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Category: Arts & Culture

  • With ‘the Great Divide Tour,’ Noah Kahan made a sold-out Citizens Bank Park feel like a melancholic suburban backyard

    With ‘the Great Divide Tour,’ Noah Kahan made a sold-out Citizens Bank Park feel like a melancholic suburban backyard

    Most of us remember the 2010s Obama-era stomp-clap folk music, brought on by bands like the Lumineers, that graced the soundtracks of films like Silver Linings Playbook, sparking an intensely optimistic sound.

    But can that even exist today? Can folk music rise in the 2020s, amid rapid social media usage, volatile politics, and a general feeling of uneasiness?

    It can and it does.

    Often veering into the gloomy and the existential, but somehow still managing to stay romantic and rebellious, thanks to the folk-pop stylings of Noah Kahan.

    Kahan and his band performed for a sold-out crowd of 40,000 people.

    Kahan released his latest The Great Divide in April. The introspective collection of songs explores the realities of fame and the isolating feeling of leaving home. The tour behind that album brought him to Citizens Bank Park on Friday night.

    After openers, Wayne, Pa., native Annabelle Dinda sporting a Phillies shirt and Gigi Perez, a one-minute countdown popped up on the screen at 8:30 p.m., met with loud cheers from the audience.

    When the clock struck zero, a sunset scene of a field appeared on a screen on stage, with The Great Divide displayed across it.

    The roof of a house slowly descended from the top of the stage to meet the rest of the barnhouse in the middle of the stage. Then out came Kahan, with his signature French braids and baggy clothes, ready to bring his woodsy vibe to Philadelphia.

    Annabelle Dinda performs an opening set during the Philadelphia stop of Noah Kahan’s “The Great Divide Tour” at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026. Dinda was one of two opening acts performing before Kahan took the stage.

    The audience in the 40,000+ seat stadium reacted swiftly, jumping to their feet and screaming for Kahan. The crowd was a mix of Gen-Z fans, new to the contemporary folk-pop sound, and millennials, who were undoubtedly jamming out to Mumford & Sons during the aforementioned 2010s folk-rock era.

    There were also families with young children in tow. Some appeared to be fans themselves, wearing the tour’s merchandise and singing along.

    After performing “American Cars” and “Doors” from The Great Divide, Kahan addressed the sold-out crowd, promising to make them very sad with his melancholic music.

    “Philadelphia, what a f— dream,” he said. “It must be something in the water, how do you all have clinical depression?”

    Gigi Perez performs an opening set during the Philadelphia stop of Noah Kahan’s “The Great Divide Tour” at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026. Perez gained widespread recognition with her 2024 single “Sailor Song” and opened for Kahan on select dates of the tour

    Kahan continued with “All My Love” from 2022’s Stick Season, with the set around him bringing the music to life, even in the face of the promised melancholy.

    Rocks covered in moss sat one side of the stage with an abandoned gas station scene set up on the other, with tall grass scattered throughout. String lights warmed up the setting as it got darker, making Citizens Bank Park feel like a small-town backyard. On the screen behind Kahan, seasons changed and insects crawled around amid visuals from the singer’s home state of Vermont.

    The forest-y and naturalist aesthetic of both the music and the setting is an homage to Kahan’s childhood spent on a tree farm in rural Vermont.

    The concert was Kahan’s first arena show in Philadelphia, on his second arena tour in his career.

    The crowd matched the scenery; flowing skirts, bandannas, cowboy hats and boots, denim, corduroy, and just about every other clothing item you’d see when searching “farm aesthetic” on Pinterest. Everyone attending could easily pop over to the Schuylkill Trail for a quick hike after the show.

    After singing another new song “Downfall,” Kahan pretended to answer a phone call.

    “What’s up, Twitter,” he said into the phone. “Oh, Noah Kahan can’t sell out stadiums?” The response was a thunderous cheer as Kahan pretended to hang up.

    This is his fifth concert tour and his first time headlining a show at Citizens Bank Park, playing for a sold-out crowd. This last “The Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)” tour in 2024 didn’t stop in Philadelphia.

    A fan sings while Noah Kahan performs at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026. More than 40,000 people attended the sold-out show. .

    After singing and playing the guitar for nine songs standing on the main stage, Kahan decided to shake things up a bit. For “Dial Drunk,” he moved to the left side of the stage where an actor dressed as a police officer arrested him. He performed the first half of the song from inside of a police car fitted with cameras.

    For “Willing and Able,” Kahan sat upon the roof that came down in the beginning of the show. There, he softly played the guitar and sang the lyrics to the somber song about a strained sibling relationship.

    Fans sang along and cheered until Kahan made his gravest mistake of the show: suggesting that Philadelphians be friendly toward Boston.

    Noah Kahan merchandise is displayed outside Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026. More than 40,000 people attended the sold-out show, with some fans lining up as early as 9 a.m. to purchase merchandise.

    “Having lived in Boston, you guys are a lot more alike than you think, and I think you need to reconcile,” Kahan said, citing the tough brotherly relationship in “Willing and Able.” This sentiment was the only thing that was met with boos on Friday.

    Fittingly enough, Kahan recalled being heckled at a Philly show.

    One hopes the city hosting a sold-out show will soften his feelings toward Philadelphia.

    Fans matched the forest aesthetic of Kahan’s music, with flowy outfits and cowboy apparel.

    He also took the opportunity, standing in the middle of the floor seats, to address the backlash he received on Twitter for his original setlist he played in Orlando on June 11. Fans complained about the lack of older songs, as the singer filled the set with songs from his last two albums. The fans who booed Kahan’s online haters were rewarded with his older song “Maine” from the EP Cape Elizabeth, which he called his favorite song he’s ever written.

    In addition to the guitar, Kahan’s six-piece band comprised a host of other unique instruments that got to shine. This included a fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and a resonator guitar, all contributing to Kahan’s unique folk sound that blends both rock and pop.

    Noah Kahan performs at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026, during his “The Great Divide Tour.” The Philadelphia concert was part of the North American leg of Kahan’s summer tour

    As the show went on, Kahan took multiple opportunities to listen to the crowd sing and coyly smile as he expressed his gratitude, often peppering it with his well-known dry humor.

    “You guys are gonna make me emotional,” he said to the screaming fans, giggling.

    Kahan closed out his main set with “Orange Juice” and “New Perspective” before exiting the stage and reentering it as fans started growing restless. For the encore, sitting at a spotlit piano, he performed the incredibly moody “End of August.”

    That was followed by a more upbeat “Homesick.” Of course, he wrapped things up with an explosive extended performance of his biggest hit, “Stick Season.”

    Two fans take a selfie before Noah Kahan performs at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, 2026. More than 40,000 people attended the sold-out show. .

    There was no one in the crowd who didn’t sing along.

    Kahan made sure to thank his band mates before one final chorus that culminated in a brief fireworks display over the stage.

    And just like that, the woodland escape that is the Noah Kahan concert came to an end for Philadelphia.

