Porch Fest, live podcasts, the art of social change, and more this weekend

All right, friends. This Saturday is a big one, and nobody should have to figure this out on her own.

It’s First Friday, of course, so that might be a good way to ease yourself into things. Old City galleries may be first on your mind, but don’t forget the vibrant First Friday scene up in Kensington along the Frankford Avenue corridor.

Collective Conscious

On Friday night, there’s a special opening reception (free with advance RSVP) for Collective Conscious: The Art of Social Change at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP). The event includes wine, light fare, and performance from local poets. Collective Conscious (running June 2 through August 26) is a group exhibition produced in partnership with AAMP’s Residency for Art and Social Change, dedicated to advancing the work of artists of color in Philly neighborhoods. The show calls on artists (including BSR contributor Tieshka Smith and many more) who can mine their personal stories as well as getting out of the studio and into the community “not only as art makers, but as change makers.”

Is West best?

On Saturday, grab the el or a trolley to the third annual West Philly Porch Fest, which is pretty much what it sounds like, running from noon to 6pm. This DIY music extravaganza (making perfect use of the porches and neighborly strolls that keep many locals insisting “West is best”) offers free concerts all afternoon. Here’s a map of every participating porch, from 51st and Chestnut to 48th and Woodland.

Not too far away, at the Penn Museum, the family-friendly Celebration of Jamaica runs from 11am to 4pm, included with regular museum admission. Performances, activities, and workshops include dance, storytelling, crafts, gallery talks, and reggae and steel pan music, including a 3:30pm show from Philadelphia Pan Stars Steel Orchestra. This is Philly’s first steel orchestra, spanning reggae, soca, calypso, and jazz, with 75 members hailing from the Caribbean Islands, Japan, and across the U.S. And there’ll be plenty of authentic Jamaican food options from food trucks in the courtyard.

Saturday comedy

Saturday also offers comedy, with Laugh or Get Offended ($20), a one-day festival presented by Starving Artist Prevention at the Drake’s Proscenium Theatre. It’s an album-release party for “South Jersey’s funniest” comedian, Brian Isley, with four different shows. Isley hosts the first at 1pm (a live version of Wildfire Radio’s Drunk Unks podcast), with LaTice headlining at 5pm, Michael Brooks at 7pm, and Shane Gillis at 9pm.

There’s more over at Good Good Comedy Theatre in Chinatown, with a special live taping of Emma Willmann and Matteo Lane’s top-rated podcast Inside the Closet, which shares their experiences as gay comics in mainstream culture. Willmann has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and many more, and has an upcoming Netflix special. Lane is also a Colbert alum, in addition to appearing on Late Night with Seth Myers, Comedy Central’s Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and lots more. The show is at 8:30pm ($16).

Art books galore

For the artsy librophiles, the Philadelphia Art Book Fair returns this weekend at 23rd Street Armory in Center City, happening Saturday from 11am to 7pm and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. The free public event (co-presented by the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center) offers book signings, lectures, tons of volumes to pore over, and artists, authors, and bookmakers to commune with. Hourlong artist lectures on Saturday include Richard Renaldi at 12:30pm (on the origins of his newest monograph, I Want Your Love, exploring a seemingly charmed life and what it means to find and lose the things we treasure) and, at 5pm, South African visual activist and photographer Zanele Muholi, who is setting out “to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes.” The Art Book Fair will include more than 100 exhibitors from around the world.

Above: Comic and actor Emma Willmann is coming to Philly on Saturday night for a live taping of her podcast. (Photo by Mandee Johnson.)