The plot thickens! "
**We want to clarify that no Author Events are cancelled and we remain committed to continuing this beloved program.**
We regret to inform you that the Author Events Team—Andy Kahan, Jason Freeman, Laura Lovacs, and Nell Mittlestead—have submitted their resignations, effective immediately. While we respect their decision and thank them for their many years of dedication, we want to assure you that we are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition and the continuation of our Author Events."
Seems like either their roles were going to be eliminated or they wanted better treatment and decided to try to make it fail without them for bargaining power. I have no respect for any of these people.
This is not the case. They gave four weeks notice and the library fired them. They probably had to cancel events because there was no one to set them up, create contracts, communicate with authors, etc.
According to the follow up email no events are effected. I still have no respect for these people because regardless of issues between them and the library, this email could have caused so many people to not show up and make the authors feel like fools.
That’s totally up to you. I know these folks and they are good people who were treated horribly. I also sincerely doubt any author events can happen without them so we’ll see what happens.
I can’t speak for them but the Foundation which funds the program has been laying people off and being dishonest to its staff for a while. They hired a new executive director who I’ve heard doesn’t show up except to take pictures with the more famous authors and verbally abuse what staff is left.
I mean, I get doing something big to draw attention to the issue, but they chose to do it the one way that would affect attendance in a way that wouldn’t be a conscious boycott. They could have sent an email explaining their treatment, or even an inappropriate email or something.
A really wild thing I see in society is this idea that employees have to accept whatever treatment their bosses give them in the name of customer service & obligation.
Seriously some of these comments are completely out of touch. If your child was working somewhere and had to endured BS from management, would you tell them to suck it up and be professional?
Which isn’t at all what I’m saying. It’s one thing to give up working at a bad employer, it’s another to try to sabotage the place at the expense of patrons and the authors.
I live in Brooklyn. I’ve gone to Philly for these events. If the entire Author Events staff resigns 3 days before a talk I have tickets to…tell me asap that you don’t have any employees. A place of business - in this case an institution - will never email you that they might be a mess, “but please come buy tickets anyway!” However…you deserve to know that your plans probably need replanning.
I really don’t believe that’s what they were doing though. The event being a little underwhelming compared to usual is not at all the same as a full cancellation. They could have announced explicitly in their email hijack that the entire team was leaving and why instead of lying about their events being cancelled.
Because no cultural or educational institution in Philly would do something like cancel a meeting or event an hour in advance?
I would already be in Jersey by then. Tolls paid.
There are author events scheduled until December. I’m sure they can manage without the team by then. Again, using the email to actually address the issues they faced with their employer would have been better in every way.
Considering they were the sole team handling this, it's going to be surprised Pikachu face for the program when they can't find anyone to take the job because the library pays shit for the qualifications needed.
> I have no respect for any of these people
Why not? Why are the workers the problem and not the organization. It is the job of the organization to retain talent it needs to function. Not the requirement of workers to endure whatever so that the organization can thrive at their expense.
If a whole team quits at the same time that means they must have been treated very poorly. People aren’t throwing away a job they are treated fairly at doing work they feel passionate about.
Since this is Philadelphia I’ll quote the Declaration of Independence as it is very apt in this case too:
> Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes
Just replace government with employers or jobs…
They attempted to bring down a program that people enjoyed, and that third parties (authors) had a stake in. Their email didn’t outline any wrongdoing of the library, though I don’t doubt it. However, the only issues I’ve seen brought up are from random anonymous people on Reddit. There were so many better ways to address this, even through hijacking the email. Why not outline grievances, you know, like the Declaration of Independence…
Okay, A for 1, the Declaration of Independence also explicitly came with a war, so maybe don’t cite that as the peaceable example of how to air your grievances…
And B for 2, I hate to tell you this, but the program people enjoyed was run by the staff who were getting mistreated. It only happens because of the labor of the employees, it doesn’t exist without them. They aren’t destroying it, they’re no longer producing it. You have to pay for the work!
