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A solemn black-and-white oval image of Still, wearing a tuxedo. His signature appears at the bottom of the framing paper.

Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection presents The Quest for Freedom and Dignity: Celebrating William Still and Harriet Tubman

Liberty’s collaborators

A special exhibition at Temple University’s Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection celebrates the 200th birthdays of Harriet Tubman and Philadelphia abolitionist William Still. Pamela J. Forsythe visits.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Feb 20, 2022 Reviews 4 minute read

Book cover. Title appears to the left of an illustration: two women’s faces, as if staring through shard-shaped rips in paper

Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon

Such devoted sisters

Trauma and abandonment reverberate throughout the lives of two sisters in Ariel Delgado Dixon’s debut novel, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You. Kirsten Bowen reviews.

Kirsten Bowen

Feb 15, 2022 Reviews 3 minute read

Pies, Pies, Pies. An oil painting of 16 pie slices on rows of small white plates. Dramatic blue shadows show bright light.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art presents Wayne Thiebaud 100

California dreaming

After flooding forced the Brandywine River Museum of Art to close for several months, it reopens with a delicious retrospective marking Wayne Thiebaud’s 100th birthday. Gail Obenreder reviews.

Gail Obenreder

Feb 15, 2022 Reviews 4 minute read

A scene from the play: Scott Greer poses as if meditating, but looks aggressively toward a concerned-looking J Hernandez.

Theatre Exile and the Brothers’ Network present Stephen Adly Guirgis’s *The Motherf**ker with the Hat*

Too far from Philly

Theatre Exile’s Motherf**cker with the Hat moves the setting of the hit play from New York to Philadelphia, with mixed results. Josh Herren reviews.

Josh Herren

Feb 14, 2022 Reviews 3 minute read

About 15 ensemble members dance on a stage washed in red light, with a man in a shiny gray suit holding an umbrella at center

The Kimmel Cultural Campus presents the national tour of Hadestown

Hell of a show

The touring production of Hadestown, a wildly popular retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, arrives at the Academy of Music with energy and verve. Cameron Kelsall reviews.

Cameron Kelsall

Feb 11, 2022 Reviews 4 minute read

Book cover. The title appears over a spooky illustrated collage including dark trees, human bones, crypt, hourglass & crown

Dark History of Penn’s Woods by Jennifer L. Green

The folklore and the facts

In Dark History of Penn’s Woods, Jennifer L. Green shines a light on the little-known, real-life historical terrors of Chester and Delaware Counties, and how they inform our present. Josh Hitchens reviews.

Josh Hitchens

Feb 08, 2022 Reviews 3 minute read

A scene from the play: David Bazemore & Gabriel Elmore face away from each other in a bedroom with brick walls & large window

InterAct Theatre Company presents Harrison David Rivers’s This Bitter Earth

A 21st-century love story

In This Bitter Earth, now onstage at InterAct, a Black playwright and a white activist see their relationship tested against police brutality and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Kirsten Bowen reviews.

Kirsten Bowen

Feb 07, 2022 Reviews 3 minute read

Under dramatic orbs of misty white & purple light, a dancer in a filmy dress poses en pointe with leg and arms outstretched

The Kimmel Cultural Campus presents Philadelphia Ballet’s New Work for a New World

Contemporary ballet at the Perelman

Philadelphia Ballet makes the Kimmel Cultural Campus’s Perelman Theater its new home for contemporary ballet performances, beginning with New Work for a New World. Camille Bacon-Smith reviews.

Camille Bacon-Smith

Feb 07, 2022 Reviews 4 minute read

A scene from the show. Ramirez at center wears a red toga, and two chorus members pose on either side with long spears.

Quintessence Theatre Group presents Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy

Something that's Greek

Quintessence Theatre offers a modern, vibrant riff on Sophocles with Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy. Cameron Kelsall reviews.