    Noah Kahan, setlist from “The Great Divide Tour.” June 26, 2026, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

    • “American Cars”
    • “Doors”
    • “All My Love”
    • “Deny Deny Deny”
    • “Staying Still”
    • “Haircut”
    • “Downfall”
    • “She Calls Me Back”
    • “Dashboard”
    • “Dial Drunk”
    • “Willing and Able”
    • “Porch Light”
    • “Orbiter”
    • “Maine”
    • “Paid Time Off”
    • “All Them Horses”
    • “The View Between Villages”
    • “Northern Attitude”
    • “The Great Divide”
    • “Orange Juice”
    • “New Perspective”

    Encore

    • “End of August”
    • “Homesick”
    • “Stick Season”
  • See it, hear it, feel it: All the Philly art we loved this week

    See it, hear it, feel it: All the Philly art we loved this week

    A flowery union at the PMA

    There’s a rare reunion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this year: Two of Vincent van Gogh’s famous sunflower paintings are on view side by side. Only five large-scale paintings comprise his Sunflowers series, scattered over three continents. But now, Philadelphia gets a chance to see two together.

    For the first time in its history, Sunflowers (1888), from the collection of London’s National Gallery, has traveled across the Atlantic for its United States premiere alongside the PMA’s own Sunflowers (1889). The London artwork shows the sunflowers on a pale yellow background while Philadelphia’s features a soft blue; both exemplify the artist’s desire to create what he described as “a symphony of blue and yellow.”

    It’s a historic display of signature works by a world-famous artist who sadly never achieved critical acclaim during his lifetime. But, all of that aside, these are simply two marvelous paintings to see.

    “Sunflowers” (1888), Vincent van Gogh. Courtauld Fund, The National Gallery.

    Photo: © The National Gallery, London

    Their charm isn’t solely in the pretty subject matter; it’s all about the texture. Thick globs of paint in various shades of yellow give the appearance of a not-quite-settled image, enchanting the viewer with dynamic motion that can only be experienced up close. Each bloom has its own stylistic personality as the paint takes on an almost sculptural presence. Both paintings create a mesmerizing display — pictures truly don’t do it justice.

    “Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow” is on view through Oct. 11 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, 215-763-8100 or philamuseum.org.

    — Rosa Cartagena

    Kevin Devine performs at Spruce Street Harbor Park on June 25, 2026.

    Kevin Devine at Spruce Street Harbor Park

    Some of the best shows of the summer can be enjoyed for free, from a picnic table, with a Tecate in hand.

    On Thursday night, I attended Kevin Devine’s free show at Spruce Street Harbor Park, where he was joined by openers Shannen Moser and Abi Reimold. It was the first of Devine’s short two-weekend tour through non-traditional spaces across the Northeast, including mostly house shows and an arcade.

    For about an hour, Devine played — just him and his acoustic guitar — a stretch of old and new songs from his repertoire that dates back over two decades. Currently, Devine’s 11th LP is in the works. It will have distinct Philly ties, being recorded at Will Yip’s Memory Music Studios and produced by Steph Marziano, one of Hayley Williams’ longtime collaborators who cut her teeth in Philly’s music scene.

    But back to Thursday night’s show. It was one of an impressive series of free shows at Spruce Street Harbor Park programmed by 4333 Collective.

    Upcoming shows under the waterfront breeze include Oso Oso, Pissed Jeans, Iron Chic, and more. Here’s a list of all the free shows.

    — Emily Bloch

    An exhibit on Memorial Hall at “Revist: 1876,” a recreation of the Centennial Exhibition at the Fairmount Park Grounds in 1876. Before Memorial Hall was turned into the Please Touch Museum, it was the first site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    The first telephone, at the Lits Building

    Before the Please Touch Museum was the go-to hangout spot for our city’s adventurous toddlers, it housed the first Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    The 70,000-square-foot Beaux Arts building was originally built to showcase the work of late-19th-century American artists — including Philadelphia’s own Thomas Eakins — for the Centennial Exposition of 1876.

    The five-month 100th birthday party for America is also known as the first World’s Fair on American soil.

    The history of Memorial Hall is told in one of four pavilions featured in “Revisit 1876,” the 8,000-square-foot exhibition located in the ground floor of the Lits Building, produced by the nonprofit arm of the Center City District Foundation.

    The exhibit aims to connect present-day Philly with the innovations that were introduced at the fair 150 years ago, said Paul Levy, the foundation’s executive director.

    And they do a pretty good job.

    A replica of Alexander Bell’s first telephone that was shown for the first time for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Fairmount Park. The replica is on exhibit at “Revisit: 1876” in the Lits Building, 701 Market St. Entrance is on Eighth Street.

    Silhouettes of women in corseted dresses and twirling umbrellas and dandy men in top hats greet visitors. Behind the sales counter is the replica of the first telephone that Alexander Graham Bell brought to the Centennial. Also behind the glass counter is a 3-foot terra-cotta model of the Statue of Liberty made by the original sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

    There is even Centennial merch, including puzzles and wallets, all in pristine condition.

    My favorite part is the flyover video from Independence Hall to Memorial Hall. It’s layered with historic photos connecting 2026 to 1876. In other words, the 2026 flyover includes our majestic City Hall. In 1876, it was an active construction site. (Construction started in 1871 and wasn’t finished until 1901.)

    In addition to Memorial Hall, there are exhibits on Machinery Hall, Horticultural Hall, and the Main Building. A special section spotlights how the former enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass was prevented from speaking at the event and how Ben Franklin’s great-granddaughter Elizabeth Duane Gillespie fought to have women included.

    “Revisit 1876” is open through December. The Lits Building is at 701 Market St. (Entrance is on the Eighth Street side). Admission is free.

    — Elizabeth Wellington

  • City budget cuts force Mural Arts and Philadelphia Cultural Fund to slash programs

    City budget cuts force Mural Arts and Philadelphia Cultural Fund to slash programs

    In past years, the city’s budget process has followed a certain pattern for Mural Arts Philadelphia and other groups.

    The mayor’s proposed budget lists city funding at one level; City Council and others advocate for modifications at a higher level; and the budget goes back to the mayor and is finalized with the higher allocation in place.

    This year was different.

    Philadelphia’s nationally acclaimed program that puts colorful murals in neighborhoods and provides jobs was hoping for a boost in city funding.

    Instead, the budget ultimately agreed to by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and City Council cut funding to Mural Arts — from $5.1 million in fiscal year 2026 to $3.7 million in 2027.

    Likewise the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. The group — which awards hundreds of grants to arts groups throughout the neighborhoods — was looking for increased funding in the city’s newly approved $7.1 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

    But the arts nonprofit, established by the city recently, learned that it will get substantially less — $3.5 million instead of the $5 million it received from the city for the fiscal year now ending.

    As a result, both groups say they will have to make deep cuts to programs.

    Philadelphia’s arts and culture sector had greeted the start of Parker’s term 2½ years ago with optimism for increased funding. Today, it is “alarmed” by the cuts to Mural Arts and the Cultural Fund, said Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

    “We always say that your budget tells a story, and I have to say that the cultural community is disappointed and frustrated with the story being told by this FY27 budget,” she said. “Cutting the budget of signature programs like Mural Arts by 26% or decreasing funding to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, that’s going to have ramifications throughout the city.”

