Arts and Culture: Homecoming Edition

The countdown is on: just 25 days until alumni fill campus for a weekend of arts, culture and Princeton rivalry. As we’ve done in years past, here are a few of the arts-oriented events we’re eagerly awaiting. (The full schedule is here, along with registration information.)

FRIDAY, Nov. 6, 2015

Arts@Homecoming Launch Party
4 – 6 p.m., Annenberg Center Live, Harold Prince Theatre
The theme: “From the Roman Coliseum to the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts.” The panelists: architect Barton Myers GAr’64; theatre designer Richard Pilbrow; and NJPAC’s founding director Larry Goldman. They’ll talk about how architects and theatre designers have changed the way performance spaces work. (They’ll also reunite the next morning from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for a theatre design symposium at Meyerson Hall.)

Opening Reception of Barton Myers: Works of Architecture and Urbanism
6 – 8 p.m., Fisher Fine Arts Building
After hearing Barton Myers GAr’64 discuss theatres, see some of his work for yourself in this exhibition. It includes models, photographs and design sketches of Myers’s houses, theatre designs and more.

SATURDAY, Nov. 7, 2015

Authors in the Archives
9:30 – 10:30 a.m., Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, Sixth Floor
Calling all bibliophiles! A panel of English professors will discuss a some of the library’s greatest treasures, including medieval bibles and Shakespeare folios. Participants will be able to see and even touch these rare works.

Back of House Annenberg Center Tour
1:30 – 3 p.m., Annenberg Center Live
Peek behind the curtain with architects Scott Erdy and David McHenry and theatre designer Richard Pilbrow.

Trans Youth: Exploring the Coming Out Process
3:30 – 5 p.m., Penn LGBT Center
Alex Gino C’99 will discuss their new middle grade novel, George (Scholastic Press), about a child’s journey coming out as transgender. Emily Greytak GED’02 Gr’03 Gr’09, director of research at the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, will also share her research on transgender youth.

Buzz Bissenger: Reading and Conversation
4 p.m., Kelly Writers House
Buzz Bissinger C’76 is a Pulitzer Prize recipient, the author of Friday Night Lights and four other non-fiction books, and now a writing professor at Penn. Seating is limited for this event; RSVP to whhomecoming@writing.upenn.edu or 215-573-9748.

Screening of Southern Rites
6 – 9 p.m., Meyerson Hall
John Legend C’99 Hon’14 executive produced this HBO documentary, which visits Montgomery County, Georgia, one year after the town merged its racially segregated proms, and in the midst of a historic election campaign. Snacks and drinks proceed the screening and a panel discussion follows it.

Alumni Bacchanal
9 – 11 p.m., Platt Student Performing Arts House
Mingle, perform, and generally celebrate the arts at Penn.

SUNDAY, Nov. 8, 2015

Walk for Literacy
8 – 10 a.m., Penn Park
The Philadelphia Writing Project hosts its third annual walk to support writing camp scholarships for students and community-based writing programs. It will start on Shoemaker Green (217 S. 33rd St.) and pass through Penn Park. Contact the Philadelphia Writing Project at 215-898-1919 for more information or to register.

100th Anniversary of the Penn Museum’s Harrison Rotunda
2 – 4 p.m., University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
David Brownlee, 19th-century European art professor, will discuss the Rotunda’s historical significance.