A Dream Deferred, bilingual birding, TBTW, and more this weekend

In Philly, it’s a weekend to rediscover hidden or discarded knowledge — plus Halloween-season fun.

On Friday, A Dream Deferred: Redlining Past, Present, and Future opens at Arts + Crafts Holdings HQ (600 Spring Garden Street). This interactive public exhibition about the history and current legacy of redlining in Philadelphia is free to enter and runs through November 17.

Redlining is just what it sounds like. Bank lenders, insurers, and government agencies literally drew red lines around certain neighborhoods on maps, then promoted unfair housing prices and predatory loans (or no loans at all) for the people there — primarily African Americans and other people of color. Though technically outlawed in the late 1960s, these racist boundaries continue to operate in other ways, and their effects endure.

Dream Deferred “contextualizes the issues of systemic racist practices — such as redlining — through a multi-experiential exhibit and explores what happens when people and cities are restricted from reaching their true potential.” The exhibition includes interactive touchscreen maps and timelines, a multimedia art installation reimagining Philly, a short documentary of stories from residents and local officials, and a booth to record your own thoughts. It’s open Wednesdays and Thursdays 12pm to 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays 1pm to 8pm, and Sundays 1pm to 5pm.

Nature, outside and in

Especially as the season begins to turn, nature is its own art form, and the Alliance for Watershed Education on the Delaware River kicks off a month of special events on both sides of the river. On Saturday morning, you can join a free bilingual English and Spanish bird walk in Tacony Creek Park, gathering at 8am at Whitaker Avenue Gateway (across from the Lauretha Vaird Boys and Girls Club). Binoculars and coffee provided. Or join an Early Fall Birding trip (7:45am to 11am) to Petty’s Island, NJ, across the river from Port Fishington. It’s for ages 12 and over and includes a look at how this historic industrial port is becoming a 21st-century wildlife sanctuary (advance registration required).

If you want to take your appreciation of nature indoors, Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill opens its latest exhibition, The Pennsylvania Landscape in Impressionism and Contemporary Art, with a free open house on Saturday, 12pm to 4pm. This show spotlights the Pennsylvania Impressionists in Woodmere’s collection, who explored and documented our state’s landscape not just for itself, but within evolving social contexts and metaphors. You can still see the influence of these works on Philly’s art scene today.

Hidden disAbilities

On Saturday at 5pm at Center City’s Thomas Paine Plaza, Power Street Theatre Company (PSTC) teams up with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to present the latest performance in its Hidden disAbilities Project. This piece (performed by PSTC founder Gabriela Sanchez, Erlina Ortiz, and Donna Dunman and directed by Christina May) explores “the gray areas of having an invisible disAbility in a black-and-white world.” PSTC advises that the sensitive stories here may be triggering for some folks, and the audience will be required to move around for some parts of the performance. If you have questions, email [email protected]. The show is free with advance reservations.

The invisible library

On Sunday at 2pm, a free hourlong lecture at the Penn Museum explains how the technology of the future is giving us a better look at the past. The Philadelphia Society of the Archaeological Institute of America brings Dr. W. Brent Seales (professor and chair of computer science at the University of Kentucky) for The Digital Restoration Initiative: Reading the Invisible Library.

In this case, the “invisible library” includes Homeric manuscripts, Herculaneum scrolls charred when Vesuvius exploded, and Dead Sea Scrolls — all with secrets visible for the first time, thanks to new computerized analyses that let us study these objects without damaging them.

Scare season

Hm, what else? I think some fog and screams are rolling in from Fairmount Avenue. Terror Behind the Walls (TBTW) at Eastern State Penitentiary opens this weekend, and Philly will be swarming the prison walls for scares until the haunt closes on November 10.

TBTW ticket sales support the historic site, whose programming increasingly spotlights contemporary issues in criminal justice. This year’s haunt includes a path through six horrifying attractions, including “Lock Down,” “Quarantine 4D,” and “Machine Shop.” Opening night is Friday, and on that and several other dates in September, you can nab tickets for $19 (the price gets as high as $45 on Saturday nights in October). Buy in advance online — prices go up at the gate.