    Parker was not available for comment, a spokesperson said.

    Valerie V. Gay (left) chief cultural officer with the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and finance director Rob Dubow (right) testify at a Philadelphia City Council hearing, Aug. 8, 2024 on the collapse of the University of the Arts.

    Valerie V. Gay, the city’s chief cultural officer, said it was the city’s view that funding for the two groups had remained flat from 2026 to 2027, since the base allocation stayed the same and it was only the added amount that did not come through — though she allowed that “absolutely I can see how it can be perceived.”

    A ripple effect

    The resulting cuts at both groups promise to be substantial. The Cultural Fund will be forced to reduce the number of grants it had been expecting to distribute in the coming year, from 332 to 232. It has changed its eligibility requirements, which will eliminate grants to a pool of midsize organizations currently eligible.

    “It’s going to be a ripple effect. People are going to feel it and communities are going to feel it,” said Philadelphia Cultural Fund executive director Gabriela Sanchez.

    “An investment in the Philadelphia Cultural Fund is more than a budget line item,” Sanchez wrote in a statement distributed by the group. “Funding to PCF represents how the city values neighborhood theaters, cultural centers, museums, arts education programs, festivals, dance companies, community storytelling initiatives, music programs, and cultural traditions that bring Philadelphians together. These spaces are where young people discover their creativity, where seniors find connection, where communities celebrate their heritage, and where residents gather across lines of difference.”

    Jane Golden (center right) speaks with press at the Wawa Welcome America media preview for the Philly Fair 250, outside the Please Touch Museum in West Philadelphia, June 18, 2026. Mural Arts held a ceremonial unveiling of a 10-story-high mural replica, originally titled ‘CityKids Speak On Liberty,’ and created by Keith Haring.

    Mural Arts director Jane Golden declined to comment, but an initial assessment from the group obtained by The Inquirer says that “hundreds of residents in at least 15 Philadelphia communities will lose the opportunity to develop public art projects,” and that opportunities for paid work, job training, and mentorship through the Mural Arts Restorative Justice program will be reduced by 25%.

    Mural Arts will also have to cut by 75% its program of restoring and preserving the city’s murals, “putting at risk community landmarks that took years and significant public investment to create,” the impact statement reads.

    Of the program reductions at both groups, Gay said: “I am always sad that any cuts are made or that any organizations are unable to do the work they thought they were going to be able to do. That’s always a sad time for us, and I’m looking forward to when we are a fully funded sector.”

    A city spokesperson was unable to provide a full list of groups that in past years had received higher allocations after advocacy from City Council and others, but this year did not.

    What’s behind the cuts

    Aden says arts and culture has seen some significant recent “wins” from city government. Among them is the advancement of a referendum that, if approved by the mayor and then by voters this fall, would enshrine the city’s office of arts and culture, called Creative Philadelphia, in the City Charter.

    The city has approved $500,000 a year to develop and implement a cultural plan for Philadelphia that would document financial needs and could identify potential pathways to establishing funding.

    The ‘Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design’ exhibition at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 1, 2025.

    Sometimes the city’s support is for regular operations, and other times it is for specific capital projects. In an unusually large commitment, the city has pledged $50 million to the African American Museum in Philadelphia for its relocation to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

    The city is providing nearly $32.5 million to arts and culture in FY27, according to a list provided by Parker’s office. While that total includes small items that might seem mundane — paying utility bills at various facilities, for instance — it also shows multimillion-dollar allocations to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dell Music Center, and Philadelphia Zoo.

    But the arts and culture sector often finds itself fighting for adequate funding in the annual budget process. Arts leaders and others say it has been standard practice in recent memory that funding is listed at one level in the mayor’s proposed budget and after City Council testimony in budget hearings ends up being higher.

    This year, the mayor “could have funded [the arts] at a higher amount,” as she did last year, but did not do so, Councilmember Rue Landau said.

    The cuts came after a budget that passed without a series of tax increases proposed by Parker, including a $1 tax on rideshare services, after failing to win support from City Council. After Council signaled it would reject Parker’s tax proposals, the administration would not agree to any last-minute line items for new funding requests from lawmakers.

    Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a consistent arts supporter who, like Landau, is an ex-officio Mural Arts board member, said that with the lack of new tax revenue and the city’s extra allocation of $48 million to cover the Philadelphia School District’s budget shortfall, the funding pie for other allocations got smaller.

    “This budget year, a lot of attention and advocacy went toward schools,” Thomas said. The funding cuts to Mural Arts and the Cultural Fund were “extremely unfortunate,” he said, “and I wish we could have done something different.”

    The need for ‘predictable, stable, reliable’ funding for the arts

    While the city’s budget is now final, there is another potential window of opportunity for funding through a midyear budget transfer process in which the city might see expenditures in certain areas coming in lower than expected, and then transfer money from those categories to other areas.

    Asked whether funds might be restored through a budget transfer to Mural Arts or the Cultural Fund, Gay said:

    “I think anything is on the table, but I also think nothing is guaranteed.”

    Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, at S. Broad Street and Walnut along the Avenue of the Arts, Feb. 15, 2023.

    Any restoration of funds would happen after arts groups have already put cuts in place, and this kind of unpredictability “makes planning by these organizations very, very difficult,” Aden said.

    “The practice of underfunding the arts and having Council and other entities have to go on an advocacy campaign to increase funding is illogical,” Landau said. “It is clear as day that we should be supporting the arts with additional funding every single year, so we don’t have to go through this and it won’t ever be a question mark for them.”

    What is really needed, Aden said, is a dedicated arts fund in Philadelphia and the region.

    “We’ve seen other regions benefit from this predictable, stable, reliable funding. And instead, here in Philadelphia, each year we have this conversation about increases and decreases and their impact. We are sometimes left to the will and whim of elected officials, and we would like to take the creative economy out of the political realm and put it solidly within our larger civic interest, so that it is stable and has the investment that is required to reach its full potential.”

    Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.

  • A Philadelphia high schoolers’ production of ‘1776’ is former Gov. Ed Rendell’s dream come true

    A Philadelphia high schoolers’ production of ‘1776’ is former Gov. Ed Rendell’s dream come true

    In tricorn hats and tail coats, their locs, microbraids, and wavy tresses gathered into 18th-century low ponytails, 27 Philadelphia-area high school students transformed into America’s Founding Fathers on Wednesday evening at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.

    The young thespians debated and deliberated the benefits of forming a sovereign nation. Their well-practiced Southern accents and New England inflections echoed in the full auditorium.

    In 2½ hours, Massachusetts congressman John Adams (played by Jackson Preisser), Ben Franklin (Jayden Duvene), and Thomas Jefferson (Maxwell Henderson) made the case for liberty, overcoming the petty aristocratic concerns of Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson (Greg Rist).

