Next year’s Met Gala will not spotlight controversial fashion designer John Galliano after all.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Galliano announced in a joint statement that the museum would not move forward with John Galliano: Horizons. Galliano, 65, is a British designer who has worked for some of the industry’s top fashion houses, including Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Oscar de la Renta.
At the peak of his career, he served as Dior’s creative director for nearly 15 years. But in 2011, he was infamously canceled after his conviction in a Parisian court over a series of racist and antisemitic comments. It cost him his job leading Dior. At the time, Galliano said his alcohol abuse sparked the outburst.
The museum’s retrospective was reportedly going to highlight the fashion director’s portfolio while also addressing his personal life, including his public exile and the work he later did to atone and get sober.
“Following thoughtful discussions with many stakeholders and with John Galliano, we together have decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” said Metropolitan Museum of Art director Max Hollein.
The announcement came exactly one month after the initial Met Gala theme reveal. Galliano’s exhibit would have only been the third retrospective for a living designer in the Costume Institute’s history.
While fashion experts largely agreed the fashion director’s work is seminal, critics said the exhibit’s timing — which coincides with a global surge in antisemitism — was cause for concern.
Professional thrifter and fashion writer Virginia Chamlee previously told The Inquirer that while the Met was equipped to accurately cover the designer’s checkered past, she was concerned about whether the storytelling would resonate with the average Met Gala consumer.
The annual exhibit’s largest publicity draw is a televised red carpet where celebrities invited often wear pieces by or paying tribute to the spotlighted designer — not the exhibit itself.
“Even if the museum intends to offer a complete examination of Galliano’s complicated legacy, it may come off as a straightforward celebration of someone who said things so heinous and racist that they were charged and fired for them.”
In the joint statement, Galliano himself said he requested not to move forward with the exhibit.
“After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time,” Galliano said. “I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry for it. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.”
Galliano went on to thank Anna Wintour, a longtime champion of Galliano’s and the global editorial director of Vogue, chief content officer of Condé Nast, and Met Gala chairperson responsible for the event’s programming.
In her extended statement to Vogue, Wintour framed Horizons’ cancellation as a “postponement.”
“John’s decision to ask the Museum to postpone the exhibition devoted to his work is very courageous and a measure of the man he is,” she said. “I believe this is the right decision, and both he and the Museum have my full support.” The Met’s version of Wintour’s statement does not use that phrasing.
Information on a new Spring Costume Institute exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced later, the museum said. The Gala itself was initially scheduled to take place May 3, though it’s unclear if that date would shift in light of the exhibit change.
Early Saturday morning, I clambered out of bed and pulled on the required brown Spandex. With my hair slicked back into a ponytail, I hustled down to Friends Select School in Center City, a yoga mat slung over my shoulder. There, on the private school’s rooftop turf, awaited hundreds of my peers all clad in the variations of the same Jacklyn.fit-branded workout set, the allure of complimentary energy drinks and facials, and the promise of rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
This was Sweat & Sculpt, a mat Pilates class slash wellness bazaar slash concert. It’s the brainchild of influencer and Sea Isle City native Jacklyn Romano (aka Jacklyn.fit online), who bills the women’s workout-palooza as a “one-of-a-kind celebration of female empowerment, fitness, and community” and the “largest women’s event” in Philadelphia. That’s a difficult superlative to quantify, but organizers said there were more than 800 women in attendance.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Wait, is this real? Like 800 girls in matching workout sets and Waka Flocka?’” Romano told me. (Nearly everyone I told about this event had a similar reaction, with notably more expletives. One friend texted me, “I can’t even believe that’s a real sentence.”)
That singularity is what interested me — how someone could successfully marry a $120 “viral Pilates event” and the song “No Hands.” A TikTok commenter said it best: “Pilates & Waka is a diabolical combo.”
So I went, I worked out, I Waka’ed. And I didn’t expect to leave feeling so girly and giddy and genuinely moved by the body-positivity of the same man who wrote “Round of Applause.”
Influencer Jacklyn Romano leads Sweat & Sculpt at the Friends Select School on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Sweat & Sculpt’s mantra
Six years ago, Romano’s brick-and-mortar fitness business was thwarted by COVID-19, so she pivoted to Zoom classes. Then, three years ago, she parlayed her online success (some 111,000 followers on Instagram and 20,600 on TikTok) into in-person activations — a burgeoning trend of social media stars taking their shtick on the road. This spring, for example, I wrote about another influencer, TikTok’s “Dense Bean Salad Girl,” who sold takeout containers of her signature salads at a pop-up near Rittenhouse Square.
A trainer for nearly a decade, Romano said she had always looked for an event like the one she ended up creating with Sweat & Sculpt: An inclusive space for women to get fit, make connections, and feel powerful. Despite the steep admission fee — which included the brown bra and your choice of leggings or capris, with an optional, additional $20 tank top — Saturday’s Sweat & Sculpt was the largest yet, according to Romano. (Full disclosure, I was comped my ticket and athletic garb because I was writing about the event.)
“Once [these women] leave here, they’re also shining from the inside out,” Romano said. At 8:45 a.m., she was already bubbly and energetic, bouncing from fan to fan and selfie to selfie. As we chatted briefly, her tooth gem caught the morning sun and her red-ink patchwork tattoos peeked out from her capris.
“They’re leaving with new friends, they’re leaving with a new form of confidence, they’re trying something new,” she said.
Cousins Dakota Hurwitz, Caitlyn McHugh, and Crystal McHugh have followed Romano for years. They’ve watched as her events grew fortyfold, from 20-person classes in Sea Isle to filling up soccer fields. Here, they said, they found community.
