ARCHIVES > 2011 > SEP 21 ISSUE

NEWS AND OPINION

By PW Staff

Fall Arts Guide

Dear culture vultures: For months we scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer this season, and we think we’ve done a damn good job of bringing something for everyone. Into art? You should know that curators and artists everywhere are doing their best to take art out of their galleries and into your community. Want theater? We found a scrappy, independent circus troupe whose stunts you should never try at home. There’s also a roundup of what’s on tap for our favorite stages. If comedy is your thing, we've got a list of the season's best events (like a tribute to the late Mitch Hedberg, he of the famous one-line zingers). Music? Check. Dance? The Russian ballet awaits you on. We even examine the state of storytelling, which, of course, is the world's oldest favorite pastime yet somehow a "novelty" in today's world. Enjoy all this and more!

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Posted Sep. 21, 2011 | Comments: 0
RELATED: Sonic Arts Union Retrospective Takes a Look Back at Electronic Music , Fall Spoken-Word Events , Storytelling—the World's Oldest Pastime—Gains Popularity in Philly , Fall Dance Events Not to Miss , The Little Films That Could , A Look at the Season's Can't-Miss Flicks , Young Artists Shift Focus to Philly's Diverse Neighborhoods , University Gallery Curators Thinking Outside the Box , Phantasmagoria Revives Classic Circus Sideshow in Northern Liberties , Can't-Miss Music Events , Funny Business: The Best of Comedy This Fall , The Best of Fall Art , The Best of Fall Theater , Author Sarah Rose Etter Keeps It Surreal

ARTS AND CULTURE

By Jessica Herring

Phantasmagoria Revives Classic Circus Sideshow in Northern Liberties

Scraps of fabric billow in the air as strings of sparkling white lights cast shadows over the audience, creating a blithe, mystical ambience. The ringleader abruptly ends this whimsical facade as he bellows into the microphone: “Don’t perform these stunts, you’ll fuck yourself up,” Alejandro DuBois says. “And please make a mother fucking donation to our mother fucking crew.”

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Posted Sep. 21, 2011 | Comments: 5
RELATED: Fall Arts Guide

NEWS AND OPINION

By Michael Alan Goldberg

New Political Party Aims to Shake Up City Council

As they say, there ain’t no party like a hip-hop party ’cause a hip-hop party don’t stop. And with the November elections looming, Philadelphia’s newly formed Hip-Hop Party for the People and its City Council candidate, 26-year-old Pili X—a local rapper who goes by the name KASH Kuumba—are going all-out with a spirited, if seemingly quixotic, independent write-in bid for an at-large Council seat.

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Posted Sep. 21, 2011 | Comments: 3

NEWS AND OPINION

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Organizers Reflect on Controversial "Terror Behind the Walls" Attraction at Eastern State

Directly above Sean Kelley’s desk in the old parole office of Eastern State Penitentiary, a man killed himself in especially bloody fashion. It’s something that Kelley, Eastern State’s longtime senior vice president and director of public programming, thinks about often, but especially at this time of year. This week, Eastern State kicks off the 20th anniversary iteration of its “Terror Behind the Walls” Halloween attraction at the prison, which reopened as a museum and historical site in the early ’90s.

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Posted Sep. 21, 2011 | Comments: 1
RELATED: Pennhurst: Haunted by Its Past, Unsure of Its Future

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