Amid global mayhem and disorder, the comforting distraction of a comedy show is always welcome.
Whether it’s a witty punch line or a well-timed quip, comedy has the power to help us better understand our world or forget about the sadness that exists within it.
Lucky for you, this fall features a lineup of world-class acts and emerging comics who will perform at clubs and theaters in the region.
Here’s a list of the comedy shows we’re most excited about.
Bert Kreischer: Secret TimeNetflix
Bert Kreischer
Oct. 9-10, the Met
There aren’t a lot of things guaranteed in life, but at least three are certain: death, taxes, and a shirtless Bert Kreischer. The Florida-born comedian is bringing his wild, no-holds-barred brand of comedy to the Met Philadelphia for his “Permission to Party World Tour.” He will perform back-to-back nights at the historic venue. ticketmaster.com.
Kathy Griffin attends the official opening of Paula Abdul’s Flamingo Las Vegas residency “Paula Abdul: Forever Your Girl” at the Cromwell Las Vegas on Oct. 24, 2019.Ethan Miller / MCT
Kathy Griffin
Oct. 15, Keswick Theatre
Kathy Griffin, the Emmy-winning comedian and queen of the celebrity D-list, is back in the region for a one-night-only show in Glenside. Catch the fiery redhead in action at the Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com.
The comedian Earthquake (Nathaniel Stroman). SiriusXM
Earthquake
Oct. 23, Rivers Casino
Check the Richter scale when comedian Earthquake descends onto Rivers Casino this fall. The veteran comic is bringing his brash, quick-hit humor to the Fishtown venue for a seismic night of laughter. riverscasino.com.
Aussie comedian Jim Jefferies portrays … an Aussie comedian named Jim.Matthias Clamer / FX
Jim Jeffries
Oct. 24, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
Jim Jeffries, the Australian comic best known for starring in FX’s Legit and heading his own late-night talk show on Comedy Central, returns to the region for his “Son of a Carpenter” tour. axs.com.
Joanne McNally
Oct. 29-31, Punch Line Comedy Club
Joanne McNally, who’s headlined sold-out shows in her native Ireland and other parts of the world, is bringing her dark, edgy comedy to Philly this fall. She’s stopping by Punch Line in support of her “Pinotphile” show all Halloween weekend. ticketmaster.com.
Comedian and impressionist Matt Friend in New York.Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post
Matt Friend
Nov. 6, the Block at Harrah’s Philadelphia
Comedian and master impressionist Matt Friend, who can embody folks from President Donald Trump to Jeff Goldblum, Andy Cohen, and King Charles III on command, is hitting the stage at Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester. ticketmaster.com.
Tony Baker
Nov. 6-8, Punch Line Comedy Club
When comedian Tony Baker isn’t roasting your favorite comic or putting on his film critic cap, he’s gracing the comedy stage. The veteran stand-up is slated for a three-night stint at Punch Line Philly this fall. ticketmaster.com.
Actor/comedian Chris D’Elia, in an image processed using digital filters, performs his stand-up comedy routine as part of the Aces of Comedy series at the Mirage Hotel & Casino on Aug. 25, 2018, in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller / MCT
Chris D’Elia
Nov. 7, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
Comic Chris D’Elia, who’s notched hit specials, TV shows, and global tours through his nearly 20-year career, will wrap up a string of European shows before dropping into Parx Casino for his “Go For It The Tour.” Catch the stand-up in action this November. axs.com.
Not every social media-based comic can succeed on the stand-up stage, but Chicago’s Mojo Brookzz has made the transition look easy. His compelling stories and impressive crowd work, which draw millions of views online, is why he’s become one of the fastest rising stars in the comedy game. Catch him at the Met Philadelphia for his “Outta Pocket Comedy Tour.” livenation.com.
Tim Dillon
Nov. 14, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
Anyone who’s tuned into comedian Tim Dillon’s Netflix special, or listens to his hit podcast, knows there are very few boundaries that he won’t cross. The Long Island-born stand-up constantly delivers steaming-hot political and cultural takes, and the crowd at Parx Casino can expect the same blend of bold commentary and observational humor this fall. tix.axs.com.
Craig Robinson at the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 5, 2021. Joel C Ryan
Craig Robinson
Nov. 19-22, Helium Comedy Club
Don’t be fooled: comedian Craig Robinson, known for roles in The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Pineapple Express, is certainly a recognizable face in film and TV. But he made his bones on the comedy stage. He is rolling into Philly to perform at the Helium Comedy Club. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.
In this Sept. 17, 2018 file photo, Michelle Wolf arrives at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.Jordan Strauss
Michelle Wolf
Dec. 5, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
Hershey’s own Michelle Wolf, who racked up writing credits as a contributor for Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah before landing her own Netflix special, is heading to Bensalem’s Parx Casino this December. The Emmy-nominated comic will discuss everything from motherhood to gender roles, politics, and menopause during her “Best Job in the World” tour stop. axs.com.
Emily Catalano
Dec. 7-9, Helium Comedy Club
From her late night stand-up debut on Conan to being added on the New York Times’ “Best Comedy of 2024″ list, it’s safe to say Emily Catalano is drawing national attention. The Los Angeles-based stand-up is dropping into Center City for three nights at Helium Comedy Club. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.
Jim Gaffigan will perform two nights at the Miller Theater.Bronson Farr
Jim Gaffigan
Dec. 11-12, Miller Theater
Emmy-winning comic Jim Gaffigan, whose decades-long career spans TV and film, hits the comedy stage for his “Everything Is Wonderful” tour. The veteran comic will perform all new material, complete with the same sly delivery, across three shows and two nights at Miller Theater. ensembleartsphilly.org.
Tommy DavidsonCourtesy of Tommy Davidson
Tommy Davidson
Dec. 18-20, Helium Comedy Club
Tommy Davidson, whose Martin spinoff series, Varnell Hill, premiered this month on Paramount+, is back on the stand-up circuit. The longtime comedian will perform three nights at the Helium Comedy Club to close out this year’s fall lineup. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.
Calling Anna Tsouhlarakis’ sculpture She Dares You to Steal Her Hairmixed media doesn’t begin to describe the multitude of parts in Tsouhlarakis’ whole.
Part of the new exhibition “Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis” at Temple Contemporary, here is the full list of materials for the piece:
A glass cast of Tsouhlarakis’ hand and forearm, found metal, horsehair, hardware, shed antler, bicycle mirror, beads, artificial sinew, ermine, Ikea remnant, curtain rod, steer horn, rope, thread, football face mask, adhesives, paint, marker nail, toy velociraptor.
The ingredients come together like accidental theater, from the flimsiest of human creations — an exposed remnant of Ikea particleboard, a material she has been working with for the better part of a decade — to the sturdiness of the steer horn.
In Coyotes Run From Her, there’s a similar clash of natural and manufactured ingredients: a security camera, press-on nails that form a cascading echo of nearby horsetails, a softly furred deer leg stands next to a tower of tin tobacco lids.
Other materials used in Coyotes Run From Her: glass cast, found metal, deer hair, porcupine hair, yarn, leather, Aspen wood, saw blades, hardware, deer leg, spur artificial claws, beads, toy grenade, paint adhesives, tobacco lids, Ikea remnant, security camera, faux silver object, press-on nails, driftwood.
Her art contains multitudes.
