What’s BSR up to in the last lap of summer?

Welcome back to BSR in the Wild, our subscribers-only tips for what our team is doing and seeing each month. First and most important: we are thanking sixteen new Friends of BSR and three new Local Media Champions who have joined the Fringe Coverage Friends Drive so far! You are directly powering our writers’ work this September. If seven new Friends of BSR (annual gift of $72 or $6/month) and two new Local Media Champions (annual gift of $240 or $20/month) step up by August 31, that will ensure our Fringe Festival coverage this year.

Let’s see what’s coming up for us in August.

Writer Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer and Alaina met up in July for some Shakespeare in Clark Park.

DON’T FIND ALAINA:

Ok, yes, I do have some cultural things on my radar for August, like the BlackStar Film Festival (did you catch Kyle’s picks?) and PrismaPhonik, at Spruce Street Harbor Park through August 16, and the Philly Bookstore Crawl on August 22. And this weekend, I highly recommend you catch one of the remaining performances of Hamlet from Shakespeare in Clark Park, running through this Sunday (here’s the BSR review). SCP has mastered Shakespeare in the park!

But I am on staycation August 1-16. I’ll be on a two-week screen detox while I attack a pile of books and enjoy unscheduled days. Then, in the second half of August, I will be consumed with planning our fall coverage, and getting ready for our editorial transition (goodbye, Kyle). All of that means I won’t be out and about as much as I usually am. But come September, hold onto your hats.

PrismaPhonik by William Simard and Antony Gagnon Boisvert comes to the Delaware River Waterfront on June 26. (Photo credit Quartier Des Spectacles International)

FIND BSR writer C.M. Crockford:

WHAT: With One’s Own Eyes
WHEN: Out August 10
WHERE: Available to pre-order soon here (check for updates)
WHY: BSR writers have such multifaceted lives! C.M. is a poet, and his second collection, With One’s Own Eyes, will be out on August 10. Critically acclaimed by writers like D.A. Powell and Matthew Koslinski, With One's Own Eyes is a rollicking, strange, and violent collection of poems whose topics range from Yukio Mishima's ghost encountering Pippin (“Translation”) to genocide (“Confession II”) to a double act defending and insulting T.S. Eliot (“Ventriloquist Act”), and toxic masculine urges (“Honest Tinder Bio, 4th Draft”). Influenced by folk murder ballads, the writer's neurodivergence, Stan Brakhage, Stephen Jonas, and Sylvia Plath, With One's Own Eyes asks the reader how we grapple with the distinctly American problem of being a bad person while trying to find a sense of peace, even in the age of climate breakdown and live-streamed death.

Neil ran into Betty Smithsonian and Sarah Knittel in South Philly in July. Would you believe they talked about Fringe shows? (Photo by Neil Bardhan)

FIND NEIL:

Not Just Jazz
WHERE: FDR Park, Philadelphia
WHEN: Tuesday, August 11 5:30pm-7:30pm and Tuesday, August 25 5:30pm-7:30pm
WHY: The Friends of FDR Park group curates a twice-monthly series of free jazz concerts. To be clear, the concerts are free; the jazz subgenre varies by artist. Expect a food truck or two and bring your own chair for an outdoor treat!

Colors of Creation
WHERE: The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 South Independence Mall East, Philadelphia
WHEN: Ongoing
WHY: I'm curious about this new, interactive, playful installation at the Weitzman. I've walked the Museum's core exhibition a number of times and enjoyed special exhibits as well, all yielding deep contemplation. The colorful experience draws on neuroscience and the Book of Genesis, both of which I'm familiar with but have never before paired. Will my toddler like it? Only one way to find out!

Neil's nod of the month

After our pause, we'll see a review from An Nichols: Theatre in the X presents For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf August 20th-23rd. The show website reminds us that it's "Bring Your Own Chair."

As we bid farewell to associate editor Kyle V. Hiller, I've been revisiting a number of ways he's added to BSR. A spring 2020 essay about what life after COVID looks like, and who gets to make decisions about life, rings and rings and rings. Thank you, Kyle.