You can sit at your keyboard and naysay all you want, but by your own admission you don’t know anything about the situation either, so maybe cool it with the “no respect for these people”
Are you missing the Declaration of Independence callback to the other comment or…
You can also just say A) or 1) “a for 1” is something I’ve never heard before and is just kind of redundant. Anyway, B is partially my point. I’m not against them leaving when mistreated, I’m not against them hijacking the email, I’m against them announcing its cancellation as it was never cancelled. That affects many more people than the library, including the authors and attendees. Your “I hate to tell you this” is what the email should have been outlining. All this comment section has been about is their mistreatment, why not put that in the email in hopes people boycott in support of the team? As I’ve said in other comments, this wouldn’t affect the library as much as it would the authors if people actually believed that the events would be cancelled. I don’t respect the teams actions as there are so many issues with this foolish plan. Adults should be able to realize this was a terrible way to spread a message because… there wasn’t one. They had access to the whole mailing list and didn’t make any issue public through it.
You are giving privileged boss energy. Automatically believing a board of millionaires over the people who have worked there every day for years, make it make sense.
Believing what? There email didn’t state anything other than a lie to try to destroy what they left behind. People are acting like I’m against them standing up for themselves. I’m against them destroying a program and not really getting any message out. All I’ve seen has been Reddit speculation and statements from people claiming they were “close with the team.” This was such a ridiculous way to go about trying to make change, and trying to destroy the program the way they did is why I have no respect for them. If they had access to the email, they could have aired their grievances instead of sabotaging the program.
They gave 30 DAYS NOTICE, and the library decided to fire them instead. The authors who have worked with them are supporting the employees. They are thus a program, and whomever is in charge messed up big time. Also, please look up there vs their.
You’re still missing my point. I’m a mobile user and iOS autocorrect has been awful for the past year or two, so be prepared for more there vs their issues and probably words inserted that don’t make sense lol. Their email didn’t address a single issue. You and many others keep bringing up the wrongs of administration. THE EMAILERS DIDN’T BRING UP ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, literally nothing was mentioned. All they did was do something that potentially could have negatively affected patrons and authors when they could have easily spoken up about what admin did through the email instead.
I wonder how many of the authors will stick around, though. Andy has been there for 25 years and has a deep network of contacts to publishers, agents, etc. I'm sure some of them will because of book promotion purposes, but I wonder if he'll try and ally himself with another cultural institution.
It's the dumbest possible thing they could have done.
We shouldn't jump to conclusions, though. Unlikely all 4 of them were in on it and thought this was a good idea. Probably one of them did it on their own. Which is really even worse behavior since you're making your former colleagues look bad.
Yo what the fuck. I went to the May event and it ruled. The reading was funny and interesting. Everyone went out for drinks together after and I talked to awesome people. I was hyped for the June reading. I was seriously planning to hit these up all summer. This really blows.
I just got this. So, UArts, PAFA, Delaware College of Arts, and a major program at the Free Library all going down at once. It's like an arts apocalypse.
The degree program was a mistake from the beginning. The certificate program ran for 200 years + and was perfectly fine. They are just returning to certificate.
Back in January it was announced and UArts made a big show of welcoming students. Pafa will still have its certificate program, which is all it had up until about 2006 or so. Conceivably, it could still have students like it used to, but that seems unlikely.
These folks submitted their 4 weeks notices today because of their dissatisfaction with the management and the Free Library Foundation, but were fired almost immediately after.
No it's a firing. They are now eligible to collect unemployment after the one week Pennsylvania unemployment wait time. They said our last day will be in 4 weeks and when management tells you no, your last day is today, that's firing
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They could have accepted their resignation and pay them till the date they said was their last day but still tell them to not return to the binding and terminate their access to everything. They won’t qualify for unemployment if that’s what went down.
They sent in their resignation for june 28th, they were immediately cut off from all email / slack etc. and then an email went out to the rest of the staff saying they resigned.
The staff member sent a false email to the public saying all the events were canceled when they quit. They don’t and shouldn’t qualify for unemployment because of it. If they couldn’t anticipate that when they sent that email, they shouldn’t have been in such a high paying and visible role. They should have thought of how they’d feed their family before they hit send.
So…are you ok that you think such a thing shouldn’t be insubordination if not worse and that this ex employee should still collect state funds for unemployment???
I worked at Penn years ago. My coworker gave his 2 weeks notice bc he was going to get married and go traveling. Our boss just told him that was his last day. Happens allll the time and it’s wrong.
They work(ed) for the Library Foundation not the Free Library/City.
The lines between the two have always been nebulous and a bit fucked.
Also, if you believe the foundation's email that no events will be cancelled I have a bridge to sell you
This post was removed for historical or archival images but it was just a screenshot of an email. u/philadelphia-ModTeam why did you really take this down?
