Séancers, free spring festivals, and young music at the Kimmel

Looking for a show this weekend? Somewhere to take the family? A unique (and inexpensive) destination for a promising date? Somewhere to unplug on your own, thank you very much?

Starting on Thursday night and running through Saturday, Nigerian-American poet, curator, performance artist, and occasional BSR contributor Jaamil Olawale Kosoko brings his Séancers to FringeArts, exploring “how the American racialized body uses psychic, spiritual, and theoretical strategies to shape-shift through loss and oppression.” It’s the follow-up to Kosoko’s #negrophobia, which audiences likened to a séance. Now he’s leaning further into “themes of paranormal activity, loss, and resurrection as it relates to black identities.”

A live sound performance from Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste accompanies the poetry and movement-based show, with a different “artist-theorist”/“guest séancer” guide each night. Shows are at 8pm on May 10, 11, and 12. The Saturday show features audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision. Tickets are $29 ($15 for students or folks under 25).

Freedom’s Backyard

Saturday afternoon, if you haven’t acquainted yourself or your family with the amazing historic offerings in Germantown, your excuses are officially done. From spring to fall, Historic Germantown’s 16 member sites are open to the public on the second Saturday of each month, and this year’s Germantown Second Saturday Festival runs from noon to 5pm (it’s free!) on Germantown Avenue between School House Lane and Coulter Street. There’ll be live music and performances, food trucks, an artsy marketplace, family-friendly stuff to do, and free bus and walking tours of member sites.

There’s the Concord School House, built and opened in 1775 and still standing today (one of the only ones like it left in the country). The Upper Burying Ground, whose graves go back to the 1690s, holds some major American history, with blacks, whites, Native Americans, Europeans, Catholics, and Protestants resting beside each other for centuries — plus more than 50 Revolutionary War soldiers. At Wyck House, a little further up the avenue, you can visit a garden whose roses have been blooming since the 1700s. There's plenty more.

A next-generation orchestra

How about a Sunday afternoon symphony at the Kimmel’s Perelman Theater for under $20 — while supporting some of the best youth musicians around? At 3pm on Sunday, May 13, the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra presents its 23rd Annual Festival Concert. Maestra Rosalind Erwin (music director and conductor of Drexel University Orchestra) leads youngsters from ages 12 to 18 in a program including Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Tickets are available online or by calling 215-893-1999.

Summerfest (we OFFICIALLY deserve this)

Are the hammocks, water, and Ferris wheel calling your name? Down on the Delaware, Spruce Street Harbor Park (celebrating five years) and Blue Cross RiverRink Summerfest officially open this weekend. They’re always free to enter, and activities like roller skating, mini-golf, games, rides, drinking beer, and eating food and ice cream by the river are pay-as-you-go. This weekend, starting on Friday at 11am and running till Sunday night, there’s a full schedule of family-friendly activities and events, including Trinadelphia Steel Pan Ensemble, wirewalkers and circus arts, face-painting, and music. We can’t guarantee you’ll snag a hammock, but there’s plenty to see while you stake out the grounds. It’s okay to let the knowledge trickle through: summer really is on the way.