Jay Kirk, a lecturer in Penn's Creative Writing Program, just had a new book published, "Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements." (Image: Julie Diana)
Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’
Penn and Philadelphia are woven throughout a new book by Jay Kirk as he pursues the mystery of a missing music manuscript by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, traveling from Vermont to Europe to the Arctic Circle. Penn Today spoke the lecturer in nonfiction creative writing about “Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements.”
Meta Mazaj is a senior lecturer in cinema studies at Penn. (Image: Taja Mazaj)
Cancel culture on the silver screen
Iconic films like the 1939 blockbuster “Gone With the Wind” are being scrutinized in light of the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice. Cinema studies’ Meta Mazaj says framing films within context is more valuable than erasure and disclaimers.
Penn Professor Emily Wilson created a new project while at home during the pandemic, reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices. The characters included (from left) Helen of Troy, Polyphemus, and Calypso.
Pandemic project: Odyssey-a-Day
Classics Professor Emily Wilson created a project where she filmed herself reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her celebrated translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices.
Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs, “A Spiritual Vibe, Vol. 1,” meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. (Image: NJR2 Photography)
Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence
Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. The project was prompted by his cancer diagnosis and influenced by the global pandemic and uprising against racial injustice.
Penn’s housing and dining experiences will be different in the upcoming academic year to accommodate social distancing. The Class of 1920 Commons is a dining hall on Locust Walk near several College House dorms. (Image: Eric Sucar)
New configurations in campus housing and dining planned
Student housing and dining experiences will be markedly different in the upcoming academic year because of pandemic restrictions designed to keep students socially distant while also fostering a sense of college community.
During the pandemic, the student Performing Arts Council has been working with the Platt Student Performing Arts House to encourage and support the hundreds of Penn performers, finding ways to promote their work on social media.
Penn's Kelly Writers House held a forum on racial justice featuring authors, students, faculty, and staff reading works written by themselves or others.
Kelly Writers House forum amplifies ideas and voices on racial justice
Kelly Writers House held a forum on racial justice featuring faculty, students, staff, and alumni reading written works, their own and those by others, that speak to these times.
What was supposed to be a cinema and media studies course to create virtual reality films on the Philadelphia Museum of Art collections became individual films by the students about the realities and connections to the pieces they researched.
Penn has 16 Fulbright Scholars for 2020-21. From left. Top row: Abby Cacho, Faith Cho, Serena Hajjar, Henry Hoffman. Second row: Natalia Lindsey, James Nassur, Ton Nguyen, Christine Olagun-Samuel. Third row: Mark Perfect, Stephanie Petrella, Aiden Reiter, Arryonna Santos. Fourth row: Adam Sax, Raka Sen, Adithya Sriram, Sam Tullman.
Sixteen Penn students and recent graduates awarded 2020-21 Fulbright Scholarships
Sixteen Penn students and recent graduates have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships for the 2020-21 academic year to conduct research or teach English in countries around the world. The list includes nine undergraduates and one graduate student in the Class of 2020.
