The Port Richmond story in the Inquirer: an artist at work with artists

Weekends in the Inquirer are like Christmases of long ago—I wake even earlier than usual, and eager. My eagerness now is for the early edition of the Sunday news, where I've written of Chanticleer garden and the Jersey Shore, of ballroom dancing and Philadelphia light, of the Schuylkill River and the cemetery where I often go before I teach my class at Penn. This weekend my story features the internationally acclaimed artist Michele Oka Doner and a spectacular Port Richmond foundry owned by the artist Jeb Stuart Wood. It's a story about collaboration, trust, and a converted warehouse in former collier country.

I met Michele during National YoungArts week in Miami. I mentioned how much I liked the pin she was wearing. She said she'd made it, slipped me her card, mentioned the loft where she lives in New York City. When I told her that I hailed from Philadelphia she replied that she has much of her work cast there in a foundry she trusts—the sort of work that ends up in the Louvre and MOMA, the Hayden Planetarium and the Miami Airport, a Tiffany's in New York City or a store clear across the world, a private home. "Come visit us at work," she said, and a few weeks later I showed up at the door of Independent Casting.

From Jeb I learned about the resurgence of a part of Philadelphia I'd never traveled through. I learned about the art of casting, about what it takes to run a foundry and to work with some of the world's leading sculptors. From Michele I learned about art as conversation, about the bronzing of organic stuff, about rivers, history, mythology. I was out of my element, and I loved it.

Here is the link to the whole story, which features a photograph of Michele at work in the foundry.

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Why (some) Teens Don't Read Young Adult Literature

In Miami, as a master writing teacher for the National Young Arts Foundation program, I had the opportunity to spend time with extraordinary young writers—but those of you who read this blog know that.  I had asked these very special teens, before we'd met, to tell me about the books that had changed their idea of story, on the one hand, and of language, on the other. When it became clear that few of these teens are spending time with books written for them, I asked more questions and listened intently.

"Why (some) Teens Don't Read Young Adult Literature," my essay now up on The Huffington Post, captures the essence of these conversations.  It also showcases a pretty spectacular and diverse reading list—one that sent me out to stores to buy the (few) books I was missing.

You can read the essay here.

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