    Former Mayor Ed Rendell meets cast members (L-R) Abigail Adams (played by Chloe Chau), John Dickinson (played by Greg Rist) and Ben Franklin (played by Jayden Duvene) during opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    On a set that looked remarkably like Independence Hall, the students staged the Tony Award-winning 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and argued for and against liberty with witty songs and sophisticated dialogue.

    The reenactment of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was everything Ed Rendell, the elder statesman and the brain behind the production, wanted it to be.

    “It’s been my dream for quite some time to see this production happen,” Rendell said to The Inquirer, his voice a raspy whisper, worn and weary from Parkinson’s disease. Sitting in his wheelchair at the red, white, and blue step and repeat, Rendell smiled as CAPA’s lobby was turned into a dining room for dignitaries hours before the play began.

    “In honor of America’s 250th birthday, we wanted to use 1776 to teach high school students the sacrifices and compromises it took to form this great nation,” he said.

    Rendell’s love for 1776 is rooted to the night in 1969 when he watched the colonial drama unfold on Broadway, starring William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin. Daniels, Howard, and da Silva starred in the 1971 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.

    “I loved it,” Rendell said, whose favorite ballads from the play are Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson’s quirky performance of “The Egg,” in which the forefathers humorously choose the bald eagle as America’s national bird. (That didn’t really happen during the Second Continental Congress, but it’s a nice touch.)

    Another of Rendell’s favorite songs is “Is Anybody There?,” a melancholy number during which Adams asks himself if his dedication to the cause of independence is worth it.

    “It struck the right chord, giving all the facts about how we came to our freedom, our independence,” Rendell said. “When I became mayor, I went back and studied it and began to think of it as an important civics lesson. There were so many things I didn’t even know.”

    A former president, a mayor, a speaker walk into a play

    The 1776 opening night saw the attendance of a who’s who in Philadelphia politics, business, and civics.

    Former President Joe Biden was in the house on the opening night of Rendell’s theatrical milestone. After he was presented with a copy of the declaration signed by the cast, the former president delivered a nine-minute speech about the importance of teaching American history in present-day America, although he did not mention President Donald Trump by name.

    “What I can tell you is that from the moment the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, we have been in a consistent battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said as guests prepared to dig into barbecued chicken, brisket, and ribs, Rendell’s favorite.

    Former President Joe Biden displays a signed poster from the cast as former Mayor Ed Rendell looks on during the opening night celebration of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    “Even when there is darkness,” Biden said, “we’ve summoned our angels and crawled back from the brink. We are trying to do that now.”

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia), and State Rep. Joe Ciresi (D., Montgomery) were also in attendance. Philadelphia School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.; Temple University president John Fry; and David L. Cohen, the former senior executive vice president to Comcast and U.S. ambassador to Canada, were on hand, too.

    “When Mr. Rendell calls, people come out,” said Adrian R. King, a partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Ballard Spahr and a former Rendell staffer.

    Their attendance reflected their respect for Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia who, in his political heyday in the 1990s, led the efforts to reimagine South Broad Street as the now-bustling Avenue of the Arts. CAPA’s 1997 opening was a part of that plan.

    John Adams (played by Jackson Preisser, middle) and John Dickinson (played by Greg Rist, right) are seperated during a scene from the opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    Rendell’s baby

    Rendell has dreamed of this production for years. He began working on it in earnest last year, bringing on veteran Philadelphia arts administrator Karen Corbin to executive produce. Phillip Sean Brown, director of theater at Bryn Mawr’s Shipley School, was roped in to direct.

    “The governor had very specific ideas of what he wanted,” Brown said. “He wanted to show the history of our country, show the drama of the birth of a nation, and have the students learn everything they could about the craft of theater.”

    The first order of business was securing the rights to the late composer Sherman Edwards’ script and music. That will cost about $45,000 by the end of the run, Corbin said.

    Casting began in February and auditions began in March. Forty actors from eight area high schools were picked for the multicultural, gender-fluid rotating cast, giving the revival of the 57-year-old production Hamilton vibes.

    In addition, Brown said, more than 30 students were hired as musicians and production crew.

    Cast members posed with guests before opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    “They worked with professionals in theater lighting, costume, sound, and props,” Brown said.

    Students were paid $150 a week during rehearsal weeks, and will make $300 a week through the eight-week performance. The entire production cost $850,000 including a $150,000 grant from the state.

    There will be 50 shows through Aug. 15 at CAPA. Actors will also perform vignettes of the musical throughout Philadelphia’s historic district, including Carpenters Hall.

    ‘All good things take compromise’

    Students’ exposure to the arts and history has been priceless.

    “This experience represents striving forward — as an actor with my cast,“ said Mason Daly, a CAPA graduating senior whose biting Southern accent for South Carolina congressman and segregationist Edward Rutledge was chilling.

    Daly’s role as Rutledge is particularly eye-opening. 1776 tells us that Jefferson’s original draft of the declaration included a clause abolishing slavery in America. Rutledge, however, would support America only if that part of the declaration were struck.

    Jefferson laments to Franklin, saying, “Mark me, Franklin … if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us.” But he does give in.

    “Playing him, I learned to value the nuances of the perspectives of even those we disagree with,” Daly said.

    “It’s about his personal compromises to get to the yea vote that allowed independence to go forward. That dialogue, that discussion, that back-and-forth between him and the various colonial representatives is the basis of our democracy and government.”

    Former Mayor Ed Rendell during opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    The actors’ parents bubbled with excitement.

    “My child is really being taken seriously as an actor in this production,” said Justina Barrett, chief learning and engagement officer at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and mother to Sage Wentz, who played Col. Thomas McKean of Delaware. “This whole play is about the messy business of making the United States. It was hard. These guys weren’t nice. It wasn’t pretty. In many ways, we are divided then as we are now.”

    Although difficult, this idea of forming a new nation through compromise is what Rendell hopes is the ultimate lesson for all involved.

    “We can’t get anything done without compromise,” Rendell said. “We have to get back to a government that is working toward the good of the government. The Civil Rights Act took compromise. Women’s rights took compromise. All good things take compromise.”

    “1776″ will be performed at CAPA, 901 S. Broad St., through Aug. 15. Tickets start at $11. For more information, go to the Celebrating 1776! website.

  • What this former Inquirer columnist learned from writing 468 parenthood columns over nine years

    What this former Inquirer columnist learned from writing 468 parenthood columns over nine years

    For nine years, every week, writer Anndee Hochman attempted to answer one question.

    What does the road to parenthood look like for people who don’t follow the family “norm”?

    For her Inquirer column “The Parent Trip,” she profiled different Philadelphia-area families with children, all with atypical experiences creating their family.

    This included queer parents, single parents, interracial parents, interfaith parents, and so on. Hochman spoke to parents who adopted children, conceived them through IVF, got pregnant unexpectedly, and more.

    Anyone who had a story around parenthood with a less talked-about aspect found themselves in Hochman’s column. Forty-two of 468 of those profiles have now been compiled into a new book, Parent Trip: Unexpected Roads to Form a Family, published by Temple University Press.

