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December 2009

Tuesday, 12/1

Poet and performance artist Ursula Rucker

Fourth annual Caroline Rothstein Oral Poetry Program

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

introduced by: Allison Harris
listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

As a poet and performance artist, Ursula Rucker has enchanted critics and fans across the globe with her diverse repertoire, captivating vocals, and accessible poetic verse. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she began documenting her observations of the world when she was just a girl. After graduating from Temple University's journalism program and a stint at The Painted Bride Art Center, Ursula made her debut in 1994 at Philadelphia's famed jazz venue, Zanzibar Blue.

Producer King Britt invited her to create her first recording, the 1994 single, "Supernatural" (Ovum/Slip N Slide UK). Critics have compared Ursula to Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni. Coincidentally, when Shange was unable to provide The Roots with a spoken word contribution for their debut album Do You Want More?!!?!! (1994, Geffen), they called on her to fit the bill. "The Unlocking", which closed the album, introduced Ursula to the world of progressive hip-hop and led to subsequent invitations to close The Roots follow-up albums Iladelph Halflife (1996, Geffen) and Things Fall Apart (1999, MCA).

Ursula has toured with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, SYLK130, and 4HERO in the United States and Europe. In 2001, her !K7 debut Supa Sista introduced Ursula as a solo artist with a strong lyrical voice. Her 2003 release, Silver and Lead, further extended her exploration of self, race and femininity. With maat mama (2006, !K7) Ursula once again showed a new level of maturity in her writing. Ursula's most recent release, Ruckus Soundsysdom, executive produced by King Britt for his FiveSixMedia imprint, takes listeners on a journey into her various sonic influences. Producers include King, Dego (4Hero), Rich Medina, Fish Eye, Rucyl Mills, Tim Motzer, and others.

A proud mother of four, Ursula currently lives in Northwest Philadelphia. She recently received a grant from the Leeway Foundation to complete an epic poem for a collaboration with Pullitzer-prize winning photographer Clarence Williams. Rucker is also a 2008 recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, which is given to artists in the Philadelphia region who have been engaged in art for social change for give years or more.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Wednesday, 12/2

PENN APPÉTIT Launch Party

8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

Penn Appétit is a food magazine that includes all types of food writing: feature food stories, personal narratives related to food, political/opinion columns, food poetry, restaurant reviews, and more, with the goal to expand the types of food writing done on campus, as well as to explore the food issues surrounding Penn and Philadelphia.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 12/3

a lunch program with Ben Jacobs

"The End of the Future of Publishing"

Applebaum Publishers and Editors Series

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

rsvp: to wh@writing.upenn.edu.
listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

Ben Jacobs is currently Director of Subsidiary Rights at Infobase Publishing, and educational and trade publisher in New York. Over the past 18 years he has worked at such houses as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Cambridge University Press, and The Lyons Press. He lives in West Philadelphia.

We all feel like it

a reading by Writers House affiliated poets Rivka Fogel, Kim Eisler, Rebekah Caton, Lindsey Todd, Lily Applebaum, and Chris Milione

presented by the Whenever We Feel Like It series

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
listen: segmented audio recordings for each reader on PennSound's Whenever We Feel Like It series page

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.

Rivka Fogel is a junior and English major with a concentration in Creative Writing. The Behrman Scholar at the Kelly Writers House, she is the Executive Editor of the Kedma Journal and serves on the Penn Review editorial board. Her poems have been published in Peregrine and in Penn student journals, and her art was featured in this year's Arts in the City Year Crawl. She writes on art for the SoHo-based blog Art Observed, and has an eternal love of polka dots.

Rebekah Caton is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in English and graduating in exactly two weeks. She likes to read and write poems & hopes to be in Africa (exact location TBA; Peace Corps is all about suspense, apparently) by this time next year.