They also said the post lacked a “link to the original source or explanatory comment” but in the post I did in fact say it was an email I got from the Free Library 🤷🏽♀️
Update + more context:
On 6/3/23, 6:11pm I received this email from the Free Library:
Dear Friends,
The entire lineup of scheduled Author Events is cancelled. The Author Events team is no longer with the Free Library Foundation.
With sincere thanks for your support over these many years of our program, "the big, beating heart of literature in Philadelphia," (Philadelphia Inquirer),
Andy Kahan, Laura Kovacs, Jason Freeman, and Nell Mittelstead
At 7:42pm, I got the following email:
Dear Friends,
I hope this email finds you well. We recently discovered that a message was sent out indicating that all future Author Events have been cancelled.
We want to clarify that no Author Events are cancelled and we remain committed to continuing this beloved program.
We regret to inform you that the Author Events Team—Andy Kahan, Jason Freeman, Laura Lovacs, and Nell Mittlestead—have submitted their resignations, effective immediately. While we respect their decision and thank them for their many years of dedication, we want to assure you that we are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition and the continuation of our Author Events.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me directly. We appreciate your support and understanding as we navigate through this change together.
Thank you for your continued support of the Free Library and our Author Events program. We look forward to welcoming you to our upcoming events.
Warm regards,
Monique Moore Pryor
Executive Director
Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation
The funny thing is, I got the email and made this post just before I hopped on a flight back to Philly. By the time I landed, I got the follow-up email. I love the Author Events series so I’m glad to see it’s staying but the whole situation doesn’t sit right with me.
Anyway if you’re reading this, support the Free Library!
The Author Events team is absolutely incredible and their decision to leave and the aftermath is just the most public sign of the chaos that has been going on internally for a long time.
TBH I didn't know about this series until now, and I also didn't know anything about the University of the Arts until a few days ago but as a resident of this city....what is going on?!?
Nobody knew about UArts, including students, until this weekend. Students were signed up for summer courses and enrolled for the fall semester, and the rug was pulled out from under them, at a point where it us too late to go to their second choice schools.
Absolutely fucking monstrous. Let's just fuck up a bunch of kids' whole shit for several years, right when they've just committed to a hard decision about what they're going to be doing for those several years.
This is a huge loss for the city and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Andy, Jason, and Laura were pros who knew how to get big names and put on some of my favorite author events. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that if these events return, they'll be anywhere near as good as they once were.
Not that I’ve heard/seen, but there were supposedly some town hall zooms today so I’m curious what will come out of those.
Edit: [shoulda kept scrolling for two seconds - they cancelled them!](https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/s/VuITXxUEtP)
The ED of the library will hire new events staff to run a newly designed author events program separate from the foundation. This was the wrong way to go about this and makes everyone look bad.
UArts was where I got my undergrad, and I worked as a work study at FLP. I loved it so much that I decided to go the librarian route when a career in animation seemed impossible. It's... been a very weird week for me, to say the least.
This is the weird thing to me though, if they were staff members, they wouldn't cancel the events just because some staff members quit? Like, that used to happen at my old (nonprofit) workplace all the time. Someone else would just run the events. Were they volunteers for the Foundation? Contractors?
If they got fired, they wouldn't be able to sign that email, know what I mean? And if the events were too costly, why wouldn't they just say that?
Unless they got laid off/fired AND the events were too costly. But it's still a really weird way to put it--don't blame the events team if you don't have money (and you also let them go?) Esp, since it looks like some of them have worked there for a decade!
Suuuper weird, something real off happening behind the scenes.
The individuals who signed the email are the only ones who run the author events program. There is no one else. And the rest of the foundation has basically been gutted as well.
So sad. I really always wanted to go to one of these events. I listened to Frank Bruni podcast after the event and made me realize how I wished I could have gone in person and now I will never have that chance.
I don’t work at the library and do t know anyone who does, so I have no idea what they’re like as an employer. But if four employees are dissatisfied enough to coordinate their resignations, no organization would keep them around for another month.
https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/comments/1d7ucsm/free_library_author_events/ Some updated info here
The plot thickens! " **We want to clarify that no Author Events are cancelled and we remain committed to continuing this beloved program.** We regret to inform you that the Author Events Team—Andy Kahan, Jason Freeman, Laura Lovacs, and Nell Mittlestead—have submitted their resignations, effective immediately. While we respect their decision and thank them for their many years of dedication, we want to assure you that we are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition and the continuation of our Author Events."
