Tonight is a good chance to hear some great music in a nice venue at a great price – if you live in West Philly and can prove it.  The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, a New Orleans staple, is playing tonight at 8 p.m. at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts‘ Zellerbach Theater (3680 Walnut St.)

The band is performing its “Creole Christmas” show, which is always a hot draw in New Orleans. If that weren’t enough enticement, tickets are only $10 if you have ID showing that you live in one of the following zip codes:  19104, 19131, 19139, 19142, 19143, 19151 and 19153. The ticket price is part of the West Philly Rush Hour Program.

Tickets are available two hours before the show for one hour. So tickets for tonight’s show are available from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. You can only buy them at the Center box office and a limited number are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. The seats will be located throughout the venue at the management’s discretion. Up to two tickets are available per person and the purchaser must show a valid driver’s license or non-driver’s license ID that shows the zip code.

A sampling of things going on around the hoods today. There may be more in the happenings section (our ever-expanding listings). Send your listings to editor [at] westphillylocal.com

• Snow Caps CD Release Party/Kate Ferencz and The Chairman Dances • 7 p.m. • Green Line Cafe • 4426 Locust St. • Cover: $5-7 sliding scale.

Snow Caps is Andrew Keller. Here he is performing in Tulsa in 2009

“Baby Bird” by Andrew Keller (a.k.a. Snowcaps) from Taryn Jones on Vimeo.

• WPEB Programming meeting • 6:30 p.m. • WPEB studios • 541b S. 52nd St.

Check out West Philly’s FM station here.

• Books Through Bars 20th Anniversary Film Festival • 7: 30 p.m. • Cindergarden • 4823 Baltimore Ave. • Suggested donation $3-5.

Books Through Bars’ film festival continues tonight with the theme Immigration Detention: The Racialized Face of U.S. Incarceration. Mia-lia Kiernan, a Cambodian Community Organizer, will introduce the three films. See the full schedule and a description of the films here.

• Andrew’s Video Vault at The Rotunda • 8 p.m. • The Rotunda • 4014 Walnut St. • Free

This month installment of A.R. McElhinney‘s movie madness features:

Before I Forget [aka, Avant que j’oublie] (2007 / 108 minutes) In one of the great movies of the last decade Jacques Nolot writes, directs and stars as a gay man adjusting to his lover’s death, advancing age, and his failing body.

Poison (1990 / 85 minutes)  Todd Haynes’ masterful first feature is inspired by the writings of Jean Genet and propelled by Haynes’ own unique sense of collage.

The Meatrack (1970 / 65 minutes)  A young boy grows up to be a hustler in this time capsule of a more carefree and groovy era.

Books Through Bars, a renowned West Philadelphia non-profit that makes educational resources and programming available to prisoners who are trying to improve themselves and change during their time inside, is hosting a film festival this week at different venues around West Philly to commemorate its 20th anniversary.

The festival features 17 films stretched across six evenings, Dec. 5 through Dec. 12. Each night will include a brief introduction from local organizers and activists who will connect the films to local issues.

Light refreshments – popcorn and cider – will be available for purchase, as will the Books Through Bars 20th Anniversary commemorative poster designed and printed by Eric Ruin (see left, click to enlarge), which is really (really) cool. Proceeds will go toward Books Through Bars’ ongoing work.

The film schedule is below. The venues and times change, so be alert. The Dec. 12th edition, for example, is a matinee.

Wednesday, Dec. 8
WOMEN IN PRISON
7:30 PM @ West Philly Acupuncture, 50th & Baltimore (above Dock St. Pub)
Introduction by Naima Black, from MoMobile (& former lead organizer of the AFSC StopMax Campaign)
Featured films:
Charisse Shumate: Fighting for Our Lives, 2004, 37 min
An examination of the conditions of medical neglect facing women prisoners in the CA system, seen through the lens of Shumate’s efforts to bring a class action lawsuit forward to improve her own and other’s circumstances.
Eyes of the Rainbow, 1997, 45 min
An unusual doc on Assata Shakur, filmed primarily in Cuba, and narrated by fellow political exile Nehanda Abioudon
OUT: The Making of a Revolutionary, 2000, 60 min
A portrait of the life and actions of former political prisoner and current prison activist Laura Whitehorn.