“It’s more than just a workout class,” Hurwitz, 26, of Bucks County, said.
Crystal McHugh, 31, of Northeast Philly, added: “It’s not just [about] confidence, it’s empowerment.”
Admittedly, before this event, I was not familiar with Romano. I recently deleted most social media apps from my phone, expressly because of the constant barrage of body checking, nutrition misinformation, ads for fat-loss miracle drugs, and commentary on what women should or shouldn’t look like. It started to feel like a nightmarish echo chamber of shame.
Romano’s brand, she said, defies that: The workout sets come in an expansive size range, from XS to 4X, and she encourages people to “worry about how you feel” but “not how you look.”
“I try to take a positive spin onto social media,” she said. “On our page, you get to see every different kind of person. No matter what size, what fitness level, what race, what religion — we all come together and we all want to empower each other.”
The workout
Sweat & Sculpt was promoted as low-impact, body-weight mat Pilates.
Don’t be fooled. That doesn’t mean easy.
I’m an ex-ballerina who’s been doing Pilates since age 11. I’m 27 now, so that’s more than 15 years of — albeit on again, off again — Pilates practice. At one point, I was taking as many as five mat classes a week; nowadays, my exercise routine consists of long walks, occasional reformer Pilates, and a weekly gym session with a personal trainer.
Yet by the second set of single-leg glute bridges, my hamstrings were burning. Then came a three-minute ab circuit. According to my Apple Watch, over 42 minutes, I burned 144 calories and my heart rate reached 167 beats per minute, more than double my resting rate.
As my arms and legs started to shake, I certainly felt that sense of camaraderie and support Romano talked about: her steady stream of affirmations — “Hang tight, ladies!” — blasting over the speakers; the smiles from the women around me; finding comfort knowing that I was not alone, that we all signed up to be breaking a sweat at 9 a.m.
Eleven mats down from me, 6-foot-6 Waka Flocka Flame cried, “Call the paramedics!”
“Why not bring in someone who’s iconic to our generation of women and just make it fun?” Romano said. The chorus “Girl, the way you’re moving got me in a trance. …” once filled gymnasiums on prom night; hearing “‘Rain, rain, go away,’ that’s what all my haters say,” teleported me back to a college bar, my heeled booties sticking to a White Claw-laden floor.
Waka Flocka Flame performs some of his hit songs after the Sweat & Sculpt Pilates class at the Friends Select School on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
But before he performed his medley, Waka, whose given name is Juaquin Malphurs, took time to answer audience questions, offering reassurance to one new mom in the crowd:
“I need you not to be hard on yourself postpartum,” Malphurs, who is also a new dad, said. “The woman that you’re gonna be is not the woman you see today, and you’ll get there — don’t worry.”
“Give your body some time … then fight the fight.”
Afterward, I spoke to Tamika Ford, who was coincidentally also seven weeks postpartum.
She came Saturday morning worrying — “I’m going to be so out of shape,” she thought — and left feeling fun and light-hearted and buzzing with encouragement.
Dominic Sessa (left) as Anthony Bourdain with Leo Woodall as a renegade cook in “Tony.”A24
In the film, Sessa portrays a 19-year-old Bourdain in the summer of 1973, when he found himself in Provincetown, Mass., desperate to get his would-be wife, Nancy Putkoski (Emilia Jones), to fall in love with him after losing out on a writing fellowship. A tough-yet-kind chef (Anthony Banderas) gives Bourdain a job as a dishwasher at the Flagship, a no-nonsense seafood shack where Bourdain grows from bumbling dishwasher into something resembling a cook.
The film draws heavily on chapters of Bourdain’s best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential, in which Bourdain romanticized a crew of talented, if aimless, line cooks and their exploits.
“They drank everything in sight, stole whatever wasn’t nailed down, and screwed their way through floor staff, bar customers, and casual visitors like nothing I’d ever seen or imagined,” Bourdain wrotewith palpable admiration.
When Sessa startedas a dishwasher there in 2016, he was 13. By the time he worked his last shift in 2019, he had worked his way up to full-fledged baker, responsible for opening the shop and preparing batches of Cathy’s famous powdered and cream-filled doughnuts from scratch.
“I’ve hired a lot of great kids, but there are some who don’t get it,” said Cathy Greene, the bakery’s owner. Sessa “was really a natural.”
Cathy Greene, owner of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., fills a box with doughnuts for a customer on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Sessa doesn’t remember taking to it so easily. And yet, like Bourdain, he kept coming back.
“When I first started there, it was miserable — especially at that age, waking up super-early and making batches of dough. I was just lazy and didn’t feel like finding another job,” Sessa told The Inquirer. “But every summer I’d come back and Cathy would teach me something new … The experience was one of the things that taught me how to work hard.”
Tyler Greene, Cathy’s son, flips doughnuts in a deep fryer at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Doughnut summers
Admittedly, frying doughnuts at a family-run bakery did not entirely prep Sessa for the fictional kitchen he’d step into as a teenage Bourdain. In Tony, the Flagship is full of cocaine, dirty jokes, and smashed dishes. Cathy’s, by contrast, was basically Disney World.
Still, Sessa said the job helped him understand what motivates chefs to endure grueling hours and nonstop kitchen injuries. Like Bourdain, the actor was a self-styled troublemaker, nearly getting kicked out of his South Jersey high school before earning a hockey scholarship to Massachusetts’ prestigious Deerfield Academy, where he would eventually be discovered by director Alexander Payne and land his breakout role as a boarding school kid in 2023 Christmas comedy The Holdovers.
Cathy’s kept him disciplined.