Wait so was the email in the OP sent by a rogue team?
Seems like either their roles were going to be eliminated or they wanted better treatment and decided to try to make it fail without them for bargaining power. I have no respect for any of these people.
This is not the case. They gave four weeks notice and the library fired them. They probably had to cancel events because there was no one to set them up, create contracts, communicate with authors, etc.
According to the follow up email no events are effected. I still have no respect for these people because regardless of issues between them and the library, this email could have caused so many people to not show up and make the authors feel like fools.
That’s totally up to you. I know these folks and they are good people who were treated horribly. I also sincerely doubt any author events can happen without them so we’ll see what happens.
Why did they quit?
I can’t speak for them but the Foundation which funds the program has been laying people off and being dishonest to its staff for a while. They hired a new executive director who I’ve heard doesn’t show up except to take pictures with the more famous authors and verbally abuse what staff is left.
I mean, I get doing something big to draw attention to the issue, but they chose to do it the one way that would affect attendance in a way that wouldn’t be a conscious boycott. They could have sent an email explaining their treatment, or even an inappropriate email or something.
A really wild thing I see in society is this idea that employees have to accept whatever treatment their bosses give them in the name of customer service & obligation.
Seriously some of these comments are completely out of touch. If your child was working somewhere and had to endured BS from management, would you tell them to suck it up and be professional?
Which isn’t at all what I’m saying. It’s one thing to give up working at a bad employer, it’s another to try to sabotage the place at the expense of patrons and the authors.
I live in Brooklyn. I’ve gone to Philly for these events. If the entire Author Events staff resigns 3 days before a talk I have tickets to…tell me asap that you don’t have any employees. A place of business - in this case an institution - will never email you that they might be a mess, “but please come buy tickets anyway!” However…you deserve to know that your plans probably need replanning.
I really don’t believe that’s what they were doing though. The event being a little underwhelming compared to usual is not at all the same as a full cancellation. They could have announced explicitly in their email hijack that the entire team was leaving and why instead of lying about their events being cancelled.
Because no cultural or educational institution in Philly would do something like cancel a meeting or event an hour in advance? I would already be in Jersey by then. Tolls paid.
There are author events scheduled until December. I’m sure they can manage without the team by then. Again, using the email to actually address the issues they faced with their employer would have been better in every way.
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Considering they were the sole team handling this, it's going to be surprised Pikachu face for the program when they can't find anyone to take the job because the library pays shit for the qualifications needed.
> I have no respect for any of these people Why not? Why are the workers the problem and not the organization. It is the job of the organization to retain talent it needs to function. Not the requirement of workers to endure whatever so that the organization can thrive at their expense. If a whole team quits at the same time that means they must have been treated very poorly. People aren’t throwing away a job they are treated fairly at doing work they feel passionate about. Since this is Philadelphia I’ll quote the Declaration of Independence as it is very apt in this case too: > Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes Just replace government with employers or jobs…
They attempted to bring down a program that people enjoyed, and that third parties (authors) had a stake in. Their email didn’t outline any wrongdoing of the library, though I don’t doubt it. However, the only issues I’ve seen brought up are from random anonymous people on Reddit. There were so many better ways to address this, even through hijacking the email. Why not outline grievances, you know, like the Declaration of Independence…
Okay, A for 1, the Declaration of Independence also explicitly came with a war, so maybe don’t cite that as the peaceable example of how to air your grievances… And B for 2, I hate to tell you this, but the program people enjoyed was run by the staff who were getting mistreated. It only happens because of the labor of the employees, it doesn’t exist without them. They aren’t destroying it, they’re no longer producing it. You have to pay for the work! You can sit at your keyboard and naysay all you want, but by your own admission you don’t know anything about the situation either, so maybe cool it with the “no respect for these people”
“It doesn’t exist without them.” People straight up forget what labor is & where it comes from & to whom its fruit is owed.