“Coyotes Run From Her,” a sculpture from the exhibition, Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis, at Temple Contemporary, 2001 North 13th St., on Temple’s campus. Its materials include a glass cast, found metal, deer hair, porcupine hair, yarn, leather, Aspen wood, saw blades, hardware, deer leg, spur artificial claws, beads, toy grenade, paint adhesives, tobacco lids, Ikea remnant, security camera, faux silver object, press-on nails, driftwood.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
The materials come together to, as the exhibition says, “embrace irregularity as both a formal strategy and a conceptual framework.”
“I’m a complex individual that comes from diverse heritages,” Tsouhlarakis, 49, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and Creek Tribe who also is of Greek descent, said in a recent interview. “I’ve lived all across the United States. When I’m bringing in those pieces, all of those disparate objects, that’s a representation of my narrative, and my experiences.”
Her work is art that can be contemplated and processed for long stretches, ingredient by ingredient, or as a cascading whole. It can be picked apart, whimsically, then put back together, more profoundly as a whole.
She said she starts with the titles first, but does not view the works as literal expressions of those. As an Indigenous woman, she said people often expect her to be a storyteller, but she purposely sees and conceives of her work in less linear terms.
“It is complicated,” she said. “It seems disconnected. It forces people to reckon with it. I hate the idea of linear narrative. I fight back. What else can I do to throw in here to mess up?”
Around the walls are five black-and-white collages with cheeky sentences that play off Native identity asserting itself in a modern white world: You know she buys her sage at urban outfitters,” “Her look might say rez but her accent says city,” and “Her eyes cut quicker than a switchblade.“ The text collages also contain faded out images of Native internet memes and other cutout images.
Sculptor Anna Tsouhlarakis, photographed at the Whitney Museum in New York City, in front of a piece from the Whitney Biennial, “SHE MUST BE A MATRIARCH.”Amara Johnson.
Tsouhlarakis says she’s been thinking about Navajo cultural taboos, “how one moves through the world, especially within this moment, within our country.”
“How I have to hold myself when I walk through an airport, how I notice I’m not necessarily at ease,” she said. “The way my presence in a place is questioned or uncomfortable for people. It makes me more aggressive immediately.
“How would this imaginative female figure that I have in my mind confront these things with all the power in the world,” she asks herself. “By having cultural taboos and flipping them.”
This dynamic shows itself in the sculpture’s title, She Dares You to Steal Her Hair. “In Navajo culture, if somebody takes a lock of hair, it takes away your power,” she said.
Tsouhlarakis was the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Artist in Residence at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture last year, where she worked with glass for the first time. The residency was established through a gift from Edgar Heap of Birds (MFA ’79), a leading Native American artist.
Tsouhlarakis said she typically models casts of body parts on other Native women. But while in Philadelphia, she used her own body for the first time. One sculpture uses a cast of her arm and forearm, the other, her bent elbow.
Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta, the curator of the exhibition, as well as another exhibition now at the gallery, “Dream Different: A Wonder Rebellion,” says Tsouhlarakis’ work recalls the line from Stephen King: Humor is almost always “anger with its makeup on.”
In Tsouhlarakis’ work, “absurdity coexists alongside this stance of awe,” he said. “You are defamiliarizing yourself of things that seem mundane and everyday.”
“It’s an accumulation of history, of uses,” he said. “Beautiful accumulations of different moments she’s experienced.”
Of the wall pieces, Kenyatta called them “collections of absurd moments were she’s had to contort herself or people she knows contorting themselves.
“I’m sitting with the absurdity,” he said.
“Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis” is on display through Dec. 5 at Temple Contemporary, 2001 N. 13th St, Philadelphia. now.temple.edu
An Artist Talk will take place Sept. 17, 2026, at 4:30 p.m.
Lynnewood Hall, the historic Elkins Park mansion constructed during the Gilded Age, is opening to the public for the first time in 84 years.
Starting Friday, the 100,000-square-foot home will host “Fleurs de Villes: The Gilded Age,” a 10-day floral exhibition honoring the history of the period and the characters of the hit HBO series, The Gilded Age.
“It’s kind of a rebirth of an icon,” said Edward Thome, executive director of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, which owns and operates the property. “There’s been so much anticipation and so many years closed off.”
From left: Tyler Schumacher, facilities site manager; Edward T. Thome, executive director; and Angie Van Scyoc, chief operating officer, of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation Inc., in 2023. The group is restoring the property and is opening it to the public for the first time in 84 years on Friday.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The exhibition will have 15 life-size mannequins made by local floral designers, using thousands of flowers. The displays will capture the essence of the scenes and characters from The Gilded Age, including Peggy Scott, Larry Russell, Bertha Russell, and Agnes van Rhijn.
Guests can observe live floral demonstrations, vote on their favorite floral mannequins, and take a tour that explores the site’s history and ongoing restoration.
The exhibition, which runs through Oct. 4, is a collaboration between the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation Inc. and Fleurs de Villes, the Vancouver-based entertainment company that has organized more than 170 flower shows globally.
Karen Marshall, cofounder of Fleurs de Villes, said she was intrigued by the architectural wonder and stories linked to the mansion. “It’s something magical,” she said.
The ballroom at Lynnewood Hall, in Elkins Park, on June 29, 2023.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
She hopes that Fleurs de Villes will not only draw visitors back to the site, but that the exhibition will grow to be an annual revenue generator, furthering the foundation’s preservation of the space.
Nineteenth-century industrialist Peter A.B. Widener first welcomed guests to his 34-acre estate in December 1899. Back then, it was hailed as one of the finest residences in the country.
In the decades since Widener’s death in 1915, the assets inside the home were auctioned off, and the property changed hands until it was left abandoned for three decades. In 2023, nearly 125 years after Lynnewood Hall’s completion, Thome and his partners purchased the site for $9.5 million and have spent “several million” reviving it.
Chief operating officer Angie Van Scyoc said the partnership with Fleurs de Villes was “serendipitous.”
The nonprofit has been working with a landscape architect to explore the possibility of starting a flower show of its own. Less than two weeks before Scyoc was scheduled to fly to a flower show for research purposes, Marshall inquired about bringing Fleurs de Villes to Lynnewood Hall.
The reception room at Lynnewood Hall, in Elkins Park, on June 29, 2023.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
This encouraged Thome and Scyoc to “step up” and put a plan in motion.
“It was really just amazing timing,” Scyoc said. “An interesting full-circle moment that we’re grateful for.”
The exhibition, Scyoc said, is part of a larger plan for programming in 2027, which includes opportunities for filmmakers to shoot at the estate. She said her hope is that the exhibition will remind visitors about the “forgotten” site, and show them what ongoing history is being made within its walls.
Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation is at 920 Spring Ave., Elkins Park. The floral exhibition runs Sept. 25-Oct.4, open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Adult tickets are $30.50. lynnewoodhallpreservation.org.
Summer lingers as fall pop music season gets underway, with outdoor shows still happening in Camden, South Philly, and Fairmount Park into early October. And then the calendar quickly fills up with indoor nights in arenas, theaters, and small clubs in Philadelphia and throughout the region.
Besides the Phoebe Bridgers, Johnny Blue Skies, Olivia Rodrigo, and Dojo Cat tours highlighted below, there are still more big names coming to Xfinity Mobile Arena: Jonas Brothers on Oct. 2, Teddy Swims on Oct. 10, and Sombr on Nov. 19.
