Meet Stoopy

Writers, readers, and… well, that probably covers it,   What a send-off! We owe so much gratitude to our students, teachers, and volunteers for making this summer a resounding success. And an additional thank you to everyone who tuned into last week's raffle event. In addition to winning fabulous prizes, those who attended had the privilege of meeting Stoopy, our new (and somewhat unsettling) mascot. For those of you who missed it…     Stoopy isn't the only exciting news this month: fall classes are just around the corner! We'll have a diverse array of genres, class lengths, and formats available, and a self-serve financial aid option to keep things accessible. More details coming next week!   One final thing — In last week's newsletter, I said we needed 29 more people to donate $30 in order to reach a $10,000 fundraising goal. We got pretty dang close, but we need 14 more people to chip in. Do you have $30 of wiggle room in your budget this month? If so, click the link below to get started. Stoopy says thank you!   DONATE TODAY   In solidarity,   Julian Shendelman Co-Director   P.S. Looking for literary fun this week? Be sure to check out our community calendar and resource pages. ON THE STOOP Wednesday, 9/4, 7:00-9:00pm ET: FIELD TRIP - Advance Screening of “The Perfect Couple”. Netflix has invited members of The Blue Stoop community to enjoy a free advance screening of Netflix’s new murder mystery series, The Perfect Couple, an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand. The screening will be held at the PFS East (125 S 2nd St). Free! RSVP required. Thursday, 9/5, 4:00-6:00pm ET: Creative Coworking. Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom. Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life. Free and open to all. Rolling submissions: We are seeking proposals for Thursdays on the Stoop, a longstanding series of free, virtual workshops for and by our community. Topics range from poetic forms to journaling prompts, performance skills, and more. No formal teaching experience required! We'll start booking these workshops on a rolling basis over the next few weeks, so get your applications in as soon as possible for the best chance at selection. CLASSIFIEDS Advertise with us: Got an event, organization, business, or book to promote? Blue Stoop is now offering affordable ad space here and on our website. Barter is also available on a case-by-case basis. BEYOND THE STOOP Here's a quick excerpt from our community calendar. If you've got an upcoming literary event, we invite you to add it to the page. It's free! ~~~~~~~~~~   Event title Book Launch: We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado, in conversation with Diana Rodriguez Wallach   Start time 9/4/2024 7:00pm   Location Taller Puertorriqueño, 2600 N. 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19133   Description Join Julia de Burgos Bookstore on Wednesday, September 4 at 7pm to celebrate the launch of We Came To Welcome You with local author Vincent Tirado in conversation with Diana Rodriguez Wallach. We Came To Welcome You is spine-chilling psychological thriller about a multiracial lesbian couple who are thrilled to move into their dream home in a gated community–until strange things start happening and the pressure to assimilate becomes life or death. This event is free with a free on-site parking lot. RSVP recommended.   Link https://www.shoptallerpr.org/wecametowelcomeyou   Contact info shop@tallerpr.org   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~~   Event title Armen Davoudian & Fatemeh Shams: A Reading and Conversation   Start time 9/5/2024 5:30pm   Location Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104   Description We warmly invite you to join us for a reading and conversation with Iranian poets and translators Armen Davoudian and Dr. Fatemeh Shams hosted by Julieta Vittore Dutto. In addition to being an internationally acclaimed, award-winning poet, Shams is an intersectional feminist activist and Associate Professor of Persian literature at Penn. Her latest publication, translated to English from Persian by Davoudian, is Hopscotch, in which she crafts a vivid liminal world of Berlin-based poems, a canvas where home and exile blur into an intimate middle ground. Shams’s poetry invites us to consider our own places of belonging and the potential spaces we inhabit—those rich intersections of language and lived experience.   Davoudian is the author of the debut poetry collection The Palace of Forty Pillars. In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars—but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudian's magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in art's reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.   