The BSR Weekly Arts and Culture Roundup, May 28-June 3, 2026

In Case Of Fire, Speak
May 29-30
Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street

Choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans uses archival material alongside new musical composition, writing, and visual design to create his response to Martha Graham's 1938 work American Document. The work looks to bring the audience back to Graham's essential question: "What is an American?"

Freedom Is…
Saturday, May 30, 4pm
Broad Street Love, 315 South Broad Street

Philly’s own Odili Donald Odita’s new original piece takes the form of a triptych of sheer fabric banners suspended from the vaulted ceiling of Broad Street Love, a historic site of sanctuary on south Broad Street. Bathed in light from the site's stained-glass windows, the work pulses with abstract shapes and vibrant color. It comes in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, and honors Philadelphia as both the birthplace of America and as a sanctuary city, lifting up the voices of those whose contributions have too often gone unrecognized.

You Don't Have To Go Home, But…
June 2, 8pm
Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, 302 South Hicks Street

Say Yes, Philly! presents You Don't Have To Go Home, But…, a film that serves as an ode to dancing bodies, a grimy love letter to Philadelphia, and a story about what to do when the DJ has played the last song, the club’s lights have come on and you gotta go... somewhere. Following three dancers at different stages of their lives, with legendary Philly dance party Second Sundae as backdrop, this documentary film examines the possibility of spiritual fulfillment in a socioeconomic configuration that ultimately doesn’t value the practices that make us free. Speaking of which, this is a free screening, but you’ll have to RSVP.

The Becoming
June 4-7
Painted Bride Art Center, 4029 Cambridge Street

Movement and theater artist Shavon Norris invited four Black female-identifying Philadelphians between the ages of 13 and 39 to participate in an interview/oral history process designed to probe the conditions, challenges, and opportunities that Black girls and young women face as they approach adulthood and middle age. Interview excerpts and still/video portraits fuel development of individual and collective storytelling, choreography, rediscovered and newly-created rituals, and songs. The project is also accompanied with an exhibition of portraits and listening booths, and visitors will be able to record their own responses to prompts that focus on how they perceive present-day conditions and prospects for Black women and girls. On the final day of the exhibition, project participants will present and perform artifacts of their storytelling, gestures, choreography, songs, and rituals.

Acknowledge Me: A Community Play
June 4-5
Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Avenue

From 2019-2021, Theatre in the X piloted a community play creation process, with discussion and documentation of community member stories providing building blocks for the playwright. The culmination of the process is an original play based on the words and feedback of the community in Acknowledge Me. It looks to answer the question: “What does the nation’s 250th anniversary mean to you? What do you hope for Philadelphia’s next 250 years?”

Sail Through This To That: Transcendent Choir Of Philadelphia On The Delaware River
Various dates and locations

Sail Through This to That is conceptual artist indira allegra’s newest work, and it explores the lives of Ona Judge, the seamstress and bondswoman who styled Martha Washington and escaped to freedom in 1796, and the aspiring fashion designer and trans woman Rem'mie Fells, who was tragically killed in 2020. allegra uses 18th century techniques and fabrics reflecting Fells’s vibrant aesthetic to create three schooner sails. Sail Through This to That will culminate in a community-led procession that follows Judge’s escape to the Delaware River. The sails will be exhibited on a schooner that will also host the project’s public programming at the Spruce Street Harbor on the Delaware River.

Marian Anderson: A Voice Of Beauty, Hope, And Change
Tuesday, June 16, 7pm
Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street

In this collection of new work, composer and vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd intertwines elements of jazz and classical music to celebrate Marian Anderson's legacy. As society grapples with pressing issues of race, gender, and justice, Floyd's new body of work serves as a poignant homage to Anderson's life, revealing how her artistry resonated as a powerful and transformative voice.

Long Live The Queen
June 18-20
The Wilma Theater, 265 South Broad Street

Composer Andrea Clearfield and drag artist/opera singer Cookie Diorio lead a 90-minute fusion of cantata, opera, drag, cabaret, and performance art. Featuring a mix of LGBTQ+ choruses alongside a chamber orchestra of strings, winds, piano and percussion from Orchestra 2001, Long Live the Queen charts a journey across time: “Before (When), Now (Conflict), and Forward (Where), refusing to apologize for a single sequin.”

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