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Missed our Party with the Critics? Catch the program here.
Thank you for making BSR's 20th anniversary party a huge success!
Alaina Johns
We on the BSR team were overwhelmed by the response to our 20th anniversary event. On a windy night in January with temps below freezing, our community packed Indy Hall with friendship, conversation, and hope for the future of our city's cultural scene. If you missed the party, or you want to relive it, read on.
When you swing big on an event, you never know how it'll go -- especially in the middle of winter. So after our small team worked overtime for weeks on planning and prep, we hoped our community would come through. And you did!
We had a full house at Indy Hall, an artful and community-minded coworking and event space in Northern Liberties. Readers, donors, Philly partners, writers, artists, and politicians poured in to celebrate local arts media over food and drinks. Special thanks to Councilmembers Mark Squilla, Nina Ahmad, and Rue Landau and their staffers for joining us. It's so important for our elected leaders to know firsthand how exciting and engaged Philly's cultural scene is.
An exciting program
Executive director Neil Bardhan was an excellent emcee. Performer Chris Davis charmed the crowd with an excerpt of his 2024 show, The 40-Year-Old Ballerino. Elsewhere on the program, Councilmembers (and BSR subscribers) Ahmad and Landau both spoke about the value of Philly's cultural sector, and their commitment to protecting Philly's immigrant community. This is a moment when we hope all of our city leaders echo this call.
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Councilmember Nina Ahmad speaks at Party with the Critics. (Photo by Neil Bardhan.) -
Councilmember Rue Landau spoke at Party with the Critics. (Photo by Neil Bardhan.) -
BSR editor Alaina Johns and writer Krista Mar at Party with the Critics. (Photo by Alaina Johns.) -
BSR editors Alaina and Kyle at Party with the Critics. (Photo by Alaina Johns.) -
Chris Davis performed an excerpt of 'The 40-Year-Old Ballerino' at Party with the Critics. (Photo by Jimmy Chang.) -
Executive director Neil Bardhan was the emcee at Party with the Critics.
BSR founding editor Dan Rottenberg spoke about how we got started, thanks in part to a brainstorm from founding board member Neil Kleinman, then a dean at University of the Arts. Dan honored subsequent editors Judy Weightman and Wendy Rosenfield, and noted the ways BSR has continued to successfully evolve under the current leadership team. Associate editor Kyle V. Hiller spoke about his unique approach to joining our team all those years ago in 2018, and the importance of what we've accomplished with consistent work for 20 years -- a very, very long time on the Internet. And I spoke about BSR's editorial mission: our commitment to rigorous, well-informed, and honest critique that readers and artists have come to rely on. Thanks to our writers and donors, BSR is now a repository of 20 years of Philly's cultural life, accessible for free to anyone in the world.
Finally, Councilmember Landau presented our team with a citation in honor of our 20 years of independent journalism. You can catch excerpts of the program in the video below.
BSR is and always has been an online publication. So when we have a chance to see our community in person, we treasure it. It was wonderful to meet and speak with readers, Friends of BSR (our monthly donors), artists, writers, community partners, and city leaders. We're inspired by the success of this event, and excited to build on it. Thank you to everyone who came out, and everyone who was there in spirit. Here's to another 20 years.
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