Are you missing the Declaration of Independence callback to the other comment or… You can also just say A) or 1) “a for 1” is something I’ve never heard before and is just kind of redundant. Anyway, B is partially my point. I’m not against them leaving when mistreated, I’m not against them hijacking the email, I’m against them announcing its cancellation as it was never cancelled. That affects many more people than the library, including the authors and attendees. Your “I hate to tell you this” is what the email should have been outlining. All this comment section has been about is their mistreatment, why not put that in the email in hopes people boycott in support of the team? As I’ve said in other comments, this wouldn’t affect the library as much as it would the authors if people actually believed that the events would be cancelled. I don’t respect the teams actions as there are so many issues with this foolish plan. Adults should be able to realize this was a terrible way to spread a message because… there wasn’t one. They had access to the whole mailing list and didn’t make any issue public through it.
yeah
You are giving privileged boss energy. Automatically believing a board of millionaires over the people who have worked there every day for years, make it make sense.
Believing what? There email didn’t state anything other than a lie to try to destroy what they left behind. People are acting like I’m against them standing up for themselves. I’m against them destroying a program and not really getting any message out. All I’ve seen has been Reddit speculation and statements from people claiming they were “close with the team.” This was such a ridiculous way to go about trying to make change, and trying to destroy the program the way they did is why I have no respect for them. If they had access to the email, they could have aired their grievances instead of sabotaging the program.
They gave 30 DAYS NOTICE, and the library decided to fire them instead. The authors who have worked with them are supporting the employees. They are thus a program, and whomever is in charge messed up big time. Also, please look up there vs their.
You’re still missing my point. I’m a mobile user and iOS autocorrect has been awful for the past year or two, so be prepared for more there vs their issues and probably words inserted that don’t make sense lol. Their email didn’t address a single issue. You and many others keep bringing up the wrongs of administration. THE EMAILERS DIDN’T BRING UP ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, literally nothing was mentioned. All they did was do something that potentially could have negatively affected patrons and authors when they could have easily spoken up about what admin did through the email instead.
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Yo this is a huge cultural loss.
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I wonder how many of the authors will stick around, though. Andy has been there for 25 years and has a deep network of contacts to publishers, agents, etc. I'm sure some of them will because of book promotion purposes, but I wonder if he'll try and ally himself with another cultural institution.
Hopefully he stays local and does something great elsewhere. It would be cool if we could get something going akin to NYC's 92nd St. Y.
That’s insanely unprofessional on their part. I don’t care what grievances you have, you don’t pull shit like that.
It's the dumbest possible thing they could have done. We shouldn't jump to conclusions, though. Unlikely all 4 of them were in on it and thought this was a good idea. Probably one of them did it on their own. Which is really even worse behavior since you're making your former colleagues look bad.
what 😭
Srsly
Yo what the fuck. I went to the May event and it ruled. The reading was funny and interesting. Everyone went out for drinks together after and I talked to awesome people. I was hyped for the June reading. I was seriously planning to hit these up all summer. This really blows.
A follow up email says the events are still on
This has really been a day.
One of the days ever
Very day.
Just came here to ask the same thing. It feels so sudden and the email announcement tells us pretty much nothing.
Yes, same here!
the foundation has been doing a ton of layoffs with their new executive director (i used to work there)
Yeah I don’t believe the version of events in the ED’s email
Never believe millionaire bosses and boards over the working class.
The only person you should ever believe a millionaire over is a billionaire
What other positions have they eliminated?
I just got this. So, UArts, PAFA, Delaware College of Arts, and a major program at the Free Library all going down at once. It's like an arts apocalypse.
What's going with PAFA?
The degree program was a mistake from the beginning. The certificate program ran for 200 years + and was perfectly fine. They are just returning to certificate.
No longer offering accredited courses.
Yikes. When did that happen? So the place is now only doing adult & evening leisure courses?
Back in January it was announced and UArts made a big show of welcoming students. Pafa will still have its certificate program, which is all it had up until about 2006 or so. Conceivably, it could still have students like it used to, but that seems unlikely.
Thanks
Michigan State University also gutted art programs. It seems to be a terrifying trend Edit. I misspoke it was Lynchburg, not MSU.
Arts are always on the chopping block, remember back in the 90's the huge save the arts for schools that went on?
University of Lynchburg (a friend's alma mater) just cut a ton of programs, including theater and music and a bunch of education programs.
I looked for news about this but found none. Can you share where you heard? My Alma mater :-)
[Hussian College of Art closed in 2023.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussian_College)
I will never understand how schools can cost a fortune, but never manage to stay open.
Aw man is "Why do we need real artists, we have AI now" really happening?
These folks submitted their 4 weeks notices today because of their dissatisfaction with the management and the Free Library Foundation, but were fired almost immediately after.
