Join us in welcoming our new associate editor!

Thanks for your patience during a months-long selection and transition process, with some changes and disruptions to our normal schedule and content. We are a small team! We are proud to announce that Vicky Díaz-Camacho is BSR's new associate editor. Of course Kyle left some very big shoes to fill, but we are excited for our new era.

Here is her bio:

Vicky Díaz-Camacho (she/her) is an Emmy-award winning, Mexican-Puerto Rican journalist from El Paso, Texas. Most recently she has produced audio documentaries for LWC Studios on Latino health and written deep-dive stories highlighting the Puerto Rican diaspora in Philadelphia for Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. Her work centers care, nuance, multi-hyphenate identities, and cultural representation. In the last decade, she held posts as multi-platform producer at WHYY News and community editor at Kansas City PBS. Her work has also appeared on 9 Millones, Billy Penn, KCUR, NPR, Alt. Latino, and PBS Newshour’s Arts Canvas. She is also a collage artist and her own interior (home) designer.

In the coming weeks, you will get to know Vicky better as she begins to shape our coverage and introduces herself in her own voice. Her email is [email protected] and she will be on the job officially starting next week.

This week's stories

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer caught the world premiere of Horsegirl & Cowdaddy, running through October 4 at the Wilma (a short run!). She writes about why the show resonated with her as someone who grew up in rural PA and is now the parent of a trans child. Read her review. Critic An Nichols steps up to write a special Weekly Roundup for you, highlighting music including a Victorian outing in Germantown and Jeff Goldblum's upcoming Philly visit. PLUS: Cameron Kelsall rounds up his top picks for October theater.

In case you missed it in a special mailer last week, my open letter to this year's Fringe artists is now live. If you want to look back on the fest, all of our writers' reviews are compiled here, and my own mini reviews of 26 shows are compiled here. Huge thanks to the artists who hosted us!

We still need to look out for each other

I need to wrap up now, because I finished off the Fringe Festival by catching my first-ever case of Covid, despite a lot of precautions. It's a good reminder that the pandemic never really ended, even though Covid is gone from the headlines. A few hours before I became symptomatic, I went to a show. I wore a mask because I almost always do, for my own sake, but also to protect others in case I'm infected and don't know it. Now I'm so glad I did. I hope masking helped to protect the people around me when I didn't realize I was putting them at risk.

I'll be with you tomorrow (by email, fortunately) with some more previews for next month, including your October guides to dance, film screenings, Classical music, and 250-themed events.

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Alaina Johns
BSR editor-in-chief