Sessa used to clock in atthe bakery at 4:30 a.m. to prep the day’s first doughnuts, rolling out and aerating one batch of dough while minding another batch as it proofed. In between, he’d fry up a third.
Tyler Greene rolls out the dough for donuts at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The InquirerA variety of doughnuts are for sale at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
At its busiest, Greene said, Cathy’s sells between 1,200 and 1,400 doughnuts a day. Sessa drew on the rush — and the high stakes — while acting in Tony.
“I related to the integrity working in a kitchen demands,” he said. “If I didn’t show up on time, everything would be messed up, and everyone would know it was [because of] me.” Plus, there was “something so gratifying” about placing doughnuts in the display case and watching customerssnap them up.
Antonio Banderas (left) as a chef-mentor with Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in “Tony.”A24
Greene said Sessa shined when it came to the rhythm of baking and could manage the flow of the stationabout as well as she could. When they’d roll out dough side by side, Greene would quiz him on three-digit by three-digit multiplication. Sessa, she said, always answered correctly “off the top of his head.”
“He was a real smart kid,” Greene said.
Things didn’t always run smoothly. Once, Sessa recalled, he nearly ruined the bakery’s trash cans by throwing out a batch of dough with too much yeast in it. He had gotten away with the mistake — until the dough proceeded to nearly quintuple in size. “It was billowing out of the cans, on the ground, seeping into the kitchen,” said Greene. “It was pretty funny.”
The stress of the job didn’t detract from Sessa’s favorite part: small-town notoriety.
Passersby love to peer into Cathy’s kitchen from the street. “Kids were always interested in watching the guy who rolls the doughnuts out,” Sessa said. “It made me feel like a celebrity.”
The outside of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Drinking on the beach and baking hungover
As much as Tony spins a hero’s journey for a young Bourdain (who ends the movie — spoiler — by enrolling in culinary school), it also foreshadows his struggle with substance use.
Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in “Tony.”A24
Bourdain, who died from suicide in 2018 at 61, had spoken candidly about his addiction to heroin and cocaine before getting sober in the 1980s. In Tony, we see the fledging chef try cocaine for the first time at his dishwashing station at Flagship with Sal(Leo Woodhall), a hard-partying coworker who relishes in showing Bourdain his favorite vices.
Sessa’s Ocean City summers followed a similar pattern. Before The Holdovers, the actor was crossing the causeway to buy booze at Circle Liquors in Somers Point.
“All of my friends were doing the same thing” as Bourdain in Tony, Sessa said. “We would just work so we could get paid enough to buy alcohol, drink on the beach all night, go into work hungover, sleep it off after our shift, and do it all over again the next day.”
“We were all under 18 so we felt invincible,” Sessa said. ”It was paradise.”
Cathy Greene, owner of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., fills a box with donuts for a customer, on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Antics aside, Greene is proud of the role her bakery played in helping Sessa get into character (even if she hasn’t seen Tony yet). She just isn’t sure about cashing in on his star power. “I don’t want to be the one who is like, ‘Oh, I had Dominic Sessa here,’” Greene said. “But it’s pretty cool.”
Kyle Schwarber and whatever the hell that ninth inning was: A+
For eight innings last Sunday, the Phillies did absolutely nothing. Four hits, zero runs, down 4-0, and two outs in the ninth. The Cardinals had their closer on the mound, and everyone could reasonably start thinking about dinner.
Six runs, all with two outs, and we ended the game with a 6-4 win, sweeping the Cardinals. Nine straight victories. The kind of finish that had Scott Franzke yelling “It’s over!” on the radio, Tom McCarthy doing the same on TV, and John Kruk apparently deciding there was nothing he could add to the situation.
Michael Barkann called it maybe the greatest regular-season finish he’s ever seen, which could sound like postgame exaggeration until you realize the Phillies hadn’t won a game after trailing by four or more with two outs in the ninth since 1983.
This team lost 10 straight games in April, and now has swept three straight series for the first time in 16 years and is suddenly breathing down Atlanta’s neck. Please let this happy chaos continue.
Dolly Parton performing on her “Pure & Simple Tour” at the Mann Center in June 2016. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
Patti LaBelle and Dolly Parton’s acrylic duet: A+
Dolly Parton was 80, had been famous for nearly 60 years, and somehow belonged to everybody — country fans, drag queens, kids getting free books, your mom, your grandma, anyone who ever owned a rhinestone.
Philly got its share of Dolly, from the Spectrum to the Mann and Atlantic City, where she once joked she’d keep performing until she dropped dead mid-song, “high heels to heaven.” But the clip we’ll keep replaying is her and Patti LaBelle in 1987, two icons in enormous hair and sparkly gowns, using their acrylic nails as percussion while singing “Short’nin’ Bread.” It looks less like television than two of your aunties got bored at a wedding reception and decided to put on a show.
She once said she hoped that long after she was gone, people would look back at her career and say, “Damn, that was good.”
And damn, Dolly. It was.
Back to school without the heat: B
There are certain signs that fall is coming in Philadelphia: Kids go back to school, the Eagles start playing games that count, and someone you know sets mums out on their porch.
That matters in Philly, where 52 district schools still aren’t fully air-conditioned and hot days can mean early dismissals or remote learning. Nothing eases a parent back into the school-year routine quite like dropping a kid off and then finding out you need to leave work to pick them up three hours later.
The district did eliminate half days this year, so families have one less factor contributing to scheduling chaos.
And this week’s cooler mornings have been enough to make us start thinking about sweatshirts, football, and maybe opening a window at night. But next week’s forecast has temperatures creeping back toward the 90s, so it looks like we still have a wait.
