Christmas trees are back for sale in the neighborhood (check the locations here). And if you’re looking for a nice handmade holiday wreath, Bartram’s Garden (5400 Lindbergh Blvd.) is holding its annual sale this Saturday, Dec. 7, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.. The sale will include a great selection of decorated and undecorated wreaths, centerpieces, and fresh evergreens.

There will also be a holiday marketplace with a variety of local vendors, free “make + take” workshops, music, children’s activities, a baking competition, and more!  Continue Reading

This year’s free Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival offers a family-friendly Jazz showcase featuring the “Hometown Sound of Philadelphia Jazz.” Philadelphia Tenor saxophonists Bootsie Barnes and Sam Reed will headline the 2019 Festival on Saturday, July 20. The event takes place starting at noon in Penn Presbyterian Medical Center’s Saunders Park Greene, 39th and Powelton Avenue.

Hosted by People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and PEC Community Development Corporation (PECCDC), this marks the 13th year that this annual event has taken place, which has grown from a few hundred attendees to 4,000.

The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia has curated an exceptional lineup of jazz musicians performing on the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival stage. In addition to Barnes and Reed, this year’s lineup includes jazz performers Jamal Jones & the Bureau of Sonic Wonderland Jazz Orchestra, Glenn Bryan & Friends, Geraldine Oliver, Chris Oatts, and Jonathan Michel. The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble will also be back by popular demand.  Continue Reading

This free, day-long event brings a day of jazz and more to the community and features family friendly activities, food trucks, specialty vendors, and community resources. The event will be held rain or shine on Saturday, July 20 with live performances beginning at 12:00 noon and continuing throughout the day until 7:00 pm at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Saunders Park Greene (39th & Powelton), one block south of the Lancaster Avenue business corridor.

Through sponsorship you can help us ‘turn up the volume’ – making our local arts and cultural scene accessible to the entire community.

This year we will celebrate the “Hometown Sound” of Philadelphia’s Jazz scene. The anticipated line-up, curated by The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia, features headliners Bootsie Barnes and Sam Reed. Other performers include Jamal Jones and the Bureau of Sonic Wonderland Jazz Orchestra, Chris Oatts, Geraldine Oliver, Jonathan Michel and Glenn Bryan and Friends.

For more information, visit: https://www.lancasteravejazzfest.com/

Gregg Moore will discuss the body of work in his exhibition Soil, Stone, Bone. His work explores the concept of transmutation of matter that exists in both pottery making and food production, and the parallels between them. Farm-to-table takes on new meaning in Gregg Moore’s china, crafted from bones collected in renowned chef Dan Barber’s kitchen and then used at his restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

From left to right: Rachel Gluck as Lenny, Tessa Kuhn as Babe and Colleen Hughes as Meg (Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas)

Curio Theatre opened its 13th season in September with free outdoor performances of “I, Peaseblossom” at The Woodlands. Beginning Friday, Nov. 17, the award-winning theater invites the public to its principal location at 48th and Baltimore to witness Crimes of the Heart, a Pulitzer prize winning play by Beth Henley.

The Magrath sisters, Lenny, Meg, and Babe, are reunited at their family home in Hazlehurst Mississippi after Babe shoots her husband. Each one is facing down her own demons, past and present. Lenny cares for the grandfather who raised her, as he approaches the end of his life. Meg grapples with dreams that didn’t come true, and Babe squares off against her husband. It’s a portrait of a dysfunctional family, but Beth Henley play finds laughter within tragedy.  Continue Reading