On Monday, March 26, the Libraries are screening Quest, a documentary by Temple alumnus Jonathan Olshefski, as part of our Beyond the Page public programming series. Filmed over a ten year period, the documentary portrays Christopher “Quest” Rainey and his wife Christine’a “Ma Quest” as they raise a family in North Philadelphia while nurturing a community of hip hop artists in their home music studio.

Join us at 5:00 PM at the Reel Cinema (Student Center South, Lower Level, 1755 N. 13th Street) to watch the film and hear from the director and members of the Rainey family in a Q&A afterwards. All programs are free and open to all.

I had the opportunity to speak with Jonathan ahead of the screening and ask him about his time as a Temple student, his experience working on Quest, and the films we all need to watch.

Beckie: Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences as a Temple student? When did you know you wanted to study filmmaking?

Jonathan: I grew up in Pittsburgh and started making little videos with borrowed consumer camcorders when I was in middle school, and then in high school I started making skate videos with my brothers and some friends that included a little bit of skateboarding and a lot of random craziness. We called ourselves Loathly Lady Skate Company. We started selling VHS tapes locally and on the internet. By the time I graduated from high school in 2000, I wanted to go deeper and continue to make movies. Temple had a film program with a great reputation and I was able to get in-state tuition so I moved to Philadelphia and have been here ever since.

As an undergraduate I double majored in Film and Media Arts and English Literature. I ended up making a bunch of experimental videos and was introduced to interactive New Media, which really captured my imagination. My senior thesis project was an interactive narrative that weaves a number of related storylines together called Memoir: The Oral History. Technology is changing with Flash going out of style, but it can still be accessed online—http://whispersinthestorm.com/memoir/.

I also developed a love for still photography and, after graduation in 2004, documentary photography.

Jonathan Olshefski, director; credit: Carina Romano

I started a photo essay with the Rainey family in 2006 and soon began to think that maybe there was a film there. In 2007, I returned Temple to make the leap from still photography to documentary film and started Film and Media Arts MFA program. This was the dawn of QUEST the film. I didn’t know at the time, but the journey would last longer than I or anyone else ever would have imagined.  

Beckie: I want to talk more about your experience filming Quest, but first I have to ask you about when you used to work here in the library! Can you tell us about that? Are there any ways it’s served you in your career?

Jonathan: I was a clerk at the circulation desk and I would work the evening shift that ended at midnight. I’m a night owl, so it worked for me and as things weren’t too busy, it was a good opportunity to do homework or read. I mostly remember conversations with co-workers. I do remember that I looked pretty wild back then. I pretty much wore rags that were safety pinned together all the time. I would get some weird looks, but I was super polite and helpful and that would win people over.

Beckie: That sounds like a pretty great student job! Back to Quest—you followed and filmed the Rainey family for a decade. How did you know the Raineys would be good subjects for a movie? What was it like being present for so many personal moments?

Jonathan: The Raineys are just incredible people. They are community builders who go all out for their family and their neighborhood. The Raineys and I wanted to showcase the beauty and strength of the neighborhood from the point of view of the people who actually live there. North Philly is often misunderstood, and this film provided us an opportunity to put the true story out there and really celebrate the strength of a community that is under siege from a number of angles.

Christopher “Quest” Rainey, Isaiah Byrd, Christine’a “Ma Quest” Rainey, Patricia “PJ” Rainey; credit: Carina Romano

The Raineys became like family over the years. They embraced me as an artist and a collaborator, but also as a friend. There were a lot of ups and downs throughout the course of making this film and there were many times where I was laughing behind the camera and other times where I was crying behind the camera. The friendship and the trust that comes with it is what made this film possible and I am really honored to have shared so many personal moments with the Rainey family and their community. I’m just happy that we all feel good about the final film and we are all working hard to ensure that the film has a real impact in our world.

In a lot of ways we are just at the beginning because we want to use QUEST to support the Rainey family’s mission to build community and bring healing to North Philly and places like it.

Beckie: It seems like part of what allowed you to finish the film was winning a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2016—congrats by the way! Where were you when you found out you won? What did that grant enable you to do?