People gather on Independence Mall for an outdoor screening of the 2004 film “National Treasure” in Philadelphia on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. The screening was part of Philadelphia’s first National Treasure Weekend.Erin Blewett / For The Inquirer
‘National Treasure 3’ is finally happening: A-
It has been nearly 20 years since Nicolas Cage last went hunting for treasure, which is an absurd amount of time to leave a man who once stole the Declaration of Independence without another important American document to steal.
But National Treasure 3 is finally real. Director Jon Turteltaub broke the news at Philadelphia’s first National TreasureWeekend. (Where else should this announcement happen?)
The original movie filmed some of its most memorable scenes here, and Philadelphia has spent the two decades since happily accepting National Treasure into the local canon. Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence, and Nicolas Cage stole it.
There’s a script, Cage is expected back, and Turteltaub says they’re trying to bring back the rest of the cast.
No word yet on whether Philly makes it into the third movie, but after hosting an entire weekend in its honor, we better get robbed again.
The Honey Butter Hoe Cake at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Philly restaurants make another national list: B+
At this point, a national food publication naming Philadelphia restaurants among the best in the country is less breaking news and more a recurring calendar event.
We could pretend to be surprised, but both restaurants already have plenty of hardware — and attention. Honeysuckle is Michelin-recommended, while Sao comes from Phila and Rachel Lorn, whose first restaurant, Mawn, remains one of the hardest tables to get in town.
So yes, another national publication has discovered that Philadelphia is very good at restaurants. We’ll take the nod and act appropriately impressed.
Philadelphia Police released an image of a masked man who had been harassing people in August 2026. The suspect, a 22-year-old man, was arrested in Las Vegas. (Philadelphia Police Department via The New York Times)PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT
The masked menace has been caught: A
Remember the guy in the creepy Halloween mask who spent a morning terrorizing people around City Hall? Well, he made it all the way to Las Vegas before the U.S. Marshals caught up with him.
The whole thing was bizarre even by Philly standards: A man in a cracked-doll mask allegedly spent half an hour chasing and scaring people, including asking one jogger if she was “ready to die.” One woman was injured trying to get away. Then he apparently packed his bags and left town.
There are plenty of characters around City Hall already, and we did not need one who looked like he wandered off the set of a low-budget horror movie.
A favorite Dolly Parton, Doc Watson musical memory
Dolly Parton’s death this week spurred innumerable tributes celebrating her kindness and generosity of spirit from seemingly everyone who ever knew, worked with, or even had a chance encounter with the beloved country singer.
And along with the heartfelt testimonials to a truly one-of-one cultural figure also came the outpouring of video clips that flood social media when a cherished performer dies. The digital grieving ritual reminds us why we fell in love with our heroes in the first place and maybe shows us something to make us treasure them even more.
Lots of cool clips have been circulating, all easily findable if they haven’t already shown up in your feed. Among them is a 2019 snippet from backstage at the Newport Folk Festival that’s barely over a minute long, with Parton dressed in an embroidered cowboy suit, leading the Highwomen in a version of her song “Eagle When She Flies.”
Other charmers includes an adorable duet with Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo on Texas country singer Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” which Hidalgo posted with a note remembering how Parton could tell how nervous he was and put him at ease telling him, “You’re shy and I’m not.”
There are two clips of performing for a clearly smitten Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in the 1970s, each playful and clever, but also displaying what a fine finger picking guitarist she was.
And her excellent taste is also apparent in a 1988 episode from her ABC variety show Dolly in which she headed to the Crescent City for Dolly Down in New Orleans and teamed with Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, and Dr. John for a delightful take on Lee Dorsey’s “Workin’ In a Coal Mine.”
My favorite of the bunch, however, is of Parton paired with the late guitarist Doc Watson in rehearsals and on stage in 2001 at MerleFest, the North Carolina traditional music festival named after Watson’s son, Merle, who died in 1985.
Parton and Watson work up a tender “The Last Thing on My Mind,” the Tom Paxton song she and Porter Wagoner recorded as their first single in 1967. She shadows Watson vocally, perfectly complementing him with her angelic voice. The furtive camera grants us the privilege to witness a private moment between a pair of legends working together for the first and only time, both now sadly gone.
— Dan DeLuca
A treasure trove of a coffee-table book celebrating Black art collectors
The 272-page text written by art historian, archivist, and curator Myrah Brown Green features the collections of Philadelphia-based art connoisseurs including Donnell Walker, founder of Fine Art for All Roots, a Lansdowne-based community arts organization; Vashti DuBois, founder of Germantown’s Colored Girls Museum; and the late Danny Simmons, owner of North Philadelphia’s Rush Gallery.
Cover of “Keepers of a Movement: Black Collectors Who Preserve Art, Stories, and Legacies That Define Black Life.”Elizabeth Wellington
(Simmons’ widow, Keia D. Carter Simmons, associate director of Temple Contemporary Art Gallery, penned the foreword.)
Portraits by Philadelphia artists Tara “Misty Sol” Pearson, Nile Livingston, and Chantelle Phillips are also featured. A sculpture by North Philadelphia potter and ceramicist Roberto Lugo is pictured, too.
The glossy volume is a beautiful work of art overflowing with pieces that are timeless, unique, and oozing with history. Images of rare prints from African American masters including Elizabeth Catlett’s 1957 portrait Nina, part of 94-year-old Brooklyn-based sculptor Otto Neals’ collection, are in the book. As is a Romare Bearden 1980 watercolor Man Seated with Red Rooster from the collection of the late Brooklyn-based attorney Patricia Scipio-Brim.
Six paintings from actress CCH Pounder’s massive collection are photographed in Keepers.
