Announcing KWH-TV

Al Filreis

Thanks to an anonymous gift that allowed us to acquire state-of-the-art video equipment, we can now easily webcast Writers House events, whatever’s going on in the Arts Cafe: readings, seminars, recording sessions, happenings, the whole range. (We’ve produced webcasts since 1999 — writing.upenn.edu/wh/webcasts — but with the new camera and specially configured computer, we’ve essentially automated the process.)

In other words, by simply logging in from home or work, you can see LIVE VIDEO of what’s happening here. We hope you’ll tune in.

The schedule of events we plan to webcast is below. Events at the Writers House generally start on time, or nearly so. We will, at least, be sure to turn on the camera at the appointed start time so that you’ll know something will start soon.

To watch a reading or seminar, go to our webcast instructions page: here

If you have Quicktime already installed on your computer, you’ll just click “Start webcast” from this page.

Please do let us know if you like what you see or if you have technical questions. You can email us at wh@writing.upenn.edu or call (215) 573-9748.

KWH-TV schedule (all times Eastern Time):

POEMTALK
October 7, 3:30 PM
PoemTalk records episode #15: Lyn Hejinian’s “constant change figures,” with Al Filreis, Tom Mandel, Bob Perelman, and Rodrigo Toscano.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1008.php#7.

TOM MOON AND ANTHONY DECURTIS
October 16, 6:00 PM
Music critics Tom Moon and Anthony DeCurtis discuss Moon’s book, 1000 RECORDINGS TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1008.php#16.

JIM SHEPARD
October 21, 6:00 PM
Novelist Jim Shepard reads from his work.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1008.php#21.

ALUMNI SPORTSWRITING PANEL
November 1, 4:30 PM
“Extreme Sportswriting,” a discussion with Stefan Fatsis, Buzz Bissinger, & Jon Wertheim, moderated by Stephen Fried.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1108.html#1

THE NEW YORK POETS
November 4, 1:30 PM
Listen in as Al Filreis and students of English 88 (modern and contemporary poetry) discuss the New York School: Ashbery, O’Hara, Koch, and others.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/chap800a.html

EMILY DICKINSON WEBINAR
November 10, 7:00 PM
This live, interactive “webinar” led by Al Filreis and Jessica Lowenthal will allow viewers to participate in a discussion of an Emily Dickinson poem via phone and internet. To participate, email wh@writing.upenn.edu or call (215) 573-9748.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1108.html#10.

CELEBRATION OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
November 11, 6:00 PM
We’ll celebrate the 125th birthday of William Carlos Williams with talks and readings by Sarah Dowling, erica kaufman, Pattie McCarthy, Jena Osman, and Elizabeth Scanlon.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1108.html#11.

DAVID VON DREHLE & GENE WEINGARTEN
November 12, 6:00 PM
Paul Hendrickson will lead a freewheeling conversation with journalists David Von Drehle and Gene Weingarten.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1108.html#12.

ASHBERY AND THE NON-NARRATIVE
November 13, 1:30 PM
Listen in as Al Filreis and students of English 88 (modern and contemporary poetry) discuss the poetry of John Ashbery.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/chap800a.html

BREYTEN BREYTENBACH
December 4, 6:00 PM
South African poet, painter, essayist, and activist Breyten Breytenbach will read from his work as part of the provost’s Writers Without Borders series.
http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1208.html#4

October 5, 2008

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DIGITAL PEDAGOGY: This was a magazine story published in 2001 about my use of e-media in teaching. “Postmodern poets focused on the process of their poetry, rather than on what the words in their poems actually said. The purpose was to make poetry and language new again. There's no better way to describe Filreis's teaching style. He uses technology to free class time for discussion, which to Filreis is more important than the course material itself. The point is to develop his students' ability to think critically, not to have memorized every last fact about Gertrude Stein. And yet, he said, through that active engagement with the material, students end up remembering more of the content.”

Click on the image.

ASHBERY PERFORMS STEVENS: In October of 1989, John Ashbery went to St. John's the Divine Cathedral in New York to be part of the induction of Wallace Stevens at the Poets' Corner. There was a vespers service and Ashbery read six sections of Stevens's "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven." Imagine that--that poem read at a vespers service! Anyway, I certainly don't know of another recording of Ashbery performing Stevens. Stevens was a fairly bad reader of his own poems. Ashbery is deemed by many to be an indifferent reader of his poems. (I don't agree, but understand the point.) But here, reading Stevens, Ashbery is marvelous. Here is a 7-minute recording of sections 3, 5, 12, 17, 18 and 30 of the Stevens poem that comes closest to real serial writing (seriality at the level of the section, anyway).

THE (ANTI)MODERN PRESIDENT. After looking at an abstract mural at the U.N. then President-elect Eisenhower said, “To be modern you don't have to be nuts.”

THE END OF THE LECTURE & PLANNING TO STAY. As often as I can, I call for the end of the lecture as we know it. I'm pretty serious about this - not often exaggerating on the point. Click here for one of many forays into the topic. Once you're there, click on the "end of the lecture" tag for still more. My thoughts on institutional politics and the arts were presented in a manifesto called "Planning to Stay" (published as a pamphlet by No Press); the text of that talk is available here.

KELLY WRITERS HOUSEPhiladelphia's PBS affiliate, WHYY-12, produces a TV show that in each episode features four centers for the arts and creativity in the Philadelphia region. For its winter 2010-11 program, the show devoted 15 minutes to the Kelly Writers House in a segment called “The Creative Campus.” To watch the video, click on the image above.

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUSTI dislike Spielberg’s Schindler’s List intensely. It's a film, I think, that is very friendly toward sovereignty. For more on this minority view, click on the image above. I teach a course at Penn on representations of the Holocaust in literature and film every other fall semester.

In 2003 I founded and continue to direct the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. CPCW brought together the university's writing programs and projects: Critical Writing, Creative Writing, the Kelly Writers House, PennSound, RealArts@PENN, Writers Without Borders, Creative Ventures, Jacket2, and more. For information and links to each of these projects, click on the logo above.