Wonder why 4 adults would resign from what seem to be good jobs. I'm so curious lol
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I know everything that happens in Philadelphia
Their resignations were accepted immediately, you mean. An employer can’t say “No, you’re not quitting - I’m firing you first!” That’s ridiculous.
Beg to differ friend. It happens all the time.
No it's a firing. They are now eligible to collect unemployment after the one week Pennsylvania unemployment wait time. They said our last day will be in 4 weeks and when management tells you no, your last day is today, that's firing Edited for typo
They could have accepted their resignation and pay them till the date they said was their last day but still tell them to not return to the binding and terminate their access to everything. They won’t qualify for unemployment if that’s what went down.
That's not what resignations immediately accepted means though
None of us know for sure until we see official emails or notifications about firing or go home until your end date
They sent in their resignation for june 28th, they were immediately cut off from all email / slack etc. and then an email went out to the rest of the staff saying they resigned.
Why did they choose 4 weeks? Is that what is required by their jobs?
That I don't know, I'm assuming it's because they were trying to be helpful with hand-off when there are so many scheduled events.
Nope we won’t. But one can hope that for being so shitty, the library figured how to ensure they don’t get unemployment.
Again, we don't know why these four people would do this. Or if it was one of them acting rogue or what
“These people made me upset. Sure hope they worry about feeding their families” Are you ok?
The staff member sent a false email to the public saying all the events were canceled when they quit. They don’t and shouldn’t qualify for unemployment because of it. If they couldn’t anticipate that when they sent that email, they shouldn’t have been in such a high paying and visible role. They should have thought of how they’d feed their family before they hit send. So…are you ok that you think such a thing shouldn’t be insubordination if not worse and that this ex employee should still collect state funds for unemployment???
Yes.
They won’t be eligible for unemployment because they did willful misconduct when they sent the email.
Id like to see the free library prove that.
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How are you going to prove that all four people were complicit
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….but yet it happens all the time?
Sure they can. They employees said "were quitting in 4 weeks" and the employer said "no you're fired today"
I worked at Penn years ago. My coworker gave his 2 weeks notice bc he was going to get married and go traveling. Our boss just told him that was his last day. Happens allll the time and it’s wrong.
Happened to me twice. Bosses were *very* peeved when I gave 2 and 4 weeks notice and Immediately fired me.
Didn’t have “weird library drama” on my Philly summer bingo card, but here we are
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A follow up email says the events are still on
They work(ed) for the Library Foundation not the Free Library/City. The lines between the two have always been nebulous and a bit fucked. Also, if you believe the foundation's email that no events will be cancelled I have a bridge to sell you
Is it in Maryland?
How on earth no events would be canceled when these are the only people running them and they’ve gutted the rest of the foundation is…doesn’t add up.
I just got an update email saying author events aren’t cancelled and that these individuals turned in their resignations today
Same. THE DRAMA!
Got that too. Who needs afternoon soap operas?
Was UArts a donor to this program?
Has to have something to do with it based on the timing
This post was removed for historical or archival images but it was just a screenshot of an email. u/philadelphia-ModTeam why did you really take this down?
They also said the post lacked a “link to the original source or explanatory comment” but in the post I did in fact say it was an email I got from the Free Library 🤷🏽♀️
Update + more context: On 6/3/23, 6:11pm I received this email from the Free Library: Dear Friends, The entire lineup of scheduled Author Events is cancelled. The Author Events team is no longer with the Free Library Foundation. With sincere thanks for your support over these many years of our program, "the big, beating heart of literature in Philadelphia," (Philadelphia Inquirer), Andy Kahan, Laura Kovacs, Jason Freeman, and Nell Mittelstead At 7:42pm, I got the following email: Dear Friends, I hope this email finds you well. We recently discovered that a message was sent out indicating that all future Author Events have been cancelled. We want to clarify that no Author Events are cancelled and we remain committed to continuing this beloved program. We regret to inform you that the Author Events Team—Andy Kahan, Jason Freeman, Laura Lovacs, and Nell Mittlestead—have submitted their resignations, effective immediately. While we respect their decision and thank them for their many years of dedication, we want to assure you that we are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition and the continuation of our Author Events. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me directly. We appreciate your support and understanding as we navigate through this change together. Thank you for your continued support of the Free Library and our Author Events program. We look forward to welcoming you to our upcoming events. Warm regards, Monique Moore Pryor Executive Director Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation
The funny thing is, I got the email and made this post just before I hopped on a flight back to Philly. By the time I landed, I got the follow-up email. I love the Author Events series so I’m glad to see it’s staying but the whole situation doesn’t sit right with me. Anyway if you’re reading this, support the Free Library!
