Features

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Page 1
In the crowded gallery, Wong, holding papers, looks down smiling at Steinborn, who sits on the floor and looks up.

Meet FRIEDA, where an intergenerational community (re)connects over food, arts, and culture

An antidote to the loneliness epidemic

With its versatile Walnut Street storefront in Old City, FRIEDA has become a magnet for transplants and Philly natives alike. Wendy Univer talks to the founders about this burgeoning cultural hub’s found family and latest exhibition, POMBAA.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 5 minute read
Colorful view with hundreds of tulips, clouds of hanging purple flowers, reflecting water & a trees full of pink blossoms.

PHS presents the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show: United By Flowers

Your guide to attending the Flower Show on a budget, and supporting Philly gardens year-round

The Flower Show is here through Sunday, March 10! An Nichols has your guide to entry on a budget, plus suggestions for connecting with Philly gardens year-round, and Alaina Johns has a look at this year’s show.
An Nichols Alaina Johns

An Nicholsand Alaina Johns

Features 6 minute read
Archibald, a Black woman in black leggings & sweatshirt, strikes an angled pose in the gray-floored BalletX studio.

Go behind the scenes with BalletX choreographers Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills before the 2024 Spring Series

BalletX’s Choreographic Fellowship stands out on the US dance scene

Before this year's Spring Series debuts, Eileen Fisher goes behind the scenes with BalletX 2024 Choreographic Fellowship artists Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills to talk dance, mentorship, and a rare openness in ballet.
Eileen B. Fisher

Eileen B. Fisher

Features 5 minute read
Oil painting showing Young, in black jacket & red hoodie, looking at himself in a Chinese takeout place’s security mirror

Nasir Young and other PAFA graduates at Philly’s Gross McCleaf Gallery open up about the end of PAFA’s degree programs

Excursions and other journeys for PAFA artists

Emily B. Schilling visits Philly artist Nasir Young at his first-ever solo exhibition, asking him and two gallery colleagues, all PAFA graduates, about some big news from this Pennsylvania cultural institution.
Emily Schilling

Emily Schilling

Features 6 minute read
A young Black woman dancer in a skin-matched leotard & tights and white tutu poses en pointe.

Philadelphia ballerinas share the challenging magic of life in pointe shoes

What’s the pointe?

Ballet dancers cannot just step into the iconic shoes. They must master a difficult technique and make a lifelong quest for the perfect pointe, but these Philly ballerinas tell Camille Bacon-Smith that it’s all worth it.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Features 7 minute read

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Chang, an Asian woman in a short gray tunic, moves gracefully with ensemble members behind her, some dancing and some sitting

“A responsibility to open the door”: how do we embrace disability on an institutional level?

What else can theater be?

Last month, writer Wendy Univer explored a cutting-edge cadre of artists whose work centers on inclusion from the ground up. Now, she speaks with institutional leaders about integrating and prioritizing disability inclusion.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 8 minute read
Alice Sheppard & Laurel Lawson dance together using their wheelchairs and balancing off of each other onstage.

“Access artists” like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard ignite new languages in dance, theater, and visual art

“The access is the art”

Disabled artists like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard prove that access is its own art form, defying a deficit mentality and centering inclusion from the start in exhilarating new art forms. Wendy Univer explores.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 8 minute read
Book cover: Title above, author below in green text; framed by realistic illustrations of flora in pink yellow purple & green

You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula, by Hannah Matthews

One year after Dobbs, anti-abortion politics have a “crystal clear” impact in Philly exam rooms

The damage of last year’s Supreme Court decision ending our right to abortion continues to unfold. T.S. Mendola speaks with local providers, and considers You or Someone You Love a sensitive new book by abortion doula Hannah Matthews.
T.S. Mendola

T.S. Mendola

Features 4 minute read
Exterior view of the huge ship on the river under a bright blue sky. An American flag flies in the foreground.

Meet Camden’s Battleship New Jersey, a great summer trip for Philly-area history fans

All aboard the Big J

On the way to the shore, writer and teacher Bart Stump noticed an intriguing destination while crossing the Ben Franklin: Camden’s Battleship New Jersey, which turns a massive US warship into a public museum.
Bart Stump

Bart Stump

Features 5 minute read
Ma, a Chinese woman in flowing blue & pink traditional garb poses smiling with a blue fan above her head outside City Hall.

Before international artists can hit the Philly stage, they face US immigration

The trouble with visas

Philly loves bringing international artists to our cultural scene. But whether they come from Brazil or China, England or Nigeria, they face a gauntlet of challenges from US immigration law. Camille Bacon-Smith gets an often-invisible story.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Features 7 minute read