\u201cOur goal is to demonstrate the power of a citywide, multidisciplinary arts festival in \u201926 \u2014 and then repeat it every two or three years,\u201d said Bill Adair, the festival\u2019s creative and executive director. Rather than asking artists to illustrate history, the festival invites them to interpret the present. \u201cIt\u2019s about marking the moment,\u201d Adair says. \u201cAll of our projects are linked to something fundamentally soulful about Philly.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is the useful way into the festival: as a set of projects that reveal the city from a wild range of angles \u2014 and make room for pleasure, play, and imagination, too. A city needs chances to surprise itself.<\/p>\n
ArtPhilly<\/a> has the full list of events. Here, some suggestions to get you started:<\/p>\n Rewilding Kensington <\/p>\n A project in Kensington, where creative producer Pete Angevine is leading Rewilding Philadelphia<\/a>, is one place to start. The pocket forest project is set to be a long-term collaboration with the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Mural Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and neighborhood residents.<\/p>\n Located in a part of the city long marked by disinvestment and the opioid crisis \u2014 but also by resilience and possibility \u2014 the project reclaims a vacant lot as a planted public space using the Miyawaki Method \u2014 a dense, native planting approach designed to accelerate the growth of small urban forests.<\/p>\n During the festival, the site will host public programming, alongside paid maintenance roles for local residents. \u201cThe idea is if you plant trees very close together, they feed off each other\u2019s roots and grow into a forest much faster,\u201d organizers said. It\u2019s a microcosm of the city\u2019s larger experiment.<\/p>\n BLACKTRONIKA <\/p>\n As a tribute to his local roots, King Britt, a veteran of Philadelphia\u2019s music scene, will curate BLACKTRONIKA: Philadelphia Now and Then<\/a>, a weeklong series of performances, workshops, and conversations unfolding across venues including Johnny Brenda\u2019s, Underground Arts, and Silk City. The lineup spans generations, from Dexter Wansel and a Black Lily tribute featuring Tracey Moore to Rockers hosted by Moor Mother with Back2Basics.<\/p>\n Moving through the Sound of Philadelphia lineage \u2014 from Wansel\u2019s synth mastery to Moor Mother\u2019s future-facing poetics, anchored by Britt\u2019s gravitas and groove \u2014 Blacktronika channels Philly at its best.<\/p>\n Chinatown Pop-Up Book <\/p>\n Another ArtPhilly-commissioned project turns to Chinatown, where artist Colette Fu and curator Dave Kyu are developing an exhibition-scale installation<\/a> rooted in the neighborhood\u2019s long history of cultural persistence amid development pressure. Drawing on Fu\u2019s practice of creating larger-than-life pop-up books, the project takes the form of an interactive, hand-operated book that visitors physically activate, page by page, offering an insider\u2019s view of Chinatown shaped by decades of lived experience, organizing, and civic struggle.<\/p>\n The mechanics of the piece carry historical weight. The oversized book is turned with a crank, a deliberate reference to a 1903 industrial device known as the \u201cIron Chink,\u201d an invention designed to automate laundry work and accelerate the displacement of Chinese American laborers. By reworking that mechanism into a participatory object, Fu reframes a tool of exclusion as one of engagement. The installation will be accompanied by public programming, situating the work within Chinatown\u2019s fight to remain a living neighborhood rather than a backdrop for redevelopment. That context includes recent, hard-fought efforts by residents and advocates to stop the proposed Sixers arena.<\/p>\n Opera Queens <\/p>\n<\/a>King Britt DJing. Photo by B+ <\/p>\n