Even more important than the art of the masters are the works from lesser-known artists. Often without recognition, they too document the lives, history, and experience of Black Americans and all who consider themselves part of the diaspora.
Simmons’ collection of comic books, toys, and superhero figurines is the kind of art I grew up with but didn’t consider art until recently. New York-based jewelry designer Donna Chambers’ collection of 19th-century Black cameos by unknown artists are a window into my obsession of the untold stories of the lives of my ancestors. Ohio-based quilter and historian Carolyn Mazloomi’s social justice textiles expanded my idea of art with a purpose.
“This book is the appropriate response to the current conditions that are removing Black art and Black history,” DuBois told audiences at the end of the show. “Black collectors have always done this work. We will continue to do this work as keepers of the movement.”
Amen. Alleluia.
“Keepers of a Movement: Black Collectors Who Preserve Art, Stories, and Legacies That Define Black Life” is available for purchase at the Colored Girls Museum located at 4613 Newhall St. in Germantown.
— Elizabeth Wellington
The newly restored ceiling at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station.Bedatri D. Choudhury
A ceiling like no other
Like many other people going in and out of Philadelphia, I had gotten used to the scaffolding at 30th Street Station until this week a little sign from Amtrak urged me to look up. The scaffolding pipes were gone and a newly restored ceiling gleamed. Innumerable perfect squares with more perfect squares nested within. The sienna (the exact shade is called Tuscan Red, a reader pointed out), gold, and cream colors look different as the light streams in from the 50-foot-tall windows and plays with the patterns and solid blocks of color along the length and breadth of the 93-foot-high coffered ceiling.
The indented panels are clean, the ornate art deco chandeliers are glowing, and the pendant lights are on. Philadelphia union workers have painted, fixed, and restored the station’s ceiling and it’s breathtaking in its art deco glory. A grand entry into a grand city.
The station, which opened in 1933, was designed by the Chicago-based firm Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White. It was part of the City Beautiful movement where, in the late 19th- and early-20th-centuries, governments took to designing grand and beautiful public spaces.
A sign asking people to look up and view the newly restored ceiling at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station.Bedatri D. Choudhury
As part of a recent $550 million restoration, there’s talk of a food court and other things that’ll crowd into the main concourse of this awe-inspiring building that is on the National Register of Historic Places. A small corner of the ceiling above the Dunkin’ kiosk remains unrenovated. Just outside, a world of steel, glass, and concrete awaits along with a news cycle of reflecting pools and algae.
But for the minutes we can spare, as we rush in and out of our commutes, the grandeur of the ceiling and the building do their very best to make us forget that outside world and immerse us in a bygone time when wrecking balls didn’t charge through the White House but governments believed in investing in grand, beautiful spaces accessible to all.
— Bedatri D. Choudhury
“Liberation of the Peon” (1931) by Diego Rivera is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
A meeting of worlds with Diego Rivera and Gabriel García Márquez
There’s a pair of stunning Diego Rivera paintings at the Art Museum from 1931 — depicting scenes of harsh, back-breaking, intensive labor in Mexico — that I can’t stop thinking about.
The bright bluish-green stalks in Sugar Cane tower above the workers who hunch over, some attacking the crop with curved knives while others hoist overweight bundles onto their backs for transport. In the background, a white foreman reclines on a hammock above two sleeping dogs while another overseer is on horseback with his whip at the ready. The exploitation cuts across age groups, too, as a little Indigenous girl is pictured, helping her mother harvest papaya.
The violence of Sugar Cane is quieter than that of its companion, on view across the narrow hallway, called Liberation of the Peon.
Both illustrate the devastatingly difficult reality for farmworkers forced to labor under inhumane and cruel conditions. In Liberation, four revolutionary soldiers come to the aid of a worker who was stripped naked, tied up, and ruthlessly whipped. The men gently hold the victim, placing a vividly orange sheet around his bloody body and supporting his head as they cut the ropes on his wrists. Waiting patiently behind them are gorgeous horses; they are the only figures staring out from the fresco, their tender, wide eyes captivating the viewer with probing gazes that feel fittingly accusatory.
These artworks feel directly in conversation with the exquisite-yet-underrated show One Hundred Years of Solitude, the Netflix adaptation of Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 masterpiece of the same name that just released its series finale this week. It’s a beautifully shot, profoundly magical, and deeply tragic story following multiple generations of the Buendia family.
García Márquez used his incredible writing to condemn exploitative labor practices in Colombia as one major storyline took aim at United Fruit Company, an American corporation that monopolized land and resources across Latin America to violent excess (today it’s called Chiquita). One Hundred Years follows the expansion of banana plantations with horrifically abusive working conditions — concluding in the shooting of thousands of striking workers and their families, based on the Banana Massacre of 1928 — and mirrors the kind of greed-fueled brutality that Rivera captured in his paintings.
“Sugar Cane” and “Liberation of the Peon” are on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is streaming on Netflix.
The company announced this week that it will be holding a retrospective of the artist’s film work, with screenings of a pair of Parton-starring films — Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas — in her honor. Screenings begin Friday and run through Sept. 2, the company said.
In all, roughly 200 AMC locations nationwide will hold screenings.
Participating Philadelphia-area theaters include AMC Cherry Hill 24 and AMC Voorhees 16 in New Jersey, and AMC Neshaminy 24 in Bensalem. Tickets will be offered at discounted prices and are available through the AMC website.
The two films are among several that Parton appeared in between 1980 and 2015, a list that also includes 9 to 5, in which she starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and received three Golden Globe nominations.
The 1982 musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas saw Parton play a brothel madam alongside Burt Reynolds, earning her another Golden Globe nomination in the process.
In 1989’s Steel Magnolias, Parton stars alongside Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, and Daryl Hannah.