The Met has Beck on Oct. 18, Rawayana on Nov. 1, and Orville Peck on Nov. 11, and the Fillmore has Chief Keef on Oct. 6, Horsegirl on Oct. 23, Yebba on Oct. 30, and the Menzingers on Nov. 20. Penn Live Arts shows at the Annenberg Center include TM Krishna on Oct. 15 and Bela Fleck on Nov. 15.
There are lots of choice dates in cozier venues. Laura Veirs and Karl Blau are at Nikki Lopez on Oct. 9; Mirah, Evan Greer, and Sad13 play PhilaMoca on Oct. 10; and Mannequin Pussy plays First Unitarian Church Oct. 28.
That aside, here’s your list of 30 shows not to miss.
Gorillaz play Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden on Sept 27.Reuben Bastienne-Lewis
Gorillaz
Sept. 27, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s plan to make an album shaped by experiences visiting India took grief-stricken shape when both men’s fathers died within a week of each other. On The Mountain, the virtual band as usual employs many guests, including Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, Asha Puthli, and Johnny Marr. It also features collaborations from Dennis Hopper and Bobby Womack who collaborated with the Gorillaz before their deaths. freedomortgagepavilion.com
Phoebe Bridgers
Sept. 28, Xfinity Mobile Arena
Three years after she sold out the Mann Center with her boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers is bigger than ever. She stoked the ardor of her fan base with pop-up shows around the U.S. in the lead-up to the release of the moody, compelling, and intensely personal Lost Weekend, whose many guests include Havertown’s own Alex G. xfinitymobilearena.com
AC/DC — with Brian Johnson on the left, and Angus Young on the right — will bring their Power Up tour to Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 29.Courtesy of the Artist
AC/DC
Sept. 29, Lincoln Financial Field
The last big blowout at the Linc this year — other than the Eagles putting a hurting on opponents — will be the final date on the Australian hard rock band’s “Power Up Tour.” The “Back in Black” band will be powering down after two and a half years on the road. Taylor Momsen’s the Pretty Reckless opens. lincolnfinancialfield.com
Public Image Ltd
Oct. 2, Union Transfer
The Sex Pistols is touring with Frank Carter cosplaying as Johnny Rotten, so John Lydon couldn’t resist hitting the road again with his other band, whose “This Is Not the Final Tour” arrives a week after the Pistols play the Fillmore. utphilly.com
Beabadoobee brings her Powerlines Tour to the Liacouras Center on Oct. 2.Erika Kamano
beabadoobee
Oct. 2, Liacouras Center
Filipino and British songwriter Beatrice Lau’s “Powerlines Tour” is in support of her fourth album, Pylon, a bracing follow-up to 2024’s Rick Rubin-produced This Is How Tomorrow Moves. liacourascenter.com
Phish will play three nights at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Oct. 2-4.Courtesy of the Artist
Phish
Oct. 2-4, Boardwalk Hall
Phish comes in threes. Last year, the jam band’s troika of shows were at the Mann; the year before the Trey Anastasio-fronted quartet’s Mondegreen fest was in Dover, Del. This year, the band returns for indoor shows in Atlantic City, where it was last seen on the beach in 2022. boardwalkhall.com
Shaboozey performs during the Roots Picnic at the Mann Center in Philadelphia on June 2, 2024.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Shaboozey
Oct. 6, Skyline Stage at Highmark Mann
Shaboozey played the Mann at the Roots Picnic in 2024, just as “Tipsy (A Bar Song)” was turning him onto a star. Now he’s back, behind The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other West Tales, his ambitious concept album that is also a comic book. highmarkmann.org
The Chicks
Oct. 7, Met Philly
Texas country trio the Chicks — singer Natalie Maines and sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire — is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Taking the Long Way. That 2006 album was the band’s first after it was essentially banned from country radio after Maines criticized then-President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. themetphilly.com
Sugar
Oct. 12-13, Union Transfer
Hüsker Dü cofounder Bob Mould has carried on a relentlessly rocking career with 14 uncompromising albums under his own name. But he hasn’t worked with Sugar, his power trio featuring bassist David Barber and drummer Malcolm Travis, since the mid-1990s. utphilly.com
Philly band Sweet Pill will play the Philly Music Fest. Juliette Boulay
Philly Music Fest
Oct. 12-18, various venues
The genre-spanning all-Philly showcase at independent venues kicks off with two nights of Gregory Alan Isakov at Ardmore Music Hall and concludes with Upper Darby-raised jazz sax star Immanuel Wilkins at Solar Myth. In between, attractions during the 10th anniversary of the fest include Sweet Pill, Owen Stewart, RJD2, Sug Daniels, Roberta Faceplant, and Mo Lowda & the Humble. phillymusicfest.com
Brennan Wedl plays Johnny Brenda’s Oct. 13.Blaire Beamer
Brennan Wedl
Oct. 13, Johnny Brenda’s
Minnesota-born singer Brennan Wedl — a former leader of queercore band Dazey & the Scouts — impressed as the opening act of the Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman tour that played the Met this year. Now she’s playing her first Philly headlining gig, behind her self-titled debut album, which was produced by Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and Brad Cook. johnnybrendas.com
Sturgill Simpson performs on Nov. 12, 2024, at the Met. Simpson is coming to the Xfinity Mobile Arena with his band Johnny Blue Skies.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds
Oct. 15, Xfinity Mobile Center
“I want to make America not suck again,” Sturgill Simpson sings on the frisky lead track of Mutiny For the Masses, the always-unpredictable maverick songwriter’s second album as Johnny Blue Skies that makes rebellious rock and roll, country-soul, and funk fun again. xfinitymobilearena.com
Pinhead Gunpowder
Oct. 16, First Unitarian Church
Big-name rock star in a tiny space: Pinhead Gunpowder is a Green Day side project of sorts. Along with Billie Joe Armstrong, the current version of the band includes Green Day touring guitarist Jason White. r5productions.com
Sienna Spiro plays the Fillmore on Oct. 17.Mathias Apap
Sienna Spiro
Oct. 17, the Fillmore
Powerhouse vocalist Sienna Spiro’s name rhymes with “pyro.” Sam Smith has called her “the voice of a generation.” The stylish 20-year-old “Die on the Hill” singer, who displays the influence of fellow throwback soul Brits like Amy Winehouse and Duffy, played the Foundry in March. She has since won raves at Coachella and Lollapalooza. She’s back at the Fillmore in October, but in the big room this time. thefillmorephilly.com
Mike D 5D
Oct. 19, Union Transfer
Beastie Boys’ Adam Horowitz and Mike Diamond have been largely inactive since the death of bandmate Adam Yauch in 2012. Now Diamond — aka Mike D — has returned with Thank You, a solo album of hip-hop electro punk. He’s touring backed by a band that includes his sons Skyler and Davis Diamond. utphilly.com
L7
Oct. 22, Brooklyn Bowl
L7 was a key player in the alt-rock late 1980s and early 1990s, and the grunge-adjacent all-female band was also a precursor to the riot-grrrl movement. The “Pretend We’re Dead” and “S— list” band fronted by Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner is carrying on with its “Last Hurrah Tour” despite the loss of bassist Jennifer Finch, who died of brain cancer this year. Finch’s memoir, Shooting Up and Making Out, is due in January. brooklynbowl.com/philadelphia
Singer-songwriter Jesse Welles performs March 10 with members of his band in Detroit. He plays the Met on Oct. 23. Ted Anthony
Jesse Welles
Oct. 23, the Met
Jesse Welles’ resistance songs like “Join ICE” and “United Health” — along with whimsical ones such as “At the Zoo” — have fueled a steady growth in popularity. The self-styled Dylanesque folk singer has collaborated with Joan Baez and Philly’s Mt. Joy, with whom he did a pop-up show in June at Race Street Pier. themetphilly.com.