Link https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0924.php#5   Contact info wh@writing.upenn.edu   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~~   Event title An Evening with Emma Specter   Start time 9/6/2024 6:30pm   Location Head House Books, 619 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147   Description Please join us for An Evening with Emma Specter, Emma Copley Eisenberg, & Carmen Marxuach at Head House Books!   About the Book: More, Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing, and the Lust for "Enough" (Hardcover)   An unflinching and deeply reported look at the realities of binge-eating disorder from a rising culture commentator and writer for Vogue. Millions of us use restrictive diets, intermittent fasting, IV therapies, and Ozempic abuse to shrink until we are sample-size acceptable. But for the 30 million Americans who live with eating disorders, it isn’t just about less. More, Please is a chronicle of a lifelong fixation with food—its power to soothe, to comfort, to offer a fleeting escape from the outside world—as well as an examination of the ways in which compulsory thinness, diet culture, and the seductive promise of “wellness” have resulted in warping countless Americans’ relationship with healthy eating. Melding memoir, reportage, and in-depth interviews with some of the most prominent and knowledgeable commentators currently writing about food, fatness, and disordered eating—Virginia Sole-Smith, Virgie Tovar, Aiyana Ishmael, Leslie Jamison, and others—Emma Specter explores binge-eating disorder as both a personal problem and a societal one. In More, Please, she provides a context, a history, and a language for what it means to always want more than you’ll allow yourself to have.   About the Author Emma Specter (she/they) is a Vogue culture writer and consummate New Yorker in Los Angeles whose debut reported memoir, More Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing and the Lust for 'Enough', is out now from HarperCollins. When she's not writing, she enjoys walking the Silver Lake Reservoir with a little beverage, trawling estate sales for unnecessary purses, and continuing her hubristic quest to bake the best bagel L.A. has ever seen.   In conversation with Emma Copley Eisenberg:    Emma Copley (pronounced cop-ley) Eisenberg is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Housemates and the narrative nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.   Link https://www.headhousebooks.com/event/evening-emma-specter   Contact info (215) 923-9525   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~~   Event title Poetry for the People Open Mic   Start time 9/7/2024 4:30pm   Location Patio of the 20th Century Club, 84 S. Lansdowne Ave, Lansdowne, PA 19050   Description Please Join Philly Poetic Resistance for "Poetry for the People," an open mic event to be held Saturday, September 7, 2024, from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM on the Patio of the 20th Century Club, 84 S. Lansdowne Ave, Lansdowne, PA 19050. Rain date is Saturday, September 21, 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Sign up on Eventbrite or check https://phillypoetic.com for updates. Sign up to read at the event.   The Patio is located south (left) of the main entrance to the 20th Century Club and is wheelchair accessible from the small parking lot on Lansdowne Court.  We recommend you bring a cushion or chair to ensure a comfortable seat.   All are welcome, including walk-ins on the day of the event. Come to read your poetry! Come to listen! To read a poem at the event, please sign up as soon as you arrive. (All sign-ups will occur at the event.)   The event is open to all poetry voices and styles. This is Philly Poetic Resistance's third "Poetry for the People," and we always find it a great way to share the importance and energy of live poetry. We'd love to see you there!   Link https://phillypoetic.com   Contact info info@phillypoetic.com   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~~   Event title METER: Experiments in Poetry, Music, & Movement   Start time 9/7/2024 7:00pm   Location Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19143   Description A night of verbal, sonic, and kinetic experimentation. Local poets reading live. Musicians and dancers improvising performances in response. Crafted verse collides with spontaneous composition.   About the Artist Ella-Gabriel Mason is a dancer, interdisciplinary artist, and bodyworker. They love creating containers for community and experimentation. Ardon Shorr was the 2023 Rattle Poetry Prize Winner. He teaches a class on conspiracies.   Poet Line-up: Sheleen McElhinney, Alison Lubar, Miriam Kramer, Lexi Pelle, Danielle Levsky, and Ardon Shorr   Creative Team Ella-Gabriel Mason Co-Director / Dancer Ardon Shorr Co-Director / Poet Link https://phillyfringe.org/events/meter-experiments-in-poetry-music-movement/   Contact info 215.413.9006   Cost $20   ~~~~~~~~~~ WANT MORE LOCAL EVENTS? Explore and contribute to our community calendar! VIEW CALENDAR 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 300 Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences