February 2024
Thursday, 2/1
Friday, 2/2
Saturday, 2/3
Sunday, 2/4
Monday, 2/5
Lorene Cary’s Ladysitting: Monologue, Dialogue, and Discussion
Lorene Cary and Melanye Finister, in conversation with Terrence Nolen
6:30 PM in person
presented in collaboration with: the Arden Theater Company
co-sponsored by: the Center for Africana Studies, the Creative Writing Program, the English Department, and the Theatre Arts Program
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us for a scene reading and discussion of Lorene Cary’s play Ladysitting, currently in its world premiere at the Arden Theater. Playwright Lorene Cary will be joined by Melanye Finister, the actor playing Lorene in the Arden production, and Terrence Nolen, Arden’s Producing Artistic Director. After a scene reading/performance by Finister, the group will talk about the development of Ladysitting, including the challenges and pleasures of turning memoir into theater.
Ladysitting — now at the Arden — explores the life and last year of Lorene’s Nana, a fiercely strong and independent woman, who now needs the care of others. The play captures the ruptures, love, and forgiveness that can occur in family as Lorene journeys through stories of five generations of their African American ancestors and bears witness to her grandmother’s 101 vibrant years of life.
Lorene Cary writes: Plays: Ladysitting, following a 2018 opera version, the Arden Theatre adaptation premieres January 2024; My General Tubman at Arden Theatre, 2020, published by TRW. Librettos: Jubilee!, about the Fisk Jubilee Singers, then and now, with composer Damien Geter for Portland Opera, 2026. Memoirs: Black Ice, best-seller, studied nationwide, about attending St. Paul’s School in the 1970s, and Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century, which explores caretaking her grandmother. Novels: The Price of a Child, inaugural One Book One Philadelphia feature; Pride, a girlfriend novel with serious bass notes; and If Sons, then Heirs, about family love and inheritance despite lynching and heir property laws. Cary teaches Creative Writing at UPenn and directs #VoteThatJawn to bring youth to the polls. Read more at www.lorenecary.com.
MELANYE FINISTER (Mel) Arden: Ladysitting, Backing Track, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummers Night's Dream (F. Otto Haas Stage inaugural production). Regional: Is God Is, There, Dionysus Was Such a Nice Man, When the Rain Stops Falling, Don Juan Comes Home From Iraq (Wilma Theater); Shakespeare In Love, The Diary of Anne Frank, Skeleton Crew, The Matchmaker, Project Dawn, All My Sons, Fences (People’s Light); Abandon (Theatre Exile); The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial Of Miz Martha Washington, Run Mourner Run (Flashpoint Theatre Company); Third (Philadelphia Theatre Company). Education: BFA, Carnegie Mellon University. Melanye is a Company member at People's Light and Wilma Hothouse. She was also a 2018 Ten Chimneys Lunt Fontanne Fellow.
TERRENCE J. NOLEN (Producing Artistic Director) is Co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Arden Theatre Company. Favorite Arden productions include all-Philadelphia casts of August: Osage County, Death of a Salesman, The Grapes of Wrath, and A Streetcar Named Desire; and such musicals as Next to Normal, Sweeney Todd, Pacific Overtures, Violet, and Caroline, or Change. Terry directed the inaugural production of Arden Children’s Theatre, Charlotte’s Web. He has directed seven world-premiere plays by Michael Hollinger, three by Dennis Raymond Smeal, three by Michael Ogborn, two by Rogelio Martinez, and Bruce Graham’s Something Intangible. Terry has been nominated for 27 Barrymore Awards for his directing work at the Arden and received awards for The Baker’s Wife; Sweeney Todd; Opus; Winesburg, Ohio; Assassins; Something Intangible; and Fun Home. He directed Michael Hollinger’s Opus at Primary Stages in New York and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director. His short film The Personal Touch was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Tuesday, 2/6
But Company
hosted by: Michelle Taransky
6:00 PM in person at the Kelly Writers House
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us for the inaugural But Company reading. A part of the Whenever We Feel Like It reading series, hosted by Michelle Taransky, But Company is a yearly celebration of young writers inspired by Jamie Albrecht's (C'22) line from his award-winning thesis "No advice but company." Featured readers include Sophia DuRose (C'21), Abigail Effendi (C'24), Samatha Hsiung (C'27), Enne Kim (C'26), Charles Shen (C'27), Amanda Silberling (C'18), and Zoe Stoller (C'18).
Wednesday, 2/7
Grad Student Open Mic Night
hosted by: the Graduate Student Center
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Calling all graduate and professional student poets, authors, and writers! Come join your fellow students for a night of creativity and inspiration at the Kelly Writers House. Sign up to perform in advance or add your name during the event. A reception will be provided.
