The idea is simple: eight beautifully decorated pianos, in public places, for anyone to play. This is the essence of University City District’s initiative, Heart & Soul: The University City Public Piano Project which will run from June 7-17, 2012. It is an interactive public art exhibition featuring eight artist-decorated pianos on sidewalks and in parks and public spaces throughout University City. Eight artists or collectives were chosen to visually re-interpret the pianos, transforming each into a unique piece of visual art: Terry Adkins, Joe Boruchow, Justin Duerr, Melissa Maddoni Haims, The Heads of State, Kali Yuga Zoo Brigade, Katie Holeman, and Thom Lessner.

UCD will hold an opening reception and launch party on Wednesday, June 6 at 6pm at The Porch at 30^th Street Station, where all eight pianos will debut. The launch party will also celebrate the opening of Hakoniwa: A Site Specific Public Art Installation at the Porch. Pew Fellow Nami Yamamoto has “responded to The Porch’s concrete planters creating a ‘garden’ that extends the reach of the colorful forms within each planter. But rather than representing the flora seen around The Porch, Yamamoto has selected objects from her daily life, and reproduced them in colorful silhouettes at once abstract and recognizable to passersby.”

From June 7-17, the pianos will then be placed throughout the neighborhood at the following locations: The Porch at 30th Street Station, Drexel Park (32^nd and Powelton), Clark Park (43^rd and Baltimore), Drexel Dragon Statue (33^rd and Market), University Square (36^th and Walnut), Locust Walk, The Radian Plaza (3925 Walnut), and The Science Center (37^th Street Pedestrian Mall, at Market St.).

For a complete list of Heart & Soul details visit http://www.universitycity.org/heart-soul

– Emma Eisenberg
 

 
This Friday, June 1, photographer and neighbor JJ Tiziou will team up with Studio 34 to present a special evening of photographs, dance, and music.

Tiziou will show a slideshow of images from his recent trip volunteering with Mercy Ships in Togo, West Africa, followed by a dance performance by Fatima Adamu and Melissa Diane (Jacelyn Biondo and Kristen Shahverdian). Then the stage will belong to The David Wax Museum, one of last year’s Philly Folk Festival headliners. Their particular blend of guitar and percussion made on a donkey’s jaw bone is not to be missed, especially in such an intimate setting.

Sliding scale contributions will help support JJ Tiziou Photography’s community projects.

Friday, June 1, 8 p.m., Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Ave, upstairs.

– Emma Eisenberg

Modeled on New York City’s Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, Backyard Writers is a selective West Philadelphia-based writing workshop for emerging and established fiction and prose writers. Founded in February of 2011 with support from UPenn’s Kelly Writer’s House, and consisting of 10 writers, group members’ work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Tin House,The Sun, Story Quarterly, Indiana Review, Plain China, Philadelphia Stories, and Apiary, and earned them current positions in the creative writing faculty at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and the Community College of Philadelphia.  

Members have also received such honors as the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, the Community College of Philadelphia’s Judith Stark fiction award, and numerous Best Short Story Awards. They have also published chapbooks with Popular Ink Press and Finishing Line Press, directed Thread Makes Blanket Press here in West Philadelphia, and been contributing writers to Philadelphia Weekly Paper.  Among them, they hold MFAs in Creative Writing from the University of Wyoming, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia (enrolled), and Rutgers-Newark (enrolled).

Backyard Writers invites the general public to an outdoor reading event, featuring beverages and light refreshments for any and all interested in supporting the West Philadelphia literary arts community, and listening to a taste of their newest work.

Eight members of Backyard Writers will each give a short reading from approximately 7:30-8:30 p.m., followed by merry making in the beautiful backyard of collective house, “Fancy House” in a kind of literary salon meets backyard barbecue.

Sunday May 13. 7 p.m. 4951 Catharine Street. RSVP to eisenberg.emma@gmail.com

The Backyard Writers (with relevant links to bios/stories):

Emma Eisenberg
Kathleen Furin
Ben Goldstein
Sara Graybeal
Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Nathan Long
Maxime McKenna
Patrick McNeil
David Poplar
Emily Zimbrick-Rogers
 

Here’s a couple of interesting art openings for your gallery crawl this Friday.