Kimberly Eisler is a professional stock trader, living in New York. She is the author of Trading for a Living, Come Into My Trading Room and Entries & Exits, best-selling and well known among traders. First published in 1993, these books have been translated into Sign Language, Icelandic, the Moravian dialect of Czech, HTML, and Cuneiform. She also wrote Rubles to Dollars—a book about the transformation of Russia. Dr. Eisler was born in Leningrad and grew up in Estonia, where she entered medical school at the age of 16. At 23, while working as a ship's doctor, she jumped a former Soviet Union ship in Africa and received political asylum in the United States. Eisler is also a pioneer of mechanical ventilation of asphyxiation victims. She was the first person to manufacture nitrous oxide for commercial use in her Trenton, New Jersey facility.

Lily Applebaum is new to poetry-writing and uses zeugma whenever possible, and works judiciously as a research assistant for Al Filreis and on her poetry in a secret Word document (yes, the journal is a red herring). She has also been a student of Writers House Director Jessica Lowenthal and of Charles Bernstein. Lily is hoping to declare a double major in English and Environmental studies, and spent the summer working as a nature teacher to many elementary school children and five leopard frogs. She is interested in repetition, nouns of direct address, demonstrative pronouns, and transition words. You there, don't be surprised that this is her next sentence. Conclusively, she is interested in repetition.

Chris Milione is a junior in the College, majoring in English. Enjoys long walks on the beach, picnics under oak trees, and popular songs rewritten to parody the literary canon. Has an intense dislike for pronouns. Incessantly attempts to hone his ability to speak with a convincing foreign accent—so far, he hasn't convinced a single person.

Lindsey Todd is not witty, not graceful, not hip, not scholarly, can't cornrow (contrary to popular assumption), hates arguing politics, can't stand the smell of tomato sauce, and abhors liars. Lindsey is curious, loquacious, occasionally cynical, adventurous, idealistic, culinarily inclined, clumsy, generous, friendly, loves small furry animals, legitimately adores school, has faith in humanity, and really wishes Nickelodeon was still worth watching.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Friday, 12/4

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Saturday, 12/5

Sunday, 12/6

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Monday, 12/7

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Tuesday, 12/8

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Wednesday, 12/9

A Lunch program with Dan Biddle and Murray Dubin

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

introduced by: Dick Polman
rsvp: to wh@writing.upenn.edu
listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

Dan Biddle, a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, graduated from the University of Michigan and worked for The Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1976 until 1979, when he joined The Philadelphia Inquirer as a City Hall reporter. Seven years later he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, along with H. G. Bissinger and Fredric N. Tulsky, for their piece, "Disorder in the Court," which exposed the transgressions of justice in the Philadelphia court system. The issues of bribery and corruption the article brought forth lead to both federal and state investigations. Dan Biddle is currently the Deputy City Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and is in the midst of working with former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Murray Dubin on a book about Philadelphia's 1871 civil rights movement.

Murray Dubin is an award winning journalist turned author. A Philadelphia native and Temple grad, his publications include South Philadelphia: mummers, memories, and the Melrose Diner (1996, Temple University Press) and Living Under South Street : Photographs of South Philadelphia by Jonathan Elderfield (2003, Kehrer Verlag). Along with freelancing, he is currently co-authoring a book with Dan Biddle on America's "first" Civil Rights movement, the effort by free blacks in the North to secure true freedom for themselves in the 1800s by advocating ending discrimination in employment, transportation, education and on the baseball playing fields.

Poetry Reading by Students in Lynn Levin's Creative Writing Class

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

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!

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 12/10

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Friday, 12/11

Crafternoon

1:30 PM in the Dining Room

rsvp: email taransky@writing.upenn.edu



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Saturday, 12/12

Sunday, 12/13

Monday, 12/14

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Tuesday, 12/15

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Wednesday, 12/16

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Thursday, 12/17

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Friday, 12/18

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Saturday, 12/19

Sunday, 12/20

Monday, 12/21

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Tuesday, 12/22

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Wednesday, 12/23

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Thursday, 12/24

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Friday, 12/25

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Saturday, 12/26

Sunday, 12/27

Monday, 12/28

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Tuesday, 12/29

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Wednesday, 12/30

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 12/31

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)