September 2009
6:00-7:00PM
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Presentation, Book signing and Q&A
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
In a staged reading based on his book Sweet Tea, performance artist and author E. Patrick Johnson gives voice to a group that has been politely concealed: gay, black men born, raised, and living in the South. The narratives he brings to life are based on interviews with men of different generations, showing how they navigate “good old” southern customs to legitimate themselves as members of southern and black cultures.
E. Patrick Johnson is Chair of Performance Studies and Professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University. He has published widely in the areas of race, class, gender, and performance. His 2003 book, Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity, won several awards.
Sponsored by Harmelin Media
3:30-5:30PM
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Film screening and Q&A (Philadelphia premiere)
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
The name William Kunstler is cloaked in controversy. Revered by activists for taking on the establishment (the Chicago Seven, Attica, the stand-off at Wounded Knee), he was later reviled for defending people accused of rape, murder, organized crime and terrorism. David Rudovsky, one of the nation’s leading civil rights and criminal defense attorneys, joins filmmaker Emily Kunstler to discuss her father’s complicated legacy and the legal ethics questions they explore in her provocative new film: William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe.
David Rudovsky is one of the nation’s leading civil rights and criminal defense attorneys and practices public interest law with the firm of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg.
Emily Kunstler is an activist and a documentary filmmaker. She worked as a video producer for Democracy Now! and was an associate producer on Alison Maclean’s Persons of Interest. With her
sister Sarah, she co-founded Off Center Media, a documentary production company that exposes injustice in the criminal justice system.
Presented in collaboration with the Jewish Film Festival
Sponsored by the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University
This program has been approved for two hours of ethics credit for Pennsylvania lawyers. Credits may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attorneys seeking CLE credit should bring a check in the amount of $25, payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, to the event.
photo credit: Associated Press
2:30-3:30PM
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Film screening and Q&A (Philadelphia premiere)
FREE
In 1980, Kenneth E. Hartman was sentenced to life in prison for a brutal murder he committed at age 19. His violent behavior persisted for years behind bars until he eventually he transformed himself into to a student of philosophy, a reader of books, a self-taught authority on prison law, and became a husband and a father. He is now a writer and activist, devoted to the moral and practical necessity of reforming the American correctional system. Join us for a staged reading by jered McLenigan from Mr. Hartman’s memoir, Mother California, followed by a Q&A with Mr. Hartman, phoned in live from the California State Prison in LA.
Kenneth E. Hartman is a writer and prison reform advocate. He won the 2004 Power of Purpose Awards and a 2005 Maggie Award. Hartman is serving a life sentence at California State Prison, Los Angeles County.
Jered McLenigan is a stage actor who has appeared with numerous Philadelphia companies including The Wilma Theater, 1812 Productions and Inis Nua, amongst others. He recently received a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for his role in last season’s It’s A Wonderful Life – A Live Radio Play at the Prince Music Theater.
Noon-2 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
In advance: $20 (First Person Arts members) / $25 (general public) – $25/$30 after 10/25
Presentation, film screening, Q&A, book signing, lunch, concert
Sadia Shepard, daughter of a Christian/American father and Muslim/Pakistani mother, understood the complexities of a multi-cultural household. What made her melting pot overflow was the discovery that her grandmother had been born Jewish. Compelled to reclaim her roots, she travelled to India to discover the history of the Jews of India, believed to be descendents of the lost tribes of Israel. She brings this journey to life in her memoir The Girl from Foreign and her film In Search of the Bene Israel, which she presents at the festival. Music by the Lenny Seidman Tabla Choir and a buffet by Ekta Indian Restaurant evoke the tastes and sounds of her unusual history.
Sadia Shepard received a BA from Wesleyan University, an MA from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Scholar to India in 2001. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, The Forward and Indian Express. Her film screened at the 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center and is touring Jewish film festivals around the world. She was a producer of “The September Issue,” a
documentary about the making of Vogue magazine, which won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. She teaches creative non-fiction writing at Columbia University and lectures widely about growing up in an interfaith home.
The Lenny Seidman Tabla Choir was formed in 1996 as part of Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra which began in the same year. The tabla choir explores the melodic, harmonic, dynamic, textural and compositional potential of several tabla players.
Sponsored by Harmelin Media.
Food courtesy of Ekta Indian Restaurant.
9-11 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Performance
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
Winners of First Person’s much-adored, monthly StorySlams bring their best stories to the stage for the championship round. Be there as these top-notch raconteurs battle it out for the title of “Best Story Teller in Philadelphia”.
Advance purchase recommended; this event is expected to sell out.
7-8:30 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Presentation, Q&A, book signing
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
A. J. Jacobs posed nude, outsourced his life, mastered online dating and became a slave to his wife — all in the name of a day’s work. In a program based on his book of essays, he takes you through his forays into the other personas. If you’re game to be a guinea pig yourself, volunteer for an experiment he devised for you!
A.J. Jacobs is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically and Editor-At- Large at Esquire magazine. He grew up and lives in New York City.
5:30-6:30 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Presentation, film screening, book signing
FREE
Payphones. Rolodexes. Cursive writing. The dustbin of modern history is overflowing with “once-common things passing us by.” Anna Jane Grossman joins us at the Festival to reminisce about the good old ways, documented in her quirky new encyclopedia, Obsolete. She shares program with Cecilia Smith, who screens her short documentary “The Art of Fine Whining” – about the Philadelphia Complaint Choir that premiered at 2008 Festival and lives on in cyberspace.
Anna Jane Grossman is a freelance writer specializing in lifestyle and arts and entertainment features. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Salon.com, the Washington Post, CNN .com, Marie Claire, New York, and Fortune. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Cecelia Smith is a recent graduate of the journalism program at New York University. She lives in Connecticut and this is her first film.
Sponsored by Harmelin Media
4-5 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Presentation, Q&A, Book signing
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
Rita Mae Brown dedicated her newly-released memoir, Animal Magnetism, “to those who have been saved by an animal and who saved one in return.” If this is you, come be part of the conversation when Ms. Brown shares the love and lessons she has learned through her lifelong relationship with animals.
Rita Mae Brown is one of the founders of the modern LGBT movement and author of the landmark novel, Rubyfruit Jungle. She has authored two animal-featured mystery series, dozens of novels and memoirs, and is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet. She lives in Virginia, where she keeps hounds, horses and other creatures that are dear to her.
2-3:30 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Panel discussion, Q&A, book signing
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
Ben Yagoda knows memoir. He has spent years exploring its history and analyzing its many different forms. A.J. Jacobs writes memoir — recounting the hilarious stories about unusual “experiments in living” that he undertakes. Rachel Simon takes on big personal challenges, then writes about what they teach her about life. Laurie Sandell writes and draws her stories. Her first graphic memoir about her difficult upbringing was published this year. Yagoda leads a conversation with the three authors, who will read excerpts from their recent releases, discuss their approaches to writing memoir, and talk about why and how they do what they do.
A.J. Jacobs is the New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically. His latest release, portions of which first appeared in Esquire, is The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment. He will read from and discuss it again at 7PM.
Rachel Simon is best known for her critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Riding The Bus With My Sister, which was adapted as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. The book has garnered numerous awards, and is a frequent selection of many book clubs, school reading programs, and city-wide reads throughout the country. Her new book is Building a Home with My Husband.
Laurie Sandell is a contributing editor at Glamour, where she writes cover stories, features, and personal essays. She has also written for Esquire, GQ, New York, and InStyle, among other publications. Her graphic memoir The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir is her first book.
Ben Yagoda has been an editor/writer at New Jersey Monthly and Philadelphia Magazine, movie critic at the Philadelphia Daily News, and has written for the Columbia Journalism Review, Dissent, Slate, and Esquire. He teaches journalism in the English Department at the University of Delaware. He spends most of his writing time on books, and occasionally contributes essays and reviews.
12:30-1:30 pm
Location: The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Interview, Q&A, book signing
In Advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) – $15/$20 after 10/25
Bestselling author, filmmaker and journalist Mark Bowden, “a master of narrative journalism,” (The New York Times Book Review) sits down with Dan Sipe to discuss his life’s work as a creator of spellbinding stories about epic events. Go behind the scenes with Bowden as he investigates a high-profile news story and learn how he transforms it into a thrilling narrative.
Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Bowden also worked on the screenplay for the film adaptation, directed by Ridley Scott. He has written a dozen books, including Killing Pablo (about the hunt for drug lord Pablo Escobar) and Guests of the Ayatollah (about the Iranian hostage crisis). He is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and Vanity Fair and a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was a staff writer for 24 years. He lives in Oxford, PA with his family and 100 guinea hens.
Dan Sipe is a historian at Moore College of Art and Design with a special interest in combined media approaches to interpreting and representing history. He has produced documentary films, most notably the series One Village in China which was aired on PBS and the BBC. Small Happiness, an hour-long documentary from the series won a Peabody Award for Excellence in Television Broadcasting. Sipe has programmed film series that deal with history, collaborated on a performance piece, and worked with public high school students to create a multimedia program which was selected by the Smithsonian for its Technology Showcase for its 150th anniversary. Currently, he is working on transferring a large archive on U.S. health activism to the Rare Books and Manuscript Library of the University of Pennsylvania.