Jonathan: I got word of this in December 2015. I don’t remember where I was exactly, but I know that it was a crazy week. To the point of being almost surreal. Not only did we get the MacArthur Grant, but we also received word that public TV wanted to support that project through a co-production with ITVS and I also learned that I was approved for tenure at Rowan University. I never had three long-term, high-risk investments pay off over the course of a few days like that before or since.

The MacArthur grant provided an incredible boost as it paved the way for us to jump full steam into our post-production process and really embark on editing the film.

Beckie: That definitely does sound like a crazy, incredible week! And thanks for mentioning the fact that you also teach filmmaking. For those of us studying or interested in documentary filmmaking, can you suggest any essential films or directors we have to check out?

Jonathan: Oh man! There’s so many.

I really connect to a film called  Dark Days. It was made by a first-time filmmaker. It is a really interesting example of what can happen when a filmmaker collaborates with his subjects to tell a story and takes his time to really convey the spectrum of human experience and not just parachute in for the sensationalized surface story.

So many amazing documentaries were released in 2017 alongside QUEST. I am just very proud to be part of such an incredible group of storytellers. See these films as most of them are now available!

• Last Men in Aleppo
• Strong Island
• Dina
• The Work
• Distant Constellation
• The Cage Fighter
• Motherland
• The Departure

[[Editor’s note: We carry some of these films at Media Services! Check out the links above. Temple doesn’t have it? Try E-ZBorrow.]]

Beckie: Thanks, I will have to check some of these out! One final question—are you working on any projects right now you can share with us?

Jonathan: I started filming with another incredible family in 2011. I hope to introduce everyone to the Fiddler family in the next couple of years with a film that is currently titled Without Arrows.

Beckie: I look forward to that very much! Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing your time with us and I cannot wait to see Quest next Monday.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

On Tuesday, March 13, the Libraries hosted a panel on representation and identity in the art world and participated in our third annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. This international program brings together participants in one space to update Wikipedia entries on subjects related to gender, art, and feminism over the course of an afternoon.

In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors were women. While the reasons for the gender gap are up for debate, the practical effect of this disparity is not: content is skewed by the lack of representation from women.

In order to establish the context for issues associated with art, gender, and representation, we began the morning with a panel moderated by Dr. Jennifer Zarro, art historian, writer, curator, and faculty at the Tyler School of Art, and composed of Mechella Yezernitskaya, co-curator of Beyond Boundaries: Feminine Forms, and Kate Kraczon, the Laporte associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Penn. The three discussed being art curators; the importance of mentorship; barriers related to gender, race, and class in the museum world; the canon of art history; myths of the art world; and so much more.

From left to right, Dr. Jennifer Zarro, Kate Kraczon, and Mechella Yezernitskaya; photo courtesy Brae Howard

We then transitioned to our afternoon of Wikipedia editing. Librarian Caitlin Shanley provided a tutorial for beginner Wikipedians and the lecture hall was soon bustling with conversation and serious editing work.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Participation in the edit-a-thon at the Libraries has steadily increased over the three years since its debut, with a record turnout this year. According to Jill Luedke, program organizer and art, art history, and architecture librarian, coordinating with faculty ahead of time played a huge role in bringing in more students throughout the day.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Adrienne Shaw, assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production, brought her LGBT Media Representation class to the edit-a-thon, and even incorporated the activity into her coursework. Her goal was to have students use the materials, resources, and knowledge from her course to identify gaps in existing Wikipedia entries about LGBTQ media texts and Philadelphia LGBTQ historical events and find additional sources to add to them. The group setting provided space for asking questions and collaboration as each student edited at least one entry.

Thanks to everyone who came out to this wonderful program. Let’s keep working toward a more inclusive and representative Wikipedia world!

Photo by Stephen Brown

On Tuesday, February 20, Temple alumna and writer Kathryn Ionata will participate in the Libraries’ Beyond the Page public programming series as a featured artist in our Midday Arts Series. Join us at 12:30 PM in the Paley Library Lecture Hall (1210 Polett Walk, Ground Floor) to hear Kathryn read. All programs are free and open to all.

I had the opportunity to speak with Kathryn ahead of her reading, and ask her about her time as a Temple student, writing in multiple genres, and what she thinks you should be reading.

Beckie: Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences as a Temple student? When did you know you wanted to study writing?