A longtime star of the music, film, and television industries, Parton’s death has brought a wave of homages this week from everyone from Taylor Swift to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Her death followed a brief battle with cancer, a family spokesperson has said.
Parton was a 10-time Grammy Award winner, and her 55 Grammy nominations make her the third-most nominated woman in the awards’ history, according to the Associated Press, trailing only Beyoncé and Swift.
In addition to AMC, Regal Cinemas will be screening both films, as well — though screenings will be limited to Parton’s home state of Tennessee.
One familiar Phillies voice will replace another this weekend during the team’s series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Tom McCarthy, in his 20th season as the TV voice of the Phillies, will call Friday night’s game on NBC Sports Philadelphia alongside Ben Davis. Scott Franzke, the team’s longtime radio announcer on 94.1 WIP and other stations throughout the Delaware Valley, will take over Saturday and Sunday alongside Davis, with Gregg Murphy calling the game on radio with Kevin Stocker.
So where will McCarthy be? He’ll be on Peacock and NBCSN calling a noon matchup between the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, part of an NBC Sunday triple-header. Joining him in the booth is one-time Phillies radio announcer Kevin Frandsen and four-time World Series champion Jeff Nelson.
McCarthy initially though he might call Saturday night’s Phillies game, then take an overnight flight to Miami. But the notorious workaholic thought better of trying to navigate such a narrow window.
“It just wasn’t prudent to get in at 5:30 a.m. to do an early game,” McCarthy said. “I like to work. I like the opportunity. I like the adrenaline rush. But I also thought it was probably better for everybody if I didn’t do that.”
Phillies radio announcer Scott Franzke will be on TV this weekend. NBC Sports Philadelphia
The late-season shifting is nothing new for McCarthy or Philly fans. In addition to his role calling Phillies games, McCarthy is also entering his 13th NFL season as a play-by-play announcer with CBS. This year he expects to call around 10 games, but he won’t do it alongside Ross Tucker, who was promoted to the network’s No. 2 booth alongside Ian Eagle.
“I’ve known him since he was 18 years old. I’m very proud of him,” McCarthy said of Tucker. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around.”
Instead, McCarthy will call games with former Seattle Seahawks and Indianapolis Colts running back Robert Turbin in his first season as an NFL color analyst.
Because the start of the NFL season was pushed back by a late Labor Day, McCarthy will actually end up missing fewer Phillies games this season.
Last season, Tom McCarthy (left) called NFL games alongside Ross Tucker. CBS
His first NFL game is the Week 1 matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 13, somewhat appropriate because he once called Browns preseason games. As a result, he’ll miss all three games of the Braves-Phillies series that weekend.
He’ll also work Week 2 and Week 3 for CBS, though the network hasn’t publicly announced which games he’s calling. But thanks to national broadcasts, McCarthy will only miss a total of three Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia those two weekends, though it does include the season finale against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sept. 27.
“The Phillies are great about it,” McCarthy said. “I don’t miss any games during the regular season, kind of by design. Unless it’s my kid’s graduation. … I save it for football season.”
The Eagles have two games scheduled to air on CBS, though the Birds’ Week 11 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be a national 4:25 p.m. game. The other is a Week 6 matchup against the Carolina Panthers.
While McCarthy has called Eagles games on the radio for Westwood One, he’s never had the opportunity to broadcast the Birds on CBS. The streak will likely continue this season, since McCarthy isn’t assigned any games that weekend.
“I would love to do an Eagles game. I think it’d be a hoot,” McCarthy said. “But I just roll with wherever they send me.”
McCarthy’s absence is a Phillies tradition that goes back to the late, great Harry Kalas, who called Notre Dame football games in September and national radio games for Westwood One. He also missed games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to do voice-over work for NFL Films.
It was actually one of those absences where McCarthy got his first opportunities to call the Phillies on TV.
While Sunday is McCarthy’s first-and-only regular season game for NBC, he’ll call a wild-card series next month for the network. That means for the first time, McCarthy has the chance to actually call some Phillies postseason games.
“I don’t know if NBC would put me there or not, but I think there’s a possibility,” McCarthy said. “It would be awesome.”
Phillies’ standings and NL playoff picture
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If the season were to end today, the Phillies would be the No. 2 wild card in the National League. That would currently mean a best-of-three series against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field, with the winner advancing to the National League Divisional Series.
Here’s how the wild-card race in the National League currently shakes out:
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Phillies news
Bryce Harper has five homers this month and is hitting .338 and slugging .600. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
It’s an all-day party. It’s considered one of the best summertime days in Philadelphia. And it’s finally back after a decade.
The prestigious Cycling Class returns this weekend, attracting spectators and cycling enthusiasts from all over the city.
⏱️ The Classic kicks off Sunday and runs from 8:30 a.m. to around 4:45 p.m. The (free!) Fan Fest, located at the Iroquois Sculpture area by the Art Museum, will be open the entire weekend, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
🚃 Consider public transportation to get to your spectating spot, as no parking is available and road closures and restrictions will be in effect. Don’t know where to go to watch the action unfold? We have you covered with our picks of the best spots, and information on nearby SEPTA stations.
🚴 You could also bike to your spot. Organizers recommend riding to the course via the Schuylkill River Trail. Free bike valet parking is available at the Fan Fest and Lemon Hill.
Schuylkill River Trail organizers are celebrating the completion of a nearly one-mile connector in Montgomery County that gives cyclists a clear 70-mile path from Philly to Reading.
Last week, Barbara B. showed us a massive mushroom sprouting from a cherry tree trunk. She followed up with more details:
“I am not a forager but just appreciate odd and mysterious appearances in nature. Though from what I read about it, this fungus is probably in the process of destroying the tree from the inside.”