Ashley McBryde
Oct. 24, Lansdowne Theater
Arkansas country songwriter Ashley McBryde has always leaned into rock and roll going back to her 2018 debut Girl Going Nowhere. But she really turns up the volume on the new Wild, which is a song cycle about a journey toward sobriety. thelansdownetheater.com
Allison Russell plays the Colonial Theatre on Oct. 28. Dana Trippe
Allison Russell
Oct. 28, Colonial Theatre
Canadian-born and Nashville-based songwriter Allison Russell says her new album In The Hour Of Chaos, is about “connecting our hearts and voices in the same space in real time.” Its many guests include Brittany Spencer, Norah Jones, and Delco soul singer Devon Gilfillian. thecolonialtheatre.com
Afro Cuban All Stars
Oct. 30, Miller Theater
Juan de Marcos Gonzalez is a vocalist, impresario, and musician whose specialty is the Spanish tres guitar. He has been a key player in the Buena Vista Social Club. This tour continues the ongoing work of bringing Cuban music to the world. ensembleartsphilly.org
Vince Staples at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on Feb. 24, 2022. The Long Beach, Calif., rapper plays Franklin Music Hall on Oct. 30. Daniel DeSlover / MCT
Vince Staples
Oct. 30, Franklin Music Hall
Long Beach, Calif., rapper Vince Staples is back on top of this game on Cry Baby, his pointedly political album that blends rock riffage and soulful funk into the mix. franklinmusichall.com
Built to Spill & Quasi
Oct. 30-31, Ardmore Music Hall
Doug Martsch is an indie rock guitar hero stretching back to Built to Spill’s 1993 debut Ultimate Alternative Wavers. These days, Martsch is joined by bassist Melanie Radford and drummer Teresa Esguera. Also on the bill is Quasi, the rollicking band of ex-spouses Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss, formerly the drummer of Sleater-Kinney. ardmoremusichall.com
Geese play the Fillmore on Nov. 8 and 9.Lewis Evans
Geese
Nov. 8-9, Fillmore
Incredibly brilliant indie art-pop band or nefarious industry plant that owes its success to TikTok payola? The debate around Geese’s breakthrough as (almost) universally praised critics’ darlings is silly. After the band led by Cameron Winter — the subject of a forthcoming Paul Thomas Anderson concert film — played a super sold-out Union Transfer last year, it’s back with two shows in a larger space. thefillmorephilly.com
Kamasi Washington at the Met Philly in 2019.
Ami Taf Ra & Kamasi Washington
Nov. 5, City Winery Philadelphia
Moroccan vocalist Ami Taf Ra collaborated with maximalist jazzman Washington on The Prophet and The Madman, her 2025 spiritual jazz debut that bears the influence of Sun Ra and mixes Arabic music with gospel and jazz. citywinery.com/philadelphia
The Hooters
Nov. 5-6, Keswick Theatre
Last year, the Hooters’ annual Keswick shows were introduced, as always, by Pierre Robert, the WMMR-FM (93.3) radio legend who died a few days later. This will be an emotional weekend for the longstanding Philly rock band and its fans. keswicktheatre.com
Daniel Villarreal
Nov. 6-7, Solar Myth
Panama-born drummer Daniel Villarreal made his name on the Chicago music scene with a mixture of jazz and funk and a range of Latin music styles. The now-Philly-based synthesist will lead a five-piece band in a two-night residency. arsnovaworkshop.com
Olivia Rodrigo performs at the Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival on Aug. 29 at Great Park in Irvine, Calif.Chris Pizzello
Olivia Rodrigo
Nov. 7, Xfinity Mobile Arena
On “The Cure,” the second single from her third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, Olivia Rodrigo repeats the words “I’m unraveled,” as she reels from a breakup. That lyric leads us to “The Unraveled Tour,” the second arena trek from the former Disney star who hosted her own all-woman Daisy Chain Fields festival in August. xfinitymobilearena.com
Low Cut Connie at Concerts Under The Stars in King of Prussia on Aug. 1, 2025. Left to right: Rich Stanley, Nick Perri, Adam Weiner, Jarae Lewis (on drums, partially hidden), Amanda “Rocky” Bullwinkel, Kelsey Cork.Dan DeLuca
Low Cut Connie & Ben Vaughn
Nov. 20, Union Transfer
Two generations of Philly rock and rollers team up on this bill, which finishes off a leg of the tour for Low Cut Connie’s party plus protest album Livin In the USA. LCC’s Adam Weiner is a sweaty, over the top showman, while radio host-producer Vaughn — who has a new album, Magnetic East: The Deer Tick Sessions due in October — prefers an understated, semi-ironic approach. WXPN-FM 24 Hour Song Challenge winners the Flying Vees open. utphilly.com
Doja Cat performs during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. She plays Xfinity Mobile Arena on Nov. 29. Chris Pizzello
Doja Cat
Nov. 29, Xfinity Mobile Arena
Rapper and singer Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini — otherwise known as Doja Cat — plays the penultimate show of a world tour that began in New Zealand last year in support of her disco-pop fifth album, Ma Vie. “Big Energy” Atlanta rapper Latto opens. xfinitymobilearena.com
Goosemas
Dec. 12-13, Boardwalk Hall
Every holiday season, the Connecticut-born yacht rock jam band throws a Christmas party. This year, it’s in Atlantic City. The show in support of the band’s new Big Modern! is a benefit for Western Sun Foundation, which supports grassroots nonprofit organizations. boardwalkhall.com
George Nakashima never intended to move his family to New Hope.
The famous furniture maker became one of the most sought-after artists in modern American design, considered so impactful that his home and studio in Bucks County were named a National Historic Landmark.
It was a significant recognition from the government that had previously incarcerated Nakashima, his wife, Marion, and their then newborn daughter, Mira, forcing them to relocate from their home in Seattle to the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho in 1942.
The family was among some 120,000 Japanese Americans — including about 80,000 U.S. citizens — imprisoned during World War II due to the unsubstantiated fear that they could be foreign spies.
By that point in his late 30s, Nakashima was already a successful architect and woodworker who had earned a master’s degree from MIT and traveled the world. Incarceration shaped his artistic practice and changed his trajectory significantly. At the camp, he met a skilled carpenter who taught him traditional Japanese carpentry techniques that greatly influenced his burgeoning signature style.
Furniture designer and craftsman George Nakashima in his woodworking shop. In 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior named his Solebury property a national landmark.The Intelligencer, file
New Hope became a new home to the Nakashimas in 1943 when the War Relocation Authority released them under supervision, thanks to Nakashima’s old boss Antonin Raymond, who sponsored their freedom.
(Ironically, the government respected the authority of the Czech immigrant Raymond, who was a naturalized citizen, over that of the Spokane-born Nakashima.)
The conditions of the release prevented Nakashima from pursuing architecture projects with Raymond, so he worked as a farmhand by day while continuing to craft furniture by night. He transformed the farm’s milk house into a workshop and found inspiration in the woodlands surrounding him, where he would eventually establish himself as a giant of American design for decades to come.