Kathryn: I actually applied to Temple as a psychology major. Although I had always wanted to be a writer, I viewed that desire as separate from any academic or career interests I had. This may have been because as much as I loved reading and taking creative writing classes in school, I wasn’t crazy about Beowulf, for example, and mistakenly generalized the idea of an English major in that way. Once I visited Temple, I talked to professors about Hyphen and the Philadelphia Writers Conference and everything else that was exciting about writing and I realized that this was what I needed to be doing. I loved the electricity of the campus (and still do!) so much so that I decided to go for my MFA in Fiction, also at Temple, after I graduated. And I had a teaching assistantship, which is when I realized how much I like teaching as well as writing.

B: It sounds like Temple was a great place for you to develop as a writer. In terms of your work, you write and publish across genres, like poetry and fiction. How do you know when an idea is a poem or a story? What is your process like?

K: That’s a really good question and one that is tough to answer. I think the best way I can describe it is that poems come to me as more abstract feelings or moments that I wouldn’t be able to convey with a plot. Stories come to me as a larger concept, something more based in character and circumstance. And I suppose flash fiction is somewhere in between! Sometimes the same inspiration stays with me and lends itself to different genres.

B: Speaking of inspiration—set the scene for us! You are writing, and the setting is perfect. Where are you and why?

K: A perfect writing day means that I will have conquered that terrible combination of procrastination and anxiety and the words are coming easily and it feels natural rather than forced. I’ve gotten some good writing done on the third floor of Paley library in those orange and wooden chairs. I’ve also got a spot at home next to a window where I work well. (Also, I think eating candy while I write helps. I’m sure a dentist would disagree).

B: You mentioned earlier how much you like teaching. How do you, as a writer, approach the teaching of writing?

K: I try to approach it with empathy, because I know the terror of showing something personal to others and not knowing if they will like it or not. I try to convey the idea that writing is a process we rarely perfect on the first try, and that there are many different, legitimate kinds of writers and writing. I also encourage my students to immerse themselves in other art forms, whether that takes the form of music, visual art, film, or anything else.

B: What do you consider required reading for students who want to study writing?

K: There are a few classic short stories that you’ll find in many creative writing classes (including some of mine) such as “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. But the lessons they contain about structure and dialogue and character can be found in a great many other pieces. More than any list of texts, I think what’s most important is to read widely. Read writers of different races, ethnicities, and genders. Read fiction, poetry, and the unclassifiable. Here are some of my favorite authors and texts across genres that I’ve assigned recently or hope to assign soon:

• Danez Smith, especially Don’t Call Us Dead
• Kim Addonizio, especially What Is This Thing Called Love
• Alice Munro, “Passion”
• Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
• Dan Chaon, “The Bees”
• Helen Ellis, “The Wainscoting Wars”
• Sam Weiner, “Your Mass Shooting Thoughts and Prayers Are Accidentally Going to the Angry God of a Distant Planet”

B: I’m definitely going to check those recommendations out! Thanks for your time, Kathryn, and we are looking forward to your reading next week.

Boathouse Row at night, photo courtesy April Saul

Boathouse Row is one of Philadelphia’s iconic must-see spots and a National Historic Landmark. But how much do you actually know about its history and the evolution of rowing in Philadelphia?

Join us Tuesday, February 13 at 3:30 PM at Paley Library to hear Dotty Brown, author of Boathouse Row: Waves of Change in the Birthplace of American Rowing, speak about this fascinating history.

Dotty is an avid rower and former editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and her book, published by Temple University Press, features beautiful photographs and provides a comprehensive history of rowing in Philadelphia as it evolved into the sport we watch along the Schuylkill River today. For a preview of Dotty’s talk, check out this video.

Brian Perkins, head coach for the Temple men’s crew team, will be on hand to introduce Dotty. Copies of Boathouse Row will be for sale in the lobby, and Dotty will be signing books after the program.

This program is free and open to all and takes place in the Paley Library Lecture Hall, 1210 Polett Walk, Ground Floor. We hope to see you there!

Thanks to those of you who attended and participated in our Beyond the Page public programming series this semester. It was a pleasure sharing these cultural and academic experiences with you. We hope to see you again in the spring! In the meantime, enjoy this look back at moments from our fall lineup of performances, readings, panels, and more.