    Hochman, who is queer, started writing about family life in 1990, when she was living in Portland, Ore. After her straight housemates got engaged, she wrote an essay for the now-shuttered LGBTQ publication Just Out, detailing her feelings on the discrepancies between how straight and queer relationships are perceived socially.

    The Eighth Mountain Press publisher Ruth Gundle reached out to Hochman, asking if she had more to say on the subject. As it turned out, she had a whole book’s worth. Her first book, Everyday Acts and Small Subversions: Women Reinventing Family, Community and Home, released on Eighth Mountain in 1994.

    Anndee Hochman’s “Parent Trip: Unexpected Roads to Form a Family” is a collection of stories from her original column.

    By 1999, Hochman had moved to Philadelphia and began freelancing for The Inquirer, still writing about family. In 2014, former Inquirer features editor Cathy Rubin asked her if she’d be interested in writing a weekly feature on people becoming parents.

    That’s how “The Parent Trip,” the column, was born. Hochman began by reaching out to midwives and OB/GYN offices to see if any of their clients would be willing to participate. The column asked readers to submit their stories.

    “Becoming a parent and forming a family felt like a messier version of the Wedding column, and that’s exactly what we got,” said Rubin, referring to the column on marital stories that “Parent Trip” replaced. “It was beyond my wildest dreams to witness and experience all of the different ways that families formed and the challenges that people had.”

    Hochman, whose daughter with her long-term partner, Elissa, was born in 2001, was able to use her own experience as a parent to inform the column.

    “When I was interviewing families who didn’t fit the norm and I shared my own family configuration with them,” she said, “I felt like I could feel their shoulders relax a little bit, particularly with the queer families.”

    “The Parent Trip” began nine months before marriage equality for same-sex couples was legalized and concluded just over a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, reversing a half-century of legalized abortion.

    Hochman makes clear with this book that families will always exist beyond the heteronormative structures society deems “normal.”

    The book is categorized into nine chapters, each carrying three to seven profiles. Through these, Hochman covers topics such as infertility, adoption, age gaps in relationships, religious differences, interracial marriages, and other circumstances that make families less “normal” per social mores.

    “I wanted the 42 [profiles] that ended up in the book to reflect the same diversity and span as the 468 that comprised nine years worth of columns,” Hochman said. “You will not find a section of stories all about single parents, or a section all about queer parents. I was more interested in the themes that echoed across all kinds of families.”

    Through writing this column, Hochman says she learned about situations she never experienced in becoming a parent, including adoption and how common miscarriages are.

    A phrase repeated by many of the parents she interviewed was “you just don’t know what’s going to happen.” Whether that be when you try to adopt, conceive, when you’re in the delivery room, once the baby is home, and once they’re 2, 6, or 25, she said.

    “There is no one right or normative way to be a family,” Hochman said. “I hope people come away with an expanded sense of what a family can look like and how children can be welcomed into one’s life.”

    “Parent Trip: Unexpected Roads to Form a Family” by Anndee Hochman is now available all over the country. $20.

  • Parts of Fairmount Park were not only the site of America’s first paper mill, but also the country’s first company town

    Parts of Fairmount Park were not only the site of America’s first paper mill, but also the country’s first company town

    We take paper for granted now. But in the late 1600s, when Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn recruited German papermaker and preacher William Rittenhouse to manufacture the writing parchment in the New World, paper was a luxury.

    England’s King William III made it difficult for his subjects — at home and in the Americas — to have it. Like many monarchs of his day, he believed it was the Crown’s duty to record history.

    The English imported paper from other European countries. So, to make matters worse, colonists who managed to appeal to the king for paper were double and triple taxed. They got fed up and went about securing their own paper to document the goings on in the government, inform citizens, record history, and ultimately plan a revolution.

    Artist Ava Haitz’s No. 1 honors the country’s first paper mill, celebrating the invention and craftsmanship that made widespread written communication possible.

    In 1690, Rittenhouse partnered with Philadelphia’s first printer, William Bradford, to build America’s first paper mill, situated in northwest Philadelphia and powered by the Monoshone Creek, a tributary of the Schuylkill.

    The paper mill will be celebrated this Saturday at Historic RittenhouseTown, part of a series of weekly “Firstival” celebrations. Firstivals are the Philadelphia Historic District’s yearlong birthday nod to places and events with Philadelphia roots. The day parties are a hallmark of this year’s Semiquincentennial fetes.

    At the Rittenhouse mill, paper was made from linen rags fashioned from flax grown in Germantown, that were broken down and shaped into sheets. The mill grew quickly as Rittenhouse, America’s first Mennonite bishop, provided paper for Bibles and Quaker and Mennonite texts in German.

    An aerial view of RittenhouseTown circa 1840-1860. The site eventually grew to more than 200 acres.

    Rittenhouse’s first paper mill was destroyed by a flood, said Alexander Jones, preservation and education manager at Historic RittenhouseTown.

    Then “Rittenhouse rebuilds and he buys out his partner,” Jones said. “The paper mill becomes his sole enterprise. Instead of hiring workers, he recruits his family and it becomes a giant company town. There is a church, a blacksmith, stone houses, a bake house, and more than 40 buildings with five or six of them under what is now Lincoln Drive.”

    RittenhouseTown’s paper mill was the only source of paper in America for more than 40 years, Jones said. It would grow to more than 200 acres.

    David Rittenhouse — Rittenhouse’s great-grandson and the astrologer, clockmaker, and first director of the U.S. Mint after whom Rittenhouse Square is named — was born in his family’s RittenhouseTown homestead in 1732.

    The town thrived for more than a century.

    By the mid-1800s, the paper mill began to slow down as dyes from textile and carpet manufacturers and chemicals from blacksmithing started to pollute the Schuylkill. The filthy water made it nearly impossible to produce good quality paper at the mill.

    The Fairmount Park Commission began acquiring parts of RittenhouseTown through a series of purchases and donations from 1890 to 1917. The city demolished many of the town’s buildings, including a barn that, Jones said, was razed and rebuilt within a year.

    RittenhouseTown’s homestead and bakehouse. The first permanent home for the Rittenhouse family and birthplace of David Rittenhouse, great-grandson of William Rittenhouse for whom Center City’s Rittenhouse Square is named.

    By that time, however, the Rittenhouse family had spread throughout the Philadelphia region from Center City to Blue Bell, Jones said.

    Today, RittenhouseTown spans 20 acres nestled in Fairmount Park right behind Lincoln Drive. Six of the original buildings remain, serving as a reminder that RittenhouseTown was the first building block of American industry.

    “The paper mill really got the ball rolling for Philadelphia,” Jones said. “And from that first came so many other American firsts in Philadelphia: the first Mennonite bishop, the first company town, and America’s first director of the U.S. Mint.”

    This week’s Firstival is Saturday, June 27, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Historic RittenhouseTown, 208 Lincoln Drive.

    The Inquirer is highlighting a “first” from the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program each week. A “52 Weeks of Firsts” podcast, produced by All That’s Good Productions, drops every Tuesday.