Yikes. I recently noticed a similar fungus, brick reddish brown in color, growing at the base of a tree in my neighborhood. I wondered if the same thing might be happening there …
📥 How about you, dear reader? What are you doing or seeing out there? I want to hear from you. Send me an email with any recent or past stories in nature (and pictures, if you have them). You may see it featured right here.
🎤 My colleague Jason Nark reports on rural communities far from city life. I’m passing him the mic for his latest dispatch out of Cumberland County, New Jersey.
Taxidermy and weathered photos line the walls at Higbee’s Bait and Tackle in Fortescue, artifacts from bygone days when the sleepy Delaware Bay town was truly the “weakfish capital of the world.”
The taxidermy is a dusty, 12-pound “tide runner,” the nickname fishermen bestow on the biggest, trophy weakfish, a member of the drum family with a tan, often iridescent body and a reputation for fighting hard on a fishing line. The black-and-white photo shows a single fisherman standing beside his catch, about 30 weakfish of various sizes.
Tide runners are unicorns today, a rarity on New Jersey coasts and across the bay, in Delaware. Catch limits enacted by state fisheries would prevent a single fisherman from catching dozens of fish today, though most would be happy with one legal keeper they could fry up in lemon and butter.
Fishermen have plenty of theories about where all the weakfish have gone. They blame dolphins and dogfish for gobbling up the young; nuclear power plants; the rise of other popular game fish, like striped bass; and offshore seafood trawlers. — Jason Nark
🦁 A moment of silence: May Makini the African lion rest in peace.
🌃 An activity: Bring a picnic blanket and kick back at Philly’s Magic Gardens (Saturday, $30), and at Clark Park for the Ethiopian Day celebration (Sunday, free).
A calming view
Breathe in…and breathe out. I took this during a short hike on Monday.Paola Pérez
Here’s the Wissahickon River, as seen from the Orange Trail portion of this loop that starts from Bells Mill Road East. (Turns out cast and crew of HBO’s Task were filming season two in the park that day, which explains why Bells Mill Road West was closed.)
😊 Nature calls.
Editor’s note: This has been updated to reflect
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Some of the world’s swiftest cyclists, many of whom have competed in races like the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, will compete on the 14-mile course.
The event will run from 8:30 a.m. to around 4:45 p.m., giving spectators plenty of time to explore the course. And best of all, as ex-cyclist John Eustice pointed out to reporter Jason Lo, watching will “cost you nothing except your picnic food.”
The Fan Fest will coincide with the bike race. It will go from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Race organizers recommend taking public transportation to the event, because there is no designated parking and there will be numerous road closures.
The grilled Vietnamese chicken noodle bowl at Saigon Grace cafe on South Street.Craig LaBan / Staff
🌏 Celebrate Asian cultures: Kampoeng Indonesia will take over Cherry Street Pier on Saturday with performances, family-friendly activities, and food representing cultures from across Asia.
🍽️ A restaurant week debut: The first Graduate Hospital Restaurant Week will roll out special three-course prix fixe menus for $30 and $45. Participants include Chateau Rouge, a selection in last year’s 76 Dining GuideSaigon Grace Cafe, The Sidecar Bar & Grille, and other South Philly restaurants.
🚘 Wheels up in smoke: Don’t miss out on motorsport glory during Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow-N-Fire this weekend. Bigfoot, Mega Wrex, Bone Shaker, and other massive trucks will strut and stunt at Xfinity Mobile Arena starting Saturday.
📅 My calendar picks this week: Twilight in the Gardens, Illumination 250 Festival, Ethiopian Day at Clark Park. Here’s our full list for the week.
Don’t miss these end-of-summer happenings
The pop-up outdoor destination at Reading Terminal Market July 20, 2026. The new plaza transformed 15,000 square feet of the 1100 block of Filbert Street into an outdoor space featuring expanded seating, shopping, entertainment and beverage options. It comes at the completion of a $1 million lighting improvement project on Filbert Street, opening June 9 and ending Aug. 2.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
There are signs that fall is beginning to knock on summer’s door.
Philadelphia schools are back in session, the heat is easing, and seasonal attractions are starting to close up shop.
Don’t wait until next year. Stop by these attractions and citywide offerings before the week’s end.
Summer fun this week and beyond
People in the crowd reacting to participants falling in the Red Bull Championship Pole Run at the Spruce Street Harbor Park at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia on Saturday, July 12, 2025.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
🚩 A greased-up climb: Visit Spruce Street Harbor Park on Saturday for a full-on sprint up a greased telephone pole at the Red Bull Championship Run. Whoever captures the flag takes the crown.
🍃 Nature in full color: This weekend, discover art and handmade treasures at the Philadelphia Zoo’s After Hours & Wildest Art Festival. There will be live music, light bites, and the work by more than 30 local artists.
🍴 A new Fishtown eatery:Cannonball Cafe is a new, members-only social club located in Fishtown. The alluring cocktail lounge features a restaurant, private bar, and car collection inside a spacious storage garage.
🎨 Take an exclusive guided art tour: Tour Brandywine Workshop and Archives’ latest exhibitions, printmaking studios, archives, and collections during a guided art tour on Saturday.
Staffer picks
Here’s pop music critic Dan DeLuca’s list of the best concerts this weekend.
Bruno Mars brings his Romantic Tour to Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly on Tuesday and Wednesday.John V. Esparza
🎤 Friday: Remember 2025’s “Wu Tang Forever” tour that was supposedly the supergroup’s last? Well, RZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and their musical brothers are back for a show at Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Live.