Audience members enjoy Professor Jeffrey Solow’s performance of the Bach Cello Suites, as part of our Beyond the Notes noontime concert series.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Professor Laura Spagnoli opens our first Midday Arts Series program with a poetry reading.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Paley Library hosted its first-ever live podcast recording with Temple professors and the hosts of Book Fight!, Tom McAllister and Mike Ingram. We were also joined by guests p.e. garcia and Jason Rekulak.

Photo courtesy Chris Kendig

Professor David Organ and graduate students Keisha Weil and Dana I. Muniz Pacheco participate on the semester’s second Chat in the Stacks panel, which explored the Dakota Pipeline, climate change, and environmental racism.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

After speaking about their new Temple University Press book, Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City, authors and urban observers Nathaniel Popkin and Peter Woodall sign books.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Klein College of Media and Communication students share their video work and research in two new media forms: 360° video and video for augmented reality. This was the final screening event for Media Studies and Production courses 4741: Emergent Media Production and 8741: Cybermedia Workshop with Prof. Laura Zaylea, in an innovative collaboration with MSP 4446: Psychological Processing of Media with Dr. Matthew Lombard.

Photo courtesy Brae Howard

Liz Moore

On Wednesday, November 1, Temple’s Writer-in-Residence Liz Moore will participate in the Libraries’ Midday Arts Series, as part of the Beyond the Page public programming series. Join us at 1:00 PM in the Paley Library Lecture Hall (1210 Polett Walk, Ground Floor) to hear Liz read from her latest novel, The Unseen World. All programs are free and open to all.

I was lucky to catch up with Liz ahead of her reading, to ask about her new role at Temple, her teaching philosophy, and her writing process.

Beckie: Welcome to Temple! Can you tell us about your role as this year’s College of Liberal Arts Writer-in-Residence?

Liz: I’m delighted to be serving as Writer in Residence for Temple’s MFA program. In this capacity, I’ll teach a fiction workshop and a section of Manuscript Tutorial in the Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 semesters.

B: As a writer, how do you approach the teaching of writing?

L: I open all of my writing workshops with a writing prompt. We then move into a discussion of an assigned, previously published text—usually something that illustrates some point of craft that I think is interesting. We then spend the rest of the class workshopping student pieces. More generally, my philosophy is to reserve time for three different categories of discussion: the everyday work of being a writer, including how to develop discipline and a routine and the motivation to sufficiently revise; the fine points of craft, including developing diction, voice, character, and structure; and “big picture” things like what motivates us to write, and what role literature has in our world today.

B: I really appreciate how you make space to discuss those different categories, especially the everyday work of the writer. In terms of your own work, in 2014, you won the Rome Prize in Literature—congratulations by the way! What was that experience like, living and writing abroad for a year?

L: Thank you! The Rome Prize remains the one of the best gifts (and surprises) I’ve ever received. For a year, I was given a really beautiful workspace, room and board, and access to the beautiful city of Rome. It was the first and only time in my life that I’ve ever had nothing to do but write, and I tried to take advantage of that by being as productive as possible—while, of course, leaving time to see the city and the country. I met some really creative people who remain good friends, and finished writing my third novel, The Unseen World.

B: Speaking of which, has the writing process changed for you at all? What did it look like for The Unseen World?

L: I think my writing process changes with every novel I write. The Unseen World was probably the most challenging for me, because it functions in some ways like a puzzle, and I had to come up with the right structure to accommodate that, which was tricky. It’s also my longest book by about a hundred pages, and it required a lot of research about fields I knew nothing about prior to writing this book, so it was a labor of love. The only constant I can take with me from book to book is the knowledge that a great deal of difficulty is just part of the process, so frustration doesn’t cause me to give up on what I’m writing these days—I just try to ride it out.

B: Can you tell us a bit more about the unconventional structure of The Unseen World and your decision to move back and forth in time and space?

L: The structure arose out of necessity, since the release of information had to be timed exactly right to preserve the central mystery of the book, and also a great deal of trial and error. I always tell myself I’m going to one day write a very straightforward book using a simple plot and structure, and then inevitably they spin out of control into something much bigger than my initial ideas.