Opinion
109 results
Page 6
Arts advocates rally again to fight proposed cuts to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund
“Dare to imagine” what arts funding can do
In Fiscal Year 2023, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund received $5.5 million in city funding—a lifeline for 275 PCF grantees this year (including BSR). But the mayor’s 2024 budget proposes a $2 million cut. We speak with GPCA CEO Patricia Wilson Aden.
Editorials
6 minute read
Are Philly arts-goers incapable of silencing their phones?
Even Yannick has had it.
At last week’s Philadelphia Orchestra concert, Yannick Nézet-Séguin was so frustrated by repeatedly ringing phones that he stopped the music. What’s behind the growing smartphone scourge? Alaina Johns considers.
Editorials
5 minute read
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, the movie, joins a modern movement for lifelong sex ed
Reading is a human right
A fairly faithful adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic 1970 novel is hitting theaters. It expands the stories of three generations of women, reminding us that it’s not just tweens who are in transition. Alaina Johns considers.
Editorials
5 minute read
This April, help autistic people by promoting acceptance, not awareness
A new adage for April
Because of inaccurate and stigmatizing “autism awareness” campaigns, it took writer and educator Bridget Scanlan a long time to learn that she herself is autistic. Now, she advocates a new paradigm of acceptance.
Essays
5 minute read
Do we need a child’s humanity to see unhoused people?
Everyone was seven once
Anndee Hochman remembers her daughter’s childhood in a home that was open to others who needed it. But eventually, the little girl asks: who is that person on the street?
Essays
5 minute read
As a young trans woman, I honor my inner child by being true to myself today
Giving myself a girlhood
Joan Rittberg grew up as a boy, but from the time she was a teenager, she knew something wasn’t right. Now, instead of wishing she had transitioned earlier, she focuses on loving the woman she is today.
Essays
5 minute read
Philadelphia Theatre Company's Empathitrax is an unrealistic and irresponsible portrayal of mental illness
Spreading the anguish
The regional premiere of Empathitrax, now onstage at Suzanne Roberts, deals in troubling tropes of depression without preparing its audience. Alaina Johns considers.
Editorials
6 minute read
Puppies, love, and chocolate: how to live on life’s knife edge
Love here, love now
Anndee Hochman was never a dog person … until her daughter brought home a poodle puppy who got into the chocolate. How do we live and love when catastrophe is always waiting?
Essays
5 minute read
Black, queer, disabled self-love is a necessary act of rebellion and healing
The power of equanimity
Writer and musician Danie Ocean Jackson has learned how hard it can be to sense the world from the inside out rather than the outside in, but it’s more necessary than ever.
Essays
5 minute read
Here’s how I embraced the path out of my eating disorder
Hungry for authenticity
By the time she was 26, Daralyse Lyons had been hospitalized for her eating disorder 18 times. But she was finally finding her path to recovery, and knows that others can, too.
Essays
5 minute read