Thursday, 2/8
StorySeek: conversation and demo
6:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us for a conversation and demo by the creators of Storyseek, a new platform for virtual reality journeys combining site-specific poetry, memoir, and fiction with with color and sound. Developed by the Drexel Entrepreneurial Game Studio in collaboration with Cleaver Magazine, StorySeek is a multimedia love letter to Philadelphia's streets, neighborhoods, and secret, favorite places. Works by Philadelphia authors Yolanda Wisher, Beth Kephart, Alyssa Songsiridej, L Feldman, and Krys Belc traces paths through Germantown, Center City, West Philadelphia, the Wissahickon, and Fishtown. StorySeek’s unique desktop app is part immersive theater, part video game, and part neighborhood poetry slam, offering users a new template for interactive, place-based digital art that celebrates contemporary urban life. StorySeek's interactive playthrough experience will be accessible for all as an archive of videos. Story Seek is funded in part by the William Penn Foundation and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
Cleaver Magazine is Philadelphia’s award-winning international quarterly literary magazine. Founded in 2013 by Karen Rile and Lauren Rile Smith, Cleaver is now celebrating 10 years of publishing the finest in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, essays on craft and the writing life, and book reviews.
The Entrepreneurial Game Studio (EGS) at Drexel University is an educational game incubator focused on developing the next generation of leaders in the game industry. Founded and led by Dr. Frank J. Lee, EGS teaches students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset by helping and mentoring students to form their own game companies. Since its founding in 2014, more than 15 LLC have been formed within EGS, including two successful Kickstarter campaigns. EGS is one of the most awarded university-based incubators in the nation, garnering more than 30 national and international awards and recognitions by its students. They include winning the 2018 Intel University Game Showcase and the 2019 E3 College Game Competition and being a finalist for Best Student Game at the 2019 Independent Game Festival.
Friday, 2/9
Saturday, 2/10
Sunday, 2/11
Monday, 2/12
A meeting of the writers house planning committee
5:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend this meeting in person
The Kelly Writers House is run collectively by members of its community, especially students. The Writers House Planning Committee — also known as "the Hub" — meets monthly to discuss Writers House projects and programs. Join us at this first meeting of the year to find out about some of the things we will work on this year, including our annual marathon reading, and to find out how you can get involved with community-led events and projects.
Tuesday, 2/13
Irma Kiss Barath and Miriam Shah
Heled Travel and Research Grant presentations
12:30 PM in person at the Kelly Writers House
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us as the 2023–2024 winners of the Heled Travel Grant, Irma Kiss Barath and Miriam Shah, share some of what they learned during their travels. Irma studied the rich tradition of political art and dissident artists in Darkar, Senegal. Miriam, inspired by the work of Indian-Jewish poet Nissim Ezekiel, visited the shrinking Bene Israel community in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Both students will talk about their research, their methods of documentation, and what they’ve taken away from their experiences.
OUTSIDE IMAGES: STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW
Brodsky Gallery art opening and reception
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us for an art opening and reception for “Outside Images,” a student photography show in the KWH Brodsky Gallery. “Outside Images” features a diverse body of photographs, where the focal points are rarely humans. Primarily landscapes, this show contrasts urban with rural, congestion with emptiness, and asks the viewer to find the tensions between space. Curated by Lila Shermeta (C’25), this first Brodsky Gallery exhibition of the spring semester will feature photography by Philadelphia-area college students. Join us for a reception with some of the artists and tour the show.
Wednesday, 2/14
SPEAKEASY OPEN MIC NIGHT
Poetry, prose, anything goes
7:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Our student-run open mic night welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings. You’ll have three minutes at the podium to perform. Bring your poetry, your guitar, your dance troupe, your award-winning essay, or your flash fiction to share.
Thursday, 2/15
A Conversation with Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone
Presented by RealArts@Penn
5:30 PM in person
Hosted by: Anthony DeCurtis
Sponsored by: the Povich Journalism Program
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Brian Hiatt is a senior writer at Rolling Stone, where he's been on staff since 2004, and host of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. He's written over seventy cover stories for Rolling Stone, on everyone from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar. In 2019 he published the book Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs. He previously was on staff at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News.
Friday, 2/16
Saturday, 2/17
Sunday, 2/18
Monday, 2/19
LIVE at the Writers House
a monthly radio show produced in collaboration with WXPN
6:30 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
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 records a one-hour show of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art for broadcast by WXPN. LIVE at the Writers House is edited by Zach Carduner and produced by Alli Katz. The show is made possible through the generous support of BigRoc.
Tuesday, 2/20
Eugene Ostashevsky: a reading and conversation
6:00 PM in person
hosted by: Kevin Platt
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Eugene Ostashevsky is a poet and translator whose writing is described as “translingual” because of its focus on multilingualism and linguistic interference. His Feeling Sonnets (Carcanet, NYRB Poets, 2022) examine the effects of speaking a non-native language on emotions, parenting, and identity. An earlier book, The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi (NYRB Poets, 2017), discusses communication difficulties between pirates and parrots. As translator, Ostashevsky is best known for his editions of the Russian avant-garde, such as OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism (Northwestern UP, 2006). His more recent translations include Lucky Breaks by the Ukrainian fiction writer Yevgenia Belorusets (New Directions, 2022). His work has appeared in Best American Poetry and won the National Translation Award, the City of Münster International Poetry Prize, and other prizes.