🎸 Friday and Saturday: Eleven-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton brings his rugged country hits to the region for back-to-back nights at Camden’s Freedom Mortgage Pavilion.
🎙️ Sunday: Cleveland-born indie band Cloud Nothings, fronted by locally-based guitarist Dylan Baldi, will hit the Ruba Club stage on Sunday alongside Philly band Knifeplay.
🪩 Tuesday and Wednesday: Bruno Mars, Mr. 24K Magic himself, is joined by British singer Raye and DJ Pee. Wee, who is Mars’ disguised Silk Sonic bandmate Anderson .Paak, for a two-night stay at Lincoln Financial Field.
Which athlete won the first Philadelphia Cycling Classic in 1985?
A) Eric Heiden
B) Megan Guarnier
C) Greg Lemond
D) Roberto Gaggioli
Here’s the answer to last week’s question: The 2004 blockbuster ‘Natural Treasure’ was filmed inside Independence Hall. But the film also filmed inside a replica of the landmark building — where? Answer: Los Angeles
Ask Earl anything
Many of you have questions about each week’s listings, and others about Philly’s arts, culture, and entertainment scene.
I have you covered. Have a question? Email me for a chance to have it answered in an upcoming newsletter.
Pedal over to these late-summer offerings before they wrap up and enjoy the other regional attractions available this weekend.
– Earl Hopkins
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Sheri Herman, 71, formerly of Philadelphia, pioneering internet and cable TV executive, former senior vice president of content and business development for E! Entertainment Television, former president of internet startup American Cybercast, founder of SLH Communications, tech prophet, and dancer, died Thursday, Aug. 6, of heart failure at her home in Telogia, Fla., about 35 miles west of Tallahassee.
A magna cum laude communications graduate at Temple University, Ms. Herman went to New York after college to produce commercials for an ad agency. Over the next 27 years, she relocated to Denver and Los Angeles, successfully marketed, programmed, and developed dozens of TV networks and online companies, and pioneered the integration of TV and the emerging internet.
She was “mesmerized” by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, her sister, Nadine, said, and predicted in the 1970s that one personal device would eventually take pictures, send messages, stream content, and still make phone calls. Jarl Mohn, former president and chief executive officer at E!, called Ms. Herman “a pioneer in incorporating new technologies and branding in entertainment.”
He said: “She also brought passion and conviction to everything she worked on.”
Ms. Herman founded her own firm, SLH Communications, in 1999. Courtesy of the family
Ms. Herman helped turn the startup Movietime channel into E! Entertainment Television in 1990 and told the Los Angeles Times: “We’re going to totally reposition the network. You won’t recognize us.” Over the next few years, E! grew its subscriber base from two million to 55 million, and Ms. Herman won industry awards for her marketing campaigns.
At American Cybercast, she championed The Spot, a groundbreaking interactiveonline reality show, in 1995, and told the Los Angeles Times in 1996: “We’re creating a new medium, but we’re kind of a cross between publishing and broadcasting in that we’re going to be advertising driven. If we were a movie studio, we’d be Miramax with a little more edge.”
Russell Collins, founder of American Cybercast, said: “Sheri Herman was nothing if not fearless. Her determination was boundless and fierce.”
Ms. Herman was especially effective at fundraising for projects and combining online content with ads and product placement. She trailblazed new internet publishing formats that included text, photos, and videos, and predicted the collision of TV and internet content. In 1996, she told Variety: “Eyeballs will move from TV to PC.”
Ms. Herman (left) oversaw the development of the Discovery Channel, the Fashion Channel, QVC, and other networks.Courtesy of the family
As director of programming for the United Cable Television Corp. in the mid-1980s, Ms. Herman collaborated with dozens of networks and oversaw the development of the Discovery Channel, the Fashion Channel, QVC, and other networks.
As senior vice president of programming and production for the Access Entertainment Network in the late 1990s, she reintroduced popular music videos and, according to Variety in 1998, gained six million subscribers in the network’s first three months of existence.
Shefounded her own firm, SLH Communications, in 1999 and contracted with TV Guide, Barnes & Noble, Hilton Hotels, musicians Quincy Jones and Jon Bon Jovi, and other entertainers and businesses. In New York, in the 1980s, she worked with cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder.
Temple officials noted her “influential career” in a tribute, and longtime friend and colleague Martin Lewis said: “She had a relentless thirst for charting new paths forward. She proselytized new media, new approaches, new everything.”
Ms. Herman (right) enjoyed time with her family.Courtesy of the family
In 2007, Ms. Herman reduced her daily responsibilities after being seriously injured in an auto accident in California. She moved to Florida in 2021.
Lewis said: “She was inventive, creative, exhilarating.”
Sheri Lynn Herman was born May 21, 1955, in Philadelphia. She grew up in Overbrook Park with her parents and older sister, and graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Her family featured several singers, and she spent many holidays singing songs and playing guitar around the piano at her grandparents’ home in Wynnefield. She loved music, studied ballet when she was young, and performed later with the Janosik Polish Dance Ensemble.
Ms. Herman was a magna cum laude communications graduate at Temple University.Courtesy of the family
Stylish and social, Ms. Herman enjoyed traveling and entertaining. She was a skilled seamstress who made her own clothes, an accomplished chef, and adept at interior decorating. She doted on her cats and dogs.
She married and divorced twice, and, after Philadelphia, lived in New York, Denver, and Los Angeles before Florida. Her sister said: “She was brilliant.”
In addition to her sister, Ms. Herman is survived by other relatives.
A celebration of her life is to be held later. Family, friends, and colleagues can connect at www.SheriHerman.com.