George Nakashima (1905–1990), Milk House Table, 1944, Teak and cypress, 17 1/4 × 37 1/4 × 33 1/2 in. (43.8 × 94.6 × 85.1 cm), Nakashima Foundation for Peace.Christian Giannelli
One of his earliest pieces after incarceration served as a poetic callback to the home he was compelled to leave behind: a coffee table made of teak wood from Washington a friend shipped to him.
Milk House Table (1944) is one of 10 Nakashima artworks on view at the Barnes Foundation this fall as part of its American art programming marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. The exhibit “Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America” examines six renowned Japanese American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid to late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration.
“This project is focused on six pretty iconic Japanese American artists who very much collectively shaped the look and the feel of mid-century America. The idea was to really look at the collective impact of this pivotal moment of Japanese incarceration during World War II, not only in the lives and careers of these artists, but by extension, in American art and design,” said Barnes curator Cindy Kang, who spearheaded the exhibit. “The roots of American modernism actually do extend into the Japanese incarceration camps. Some of these artists received their first really important artistic experiences there because they were incarcerated with professional artists, and that very much shaped the direction of their future careers.”
Two generations are represented in the show — those who were older, established artists before incarceration (Nakashima, sculptor/designer Isamu Noguchi, and sculptor Leo Amino) and a younger generation who had formative experiences learning from artists while incarcerated (graphic designer S. Neil Fujita, fiber artist Kay Sekimachi, and sculptor Ruth Asawa).
Ruth Asawa (1926-2013), Untitled (S.272, Hanging Seven-Lobed Continuous Interlocking Form with Spheres in the First and Sixth Lobes), c. 1954, Copper and iron wire, 111 × 14 × 14 in. (281.9 × 35.6 × 35.6 cm), Private collection.Laurence Cuneo @ Studio 71, Inc
Their works span media, from wood furniture to copper wire sculptures to jazz album covers. (Fujita got his start at a Philadelphia ad agency and taught at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, which was later named University of the Arts, before becoming the design director at Columbia Records.) The final room in the exhibit evokes a typical postwar American living room with everything made by Japanese American artists that underscores how essential their artwork became to the aesthetics of modern design.
“You may not have a Noguchi Akari lamp, but you may have the knockoffs from Target and Ikea,” said Kang.
In her research, Kang explored how wartime incarceration contributed to the complicated formation of an Asian American political identity following decades of anti-immigration policies and discrimination. She found that these artists’ assimilation into the legacy of American design often sidelined or erased their connections to these historic injustices.
“Especially with Nakashima and Noguchi, their work has been so fully assimilated into American design that the fact that they have these histories is so buried … you don’t even connect American design with these histories,” Kang said.
“That’s what I was trying to bring out [in this show]… You see a Noguchi or Nakashima chair or lamp or table and think, ‘Oh yeah that’s American design,’ and then not have any idea that it’s connected to Asian American history.”
Who gets to be an “American”? That question weighed heavily on Kang as she developed the exhibit and studied the historic period when the U.S. government imprisoned thousands of immigrants, including American citizens and children. She had no idea just how timely her project would feel opening this year, as the U.S. government continues to imprison tens of thousands of immigrants under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
“It really was not in our minds that this would be as relevant, or as on the nose as it is today, that’s really unfortunate,” said Kang. “We need to keep remembering we’ve been through this and we already know this is not a good direction. We need to learn this lesson again.”
George Nakashima (1905 – 1990), Dried Bitterbrush collected by the Nakashimas in Minidoka, Idaho, c. 1942, Wood, 5 1/2 × 14 × 10 in. (14 × 35.6 × 25.4), Nakashima Foundation for Peace.Christian Giannelli
For many of the featured artists, life after incarceration provided an opportunity to move past that traumatic time — they often did not discuss or share details about their imprisonment with their families or others. However, younger generations of Asian Americans, including the artists’ descendants, want to interrogate these histories further to understand how that trauma lingered on in the lives of these beloved artists.
For his part, Nakashima told his daughter that “his wounds healed over and left no scars.”
Still, he kept pieces of wood he collected from the Minidoka camp, which he used to create case furniture for their family home. In the exhibit, one of these remnants will be on display: a branch of dried bitterbrush.
“Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America,” runs through Jan. 10, 2027 at The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., Philadelphia, 215-278-7000 or barnesfoundation.org
Ed Sheeran took the stage in South Philadelphia on Saturday night for the first time since the British singer-songwriter became the unwitting center of international political debate.
“This week has been the worst of my life, and today has been the weirdest,” Sheeran said to the sizablecrowd to begin his performance at Lincoln Financial Field.
Rapper Macklemore was fired as the opener of Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” last week after he performed his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University while showing footage of the war in Gaza and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine.”
Macklemore’s dismissal from the tour led to outcry among some, who saw it as the quashing of free speech.Other opening acts subsequently left the tour in protest, including Sheeran’s backing band.
He began the show solo, stepping onto an empty stage at 8:14 p.m. and delivered a speech seemingly read off a teleprompter, at one point getting emotional, saying he never wanted to be a political artist. He opened his set addressing the controversy.
“I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I am so, so sorry,” he told the crowd.
FILE – Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran performs during “Ed Sheeran’s Play: Live from New York” presented by TikTok at Domino Square in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Sept. 13, 2025. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)Andy Kropa
He directly addressed the war in Gaza saying, “What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific, and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and the loss of civilians’ lives. Children’s lives.”
Healso said that his show had to be altered because of the events of the previous week — including his stage setup and backing band. Later in the three-hour set, he admitted that Macklemore’s exit from the tour led to a lost connection with longtime friends, many of whom urged him to cancel his tour. The new band and the broader audience on Saturday encouraged him to go on, he said.
Throughout the night, the sympathetic audience cheered and shouted “We love you, Ed” when Sheeran reaffirmed his intention to make music that unifies fans of differing creeds and political views. The crowd ranged from young children to gray-haired fans, each appearing to have their own distinct relationship to the songs sprawled across Sheeran’s catalog.
Concertgoers arrive at Lincoln Financial Field before Ed Sheeran’a concert on Saturday. (AP Photo/Allie Ippolito)Allie Ippolito
Sheeran may not consider himself a political artist, but the blowback from last week’s events largely altered his stage show.
“I hope you enjoyed my supporting acts,” he jokingly said to the amused audience. Of course, there were no supporting acts after the likes of Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham, and his backing band, Beoga, quit in solidarity with Macklemore.
Sheeran said that he removed a secondary stage that had been a part of his other concert stops, fearing retribution from the audience. “I took the B stage out because I was afraid of what would happen if I stood in the middle, and I will admit that,” he said.
But that change was unwarranted in South Philadelphia, as the outside pressures had little effect on the crowd, who danced in the aisles and aimed their cell phone cameras at Sheeran throughout the night.
He also introduced his new backup band, consisting of a drummer, guitarist, bass player, keyboardist, and violinist, who came on board on three days’ notice, knowing “the world may hate them” for performing along his side. The band impressed with its sharp performances of “Galway Girl” and “Nancy Mulligan.”
People gather for a protest near NRG Station, outside the Ed Sheeran concert at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
In a show that was marked by inconsistency, the musical star glided through his catalog of hits with an acoustic guitar and a series of loop pedals at his feet. As he sang hits like “The A Team” and “Castle on the Hill,” Sheeran layered his vocals and percussions, creating a live arrangement of synchronized sounds and stacked melodies.
