Reviews

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With the 3 women dancers in long loose orange-yellow paisley dresses, the dancers kick one foot up & angle their hands upward

West Chester Dance Works presents Rachel Harris: One Woman Over the Line

Dancing the way to freedom
A June 22 performance of West Chester Dance Works’ Rachel Harris: One Woman Over the Line at the Performance Garage celebrated Juneteenth with a vibrant, relevant imagining of one real-life woman’s historic journey to freedom. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 4 minute read
Rectangular print with gentle peach, maroon and yellow colors featuring silhouettes of six different plants.

Brandywine Museum of Art presents This Earthen Door: Nature as Muse and Material

The art of Emily Dickinson’s garden
An elegant conceptual exhibition at the Brandywine Museum of Art explores conservation, the act of noticing, and the poetics of nature and art through the lens of Emily Dickinson’s garden and her historic herbarium. Gail Obenreder reviews.
Gail Obenreder

Gail Obenreder

Reviews 4 minute read
Graceful 8-foot indoor dome made of wood and minutely detailed stained glass in all colors, with an opening to enter.

Michener Art Museum presents Judith Schaechter: Super/Natural

Embracing the impermanence of beauty
In an eerie, exquisite show at Michener Art Museum, stained-glass artist Judith Schaechter explores the darker emotions and stories that make beauty and joy possible by contrast. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Reviews 4 minute read
The women cellists wear white and de Jesús wears a tan bodysuit painted with blue and red, singing into a mic as they play

Journey Arts presents Table Sessions: Daniel de Jesús at Bartram’s Garden

Heartache, love, and Lorca
In a unique program at Bartram’s Garden, including an Andalusian-inspired dinner, composer/performer Daniel de Jesús honored Federico García Lorca with voice and music. Anndee Hochman reviews.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Reviews 4 minute read
Book cover: title at top over a modern view of the city dominated by a brightly colored collage mural with the word FREEDOM.

Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy, by Amy Jane Cohen

A must-read for Philadelphians, and Americans
With Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape, author Amy Jane Cohen places Black history at the heart of our city while honoring Black people not as victims, but as agents and victors. Lindsay Gary reviews.
Lindsay Gary

Lindsay Gary

Reviews 5 minute read
Muhammad, a young Black Muslim woman in brown hijab and light-blue tunic with brown embroidered leaves, laughs joyfully.

InterAct Theatre Company and Theatre in the X present Antu Yacob’s On My Deen

Spotlighting West Philly’s Muslim community onstage
For the start of its ambitious, community-centered Philly Cycle series, InterAct teams with Theatre in the X for this warm, involving exploration of love and faith for two generations of Muslim women in Philly. Maya Arthur reviews.
Maya Arthur

Maya Arthur

Reviews 5 minute read
At right Orr explains something to Alburo & Wilson, looking outward. At left, actors hold panels with a painting of Franklin

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents Robert Quillen Camp and Dan Rothenberg’s Franklin’s Key

Discovering shared power in Philadelphia
An ambitious new interdisciplinary stage show from Pig Iron imagines a pair of modern Philly teens who uncover a power source hidden since the days of Ben Franklin, and fight the forces of evil who want to control it. Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer reviews.
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

Reviews 4 minute read
O’Hare & Maseda sit facing each other, smiling and affectionately joining hands, while Apple watches wistfully upstage.

The Wilma presents Jon Fosse’s A Summer Day, translated by Sarah Cameron Sunde

A day to remember
Spare and devastating, the Wilma Theater’s A Summer Day gives eloquent expression to the complexity of grief. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 4 minute read
The actors hold a large paper pad with a number 5 on it, Chandler-Berat holding a mic and the others making goofy expressions

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents Mickle Maher, Merel van Dijk, and Anthony Barilla's Small Ball

Foul ball
Small Ball, a fairy-tale musical about pint-sized basketball players, still needs a major assist. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 3 minute read
Portrait of 19th-century enslaved man Squire intricately wrought in tiny beads, with broken chains, a spear, and a ship.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia presents Demond Melancon: As Any Means Are Necessary

Preserving culture, one bead at a time
New Orleans glass bead artist Demond Melancon, a modern icon of the Mardi Gras tradition of Black Masking, a confluence of West African, Afro Caribbean, and Indigenous cultures, gets his first solo museum exhibition. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Reviews 5 minute read