"If someone had taken the time to engage with an organization that far away, there's probably a good reason for it," Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture executive director Mohannad Ghawanmeh says of audiences they reached as far away as New Zealand, Scotland, and Colombia. How'd they find Philly's Al-Bustan? Through pandemic-era online programming. Will they continue to tune in? What does that mean for the future?
Those are some of the questions BSR podcaster Darnelle Radford gets into with Ghawanmeh in the first episode of the RestART with BSR Podcast, thanks to a new partnership with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance's RestART Initiative.
The RestART Initiative (hit the banner you see in this email, or on the BSR site) explores how local arts organizations hardest hit by the pandemic are making a resurgence, and what changes they'll carry into the future. BSR is excited to host some of these conversations on our podcast, and we hope you'll tune in for more episodes throughout the summer, elevating the voices of leaders like Ghawanmeh. He says that across the whole country, there is not another city with an organization like Al-Bustan, rooted in Arab arts and language, but promoting cross-cultural understanding for all.
In other news, we're still full of reviews! Don't miss the latest on Tiny Dynamite (Austen fans get your tickets now), EgoPo's Sam Shepard finish, InterAct's latest regional premiere, the Brandywine River Museum, and more.
And keep your eye out for more RestART with BSR podcasts: click the banner to learn more and to listen.