Wednesday, 2/21
What's in my tape? Alumni in Audio Storytelling
Sam Yellowhorse Kesler (C'20), Yowei Shaw (C'10), and Alex Stern (C'15), with moderator Alan Jinich (C'22)
6:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Ever wonder how your favorite podcasts are made? Come join a special panel of alumni in audio storytelling as they dig into their tapes and break down how they produced some of their most compelling stories. You’ll hear from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler (C’20), Assistant Producer at NPR’s Planet Money; Yowei Shaw (C’10), former Host of NPR’s Invisibilia, and Alex Stern (C’15), Producer at NYT’s The Daily. Also attended and moderated by this year’s Junior Fellow Alan Jinich.
Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money. Previously, he's held positions at NPR's Ask Me Another & All Things Considered and was the inaugural Code Switch Fellow. Before NPR, he interned with World Cafe from WXPN. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and continues to reside in Philadelphia.
Yowei Shaw (yoweishaw.com) is a podcast host, producer, and self-proclaimed emotional-investigative journalist. She spent many years producing, then hosting NPR’s Invisibilia podcast, where she reported on messy topics like racial sexual preferences, friend therapy, and the power of trolling your boss. Her work has also been featured in places like This American Life and honored with numerous awards, including a Third Coast documentary award, a National Press Club award, and a United States Artists fellowship.
Alex Stern is an audio producer based in Philadelphia. She currently works for the New York Times, where she helps make The Daily. She has also made podcasts for CNN, including the first season of Tug of War with Clarissa Ward, and WHYY, including The Why and The Pulse. Alex’s work has won an Ambie and a Gracie. She’s also the recipient of several Keystone Media Awards and first place in the Long Documentary category of the 2021 Public Media Journalist Association Awards.
Alan Jinich is a multimedia storyteller based in New York City with roots spread across DC, Philadelphia, and Mexico City. While in college, he co-created Generation Pandemic, an oral history archive focused on COVID's impacts on young adults in America. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, Morning Edition, Kitchen Sisters Present, and he regularly reports for WHYY’s The Pulse.
Thursday, 2/22
Gemini Wahhaj: a reading and conversation
Cheryl J. Family Fiction Program
5:30 PM in person
hosted by: Karen Rile
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Gemini Wahhaj is the author of the novel The Children of This Madness (7.13 Books, Fall 2023), and the short-story collection Katy Family (Jackleg Press, Spring 2025). Her fiction is in or forthcoming in Granta, Third Coast, Chicago Quarterly Review, and numerous other magazines. She has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Houston, where she received the James A. Michener award for fiction (judged by Claudia Rankine) and the Cambor/Inprint fellowship. She is Associate Professor of English at Lone Star College in Houston.
Friday, 2/23
Saturday, 2/24
Sunday, 2/25
Monday, 2/26
A reading by Jamaica Kincaid
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
6:30 PM in person
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener from St. John’s Antigua. She now lives in Vermont and works as a Professor of African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University. In 1965 she left Antigua for New York to work as an au pair, then studied photography at the New York School for Social Research and attended Franconia College in New Hampshire. She published her first collection of short stories At the Bottom of the River, in 1983. Her autobiographical novels with an emphasis on mother-daughter relationships, Annie John (1984) and Lucy (1990) followed shortly after. Her consideration of family relationships, Antigua, and colonialism reached its fiercest in The Autobiography of My Mother (1996) and My Brother (1997). Her numerous awards include the Guggenheim Award for Fiction and the 1999 Lannan Literacy Award for Fiction. She was also a Kelly Writers House Fellow in 2007.
Tuesday, 2/27
A conversation with Jamaica Kincaid
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
10:00 AM in person
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener from St. John’s Antigua. She now lives in Vermont and works as a Professor of African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University. In 1965 she left Antigua for New York to work as an au pair, then studied photography at the New York School for Social Research and attended Franconia College in New Hampshire. She published her first collection of short stories At the Bottom of the River, in 1983. Her autobiographical novels with an emphasis on mother-daughter relationships, Annie John (1984) and Lucy (1990) followed shortly after. Her consideration of family relationships, Antigua, and colonialism reached its fiercest in The Autobiography of My Mother (1996) and My Brother (1997). Her numerous awards include the Guggenheim Award for Fiction and the 1999 Lannan Literacy Award for Fiction. She was also a Kelly Writers House Fellow in 2007.
Wednesday, 2/28
A reading by Joseph Earl Thomas
Creative Writing Program
6:00 PM in person
hosted by: Lise Funderburg
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He has an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt of his memoir, Sink, won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, and Bread Loaf. He’s writing the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, , and a collection of stories: Leviathan Beach, among other oddities.
Thursday, 2/29
A talk by Joshua Bennett
5:30 PM in person
sponsored by: Center for Africana Studies
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Dr. Joshua Bennett (C'10) is the author of The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016) — which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is also the author of Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020), Owed (Penguin, 2020), The Study of Human Life (Penguin, 2022) and Spoken Word: A Cultural History (Knopf, 2023). He has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He is a Professor of Literature and Distinguished Chair of the Humanities at MIT.