  • See how Philly museums and arts organizations are celebrating America’s 250th

    See how Philly museums and arts organizations are celebrating America’s 250th

    No city does history quite like Philadelphia — and it’s all on full display this summer for the nation’s 250th. From museums and historic houses to outdoor experiences and more, here are some must-dos over the coming days, weeks, and months.

    “Rushmore,” a 2016 painting by Tom Judd, is part of the “Arc of Promise” exhibit at the Woodmere Museum.

    ‘Arc of Promise’

    Woodmere Museum

    Examine how Philadelphia artists have imagined America — from earlier perspectives to modern day — in paintings, sculptures, and other media. Inspired by local artist Jerry Pinkney (1939-2021), whose “arc of promise” concept was influenced by America’s painful histories of slavery, displacement, and injustice, while holding onto the belief that renewal is still attainable.

    9201 Germantown Ave., now through Jan. 10, 2027, woodmeremuseum.org/exhibitions/arc-of-promise

    ‘The First Salute’

    Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

    Explore events surrounding Nov. 16, 1776, the day the Dutch governor of St. Eustatius welcomed a ship flying the new American flag into the harbor — making the first recognition of the new nation by a foreign entity. A critical thruway for commerce between Europe and North America, the island’s Dutch leaders offered Jews a relatively high level of religious tolerance. Highlights include a 1761 Hanukkah lamp.

    101 S. Independence Mall East, now through April 2027, theweitzman.org/exhibitions/first-salute/

    Sky Hopinka: ‘Red Metal Dust’

    Barnes Foundation

    View works by artist Sky Hopinka featuring personal perspectives of Indigenous homelands and landscapes. In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, these works of art thoughtfully explore and interrogate the American experience and its histories.

    2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, now through Jan. 18, 2027, barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/exhibitions/sky-hopinka

    A fedora owned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt is part of the “Governing the Nation” exhibit at the National Constitution Center.

    ‘Governing the Nation’

    National Constitution Center

    Explore how the American system of government functions through immersive media, dynamic projections, and 3D models of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the U.S. Supreme Court. View a pamphlet written by Alexander Hamilton on the constitutionality of the National Bank, as well as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fedora.

    525 Arch St., now on permanent display, constitutioncenter.org/museum/exhibits-programs/governing-the-nation

    A view of “Proving Ground: The First 250 Years of the American Experiment,” at Highmark Mann Satell Centennial Wall East.

    ‘Proving Ground: The First 250 Years of the American Experiment’

    Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts

    Enjoy an outdoor film experience with the 4,500-square-foot immersive LED canvas at the entrance of Highmark Mann on its new Satell Centennial Wall East. This massive storytelling canvas features cinematic visuals, motion design, music, and historical imagery that immerse visitors in Philadelphia’s role in shaping the American story.

    5201 Parkside Ave., now until October, highmarkmann.org

    ‘Revolutionary Family: The Biddles and American Independence’

    Andalusia Historic House

    Explore historical art and documents based on the Biddles, one of America’s most prominent colonial families. Discover what happened at the Andalusia site during the time of the American Revolution, including the military activity that surrounded the area, and view the beautiful painted portrait miniatures of Clement and Rebekah Biddle.

    1237 State Rd., Andalusia, now through Nov. 13, andalusiapa.org/exhibition/revolutionary-family/

    ‘Freedom Through Faith: Judaism at Eastern State and Beyond’

    Eastern State Penitentiary

    Discover how religious freedom, one of the “unalienable rights” stated in the Declaration of Independence, was strongly represented and practiced in America’s first penitentiary, especially by its Jewish inhabitants. A restored synagogue is a central feature of the exhibit and is the first synagogue in a U.S. prison.

    2027 Fairmount Ave., opening July 2 for permanent display, easternstate.org

    ‘Creating a City of Medicine’

    Mütter Museum

    Explore 250 years of Philadelphia’s impact on health and healing in the U.S., including medical education, technological innovation, and community-based healing practices. Featuring well-recognized Philadelphia leaders as well as lesser-known figures, the exhibit will educate visitors on the vital role Philadelphia played in American medicine and medical education.

    19 S. 22nd St., now through June 2028, muttermuseum.org/visit/

    ‘Nursing the Revolution’

    Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania

    In celebration of America 250 at Penn, this exhibit showcases rare materials and reproductions surrounding Revolutionary-era nursing. Explore the influence of Black and Indigenous people on the profession, and the influences of African healing and Indigenous practices on early American medicine.

    418 Curie Blvd., now through Nov. 20 by appointment only, library.upenn.edu/exhibits/nursing-revolution

    ‘Seeking Profit and Power’

    Independence Seaport Museum

    Explore the history of trade between the U.S. and China, as it relates to the birth of the United States and the long history of trade between them. View a bowl purchased by a Philadelphia merchant for George and Martha Washington, decorated with an unbroken circle and chains representing the strength of the new nation.

    211 S. Columbus Blvd., now through Jan. 3, 2028, phillyseaport.org/current-exhibits/

    ‘The Declaration’s Journey’

    Museum of the American Revolution

    This exhibit traces the American Declaration of Independence’s global influence across 250 years, including political and social change. Featuring 120-plus artifacts from almost 20 nations, it explores how leaders from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Gandhi used the declaration’s words as inspiration to inspire political revolutions and civil rights movements worldwide.

    101 S. Third St., now through Jan. 3, 2027, amrevmuseum.org/exhibits/the-declaration-s-journey

    ‘These Truths: The Declarations of Independence’

    American Philosophical Society Museum

    Located next door to Independence Hall, this new exhibition shows that the declaration was a process, and continues to evolve and shape the nation. This exhibit displays 19 rare early printings of the declaration — including one handwritten by Thomas Jefferson, and a copy from July 4, 1776.

    104 S. Fifth St., now through Jan. 3, 2027, amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/these-truths

    ‘Paths to Independence, 1765-1787’

    Historical Society of Pennsylvania

    View 140 rare, original materials tracing how American colonists transformed from loyal British subjects to revolutionaries. Highlights include a letter written by John Adams the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, praising a Massachusetts woman as a “historiographer” of the revolution, and view early drafts of the Constitution.

    1300 Locust St., now through Sept. 18, hsp.org/explore/exhibits-hsp/paths-independence-1765-1787

    ‘A Nation of Artists’

    Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Philadelphia Museum of Art

    Two of Philadelphia’s premier institutions have united for this landmark exhibition. At PAFA, works made from the late 18th century to modern day showcase scenes of westward expansion and the rise of industry. At PMA, view American art from 1700 to 1960, identifying global connections that inspired artistic and technological innovation. Featuring more than 1,000 works — including pieces from the private Middleton Family Collection, and by Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol.

    PAFA, 118-128 N. Broad St., now through Sept. 5, 2027; PMA, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, now through July 5, 2027; anationofartists.org

    ‘America Today: Voices in Contemporary Print’

    The Print Center

    Explore the current state of democracy through contemporary printmaking from 38 artists. This free exhibition was inspired by the New Deal of the 1930s and 1940s, when printmaking was used for political commentary. View works from generations of artists who use printmaking as an art form to explore and express the issues we face today.

