January 2018
Monday, 1/1
Tuesday, 1/2
Wednesday, 1/3
Thursday, 1/4
Friday, 1/5
Saturday, 1/6
Sunday, 1/7
Monday, 1/8
Tuesday, 1/9
Wednesday, 1/10
Thursday, 1/11
Friday, 1/12
Saturday, 1/13
Sunday, 1/14
Monday, 1/15
Tuesday, 1/16
A Poetry Reading by Mónica de la Torre
Visiting Poet-Scholar Series
6:30 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event
listen: to an audio recording of this event
co-sponsored by: the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program
Mónica de la Torre is the author of six books of poetry, most recently The Happy End/All Welcome (Ugly Duckling Presse). Born and raised in Mexico City, she translates poetry, writes about art, and is a contributing editor to BOMB Magazine. Publications include The Third Rail, Triple Canopy, Harper's, Poetry, The White Review, Erizo, the New Yorker, and huun: arte / pensamiento desde México. She teaches in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. Her translation of Defensa del ídolo, the sole book of poetry by the Chilean modernist Omar C´ceres, is forthcoming in 2018.
Wednesday, 1/17
Brodsky Gallery Opening: A/PUBLIC: a group show of femme / queer Asian artists
7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV: part 1, part 2
listen to an audio recording of this event
A/PUBLIC : a group show of femme / queer Asian artists, is a convening of artists of a particular community, not only calling upon shared identity, but also assembling toward differential cultural learning and political processing; same cities, component archives. Here, at the Kelly Writers House, we mark a space and time to call for our audience, share our practice, test our designations, and navigate what onward looks like to us. Up for discussion, by and for us: How to bear illegible and erasable archives into a future? How to tease the topos of diaspora into local entity? How to make together for each other?
A/PUBLIC, on show through March 5, will feature painting, prints, and videowork from 15 Philadelphia/New York artists. Also available for critical browsing: a temporary library of the artists' collected books & ephemera, and a print object of texts from local artists, writers, and kin. This public program – featuring a lecture by JOAN OH, a reading by OKI SOGUMI, a video screening by EVA WǑ, and a performance by MAYA YU ZHANG – will open with a reception at 7PM.
This group show and program are co-curated by Adrienne Hall, Monika Uchiyama, and Connie Yu.
JOAN OH received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and BFA in Photography at the Corcoran School of Art + Design. Using various mediums such as photography, video, and ceramics, Joan characterizes her work by generating diverse and playful meanings to create her own method of social inquiry. Her work has been exhibited in New York (BronxArtSpace), Philadelphia (Vox Populi, High Tide), and internationally in Belgium (Hangar H18 Gallery), and Croatia (Mavena). She is a recipient of the Toby Lewis Foundation Prize and Oakley Medal of Achievement. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. www.joanoh.com
OKI SOGUMI was born in Seoul, South Korea as military dictatorship ended. She writes poetry and fiction, and her forthcoming speculative novella is about giant insects, migration, time travel, oceanic feelings, wellness, and both the limits and possibilities of relations like friendship. She currently resides in Philadelphia.
EVA WǑ is a queer mixed-race Chinese-American portrait photographer, experimental videographer, curator and performer born in New Mexico and based in Philadelphia. Her work challenges and expands possibilities for gender/sexual self-determination and self-love through the creation of celebratory and inspiring imagery made in collaboration with queer, trans, and nonbinary artists, performers, event organizers, activists and sex workers. Eva is a recipient of the 2017 Leeway Transformation Award.
MAYA YU ZHANG 張宇 is an artist who primarily practices in film. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Maya was a collaborative studio fellow at UnionDocs from 2016-2017. Her films have been shown at Black Maria Film Festival, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and Anthology Film Archive among others.
Thursday, 1/18
A Poetry Reading by Simone White
Visiting Poet-Scholar Series
6:30 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event
listen: to an audio recording of this event
Simone White is the author of Dear Angel of Death (coming later this year from Ugly Duckling Presse), Of Being Dispersed, and House of Envy of All the World, the poetry chapbook, Unrest, and the collaborative poem/painting chapbook, Dolly, with Kim Thomas. Her poetry and prose have been featured in NYTimes Book Review, Harper's Magazine, BOMB Magazine, Chicago Review, and Harriet: The Blog. In 2017, she received the Whiting Award for poetry. She works as Program Director at The Poetry Project and, this spring, is Visiting Associate Professor of Creative Writing at The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Friday, 1/19
Saturday, 1/20
Sunday, 1/21
Monday, 1/22
A poetry reading by CAConrad and Dara Wier
Whenever We Feel Like It Reading Series
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event via PennSound
listen: to an audio recording of this event
The Whenever We Feel Like It Reading Series is put on by Committee of Vigilance members Michelle Taransky and Emily Pettit. The Committee of Vigilance is a subdivision of Sleepy Lemur Quality Enterprises, which is the production division of The Meeteetzee Institute.
Dara Wier's 13th book, in the still of the night, includes 13 poems. She lives in North Amherst and teaches for the University of Massachusetts MFA for poets and writers and co-directs its Juniper Inititative and Juniper Summer Institute. Previously Guggenheim, NEA and Massachusetts Cultural Council grants have supported her work. She edits and publishes for jubilat and factory hollow press.
