Here’s an assortment of events happening in the area this weekend. We hope this list is not too overwhelming. Enjoy your weekend and the warm weather while it lasts. For more upcoming events or if you want to submit an event, visit the West Philly Events Calendar.

Friday, October 4

Bindlestiff Books hosting author Stewart Acuff – 4530 Baltimore Avenue – 7:00 p.m. – This Friday, Bindlestiff Books will host Stewart Acuff, author of Playing Bigger Than You Are: A Life in Organizing. Acuff has spent more than 30 years as a union organizer, including several successful organizing campaigns in the south and serving as national Organizing Director for the AFL-CIO from 2001-2008. The event will be at the bookstore; copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Romeo and Juliet – Curio Theatre (4740 Baltimore Avenue) – 8:00 p.m. – Curio Theatre Company is continuing its season with a production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Curio is taking a very different look at the story by exploring gender roles – they made the decision to case Romeo and Juliet as two teenaged daughters of warring families. The young women fall desperately in love and set off a heartbreaking chain of events.  The same-sex casting proves the universality of Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy of pure, teenage love. Previews begin October 3. The show opens Friday, October 11 and runs through November 2. All performances are at 8 p.m. For more info and tickets ($20), go here. Continue Reading

A bunch of exciting events and happenings are taking place in our neck of the woods this upcoming weekend and here are some highlights. For more upcoming events, or if you want to submit an event, visit the Events Calendar.

Thursday, Sept 26

• Harvest Moon Social – 6:00 p.m. – The Woodlands (40th & Woodland) – UC Green, a non-profit organization that plants trees an maintains public gardens in West Philly, is celebrating 15 years of serving the community. Harvest Moon Social is a cocktail reception and a dinner fundraiser. Tickets are still available. For more information and to purchase tickets ($75), visit the event’s Facebook page.

• PSA-feat. Dead Prez – 9:00 p.m. – The Blockley (38th & Chestnut) – Hip-hop duo Dead Prez is visiting West Philly this Thursday to be part of the PSA, a continuing branded series of events at The Blockley. The concerts are intended to double as a social awareness effort, dedicated to educating people on the problems and plight of U.S.-held political prisoners, mass incarceration and solitary confinement. Tickets ($25) can be purchased here.

Friday, Sept 27

• Curio Benefit Night – 8:00 p.m. – St. Francis De Sales School Banquet Room (917 S. 47th St) – This Friday you can support Curio Theatre and enjoy a wonderful night of fun and entertainment. Admission ($50 per person) includes food, drinks (wine, beer and a special Wild West cocktail, live music, raffle and prizes. One of the benefit show highlights is the Best of the West (Philly) Talent Smackdown. To buy tickets, visit: http://www.curiotheatre.org/2013-benefit-night.html  Continue Reading

Photo from Philly Thriller Facebook page.

Many of our readers have probably seen this group perform in the streets of West Philly and near the Haunted House at 46th and Springfield on Halloween nights. Now, in its 5th year, Philly Thriller is planning to return for Halloween 2013 and they need some dancers. If you want to join in on the fun for a night of performing a short Thriller-inspired dance routine, read on.

Rehearsals begin on Friday, Oct. 18 at the University City Arts League (4226 Spruce St.). Performances are on Halloween (Thursday, Oct. 31) all over West Philly.

The show is choreographed and co-directed by Sammy Reyes of Sambruca Productions. Here are some of the Q & A’s compiled by Philly Thriller for those interested in joining the group:

Q: When are rehearsals?

A: There will be four in all. Rehearsals will be on:

Friday, October 18, 8:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 20, 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Friday, October 25, 8:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 27, 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Q: How can I participate?

A: To participate, you must reserve a spot by registering. You must also be 18 or over.

Q: How much does it cost to participate?

A: Participation is FREE HOWEVER…If you come and have a blast (which we are sure you will) we just ask that you make a donation at each rehearsal to help us defray costs of the production. We’ll accept more if you have it and less if you don’t, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. This project is a labor of love. There is no profit made. It’s put on with a shoestring budget and with a little help from participants, friends, and neighbors. No contribution is too big or too small. One dollar? One million dollars? We’ll take it!!

Q: When are performances?

A: Halloween, Thursday, October 31, 2013 from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. depending on weather and other factors. Dancers, we will meet at 2:45 p.m. at 4014 Walnut, The Rotunda, to get our make-up done. Please enter at the side of the building. We will return to The Rotunda by 8 p.m.

Q: Where are we performing the dance?

A: In the streets of West Philly, on Penn’s campus, possibly The Haunted Garden at 46th and Springfield (if they put it on again this year), hopefully also at some block parties maybe, parades, some other places to be determined, etc.

