Kelly Writers House: Twenty Years Old and a Flourishing Creative Haven at Penn |
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May 10, 2016, Volume 62, No. 34 |
The Writers House is celebrating its 20th year. We were founded in 1995-1996 by an intrepid group of writers, students, faculty, staff, alumni of Penn and Philadelphia colleagues and neighbors, settled into the Tudor-style 1851 cottage at 3805 Locust Walk, planned each space in the 14-room house and then opened with a first public program in the early spring of 1996. That program was called “Writing a Community.” And a total surprise: some 150 people came, with people spilling out of the doors and standing outside of the windows looking in, and we were off.
Twenty years later we are having a party to celebrate. Join us on Friday, May 13 starting at 5 p.m. And please join us again the next day on Saturday, May 14 for an open house in the early afternoon, noon-3 p.m. and then for a special event from 3-5 p.m. That program will feature 20 people from across the Writers House years and generations. To reserve a space at either of these events, call (215) 746-POEM.
Thanks for supporting us over the years with your interest, your attendance at programs and your financial support.
—Al Filreis, Kelly Family Professor of English;
Director, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing;
Faculty Director, Kelly Writers House |
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Photograph by Catherine Imms |
The Kelly Writers House (KWH) was founded to be a hub “in which creative writing activities could be organized, promoted and shared.” It was named in honor of Rita P. and Thomas J. Kelly, Jr., the parents of Penn Emeritus Trustee Paul K. Kelly, C’62, WG’64, whose $1.1 million gift made the house possible (Almanac January 28, 1997). Built in 1851 by Samuel Sloan, one of the most important Philadelphia architects of the mid-nineteenth century whose practice had national impact, it had been the home to Penn’s former chaplain for many years. During 1997 the cottage was renovated entirely—although the original design was untouched, it needed totally new wiring, plumbing, roof, re-supporting, HVAC, etc. In late 1997, when it was finished, they opened again and had a huge celebration.
Led by founding director Al Filreis, the Kelly Family Professor of English, KWH hosts over 300 programs and projects a year, including book and poetry readings, lectures, screenings, workshops, webcasts, exhibits, seminars and more. Originally run by a volunteer committee of 20 people, the Writers House has expanded to a 90-member planning committee and a full-time staff. On the jacket of the CD made when the KWH turned ten, Dr. Filreis noted that “several academic and poetic generations changed the local literary landscape.”
Today around 500 people visit the house each week to participate in its many programs. Over the past 20 years, KWH has welcomed world-class authors such as Joan Didion, David Sedaris, Russell Banks, Joyce Carol Oates, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley, Robert Creeley and John Edgar Wideman through its Writers House Fellows Program. This year’s KWH fellows were Samuel R. Delany, Eileen Myles and Matthew Weiner.
There are many ways to get involved in KWH. All programs at the Writers House are free and open to the public. Community-organized reading and writing groups meet in the upstairs classrooms. Alumni contribute their time as mentors or join online book groups that convene throughout the year. Many people get involved by becoming Friends of KWH.
Alumni, parents and friends of the Writers House have supported the project generously. For 17 years, Mr. Kelly has funded the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program, which enables Penn students to interact with eminent writers in an intimate seminar. In 2002, Mr. Kelly and the Kelly Family Foundation made a $3 million gift to endow a professorship in the English department and to provide additional program support for Kelly Writers House (Almanac December 10, 2002). In 2014, Mr. Kelly joined with other supporters—Gary and Nina Wexler, Jay and Nancy Zises and an anonymous donor —to build the Kelly Family Annex to the Writers House, which includes the Wexler Recording Studio, a Student Projects Space and an outdoor performance stage.
In May 2002, members of Penn’s Class of 1942, celebrating their 60th reunion year, pledged to support the complete renovation of the Writers House garden. The resulting space is a quiet haven where writing classes can meet and Penn people—students, faculty and staff—often gather to enjoy the peaceful green space.
Television talk-show host and University of Pennsylvania alumnus Maury Povich made a $1 million gift to KWH to establish the Povich Fund for Journalism Programs (Almanac March 22, 2011). In announcing the gift, Dr. Filreis said, “Maury Povich has long been a friend of the Writers House and of Penn, having previously provided funding for journalism in the curriculum.”
In 2006, Mr. Povich, C’62, and his wife, TV journalist Connie Chung, enabled the CPCW and School of Arts & Sciences to appoint Dick Polman as the first-ever full-time Povich Writer-in-Residence. On October 10, 2006, Mr. Povich and Ms. Chung visited the House to inaugurate the Povich Writer-in-Residence. Mr. Polman, a full-time member of Penn’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) faculty, has been teaching courses in advanced journalism and a political blogging class. He was a political columnist and blogger for The Inquirer, where he spent 22 years on the writing staff; he is now the national political columnist at Newsworks.org
“Now, we feel, Maury is completing the scene, by making it possible for us at the Writers House to organize the events and programs in support of the classroom learning already taking place in this rapidly changing field of writing,” Dr. Filreis said. “We are grateful to Maury—and to Connie—for their strong belief in what we do at 3805 Locust Walk.”
The Povich Fund has supported seminars, workshops, presentations, talks and symposia in journalistic nonfiction writing in all its forms at the Writers House as well as visits to the House by both eminent and emergent writers in the field of journalism.
Mr. Povich said, “The Kelly Writers House is a unique opportunity for writers both in the fiction and nonfiction fields. Connie and I have an unabiding admiration for journalists, particularly those who have taken on the challenges of journalism in this new media age. Al Filreis is the perfect captain to navigate these waters and provide the Kelly House writers with an opportunity like no other college institution.”
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