Features
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Go behind the scenes with BalletX choreographers Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills before the 2024 Spring Series
BalletX’s Choreographic Fellowship stands out on the US dance scene
Before this year's Spring Series debuts, Eileen Fisher goes behind the scenes with BalletX 2024 Choreographic Fellowship artists Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills to talk dance, mentorship, and a rare openness in ballet.
Features
5 minute read
Nasir Young and other PAFA graduates at Philly’s Gross McCleaf Gallery open up about the end of PAFA’s degree programs
Excursions and other journeys for PAFA artists
Emily B. Schilling visits Philly artist Nasir Young at his first-ever solo exhibition, asking him and two gallery colleagues, all PAFA graduates, about some big news from this Pennsylvania cultural institution.
Features
6 minute read
Philadelphia ballerinas share the challenging magic of life in pointe shoes
What’s the pointe?
Ballet dancers cannot just step into the iconic shoes. They must master a difficult technique and make a lifelong quest for the perfect pointe, but these Philly ballerinas tell Camille Bacon-Smith that it’s all worth it.
Features
7 minute read
“A responsibility to open the door”: how do we embrace disability on an institutional level?
What else can theater be?
Last month, writer Wendy Univer explored a cutting-edge cadre of artists whose work centers on inclusion from the ground up. Now, she speaks with institutional leaders about integrating and prioritizing disability inclusion.
Features
8 minute read
“Access artists” like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard ignite new languages in dance, theater, and visual art
“The access is the art”
Disabled artists like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard prove that access is its own art form, defying a deficit mentality and centering inclusion from the start in exhilarating new art forms. Wendy Univer explores.
Features
8 minute read
You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula, by Hannah Matthews
One year after Dobbs, anti-abortion politics have a “crystal clear” impact in Philly exam rooms
The damage of last year’s Supreme Court decision ending our right to abortion continues to unfold. T.S. Mendola speaks with local providers, and considers You or Someone You Love a sensitive new book by abortion doula Hannah Matthews.
Features
4 minute read
Meet Camden’s Battleship New Jersey, a great summer trip for Philly-area history fans
All aboard the Big J
On the way to the shore, writer and teacher Bart Stump noticed an intriguing destination while crossing the Ben Franklin: Camden’s Battleship New Jersey, which turns a massive US warship into a public museum.
Features
5 minute read
Before international artists can hit the Philly stage, they face US immigration
The trouble with visas
Philly loves bringing international artists to our cultural scene. But whether they come from Brazil or China, England or Nigeria, they face a gauntlet of challenges from US immigration law. Camille Bacon-Smith gets an often-invisible story.
Features
7 minute read
As fights for fair labor continue, Waiting For Lefty is a timely revival at Quintessence Theatre Group
“A story that needs to be told”
A revival of the American classic Waiting For Lefty highlights unionization efforts within and outside the arts industry. Melissa Lin Sturges speaks with director Kyle Haden about the power of storytelling and the importance of the collective.
Features
5 minute read
The Academy of Music and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s archives get a new home at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
Preserving Philly’s classical musical heritage
A beautiful but inaccessible room at the Academy of Music housed almost 200 years of Philly cultural history. Now, the Philadelphia Orchestra teams with Penn Libraries to give the archives a new home. Margaret Darby visits.
Features
4 minute read