The experience, with pyrotechnics and vibrant graphics displayed on a background screen, was akin to attending what felt like an open-air studio session. Though the clashing of unregulated sounds on songs like “Take It Back” occasionally drowned out his lyrics.
Sheeran’s pensive demeanor at the top of the show soon grew to comfort, as he rattled off jokes and peppered the crowd with stories linked to his songs.
Thousands gathered at Lincoln Financial Field for Ed Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” on Sept. 19, 2026.Earl Hopkins
Sheeran seamlessly transitioned from jubilant, up-tempo records like “Sapphire” and “Galway Girl” to emotional tracks such as “Eyes Closed.”
But the stories Sheeran shared of his first cheesesteak experience in Philadelphia back in 2012 and the past heartaches that led to songs like “Old Phone” often spiraled into disconnected tangents that pulled audiences out of an already lengthy concert experience.
“This is where we can congregate, and we all have differing opinions, but then we all come together for one night and agree on the same thing. And I think it’s a wonderful thing,” he said.
After what started as a week like no other Sheeran has faced in his music career, he said Saturday was “the best show [I’ve] ever had.”
Ed Sheeran performs in Tampa, Fla., as a part of his “Subtract Tour.” The tour made a stop at North Philadelphia’s the Met on June 2, 2023.Mark Surridge
Nasir “Gillie da King” Fard is back for the 2026-27 Eagles season with a new pregame Instagram dance, and it’s giving uptown funk.
Perhaps the new kickoff song is a nod to Gillie’s proud North Philly roots.
The two-step Philadelphia Eagles love fest is definitely a soul-filled shout-out to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ 2014 hit “Uptown Funk,” complete with the fancy footwork, twists, turns, and the shoulder shimmies Eagles fans have come to expect.
Gillie begins the two-minute video — with almost 40,000 likes before Sunday’s game even started — with his signature bravado.
“Rain, sleet, or snow, the Eagles train to go,” Gillie begins, wearing his trademark colossal Noggin Boss hat in black and a Brian Dawkins No. 20 jersey in classic midnight green.
Then, using a flurry of colorful language, Gillie promises the Eagles will dominate the Birds’ Week 2 foes: the Tennessee Titans.
“This ain’t no movie,” Gillie says, in a playful reference to the 2000 film starring Denzel Washington. Then his message turns humorously dark. “This is dismember the Titans.”
Ouch.
And just like that, Gillie proceeds to get his dance on, a mashup of moves from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. He starts off with a little bit of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and mixes in a few Michael Jackson “Thriller” shoulder shrugs. It’s clear Gillie means business.
After, the steps get current: a more dramatic version of Gillie’s favorite Little Duval dance from his 2018 hit, “Smile,” with extra shoulder oomph. Another of his favorites in the video is the Kodak Black.
Just like the previous two years of Gillie’s viral pregame performances featuring 1986 old school grooves: Cameo’s “Candy” and Cheryl Lynn’s “Encore” in 2024 and 2025 respectively, this is a video you want to watch over and over again.
So fun.
Not to worry, an Eagles win still calls for an homage to Too Short’s 2006 earworm “Blow the Whistle,” featuring JoJo the Bird and Broom Man, excited to sweep up the competition.
In the last two years, the videos have become so popular, celebrities like Patti LaBelle, Meek Mill, Jazmine Sullivan, and Kevin Hart have posted, reposted, and filmed themselves doing the Gillie Dance. Even actor Morris Chestnut, who turns out to be a diehard Eagles fan, has been in on the fun.
The Birds have made it to the finals each year since Gillie’s dance became a part of the city’s pregame ritual. Gillie led the Eagles through the tunnel in the championship games.
For more than 55 years, the white marble facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has presided over a portion of the eastern bank of the Potomac River. Thousands of performing artists have graced its stages, bringing to life what was envisioned decades ago as a symbol of the importance of the arts in a democratic society.
Now, the storied institution is closed. The center’s board of trustees voted Tuesday to shut down the venue, which has been beset by financial and legal troubles that snowballed after President Donald Trump and his allies took over its stewardship last year. Here are some key moments in the Kennedy Center’s storied history, and what could be lost if it disappears.
1955-1958
Eisenhower envisions ‘an artistic mecca’
In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower creates a commission tasked with planning a new public auditorium in Washington. On Sept. 2, 1958, he signs the National Cultural Center Act into law, authorizing the fundraising for and construction of what he imagined would be “an artistic mecca” in the nation’s capital.
1961-1963
Kennedy boosts fundraising efforts
After President John F. Kennedy assumes office, he takes the lead in promoting and raising money for the center. On Nov. 29, 1962, he hosts a black-tie fundraiser, “An American Pageant of the Arts,” in Washington. The televised event includes performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, singer Marian Anderson, pianist Van Cliburn, poet Robert Frost, and a 7-year-old cello prodigy named Yo-Yo Ma.
“Art and the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense,” Kennedy said in a speech that evening. “Not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding of the futility of struggle between those who share man’s faith.”
Kennedy, who was in the midst of navigating the Cold War, also argued that the United States had a “special responsibility to the arts” as a democratic society.
“For art is the great democrat calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color,” Kennedy said.
Jan. 23, 1964
The center is officially renamed to honor Kennedy
Two months after Kennedy’s assassination, Congress unanimously passes a bill to rename the National Cultural Center as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and to dedicate it as a “living memorial” to the late president.
“I am confident we have chosen well that the institution now given the breath of life will have a long and distinguished future,” President Lyndon B. Johnson said at the bill’s signing on Jan. 23, 1964. “All those who worked in this cause can now know that they are not only honoring the memory of a very great man, but they are enriching our whole American life.”
Dec. 2, 1964
Johnson breaks ground
Johnson breaks ground using the same gold-plated spade that Presidents William Taft and Franklin Roosevelt used at the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial groundbreaking ceremonies. Johnson is flanked by a model of the Kennedy Center, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, and by members of the Kennedy family.
Sept. 8, 1971
Kennedy Center opens
The Kennedy Center officially opens on a Wednesday evening, with a gala and the world premiere in its opera house of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers, choreographed by Alvin Ailey.
In the inaugural program, President Richard Nixon hails the Kennedy Center’s opening as “the fulfillment of a dream shared by Americans in every walk of life.”
The following day, the concert hall opens with a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra, which would call the center its home for the next five decades. The Eisenhower Theater opens on Oct. 18, 1971, with a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
Dec. 3, 1978
Inaugural Kennedy Center Honors awarded
The center holds its inaugural Kennedy Center Honors, a lifetime achievement award that celebrates individuals who have “an impact on the rich tapestry of American life and culture through the performing arts.”
The inaugural ceremony was hosted by Leonard Bernstein, and honorees that year were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein.
Since then, the Kennedy Center Honors have been bestowed on more than 260 artists in music, dance, opera, theater, film, and television.
1997
Millennium Stage offers free performances
Chairperson James A. Johnson proposes a somewhat radical idea: putting on a different free performance at the Kennedy Center every day at 6 p.m. to make the arts more accessible. Nearly 30 years later, free performances of all kinds continue to take place at the Millennium Stage on “select days of the week.” Most are livestreamed.
2019
The Reach expansion opens
The Kennedy Center expands for the first time since 1971 with the opening of the Reach campus, a $250 million project that adds rehearsal rooms and outdoor performance spaces.
