FIC APRIL PROGRAMS
April 3, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Peter Conn. His Topic ‒ The Poetry of Emily Dickinson.
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
Emily Dickinson is widely regarded as one of America’s finest poets. Peter begins with a brief account of her life and the cultural setting in which she wrote and provides a selection of poems for discussion.
Peter retired from Penn as Vartan Gregorian Professor of English and Professor of Education. His newest book, Thomas Sully’s Philadelphians: Painting the Athens of America, published this month. Other publications include Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History and Literature in America, which was a main selection of Associated Book Clubs (UK). His Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography was listed in Notable Books of the Year 1996 by the New York Times, and in the year’s best books by Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. And under cover of the nom de plume Timothy Wright, or maybe Wright’s putative editor Zachary Peters, you’ll find a satisfying blend of Peter’s wit and wide-ranging knowledge in Who Killed Warren G. Harding?, a work of detective fiction, mystery, and history (complete with edifying footnotes).
Emily Dickinson is widely regarded as one of America’s finest poets. Peter begins with a brief account of her life and the cultural setting in which she wrote and provides a selection of poems for discussion.
Peter retired from Penn as Vartan Gregorian Professor of English and Professor of Education. His newest book, Thomas Sully’s Philadelphians: Painting the Athens of America, published this month. Other publications include Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History and Literature in America, which was a main selection of Associated Book Clubs (UK). His Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography was listed in Notable Books of the Year 1996 by the New York Times, and in the year’s best books by Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. And under cover of the nom de plume Timothy Wright, or maybe Wright’s putative editor Zachary Peters, you’ll find a satisfying blend of Peter’s wit and wide-ranging knowledge in Who Killed Warren G. Harding?, a work of detective fiction, mystery, and history (complete with edifying footnotes).
April 7, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Richard Pasquier is our Quarterback.
April 10, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Nancy Moses. Her topic ‒ The Rescuers: Champions of World Heritage.
Nancy Moses celebrates the passion, determination, and sheer grit of a handful of champions of cultural heritage in discussing her newest book The Rescuers: The Remarkable People Who Saved World Heritage (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025). These are people who gave their all to rescue cultural treasures at risk of destruction or loss ‒ from Stone Age sites on a remote Scottish island, through Depression-era lower 48 backroads and the wilds of Alaska, into the work of saving birds threatened with extinction by DDT, recording the songs of cowboys, and preserving the documentary remains of an ancient Jewish community.
The Rescuers is the fourth book of a series in which Nancy has explored cultural treasures and the provocative issues they raise. She last spoke at the Club about her previous book Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). Other titles in the series are Stolen, Smuggled, Sold: On the Hunt for Treasures (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) and Lost in the Museum: Buried Treasures and the Stories They Tell (AltaMira Press, 2008), which came out of her experience as Executive Director of the Atwater Kent Museum.
Her career also includes top management positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Center for Greater Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, and WQED-Pittsburgh Public Broadcasting. Nancy was a visiting scholar at the American University of Rome and chaired the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission for eight years by appointment of Governor Tom Wolf. She currently serves on the Board of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and the Drexel University committee overseeing the Atwater Kent Collection.
April 14, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Dick Ullman is our Quarterback.
April 18, Club Dinner – Member mixer at 5:30 p.m., followed by performance and dinner.
In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, Norman David brings his quartet to the Franklin Inn Club, performing his own arrangements of jazz classics and original compositions.
Norman David ‒ soprano saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator ‒ is best known as leader of the acclaimed Eleventet, which he established 45 years ago in Boston. The group made its Philadelphia debut in 2007, drawing players from Philadelphia’s finest jazz talent, many of whom are ensemble leaders in their own right. Norman also leads three small bands that work in and around Philadelphia. Two quartets, Group 4 and Combo Theory, released new recordings in 2024. His latest project, the sextet Ensemble Six Plus, released its debut album in 2024.
Norman was a professor of jazz studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston and at the University of the Arts as well as the Coordinator of Jazz Composition and Arranging at Temple University. He continues his work as an educator with students in the U.S. and Europe through a state-of-the-art coaching program in music arrangement. His compositions have been commissioned or premiered by the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, the Temple University Wind Symphony, the Boston-based contemporary classical music group Alea III, Philadelphia’s Network for New Music, and pianist Charles Abramovic.
April 21, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Russell Cooke is our Quarterback.
April 24, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Dennis Culhane. His topic – Homelessness: Population Trends and Policy Impact.
Dennis P. Culhane, PhD, is the Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. His research on homelessness and assisted housing policy has contributed to efforts to address the needs for housing and support of people enduring long-term homelessness as well as those facing housing emergencies. That work included his service as director of research at the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from July 2009 to June 2018.
Recently, he has focused on homelessness among vulnerable youth and young adults, including those leaving foster care and juvenile justice facilities and services. He has also concentrated on assessing how to meet increased needs for housing and support services for the aging adult homeless population.
April 28, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Alina Macneal is our Quarterback.
April 29, Movie Night at the Inn – 6:00 p.m.; feature at 6:30 p.m.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Free admission with snacks and drinks including light fare, popcorn, chips, nuts, soda, beer, and wine.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie intertwines reality and dreams in a surreal, virtually plotless story of six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
Directed by Luis Buñuel and starring Fernando Rey (The French Connection), Delphine Seyrig (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles), and Stéphane Audran (Babette’s Feast), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, BAFTA Best Original Screenplay and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
Director Luis Buñuel, color, France, 1972, 1 hour 42 minutes, French, Spanish and Latin with English subtitles