At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a Final Fridays celebration of truth and language

Last evening Bill and I met some 80 truth-seekers at the Johnson exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We'd built custom workbooks inspired by ten of the works on display. We'd invited participants to connect the paintings (or, in one case, the Rodin sculpture) with specific (and personal) aspects of the year past—and the year to come.

There were to have been two sessions. Thirty people were expected for each. But by the time the first session was under way, we were nearly out of our 80 workbooks and deep into conversation with a four-year-old memoirist, a priest, a high-school teacher, a fitness instructor, a young woman who went back to school to face her nemesis (math) and discovered that she's actually quite mathematical, an English teacher, a music teacher, a recent high-school grad, and so many more. We were blessed by the enthusiasm for the program and the care that so many took to write, and I will never forget walking around that exhibit space watching perfect strangers connecting with themselves.

A good way to end this year, with thanks to Cat Ricketts, who makes everything so very grand.

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Holy Night: A (Beth Kephart) Christmas Poem

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Holy Night

  

I thought that I was capable:

A girl with a song

On a night bright with the wide-open eyes of the stars.

My father at the piano,

My brother with the sweet reed of the oboe squeezed

Between his lips,

The crisped-skin fry of the Christmas Eve smelts

         Still in the air,

The stockings hung,

My mother and sister on the couch,

One beside the other.

And I was the one,

I was the one who would sing.

My father, as I have mentioned, was at the keys,

My brother was leaning toward his own notes,

In the house that isn’t ours anymore,

In the room where my mother used to be,

By the tree,

In the hours before what we’d thought we’d wanted

Would be received,

At a time when the eyes of the stars were on us,

And it was my turn to sing.

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my Chicago Tribune review of a twisty Christmas story

So what was Dickens thinking when he set out to write his A Christmas Carol? The screenwriter Samantha Silva has spent a long time imagining just this.

I reviewed her book, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, for the Chicago Tribune.

The full link is here.

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a filmic peek inside William Sulit's clay world—and a trunk show

Meet Bill in person this Saturday, at 36 Craven, Old City, Philadelphia. Bill will be sharing a number of brand new pieces in a trunk show—pieces that come to life in the video above.

I've written about this glorious new store (and its owners) previously, here.

I'll be with Bill this Saturday and look forward to seeing you there.

138 N. 3rd Street

Philadelphia, PA

Saturday, December 16th

1 - 5 PM

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Previewing The Art of Remembering, our Final Fridays event at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

We invite you to join us on December 29, 2017 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Final Fridays event, starting at 5:00 PM. We'll be using the Johnson exhibition as a way back to our own memories of the year that was, and those who join us will receive this workbook. Admission to the event is free after entry.

More details here.

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