Thursday, Dec. 9
IMMIGRATION DETENTION: The Racialized Face of U.S. Incarceration
7:30 PM @ Cindergarden, 4823 Baltimore Ave.
Introduction by Mia-lia Kiernan, Cambodian Community Organizer
Featured Films:
Exiled in America, 10 min
Uses the portrait of a single family’s experience to highlight the current landscape of immigrant detention and deportation in the U.S.
I Won’t Drown on That Levee & You Ain’t Gonna Break My Back, directed by Ashley Hunt, 2006, 31 min
Looks at the impact of the police state on New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, as well as the conditions faced by prisoners held in New Orleans Prison Parish at the time of the levee break.
The Least of These: Family Detention in America, 2008, 60 min
Story of the Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Texas, run by the Corrections Corp of America (CCA) and the legal/community efforts to contest conditions there.

Friday, Dec. 10
YOUTH INCARCERATION: The School to Prison Pipeline
7:30 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Members of the Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP), whose film “Stolen Dreams” will be one of the featured pieces this evening.
Featured Films:
Books Through Bars, produced by Media That Matters, 4 min. A brief piece that draws connections between the increasing criminalization of youth in general, particularly in the context of the public school system, and the juvenile prison system.System Failure, produced by Media That Matters, 8 min. A critical portrait of the California Youth Authority System
Stolen Dreams, 2010, 26 min
A look at the local Philadelphia/Pennsylvania landscape of youth incarceration and its costs, produced by Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project
CCJT$: At What cost?, 2004, 26 min
An examination of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, a max facility for youth, produced by Youth Rights Media

Saturday, Dec. 11 – Double Feature!!
POLITICAL PRISONERS: In the U.S. and Internationally
6 PM & 8 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Dan Berger, Wild Poppies Collective (6 PM) and David Anthem, BTB (8 PM)
Featured Films:
Through The Wire, directed by Nina Roseblum, 1990, 77 min
An expose of conditions at an underground isolation cellblock constructed at the Federal Corrections Institute in Lexington, KY to house three well-known female political prisoners of the anti-imperialist and Puerto Rican independence movements.
Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen, 2008, 96 min
An intimate cinematic exploration of the conditions faced by IRA prisoners in England’s prisons and, in particular, Bobby Sand’s death during the hunger strikes orchestrated to resist that environment.

Sunday, Dec. 12
THE PRISON ECONOMY
2 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Emily Abendroth, BTB
Featured Films:
Excerpt from The Farm: Angola, USA, 1998, 10 min
In its entirety, this film focuses on the lives, stories, and cases of six different men incarcerated in Angola prison. We will be looking at just a single clip of one of those men’s appearance before the Angola parole board.
Excerpt from The Last Slave Plantation and the Angola 3, 2006, 45 min
A look at the history, legacy, and ongoing resistance struggles to current conditions at Angola Prison in Louisiana – narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal.
Prison Town, USA, directed by Po Kutchins & Katie Galloway, 2008, 75 min
Looks at Susanville, CA’s current incarnation as a “prison town,” wherein half of the adults residing there work at one of the area’s three massive prisons.

The West Catholic football team upended Northern Lehigh 55-14 on Friday in the PIAA Class AA quarterfinals in Allentown. The Burrs advance to the state AA semifinals, which are scheduled for December 10-11. West Catholic advanced to the state finals in 2008 only to lose a heartbreaking, double-overtime game to Wilmington Area 35-34. The Burrs made a playoff run last year before falling to Lancaster Catholic 23-21 in the semifinals.

The Burrs will take on either Trinity or Lewisburg in the semis.

Does anyone have any photos or videos from Friday night’s game? Please pass them along to editor [at] westphillylocal.com and we will post them.

Here is some video from EasternPAFootball.com:

Philadelphia Police arrested five men yesterday who were allegedly running a “black money” scam on Philadelphia businesses, including one in Overbrook whose owner alerted the cops. Police report that one of the men arrested, 27-year-old Patrick Sanyeah,  lived on the 4600 block of Chester Avenue. All five men are Liberian nationals.
Basically the scam involves a fairly elaborate demonstration of “washing” U.S. bills from West Africa that have been blackened to get through U.S. Customs. The men tell businesses owners that they need a small investment from them to help in the washing operation and that they would get a portion of the money when it was complete. Sometimes called the “wash, wash,” the scam began appearing int he United States in 2000. It often starts with a random e-mail.
The Channel 6 video below explains yesterday’s arrest…

The West Philly-based Books Through Bars always needs paper bags for their packages. So if you are thinking of throwing those bags in the recycling, why not just stroll down to the A-space at 4722 Baltimore Ave. and drop them off. You can bring them on Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 pm when they pack books, or slip them through the mail-slot on the A-Space door any time.