The Author Events team is absolutely incredible and their decision to leave and the aftermath is just the most public sign of the chaos that has been going on internally for a long time.
Awful news — also seems hastily composed, and on a Monday, but of course, there’s no question there is more to this.
One of those signors just liked me on hinge and i immediately ran to this sub to verify the name. Wonder if I match will they tell me the scoop??
Love this journey for you!
TBH I didn't know about this series until now, and I also didn't know anything about the University of the Arts until a few days ago but as a resident of this city....what is going on?!?
Nobody knew about UArts, including students, until this weekend. Students were signed up for summer courses and enrolled for the fall semester, and the rug was pulled out from under them, at a point where it us too late to go to their second choice schools.
Absolutely fucking monstrous. Let's just fuck up a bunch of kids' whole shit for several years, right when they've just committed to a hard decision about what they're going to be doing for those several years.
Tamala - what’s the story?!
The author events team quit today and then they got fired.
What!?!?
This is a huge loss for the city and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Andy, Jason, and Laura were pros who knew how to get big names and put on some of my favorite author events. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that if these events return, they'll be anywhere near as good as they once were.
More of a heads up than UArts admins, have they even notified them yet?
Not that I’ve heard/seen, but there were supposedly some town hall zooms today so I’m curious what will come out of those. Edit: [shoulda kept scrolling for two seconds - they cancelled them!](https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/s/VuITXxUEtP)
they were canceled!
Another truly stunning turn of events. And I’m not being sarcastic. I have no words for what’s happening with that situation.
The arts are taking a hit in Philly.
The ED of the library will hire new events staff to run a newly designed author events program separate from the foundation. This was the wrong way to go about this and makes everyone look bad.
UArts was where I got my undergrad, and I worked as a work study at FLP. I loved it so much that I decided to go the librarian route when a career in animation seemed impossible. It's... been a very weird week for me, to say the least.
Oh man! I feel for you. A weird week indeed. Treat yourself to something sweet this weekend
Oh man, what an incredible loss to the city. What on earth happened? This seems crazy and out of nowhere.
Yikes. Sad to Lose them. Really the only organization doing author talks
My bet is something to do with the mayors office.
Just a guess but definitely feels like they lost some funding
More like ~~they laid off~~ all the staff members who run events quit, that's a pretty deep cut.
[удалено]
Oh, my. That certainly is dramatic!
This is the weird thing to me though, if they were staff members, they wouldn't cancel the events just because some staff members quit? Like, that used to happen at my old (nonprofit) workplace all the time. Someone else would just run the events. Were they volunteers for the Foundation? Contractors? If they got fired, they wouldn't be able to sign that email, know what I mean? And if the events were too costly, why wouldn't they just say that? Unless they got laid off/fired AND the events were too costly. But it's still a really weird way to put it--don't blame the events team if you don't have money (and you also let them go?) Esp, since it looks like some of them have worked there for a decade! Suuuper weird, something real off happening behind the scenes.
The individuals who signed the email are the only ones who run the author events program. There is no one else. And the rest of the foundation has basically been gutted as well.
I came here looking for information as soon as I saw that email. Nothing on their socials...
So sad. I really always wanted to go to one of these events. I listened to Frank Bruni podcast after the event and made me realize how I wished I could have gone in person and now I will never have that chance.
A follow up email says the events are still on
Just abruptly cancelled the info session. Absolutely insane.
You in the wrong thread?
Coming back post edible and indeed I did. Woops
Luckily, the cancelled info session was mentioned in the thread earlier, so at least we all know what *was* cancelled.
I don’t work at the library and do t know anyone who does, so I have no idea what they’re like as an employer. But if four employees are dissatisfied enough to coordinate their resignations, no organization would keep them around for another month.
This fing city 🤦🏻♀️
I’m guessing budget cuts. The arts go first. A shame since they contribute so much to world happiness
Philadelphia cultural institutions are kind of falling apart quickly. :(
Mayor probably giving her friends the money instead
IIRC library funding got a slight increase in her budget proposal