The American sculptor Joel Shapiro gifts Blue, a giant stick figure preparing to leap, to the center in honor of the expansion.
“It’s about action and risk and performance and energy. It’s a celebration of possibility,” Shapiro said in a video about Blue.
2025
Trump shakes up Kennedy Center board, adds his name to building
A few weeks after President Donald Trump starts his second term in office, he announces that he is firing several Kennedy Center board members, including the chairperson, because they “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” He also names himself the new board chairperson.
In December, the new board, stacked with Trump loyalists, votes to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” and a crew adds Trump’s name to the facade of the building the next day. The move causes ticket sales and fundraising to collapse.
2026
Legal battles plague center
Amid canceled performances and boycotts of the center, Trump announces in February that the Kennedy Center will close for about two years to undergo renovations.
“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before,” Trump wrote then.
In May, a federal judge orders that Trump’s name be removed from the center’s facade and that officials halt its renovation plans. Workers remove Trump’s name in the middle of the night.
The legal challenges continue. The board’s trustees have continued pushing for the center to be renovated and for Trump’s name to be inscribed on the building, including renaming the center’s grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
As Philadelphia rounds the corner into spooky season, fans of all things gothic, literary, or historical may be disappointed to learn that the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site remains closed.
The three-story brick building at 532 N. Seventh St. shuttered in summer 2024 for fire safety upgrades costing over $931,000. It was initially slated to reopen that fall, but renovations grewinto a broader improvement project, according to the National Park Service.
More recently, Philadelphia’s tourism agency had said the site was expected to open this fall, and an Oct. 31 event celebrating Poe as the father of the modern detective novel is planned at the site.But the National Park Service says there is still no official reopening date for the public.
“I can tell you that we can offer no date for when the house will reopen,” said park service spokesperson John Warren.
Calls to a supervisor at Independence National Historical Park, which manages the Poe house, went unanswered Thursday and Friday.
Warren said park service officials did not provide more details to him on the timeline, adding that there were “multiple, complex infrastructure projects going on at the site all at once.”
“If you have ever owned an old home, you know that repair projects often lead to discovering more issues, so it’s wisest not to speculate on an end date,” Warren said.
What’s holding things up?
At the site Friday, volunteers tended to flowers and plants while National Park Service workers wrapped up another day renovating the building’s first floor.
National Park Service plasterer and painter Joe Palumbo said the house’s issues should have been addressed a decade earlier. He said when he started working there,the property “smelled awful” from likely water damage.
Palumbo said construction crews redid the restrooms, replastered and painted the first floor, and rehabbed the woodworking.
He estimated it would take another week to complete first-floor renovations. From there, outside contractors are set to replace the carpets and blinds.
Palumbo said a plan to renovate the building’s exterior is “on hold,” and he is not sure why.
What’s the significance of the site?
Built in the 1800s, the home is the only remaining residence where Poe lived during his six years in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844.
Retired National Park Service worker Helen McKenna spent 25 years at the site, educating people about Poe and his ties to Philadelphia. During her time working there, the house had exhibits, poetry recitations, a short biographical film, and a reading room styled after one of Poe’s published articles.
Back then, the house still had the original plaster, which was moldering and falling away from its lath. Of course, she said, the walls would have been gleaming white when Poe lived there in 1843 and 1844.
The neighborhood was not even part of the city at that time, she said, and Poe would have traveled on horse-drawn omnibuses. These kinds of details help people imagine Poe, she said, not just as a literary figure, but as a person.
To her, the house captures thecontrast between Poe’s literary stature — with his influence stretching across detective fiction, science fiction, poetry, and short stories — and the alcoholic, struggling writer who lived there with his mother-in-law and his wife, who had tuberculosis.
“There’s that sense of place. This grand, admired author was living in really humble circumstances on the outskirts of the city,” she said. “He didn’t own the place, he was paying rent, and he wasn’t always able to pay the rent.”
What did Poe do while in Philly?
Many cities have memorials to Poe, McKenna said. That is because he traveled. He was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond and in England, lived twice in New York, had a stint in Delaware, and died in Baltimore.
Poe’s time in Philly, however, marked acreative high-water mark, McKenna said.
He moved to Philly after failing to find success with a novel in New York City and turned his attention to short stories. While in Philly, he published “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” McKenna said. He also became known as a charismatic speaker and an acerbic critic.
At his best, McKenna said, Poe was “a genius of compression,” creating haunting, memorable stories at a time when interest in American writers was growing.
“I won’t say that Poe is the best writer that America ever produced, but he’s certainly had a ton of impact, globally,” McKenna said.
A copy of the Bayeux Tapestry dating from about 1873 is part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection and on display for the first time in decades.Peter Dobrin
A Bayeux Tapestry seen nearly after a century
“Bayeux mania” struck London last week. Throngs filed through the British Museum to see the Bayeux Tapestry, the famed 220-foot tapestry from the 1070s that returned to England from France for the first time in centuries.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, a Bayeux Tapestry has returned to public view for the first time in decades.
The piece is one of the stars of “Workshop of the World,” which opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in July and runs another few weeks. With 270 textiles, ceramics, pieces of furniture, works in stained glass, as well as paintings and prints, the exhibition takes a deep dive into the Arts and Crafts movement and industrial design in Philadelphia. The material is thoroughly Philadelphia, starting with the Centennial Exposition and following the city’s art schools, including the various iterations of the University of the Arts, and explores the idealistic craft communities of Bryn Athyn, New Hope, Rose Valley, and, in Delaware, Arden.
Designed by Violet Oakley, “The St. George and the Gertrude Mosaic” c. 1911-1913, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s “Workshop of the World” show.Philadelphia Museum of Art
It’s also a show that probably packs in more beauty for beauty’s sake than any other at the museum in recent years while spanning an incredibly diverse aesthetic. It’s not often you see Golden Age book illustrator Maxfield Parrish, contemporary stained glass artist Judith Schaechter, and fabric swatches from the 19th century pulled together in one place, much less threaded into a story this convincingly.
The Bayeux Tapestry on view is gorgeously rendered and quite old, but not a millennium old. It is, rather, a full-scale reproduction from about 1873 both mechanically produced — with photography — and handmade.
“It was a project overseen by the South Kensington Museum in London,” said PMA curator of American decorative arts David Barquist. “They sent a photographer to France and made hundreds of glass plate negatives to print this out [on paper, mounted on cloth], and it was hand-colored because, of course, they didn’t have color photography at that point.”
Six copies were made, one of which was acquired by the Art Museum in 1888. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts owned another copy. It was bought by the Bayeux Museum from Watts’ estate in 2023.
You can see only a relatively short stretch of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s facsimile. It’s been unfurled to the scene of King Harold’s coronation and a visit from Halley’s comet, which was seen as a bad omen.
Still, to see it at all is a rare treat. The museum displayed the piece when the museum was housed in Memorial Hall, but when the PMA moved into its current building, in 1928, the Bayeux reproduction was put into storage and wasn’t seen again until now, said Barquist — nearly a century later.
“By the time we moved here, Fiske Kimball was the director. This is not Fiske Kimball’s cup of tea,” said Barquist. “He was about modernism and Duchamp and all that stuff.”
Duchamp, by the way, promises to take the spotlight once again, with a major show opening at the museum Oct. 10. Call it “Duchamp mania.”
“Workshop of the World” continues at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Oct. 11. philamuseum.org.