For more information, visit Philly Thriller’s Facebook page. For more Q & A’s click here.

Fast and loose: that’s how the Sloppy Film Fest wants your flicks, West Philly artists.

Organized by Project Arts Executive Director Rich Wexler, Val Sowell, and Jessica Marcus, the 2013 Sloppy Film Fest is currently accepting short film submissions until October 27. The “quick and dirty” homemade flicks can be about any subject, a new or old project, and should be experimental. The suggestion length for the flicks is five minutes and should not surpass 10 minutes (although longer shorts may be reconsidered). “The idea is to promote DIY filmmaking,” Wexler said of Sloppy Film Fest, which has been held on and off for the last 15 years.

Since kids are welcomed at the Project Arts-sponsored DIY movie carnival, artists should be able to rate their films appropriately using PG, PG 13 and XXX ratings, so organizers can show the legitimately dirty films towards the end. Films in DVD, VHS, and online formats will be accepted.

All submissions sent before the October 27 deadline will be reviewed, with those selected notified via email if they’re to show during the free 2013 Sloppy Film Festival taking place November 8 from 10:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Dahlak Paradise, 4706 Baltimore Avenue. Compensation, however, is not being offered for submissions, and some registered films may not be shown during the event.

In the meantime, make sure to stop by The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, on Friday, October 4 for a special double screening of Alan Menkin’s Little Shop of Horrors (Director’s Cut) to benefit Project Arts’ upcoming production of “Avenue Q School Edition”. Sponsored by The Rotunda and Touch Me Philly, the screenings will take place at 7 p.m., featuring a talk by local puppeteer Steve Abrams, who worked on Little Shop; and 9:30 p.m., with special guests Cadavera and Stabigall of Touch Me Philly Productions LLC leading the sing-a-long and interactive portions of the screening, and featuring music by Suggestical Musical Improv. The suggestion donation is $5 to $20 to attend.

To submit your sloppy film, visit this page. For questions, email: sloppyfilmfest@gmail.com.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Contact sheet of “Everyone is Photogenic” Test Run / Photos by JJ Tiziou.

Stand in line at your local pharmacy and you’ll see the message loud and clear: your beauty is only worth the skin you’re in. It’s a message displayed between the lines of bright and bold typography—insistent typeface meant to catch your attention.

The messages we receive about how beauty’s defined—and what defines it—are a daily part of our lives. The way we regard ourselves is evidence of that.

But for West Philly photographer Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, there’s another epistle that should be shared—one that, if held with the same earnestness as it envisages, could dismantle superficial beauty standards.

That message? “Everyone is photogenic.”  Continue Reading

Here’s a recap of what’s happening in the hoods this weekend, Thursday, Sept 12 – Sunday, Sept 15. Do you know of more events and want to share them with your neighbors? Please add them in the comments below or submit them for the Events Calendar.

Click to enlarge.

Thursday

• Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll – Along Baltimore Avenue between 43rd and 51st Streets. 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Come to Baltimore Avenue rain or shine to enjoy $1 deals from over 30 local businesses. There will also be music, entertainment and activities for the little ones. Read more about this event here. Also, check out the flyer.
• Weed Dating – Mill Creek Farm, 49th & Brown. 6:30 p.m. The Mill Creek Farm is hosting a mixer/fundraiser on Thursday called “weed dating”! Admission: $12. More info here.

Friday

• 2013 Fringe Arts Festival continues with three performances of the musical “Jennifer the Unspecial: Time Travel, Love Potions, and 8th Grade” staged in Penn Museum’s Sphinx Gallery (3260 South St): Friday at 7:00 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. Admission: $15. More info on this and other Fringe Arts events and performances, click here.
• LOOK. SEE. HEAR: the glass works of 2012-2013 resident artist Celestine Wilson Hughes. Opening reception – AIR Gallery, 4007 Chestnut St., 1st Floor, 6 – 9 p.m. This is the final exhibition of work by a 2012-2013 resident artist. General public, friends, family, supporters, and past residents are welcome. http://40streetair.blogspot.com/
  
• Patriciu Mateescu: Unbearable Craziness of Onions. Opening reception – Art on the Avenue Gallery, 3808 Lancaster Ave. 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. This is a solo ceramic sculpture and drawing exhibition, featuring the most recent works of this noteworthy international artist. The event is part of the Second Fridays on Lancaster Avenue (Facebook page) series. The exhibit runs from September 14 to October 5. http://www.artonave.org/
• Free movie in Clark Park, 43rd & Chester. 7:30 p.m. 5 Broken Windows, shown by Philadelphia International Action Center concludes its summer film series. It’s a documentary about a Palestinian videographer who starts documenting Israeli land grabs around his village. Continue Reading