    1614 Latimer St., now through July 25, printcenter.org/100/america-today/

    Medical History in Philly

    Pennsylvania Hospital Museum

    The Pennsylvania Hospital Museum, which opened in May, transforms the historic Pine Building of America’s first chartered hospital, founded by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond in 1751, into a public museum. Discover breakthroughs in brain health, and trace medicine from herbal healing teas to one of the most groundbreaking medical innovations: CRISPR gene editing.

    800 Spruce St., now open permanently, pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org

    ‘Revisit 1876’

    Lits Building

    Connect today’s Philadelphia to 1876, when Philadelphia made history as the first city in North America to host the World’s Fair. At this free exhibit, explore that period and see how far technology has taken us. Use your cell phones to capture a replica of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone.

    701 Market St., now through Dec. 31, centercityphila.org

    Part of “The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution” exhibit at the Mercer Museum.

    ‘The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution’

    Mercer Museum

    Explore your rebellious side with these known enemies of the Founding Fathers, the Doan Gang, who were loyal to British rule in the colonies. This exhibit is from the perspective of Loyalists, who opposed American independence. Discover the untold stories that combine espionage, legendary robberies, and mythical lost treasure.

    84 S. Pine St., Doylestown, now through Dec. 31, mercermuseum.org/doangang/

    ‘Freedom Dreams’

    Barnes Foundation

    View powerful works by artists that invite viewers to immerse themselves in the memories, dreams, and histories of Black Americans from the past and present. Reflect on how Americans of color have shaped identities and created spaces of resistance, joy, and resilience in the face of systemic oppression. Featured artists include Philadelphia-based David Hartt and Tourmaline.

    2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, now through Aug. 9, barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/exhibitions/freedom-dreams

    ‘Let Freedom Ring’

    Cherry Street Pier

    This summer, the Delaware River Waterfront transforms into a free, outdoor gallery called “Where Freedom Flows.” Highlights include “Let Freedom Ring” by Paul Ramírez Jonas — where visitors can strike a 600-pound bell to sound the final note of “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” connecting Philadelphia’s historic waterfront to the nation’s evolving story of freedom.

    121 N. Columbus Blvd., now through Sept. 27, cherrystreetpier.com

    ‘Wings and Water: The Space Between’

    Cherry Street Pier

    Set your sights on this beautiful community-driven artwork installation by GrioXArts — artists Duwenavue Santé Johnson and Kara Mshinda. The textile centerpiece is a reimagined American flag composed of hand-embroidered bandannas created during a previous public workshop. It reflects personal and cultural narratives of BIPOC voices into Philadelphia’s evolving story and history.

    121 N. Columbus Blvd., July 3 through Aug. 1, cherrystreetpier.com

    ‘At Liberty: Life in the City of Brotherly Love During the Early Republic’

    Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania

    Explore fine art during our forefathers’ time with holdings from the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Winterthur Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curated by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, it features paintings, sculptures, and watercolor drawings of notable figures, including Benjamin Franklin.

    220 S. 34th St., Aug. 28 through Dec. 13, arthurrossgallery.org

    A portrait by Tom McKinney is part of the “From Invisible to Invincible” exhibit at the Historic Strawberry Mansion.

    ‘From Invisible to Invincible: Honoring the Art of Color’

    Historic Strawberry Mansion

    This exhibit recognizes both the 250th anniversary of the founding of America and the 100th anniversary of the Committee of 1926, a women-led organization formed during the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition, and dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of this mansion. It will showcase artists who did not get a fair opportunity to shine in the original 1926 exposition due to systemic inequities.

    2450 Strawberry Mansion Dr., Sept. 18 through Nov. 8, historicstrawberrymansion.org

  • S. Broad Street gets a new landscaped median — and it’s just the start of what’s planned

    S. Broad Street gets a new landscaped median — and it’s just the start of what’s planned

    A new landscaped median under construction for months in front of the Kimmel Center has reached completion — the down payment on a promised major redo of the Avenue of the Arts streetscape.

    The leafy ribbon down the middle of Broad Street from Spruce to Pine Streets was officially unveiled Wednesday morning with speeches and a ceremonial sprinkling from blue watering cans onto the new plantings.

    “We aimed high and we met our lofty expectations, and we’re off and running,” said Carl Dranoff, chair of Avenue of the Arts Inc., which is spearheading the project.

    There is a practical, traffic-calming intention behind the raised median: It leaves less space for drivers to make U-turns on the block occupied by the arts center and residences, and creates a barrier to thwart pedestrians jaywalking across Broad Street.

    Attendees watering the new redesign of the South Broad Street median outside the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    But the slender, shapely strip of trees, shrubs, and ground cover atop a granite base with metal skirt signals a larger transformation to come.

    In spring of 2027, work is expected to begin on an ambitious beautification of the heavily trafficked block. Sidewalks will be landscaped, sculptures installed, and pop-up performance space carved out, creating what planners say will be a markedly different vibe.

    That will give the project’s leaders something tangible to point to when raising money for the entire streetscape project, which is envisioned as eventually stretching from City Hall south to Washington Avenue.

    “The idea of a beta block was to get everybody on board and excited about what can be accomplished — the doability and to create buzz,” said Dranoff, who said the median was the first step in turning South Broad Street into “one of the great streets of the world.”

    Oliver Schaper, Ubran Designer for the Project with the New York office of Architecture/Design Firm Gensler, waters the plants in the redesign of the South Broad Street median outside the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    That larger, 10-block effort is expected to cost about $150 million and take years to design and complete, with funds anticipated from both government sources and philanthropy.

    The design of each segment will vary, said Oliver Schaper, an urban designer for the project with the New York office of architecture/design firm Gensler.

    “The requirements of adjacent buildings are different on every block, the left-turn lanes are different, even the length of the median is different from block to block,” Schaper said. “We wanted to make sure that all the design elements can act as a kit of parts and adjust, so each design of a block will be an application of that kit of parts so they feel like cousins, but specific.”

    Some design professionals have criticized the median as intrusive to sight lines, but the design and landscaping were chosen to preserve sight lines, Dranoff said.

    Carl Dranoff, Chair of Avenue of the Arts Inc., speaks about the redesign of the South Broad Street median outside the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    “All of the trees were specifically selected to have long trunks and very narrow canopies, all the vegetation.” The designs adhere to standards for safety, he said, “so we are very confident that we will not block views.”

    The flora — about three dozen kinds of native and adaptive plants — were chosen by OJB Landscape Architecture to withstand “the abuse that they will be subject to in terms of the winters and the salt and all that,” Schaper said.

    Looking ahead, the blocks farther north from Spruce Street are anticipated as having fewer trees, to preserve the view of City Hall.

    “We even designed, as you get closer to City Hall, standing areas for brides and photo ops, so that we’re not taking anything away from people,” Dranoff said. “We have parade areas so that Mummers and other parades have performance areas between the medians.”