disTURBIA @ Art on the Avenue Gallery

If you haven’t noticed, Lancaster Avenue between 38th and 40th streets has become Philly’s newest gallery row.  Opening Friday May 11, Art on the Avenue Gallery at 3808 Lancaster Ave brings us disTURBIA, a show of mixed media sculpture installation and drawings by Romanian artist Raluca Ungureanu. Ungureanu defines “disTURBIA” as, “a term derived from the words  ‘suburbia’ and ‘disturb’ meant to describe the dark side of urban living.” Her work aims to engage the viewer in a dialogue about rootlessness and alienation in the big cities of today’s rapidly changing world. Born and raised in the mythic land of Bucovina, surrounded by a deep ancestral forest at the foot of the divine monastery of Voronet, one of the oldest in Europe, Raluca has carried the imprint of her origins, and has brought them to bear on renditions of New York and Philadelphia.

Free admission.  Through June 2.  Art on the Avenue Gallery.  3808 Lancaster Avenue.  artonave.org.  215-662-1074.
Opening: Friday, May 11, from 6 – 9 pm.
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12 to 5 pm or by appointment.

Monsters Under the Bed @ 40th St Artist-in-Residence Program Gallery

The exhibition features a selection of puppets from Martina Plag’s puppetry atelier, “studium-praxis.” This installation specifically focuses on designs built at Martina’s 40th AIR Space studio over the past nine months. Each puppet or set displayed in the exhibition has been designed for a specific performance and to serve a very specific function.  The objects in Monsters Under the Bed are designed by Martina Plag, but most of them were made with the help of talented artists, each bringing their own unique approach to puppet making. Supporting artists include: Pam Raines, Stephen C. Layne. Bill Hanson, Deborah Glassberg, Laureen Griffin, Leah Walton, Lorna Howley, Leila Ghaznavi, and Cory Palmer.

Free admission. 40th St Artist-in-Residence Gallery, 4007 Chestnut Street.  40streetair.blogspot.com.
Opening: Friday, May 11, from 7-10 p.m.
Gallery Hours: May 18th & 25th, 3-7 p.m., or by appointment.

– Emma Eisenberg

Since the summer of 2009, members of Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE) have been organizing against SEPTA’s use of gender marking stickers on their weekly and monthly TransPasses that were designed to prevent heterosexual spouses from sharing passes. The stickers, they argue, make commuting difficult and dangerous for riders whose gender identifications don’t match the stickers on their passes, and have produced countless incidents of gender-presentation based harassment and unjust confiscation of passes.

On Thursday April 12, SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey announced that SEPTA plans to remove the gender stickers from all monthly transit passes by 2013. “A fare policy proposal will be submitted to SEPTA’s board of directors that includes this change beginning in the second half of 2013,” reported Max Ray, founding member of RAGE and West Philadelphia resident. “We thank SEPTA for doing the right thing,” continued Ray. “New fare system delays may be unavoidable, but SEPTA realized that human rights can’t wait. I’m proud of the tremendous amount of work that the transgender community has put into this project and all we’ve accomplished during this campaign.” West Philadelphians have been heavily involved in the organizing work that produced this groundbreaking victory – Robin Markle, Wren Warner, Victoria White, Ray Murphy, and Nico Armador to name just a few.

“On a personal level, the victory is meaningful to me because I think there are so few examples of trans people who are doing grassroots organizing and direct action on trans issues,” said founding member Nico Amador.  “I think that the success of this campaign isn’t just about getting the gender stickers removed, but also about sending a message that trans people don’t have to wait for the legal system or social workers to change things for us, we can do it ourselves.”

– Emma Eisenberg

This Friday night, allow yourself to be carried back in time to the days when the movie-going experience always included live music accompaniment. The silent film from 1920 features Douglas Fairbanks portraying the romantic, swashbuckling Zorro, but this special evening will feature an original and live score by West Philadelphia Orchestra member Brendan Cooney, who’s taken his blend of silent classic films and new exciting live music on the road under the name “Not-So-Silent Cinema.”

“I try to bring together players from different corners of the music scene who don’t usually play together to create unique musical collaborations,” says Cooney, who told Metro reporters that this project is a “faux Latin-flamenco-tango-mariachi ensemble.” “The film’s full of adventure, bravura and romance, so I wanted the music to capture that, but also be a little over the top.” Cooney’s band brings together several mainstays of the West Philadelphia music scene including Patrick Hughes, Alban Bailey (Octomonkey), Josh Machiz (TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb), and Nezih Antakli.

Catch “The Mark of Zorro” this Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m. at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut). $10.

– Emma Eisenberg