— Peter Dobrin
Philly Fashion Week pleats, tucks, seams seen up close
I’ve watched Kevin Parker and Kerry Scott build Philly Fashion Week for 21 years.
Each year, I’m more impressed with the way they’ve made the biannual four-day style event not just a runway extravaganza but also a teaching opportunity. Fashion is an industry and Parker and Scott are dedicated to helping Philadelphia designers not just be fabulous but sell their fabulosity.
Philly-based special occasion designer Jeanette Limas’ dramatic gowns featured during Philly Fashion Week in Tuesday night’s Immersive Show. This is Philly Fashion Week’s 21st year.Ana Photography
Tuesday night’s Immersive Fashion Show, the kick-off event to this fall’s Philly Fashion Week “From the Runway to the Streets: Philadelphia is Fashion” was another example of that. The show featured collections from five designers whose models did more than walk a runway: They walked up to the audience, allowing onlookers to see each pleat, tuck, seam, and swish of a hemline close up.
“We wanted to give the audience a chance to see the clothes, admire them, take pics, talk to the models, interact with the designers,” said Parker. “It’s a different way for designers to see the clothes.”
Among my favorites were Jeanette Limas’ romantic, yet no-nonsense silhouettes. I think there is a red gown appropriate for every occasion, and those with billowing sleeves, cinched waists, and ruffled hemlines give feminine energy with a powerful twist. Melani Von Alexandria’s hot girl looks were tailored and sharp in black and white. Sculpted hair designs by Kia Sterling took the gowns up an avant-garde notch.
Philly-based avant-garde designer Melani Von Alexandria’s designs were featured in Philly Fashion Week’s Immersive Fashion Show. Tuesday night’s production is part of Philly Fashion Week’s 21st year. This year’s theme is “From the Runway to the Streets.”Ana Photography
Philly Fashion Week culminates Saturday, Sept. 19. The Business of Fashion Panel will be Saturday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., featuring a fireside chat with celebrity stylist KJ Moody — whose clients include Beyoncé — followed by the Runway II show, with more than dozen looks by national and local designers. The show will be outside between Market and Filbert Streets on Ninth. Tickets are available here.
— Elizabeth Wellington
Greek tragedy meets an American tragedy at Philadelphia Fringe
Remember when you got paired up with two other kids to present a history project in middle school? That is the premise of little ghost party’s 2026 Fringe production: three awkward middle schoolers having to put on a presentation about Greek playwrights. The three protagonists take turns hilariously recreating some of the best Greek tragedies, which unearths emotional moments for each.
A still from ghost party’s “Offstage Onstage: Everything You Didn’t See the Greeks Do,” playing Philadelphia Fringe through Sept. 28 at the Asian Arts Initiative Black Box. Sam Dellert
Many Greek tragedies are considered violent, and the brutality makes it difficult to adapt in modern times. However, little ghost party smartly sets this middle school presentation in the wake of a neighboring school shooting. The students use that grief, along with raised alertness and fear, which makes the violence in some of these tragedies seem more contemporary.
Great performances from the three creators of the piece and some nostalgic projection work makes for a wonderfully unique Philadelphia Fringe experience.
“Offstage Onstage: Everything You Didn’t See the Greeks Do” is running at the Asian Arts Initiative Black Box until Sept. 28.
— Frank Schierloh, For The Inquirer
Liam Gallagher (left) and Noel Gallagher of Oasis during their reunion tour in Toronto, Aug. 24, 2025. “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger,” the new documentary about the band’s 2025 reunion tour, is in Philly-area theaters. (Sammy Kogan / The Canadian Press via AP, File)Sammy Kogan
An Oasis documentary that’s much more than a band biography
Then in 2025, battling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher finally made peace after more than 15 years of not speaking to each other. But when the biggest Brit-pop band in the world reunited, they didn’t come any closer to Philadelphia than MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. That time, I didn’t make the trip up the Jersey Turnpike to see them.
And now that I’ve seen the new film, Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, I’ve come to see the error of my ways.
The documentary, which is directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, is an excellent concert film that captures the majestic roar of the Mancunian band’s guitar-army wall of sound.
Liam Gallagher from the band Oasis performs during their reunion concert on July 4, 2025, in Cardiff. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)Scott A Garfitt
But as it follows the Gallaghers as they fill stadiums in the U.K., U.S., and around the world, with 50,000 and more at every tour stop, it also achieves something improbable.
Don’t Look Back in Anger, which credits Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight as a writer, also tells a moving story about reconciliation.
That’s because it’s not just about the brothers, who were so completely estranged that their children had never met. It’s also about the fans to whom Oasis obviously means so much. And the kick is that so many of those ardent enthusiasts seen in the movie — particularly those in Asia and South America — are much, much younger than the band.
“Supersonic,” the first-ever Oasis single, from 1994, opened with the line “I need to be myself, I can’t be no one else.” The under 30 fans in the film who have taken that credo to heart and have waited most of their lives to finally see their favorite band live, include a Korean haenyeo, a “diving woman,” like the swimmer in the Japanese Breakfast song of that name.
There’s also a young Brazilian woman who finds her identity through an Oasis fan group and names her German shepherd after the band’s guitarist, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs. And a Manchester priest fashions a compelling sermon about forgiveness around Oasis finally making peace. If the Gallagher brothers can put their acrimony aside and love one another, he reasons, perhaps there’s hope for us all.
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger is playing at Philly-area theaters and expected to stream on Hulu and Disney+ later this year. The band has announced Oasis ’27 tour dates. Once again, Philadelphia is not on the itinerary, with the band doing 11 hometown dates in Manchester next June and the only U.S. shows are three each in Boston and Las Vegas in August. Anyone up for a road trip?
— Dan DeLuca
Philly playwright/comedian Liv Shoup in a reading of her play “Trauma Queen” at Plays and Players Theatre as part of the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.Courtesy of the Lemonade Stand
Trauma Queen holds court at Philly Fringe
What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? Tell the Trauma Queen and she’ll make a hilarious joke out of it. Philadelphia playwright/comedian Liv Shoup presented a reading of her work in progress, Trauma Queen, to a packed house at Plays and Players’ Skinner Studio as part of the Fringe Festival’s Lemonade Stand hub. And, despite the dark subject matter, she had the audience snort-laughing almost the entire time.
Shoup’s titular queen brimmed with charisma in bright pink hair and compelling stage presence, despite the binder holding the script in front of her. She puts herself out there by trying stand-up at open mic nights, only to get kicked out for trying to tell rape jokes.
Her trauma, the sheepish stage manager tells her, isn’t funny, it just makes people uncomfortable (she excels in evoking both humor and discomfort in revealing, fascinating ways).
Then when she tries presenting in group therapy, she’s dinged for taking such a light tone about such serious topics. Doctor’s suggestion? Try stand-up. Instead of digging through her personal history, she turns it over to the audience (and the internet) to solicit their bad experiences so she can poke fun at them — and it leads to her surprise success.
The script was smart and biting, with Shoup delivering stream-of-consciousness rants with sharp barbs and excellent comedic timing. Her recovery journey provides pointed critiques of the perils of becoming an internet personality and the challenges of finding true friends who support and believe victims of sexual assault. It was refreshing, hysterical, and heartbreaking. I can’t wait to see where the play goes next.
The final performance of “Trauma Queen” is 1 p.m. Sept. 27, Plays and Players’ Skinner Studio, 1714 Delancey St., Philadelphia.
