All are welcome! If you are interested in the workshop or want more information, email Paul.

Jena Osman (pictured at right)has published six books of poetry: Jury (Meow Press, 1996), Amblyopia (Avenue B, 1993), The Lab-Book (Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo, 1992), Balance (Leave Books, 1992), Underwater Dive: Version One (Paradigm Press, 1990) and Twelve Parts of Her (Burning Deck Press, 1989). Her poetry has also been anthologized in The Art of Practice: Forty-Five Contemporary Poets, as well as Subliminal Time and Writing From the New Coast: Presentation. She is the co-editor (with Juliana Spahr) of Chain, a journal that investigates language in its various presentational frames. Also see her online works:

• The Periodic Table As Assembled by Dr. Zhivago, Oculist
• Dead Text

Tina Darragh's books include on the corner to off the corner (Sun & Moon, 1981), Striking Resemblance (Burning Deck, 1989), a(gain)2 st the odds (Potes and Poets, 1989), and adv. fans - the 1968 series (Leave Books, 1993). Her work has been included in several anthologies, among them In the American Tree (National Poetry Foundation, 1986), "Language" Poetries (New Directions, 1987), out of everywhere: linguistically innovative poetry by women in North America & the UK (Reality Street Editions, 1996), and Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women (Talisman, forthcoming 1998). Selections from her current project, the dream rim instructions, have been published in Chain and Primary Writing, and will be featured in a forthcoming Etruscan Reader. Darragh is employed as a reference librarian at the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature at Georgetown University. She lives in Greenbelt, Maryland, with her husband P. Inman and their son, Jack.

• 6:00-8:00PM: Screening of A Soldier's Story.
• 8:00-9:00PM: Conversation with Charles Fuller.

  (RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu.)

• 2:30-3:30PM: Roundtable conversation with Bissinger, David Cohen, and other former key members of the Rendell administration, moderated by Mike Madden.
  
  
  List of Participants:
  • David Cohen (former Chief of Staff)
  • Mike Madden (moderator, Penn senior at the time, DP managing editor, journalist)
  • Peter Conn (host, Penn English professor)
  • Kathy Engebretson (former City Treasurer)
  • Mike Masch (Penn Budget Director, former City Budget Director)
  • Joe Torsella (C85, former Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning)
  • Mike Nardol (former City Labor Relations Director)
  • Buzz Bissigner

• 3:30-4:30PM: Journalism workshop

Buzz Bissinger's recently-released A Prayer for the City has been earning high praise from critics and readers alike. He spent five and a half years writing the book, during which time he had exclusive access to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, C'65, and his administration. Mr. Bissinger is also the author of the acclaimed bestseller Friday Night Lights. From 1981 to 1988, he was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He later worked for the Chicago Tribune, and is currently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. Mr. Bissinger was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1985-86, and he received his bachelor's degree in English from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976.