Fellows Friday News: Frank Sherlock named Philadelphia's Poet Laureate Plus William Daley, Teresa Leo, and More

Awards and Residencies

Poet Frank Sherlock (Pew Fellow, 2013) succeeds Sonia Sanchez (1993) as Philadelphia's second Poet Laureate. Read more >

Poet CAConrad (2011) has been named a 2014 fellow-in-residence at the Lannan Foundation in Marfa, TX. Read more >

Visual artist Sarah Gamble (2009) is part of the 2014 Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program in Roswell, New Mexico. An exhibition of her work will show at Roswell's Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Read More >

Site-specific artist Yane Calovski (2001) is a 2014 Artist in Residence at quartier21/MQ, Vienna, Austria. Read More >

Exhibitions and Performances

William Daley's (2010) solo exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 14 for 7, features a select group of his works made between 1954 and 2013. Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, on view through March 9, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Donald Camp (1995) and Lori Waselchuk (2012) are featured in a photography exhibition, Humankind, which focuses on social responsibility, portraiture, and the photo essay. Mainline Art Center, Haverford, PA, on view through March 20, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Alex Kanevsky (1997) has a solo exhibition, Painting in a Foreign Language, at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa. Scarfone/Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, on view through March 28, 2014. More on the exhibition >

In a new solo exhibition, Exile Sun, artist Tristin Lowe (1995) will create "a solar system anchored by a star fashioned from denim jeans." Fleischer/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, on view through April 5, 2014. More on the exhibition >

The List Gallery presents Waterways, a solo exhibition of work by environmental artist Stacy Levy (1992). For the exhibition, Levy creates a creek's map on the floor with vessels filled with water that will evaporate over time, creating algae and other organic growth. The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, on view through April 5, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Visual artist Sarah McEneaney's (1993) new paintings will be featured in a solo exhibition, Recent Work, presented by Tibor de Nagy Gallery at The Armory Show. Park Avenue Armory Show, New York, NY, March 5–9, 2014.

Joshua Mosley's (2008) work is included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, on view through May 25, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Tim Portlock (2011) has work included in Ruffneck Constructivists, curated by artist Kara Walker. Institute for Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, on view through August 17, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Muck: Accumulations, Accretions and Aggregations, a group exhibition at Arizona State University Arts Museum, includes the work of ceramicist, Annabeth Rosen (1992). Curated by Peter Held, each of the pieces in the show "creates work that deals with incorporating a diversity of objects to create a cohesive whole." Arizona State University Arts Museum, Tempe, AZ, on view through May 31, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Visual artists Anthony Campuzano (2009), Gabriel Martinez (2001), Dan Murphy (2012), Tim Portlock (2011), Zoe Strauss (2005), and poet Major Jackson (1995) are all featured in ICA@50: Pleasing Artists and Publics Since 1963. Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, on view through August 17, 2014. More on the exhibition >

Choreographer and performer Raphael Xavier (2013) will perform his Center-supported work, The Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance. Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago, IL, February 27, 28, and March 1, 2014. Performance dates >

Publications and Recordings

Teresa Leo's (2002) new poetry collection Bloom in Reverse chronicles the aftermath of a friend's suicide and the end of a turbulent relationship. Fellow poet and Pew Fellow Major Jackson (1995) hails the book as "breathless and moving...a new frontier for being in the world and surviving." More on the book >

Photographer Vincent Feldman (2001) launches his new book, City Abandoned: Charting the Loss of Civic Institutions in Philadelphia. In the book, Feldman "offers Philadelphians a testament of who we were, who we are, and who we are likely to become." The author and publisher will be on hand to discuss the project and sign copies of the book. The Print Center, March 5, 2014. More on the book launch >

The Women's Poetry Initiative will host poet Daisy Fried (1998) as part of their Spring Reading series in Brooklyn, New York. Founder's Hall, March 5, 2014 at 4:30 p.m. More on the reading >

Award-winning memoirist Beth Kephart (2005) returns to the form with Nest. Flight. Sky.: on love and loss one wing at a time, available from Shebooks. Her book "reckon[s] with the loss of her mother and a slow-growing but soon inescapable obsession with birds and flight." More on the memoir >

Dusie Press has released Jenn McCreary's (2013) new full-length poetry collection, & now my feet are maps, which CAConrad (2011) calls "a celestial recalibration" and "the biggest possible version of us." More on the book >

Pattie McCarthy's (2011) new poetry collection, Nulls, is now available for pre-order from Horseless Press. More on the book >

Neighbor Ballads is Frank Sherlock's (2013) new chapbook, containing poems that "celebrate immigrant narratives of seven South Philadelphians." The poems were Sherlock's contribution to Mural Arts' Center-funded 2011 project Journeys South. More on the book >

Justin Cronin (2001) releases The Twelve, the second book in his bestselling and internationally acclaimed trilogy, The Passage. More on the book >

William Daley (2010) has published William Daley: Ceramic Artist, a new book that celebrates the impact of his work within contemporary ceramics. More on the book >

Musician Chris Forsyth's (2011) new album, Solar Motel, has been hailed as his "most ambitious, immersive, and sublime work of 'cosmic Americana.'" More on the album >

Matthew Mitchell's (2012) new album Fiction has received international critical acclaim. The included works are incredibly complex, conceived as "etudes to help him integrate composition with improvisation and to test the technical limits of his pianistic abilities." More on the album >

In March, poet Ron Silliman (1998) will release Northern Soul, the second poem in a major sequence entitled Universe, following his poem Revelator. David Melnick from the San Francisco Chronicle writes: "The poet confides, describes, extols, remarks, puns, paints domestic scenes, slyly alludes, records minutiae, leaps to large statements, arouses, repeats. Through it all, a friendly, northern California sort of personality emerges." More on the book >

In conjunction with his book release, poet Ron Silliman (1998) will participate in the StAnza Poetry Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland, March 5–9, 2014. More on the festival >

The Government of Nature is Afaa Weaver's (1998) second volume of a trilogy in which Weaver analyzes his life, striving to become the ideal poet. Published from the University of Pittsburgh Press, the collection explores the trauma of his childhood—including sexual abuse—using a "cartography and thematic structure drawn from Chinese spiritualism." More on the book >

In the News

Pig Iron Theatre Company, which includes Pew Fellows Dan Rothenberg (2002), Dito van Reigersberg, (2002), and James Sugg (2010), received a glowing review in the New York Times on February 16, 2014. Read the review >

Ken Kalfus' (2009) Equilateral was named The Daily Beast's 2013 novel of the year. The book "speaks to the delusions of our time in its depiction of a man bent on communicating with Mars," writes Nathaniel Rich. Read the review >

Visual artist Joshua Mosely (2008) was featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 25, 2014, for his inclusion in the Whitney Biennial. Read the article >

Choreographer Rennie Harris (1996) was profiled in The New Yorker on February 3, 2014, where he was described as "the most brilliant hip-hop choreographer in America." Read the profile >

Poet Ron Silliman's (1998) book, Revelator, was reviewed in The Huffington Post on February 25, 2014. Seth Abramson writes that Silliman's poems "move so fluidly, phrase to phrase, between times and places and perspectives that the title of the project of which they are a part seems entirely apt." Read the review >

Choreographer and performer Raphael Xavier (2013) was profiled in the Chicago Tribune as a preview of his upcoming performances at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Read the profile >