Want to apply for a salon?
Download an application HERE(.doc)
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The 2009 Salon Series continues July 8th!
7:30pm-9:30pm (Doors at 7pm)
Purchase advance tickets!

Featured artists for July 8th:

Jeff Bender
Writer and photographer Jeff Bender's La Reforma is a memoir told in vignettes modeled structurally on a few sources: Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison.  La Reforma (the change) is the name of a town in Sinaloa, Mexico on the Pacific Coast where I spent two months in the summer of 2007.  The story, set in La Reforma, a town in Sinaloa, Mexico where Bender lived during the summer of 2007, explores his relationship with an American Viet Nam vet, Tom, the only other gringo in town, who came to La Reforma for a wedding, returned pursuing female companionship, and, at sixty-three, is still looking for it.

Ellie Brown
It all started, as some of the best stories do, with a Craigslist advertisement.  Zach Webber and Ellie Brown embarked on what they called a capsule relationship: meeting, courting, marrying, having a child and divorcing in the space of less than two weeks.  Though fictional at its core, the performance blends into real life--kind of a reverse-method-acting or method living?--resulting in real emotional attachments:
 

You can read about her experiences and the project more broadly here. 

Phil Jackson
Jackson will present a selection of photographs from of his life-long documentary of the people surrounding him in the subculture of skateboarding. As a child he was drawn to skating by its lack of rules and authority figures.  This attraction, combined with the fact that skateboarding is outlawed in almost every major city, has led to a scene made up of freethinking and often delinquent youth who have all learned to run from cops at an early age. Skateboarding served as a raw, bloody escape from the trite banality of a suburban upbringing. Having spent over half his life as a skateboarder, he has earned the respect of his peers and acquired the skills to chronicle the lifestyle that comes along with it.  His work illuminates an alternative way of life to that of mainstream America.

Lynn Levin
Poet, writer, and translator, Lynn Levin will give a spoken-word performance of love poems about her 29 year marriage.  Though not self-evidently love poems, they cover a spectrum of emotional tones – tart, comic, passionate, affectionate, anxious. 

Poet, writer, and translator, Lynn Levin is the author of three collections of poems, Fair Creatures of an Hour (2009), Imaginarium (2005), and A Few Questions about Paradise (2000), all published by Loonfeather Press. Imaginarium was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award. Lynn Levin’s poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Washington Square Review, 5 AM, and Boulevard. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and at Drexel University, where she also produces the award-winning TV show, The Drexel InterViewTM.

EVENT DETAILS
First Person Salon
July 8th, 2009 7:30-9:30 (Doors at 7pm)
Location: Philadelphia Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St., Philadelphia
Admission: $8

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Featured artists for June 10th:

Sarah McEneaney shares a series of thoughtfully rendered personal narrative paintings covering the flux of human experience ranging from the mundane to the acutely traumatic. (Salon Preview) Tibor de Nagy Gallery

Stephanie Yuhas reads from “American Goulash,” a collection of stories about growing up a first-born American daughter to an all-Transylvanian family. (Salon Preview)  American Goulash

Michael M. Koehler shares PARADE, a photo essay exploring his relationship to Philadelphia, mediated through images of this city’s iconic Mummers. (Salon Preview)  Michaelmkoehler.com

Nathan Manske will present selections of “true stories by gay people from all over” collected on his website Imfromdriftwood.com (Salon Preview)

Featured artists for May 13th:

Mark Rudd

Janet Goldwater, Barbara Attie, Shannon Kane-Meddock

The Philadelphia-based filmmakers will show scenes from a new documentary, MRS. GOUNDO'S DAUGHTER, the story of a young mother's quest to keep her baby daughter healthy and whole.  See the film's website here! 

Gabrielle Revlock

Revlock will perform an excerpt of SHARE!, a collaborative dance piece that will debut at the New Festival in June. SHARE!i s a collage of honest biographical text combined with the natural dishonesty of theatre.  See her website Mano/Damno for a trailer for the piece.

Download an application to present your work HERE (.doc)

First Person Salons are an interactive program offering emerging and established artists and writers an opportunity to present their new memoir and documentary-based works or works-in progress, and offering audiences access to exciting new works that might otherwise go unseen. Artists working in all media, and from all levels of experience, whose work is based in real-life experience, are welcome to apply using the application form available at the link above.  Each Salon will be curated by the staff of First Person Arts.  Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis at salons@firstpersonarts.org.

Location:
Laurie Beechman Cabaret at The University of the Arts
Philadelphia Arts Bank - 601 S. Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19147

2009 Schedule: 
2nd Wednesdays of each month from 7:30pm to 9:30pm

Wed, February 11 
Wed, March 11
Wed, April 8
Wed, May 13
Wed, June 10
Wed, July 8
Wed, August 12
Wed, September 9
Wed, October 14
 

The First Person Salons are presented in collaboration with The University of the Arts School of Theater Arts with assistance from our artistic partners:

City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe
Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association
Philadelphia Dance Projects
InLiquid
The University of the Arts School of Theater Arts
Scribe Video Center
Dance/USA Philadelphia