Erik Ruin, the current 40th Street Artist-in-Resident, invites neighbors to the opening of his new exhibition tonight, from 7 to 9 p.m., at a temporary storefront gallery at 4212 Chestnut Street (below the Scribe Video Center).
The exhibition, titled “Staring at the Cracks,” features a combination of prints, projections and sound to tell stories of solitary confinement. Ruin managed to construct a unique environment to share the emotions and experiences of formerly incarcerated people.
Some rooms are populated with wall-size print installations, other rooms – by shadow-puppet and video projections by Ruin and award-winning Toronto filmmaker Brett Story.
Along with the installations speakers throughout the space will play snippets of audio interviews with men and women describing their experiences in solitary confinement. Finally, innovative klezmer and jazz trombonist Dan Blacksberg will play a unique and haunting bed of sound to enhance the dramatic atmosphere.
The exhibition will run until July 23 and will be the last in a series of exhibitions presented by Ruin as a 40th Street Artist-in-Resident. On July 23, Ruin will be bidding farewell with an all-day studio sale, live music, and closing reception (3 p.m. to 11 p.m.).
To read more about the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program click here.
Here are two super cool events happening in West Philly this weekend.
To mark the longest day of the year, the annual Summer Solstice Music and Art Festival will take place in Clark Park (43rd & Chester) tomorrow, June 25, beginning at noon.
The festival has been a West Philly tradition since 1970. This year the organizers are bringing over 40 vendors and nine bands, along with the arts and crafts vending, dance and theater and fun activities for kids.
Also on Saturday, world-renowned Philly-based band The Sun Ra Arkestra will kick off the 40th Street Summer Series – a series of free outdoor live music performances organized by the University City District and The Rotunda. The series will feature concerts by internationally-acclaimed artists every fourth Saturday in June through September, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The opening act for tomorrow’s performance by The Sun Ra Arkestra will be the West Philly drill team, the Elegant Cavaliers.
All concerts will take place at the 40th and Walnut Street field (behind the Walnut Street West Library). If you get there early enough you can also enjoy complimentary (first come, first served) Rita’s Water Ice which will be given out during the performances.
Mariposa Food Co-op is hosting a screening of the documentary Queen of the Sun tomorrow, June 23, at 7 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.). All proceeds will go toward the co-op’s expansion.
The film, directed by Taggart Siegel, offers an insightful look at the global bee crisis. It explores the disappearance of bees and bee colony collapse disorder, which has dramatically increased since 2006. The authors try to find explanations and solutions to the crisis by interviewing beekeepers, scientists and philosophers and venturing into a wonderful and mysterious world of the beehive.
Here’s the thing; bees are directly responsible for producing a whole lot of the food we eat through pollination. They’re disappearing and we need to figure out why so we can help bring them back. This film goes a long way to highlighting this issue.
In addition to the Queen of the Sun screening, “West Philly Grown,” a short documentary about Mill Creek Farm will be shown.
We are all getting used to fun stuff happening every weekend here in West Philly, but here’s something to enjoy in the middle of the week and for a very reasonable price. Penn Museum (3260 South Street) presents a series of concerts this summer (through August 24) every Wednesday night from 5 to 8 p.m.
All performances take place outdoors, in the museum’s Warden Garden, so you can enjoy some fresh air after long hours at work. Refreshments can be purchased at the venue. Tickets are $5, which includes admission to the museum.
This week “Summer Nights” features Baris Kaya and his band, Barakka, who mix Turkish folk, Middle Eastern and rock music.
John Legend performs at the Calvary Baptist Church. See a video of the full performance below.
Folks at West Philly’s Calvary Baptist Church (6122 Haverford Ave.) got a sweet surprise when Grammy Award winning singer John Legend swung by to sing a tune during Sunday’s service.
Legend, who was in town to perform with Sade at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday night, returned to his gospel roots and belted out Aretha Franklin’s “How I Got Over” with the help of the Calvary Baptist choir.
Some in West Philly may remember Legend when he was John Stephens (his given name), an a cappella performing University of Pennsylvania undergrad in the late 90s.
The video of the performance below, which was posted on Legend’s Facebook page yesterday, is fairly polished so this wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. But it’s still very, very cool.
Fellow West Philly residents Andrew Simonet (choreographer) and Manfred Fischbeck have helped put together a fascinating dance show, which begins at Drexel’s Mandell Theater (3300 Chestnut St.) tomorrow, June 17.
Sam-Gam Bam! (“sam-gam” means “flow together” in Sanskrit) is a collision of classical and experimental American and South Indian dance, a blend of traditional and modern. A classical Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam, which is featured in the show, began 2,000 years ago and represents divine mythology in performance.
The show is a product of collaboration among three Philly-based dance companies: Group Motion, Headlong, and Three Aksha. The companies are quite distinct in style, but find common ground through this presentation of dance.
The shows schedule:
June 17, 18, 23-25 – 7:30 p.m.
June 19 – 2 p.m.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. To buy tickets click here.
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