CAConrad's childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. He is the author of 9 books of poetry and essays, including While Standing in Line for Death(forthcoming from Wave Books, 2017), and is also the co-editor of Supplication: Selected Poems of John Wieners. He is a Pew Fellow and has also received fellowships from Lannan Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Banff, RADAR, Flying Object and Ucross. For his books, essays, and details on the documentary The Book of Conrad (Delinquent Films, 2016), please visit www.CAConrad.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, 1/23
Wednesday, 1/24
Beats, Bards and Balladeers
Suppose an Eyes Poetry Reading
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event via YouTube
listen to an audio recording of this event
Please join us as Suppose An Eyes members read poetry inspired by their favorite poets and songwriters! Poets reading will be Virginia Badler, Ross Bender, Carole Bernstein, Tom d'Egidio, Patricia Green, Mabel Lee, Lubna Mian, Jonathon Todd, Alan Toltzis, and Diane Wilder. A reception with food and drinks will be held following the reading. Free and open to the public.
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 workshop for poets to explore, share, and improve their work as part of a supportive community of writers. Though often full, the group is open to anyone interested in writing poetry–any type of poetry, from traditional forms to "found" poetry, flarf, and even computer-generated work. In addition to workshop meetings, Suppose an Eyes participates in readings at various locations in the greater Philadelphia area.
Thursday, 1/25
Mind of Winter
5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV: part 1, part 2
listen to an audio recording of this event
RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM.
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!
Friday, 1/26
Saturday, 1/27
Sunday, 1/28
Monday, 1/29
LIVE at the Kelly Writers House
7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
listen to an audio recording of this event
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 airs a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, along with one musical guest -- from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. "LIVE" is broadcast on WXPN. "LIVE" is made possible through the generous support of BigRoc and is produced by Alli Katz.
Tuesday, 1/30
A Poetry Reading by Sarah Dowling
Visiting Poet-Scholar Series
6:30 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event
listen: to an audio recording of this event
Sarah Dowling is the author of two books of poetry, DOWN (Coach House, 2014) and Security Posture (Snare, 2009), which received the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Sarah has also published three chapbooks, US (The Elephants, 2018), Entering Sappho (above/ground, 2017) and Birds & Bees (TrollThread, 2012); her writing appears in literary journals including Encyclopedia, Windsor Review, Line, and P-Queue. Sarah's scholarly book, Writing Against Monolingualism: Translingual Poetics and Settler Colonial Personhood, is forthcoming from the University of Iowa Press. She teaches at the University of Washington Bothell.
Wednesday, 1/31
Shifting the Gaze
Feminism/s program
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV: part 1, part 2
listen to an audio recording of this event
Shifting the Gaze: Women in Music is an event series founded by Amanda Silberling (C’18) in 2015 to explore the intersectional challenges that women and other marginalized people face in the music industry. Through discussion and collaboration, Shifting the Gaze seeks to spark ideas that can build more inclusive communities.
Jazz Adam is a multidimensional artist with a focus in performance. She is one of the founding members of All Mutable, a Philadelphia-based DIY booking collective that focuses on curating lineups that represent people of color, women, and members of LGBTQ+ communities, among others. Jazz is the guitarist and vocalist of Old Maybe, a three-piece no-wave band. Old Maybe’s second album, Piggity Pink, was included on the Best of 2017 list released by Post-Trash. As a female performer of multiracial descent, Jazz continues to resist tokenization and commodification in the DIY music community.
Marisa Dabice is a performance artist & musician living in Philadelphia, PA. They are currently at work on a new Mannequin Pussy record which will be released this year, as well a debut experimental pop project that has yet to be named. Marisa plans to run for city council in 2024.
Sadie Dupuis is the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the rock band Speedy Ortiz and producer and multi-instrumentalist behind politically-geared pop outfit Sad13. She is a writer and cultural critic and holds an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst. Years touring internationally inspired her to consider the ways in which musicians on the road can have a positive political and social impact on their communities. In 2015, Speedy Ortiz initiated a help hotline – the first of its kind – for fans to text if they felt unsafe or needed assistance at a show. On tour, Dupuis distributes bystander intervention and de-escalation strategies, shares safer space guidelines with venues, and mandates gender neutral bathrooms. She has also organized non-profit touring benefiting organizations including Girls Rock Camp Foundation and the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as fundraisers for more local charities in need, such as the Ferguson Library and the GLBT Center of Orlando.
Andrea Jácome is a cultural organizer and facilitator based between Philadelphia and NYC. She is the former Community Organizing Director at Girls Rock Philly, a music mentorship nonprofit that builds with girls, women, and trans, and gender non-conforming people. Starting at Swarthmore College, she has been dedicated to interdisciplinary modes of cultural organizing and popular education – often bridging music with art, food, and gardening – as means to build pockets of liberatory spaces. From 2011 to 2014, she was a core member of Taller de Paz, a transnational collective of popular educators working with internally displaced youth outside of Bogotá, Colombia. From 2015-2017, as co-director of Girls Rock Philly, she focused on deepening GRP’s commitment to social justice and youth power – among wearing many other hats. Currently, she is working toward completing her herbal apprenticeship with Sacred Vibes Apothecary as well as her first chapbook of poetry.
Amanda Silberling is a music writer, photographer, and filmmaker with work appearing in Consequence of Sound, She Shreds Magazine, The Media, and others. Her documentary “We’re Here, We’re Present: Women in Punk,” which debuted this summer on VICE, celebrates the connection between music and social change. In 2016, Amanda co-founded an art collective, We Are Watching, to protest on-campus sexual violence; the collective’s public installations received praise from Senator Bob Casey and Governor Tom Wolf, and were featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and others. A senior at the University of Pennsylvania, this is Amanda's third year organizing Shifting the Gaze: Women in Music at the Kelly Writers House, where she is also a staff member.