    City Hall seen in the back near the new redesign of the South Broad Street median outside the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    But more immediate is the work from Pine to Spruce, where Dranoff’s 47-story Arthaus residential condo tower sits. The $5 million needed to pay for the median and work on the infrastructure beneath the street “is accounted for and that was utilized,” Dranoff said, “and of the $10 million for the sidewalks, we have several million lined up and more to go, and we’ll have it all by the end of the year.”

    Construction on the sidewalk portions is expected to begin in 2027 and be completed by the end of the year “or thereabouts,” he said.

    Schaper said part of the goal is to rebalance the dynamic between pedestrians and other factors.

    “I think as designers at some point we take a position, and our position was, ‘Let’s design for pedestrians.’ There are, of course, very specific requirements that we need to adhere to — for example, it’s reflected in conversations that we had with the Kimmel Center about their bus queuing, and we made adjustments to continue to allow that to happen.”

    The new redesign of the South Broad Street median outside the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

    But, he said, the plan sets out to be “an advocate of the pedestrian experience, and not think that private car access is the model of the future for cities.”

    Dranoff said construction of this first median phase, running much of the block from Spruce to Pine, was delayed by the unusually harsh conditions of this past winter, but workers made up for lost time.

    “Philadelphia’s going to be a hotbed this summer, and the whole point of this was to show what we can do and be more beautiful and more attractive and more compelling to Philadelphians and to suburbanites and to the world.”

  • How the Marquis de Lafayette became a surprising selfie favorite with visitors at the French National Archives

    How the Marquis de Lafayette became a surprising selfie favorite with visitors at the French National Archives

    PARIS, FRANCE — On a recent sunny May morning, Parisian middle schoolers had found a curious selfie point. Not a tourist landmark, not a kitschy backdrop, and not a mirror booth.

    It was the long rococo staircase of the 14th-century Hôtel de Soubise, which houses the Museum of the National Archives of France, plastered with the face of Marquis de Lafayette, the French military officer who died in 1834.

    “This has become a selfie hot spot somehow,” said Alexandra Hauchecorne, the museum’s technical director of the “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” show.

    The Hôtel de Soubise’s rococo staircase, with likeness of the Marquis de Lafayette, has become a selfie hot spot at the Musée des Archives Nationales in Paris.

    Lafayette — both before and after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton — is a celebrated hero in America. Textbooks record that he was only 19 when he came to America in 1777 to join the Continental Army under George Washington. He fought for American independence, participated in the Battle of Brandywine and the Siege of Yorktown, faced the harsh winter of Valley Forge, convinced the French King Louis XVI to send more troops, and developed a deep relationship with Washington — so much so that Lafayette named his only son, George Washington.

    And of course, Lafayette has also become the de-facto author of the catchphrase “Immigrants… We get the job done” by way of Daveed Diggs playing him in Miranda’s immensely popular musical, a phrase splashed on countless tote bags and in hashtags.

    In France, however, “Lafayette was not regarded the same way as he is here,” said Olga Anna Duhl, professor of French and comparative literature at Easton, Pa.’s Lafayette College and one of the exhibition’s curators.

    The yellow room of the ongoing “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” at the Musée des Archives Nationales in Paris. The exhibit focuses on Lafayette’s participation in the American Continental Army.

    His involvement in the French Revolution and desire to have France be a constitutional monarchy, as opposed to a republic like America, made him a target of criticism from both the left and right of the French political system. He was perceived as a traitor and eventually forced to flee the country. Lafayette was imprisoned first by the Austrians and then by the Prussians, who (ironically) considered him a rebel.

    With it being the American Semiquincentennial, Duhl “thought that it would be wonderful” to have an exhibition in Paris and “educate the French people, and any person who comes to visit” about Lafayette.

    In France, she said, “you study history, then you go into his life, and especially his American side. But you know very little about his French contribution, which is very paradoxical.”

    The red room of the ongoing “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” at Paris’ Musée des Archives Nationales focuses on Lafayette’s participation in the American and French revolutions.

    The exhibition encompasses five rooms color coded to fit the years of Lafayette’s life — yellow, the color of the Continental Army uniform, to tell the story of Lafayette’s years in America; red denoting the American Revolution; green to denote Lafayette’s years in semiretirement in France, gardening and practicing agriculture and often experimenting with seeds from America; a light blue to mark Lafayette’s triumphant return to America in 1824; and a darker blue to denote monarchy and Lafayette’s last years, which he spent backing King Louis Philippe I and supporting other revolutions.

    The red room — the most interesting one — builds up Lafayette as the American hero he became. Among other artifacts, it includes a letter Ben Franklin wrote to him on behalf of the Philadelphia Philanthropic Society in 1788.

    The green room of the ongoing “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” at Paris’ Musée des Archives Nationales focuses on Lafayette’s years of semi-retirement spent gardening in Château de Chavaniac.

    “Most of our Legislators have already abolished the Slave Trade,” it reads, “…But from the influence of narrow prejudices and jealousies there is too much reason to apprehend that nothing effectual will be done in this business until France concurs in it, of which we cannot but entertain the most pleasing expectation.”

    Franklin enclosed copies of the U.S. Constitution for Lafayette’s perusal, only six months after Franklin, whose health was failing, had James Wilson read aloud his closing speech at the Constitutional Convention.

    A letter Lafayette wrote to George Washington on March 17, 1790, is on display, too. Along with the letter, Lafayette sent his mentor the key to “that fortress of despotism” that was the Bastille. Thomas Paine, who carried this extraordinary gift, said, “That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place.”

    Paper fans carrying Lafayette’s name were popular among his followers. Lafayette was a canny self-promoter who hired publicists to defend his image.

    Also on display are lampoons and letters that speak to the immense distrust both the aristocrats and democrats had of Lafayette.

    “If this is the eldest child of Liberty, he is murdering his mother,” a letter reads. “Lafayette treated as he deserves by democrats and aristocrats,” reads a lampoon showing the French lieutenant général being hung by a noose by two men on his either side.

    Lafayette, on his part, was a canny self-promoter. He hired several publicists to defend his public image and recruited people to clap at his speeches. In what would be classified as merch today, his face adorned fans, buttons, and commemorative plates.

    On display in the light blue room, marking his triumphant return to America in 1824, are several objects — pitchers, tea sets, baby shoes, shoeshine brushes — all emblazoned with his face and name.

    Produced in a factory in Burslem, Staffordshire, a tea service set in blue and white earthenware shows the Marquis de Lafayette sitting by Benjamin Franklin’s grave. This imaginary scene appeared on plates and other items manufactured to commemorate Lafayette’s return to the U.S. in 1824. From the “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” at the Musée des Archives Nationales, Paris.

    As Lafayette’s reputation in France remained checkered at best, many of these branded memorabilia were found in homes in Philadelphia, a prominent stop in Lafayette’s “Farewell Tour” of the Union’s 24 states. An invitation to the Lafayette Ball held in Philadelphia in 1824 hangs on the wall.

    Much of the artifacts come from the collection of Lafayette College, the only college in the U.S. named after him. More streets and public places in the U.S. are named after Lafayette than any other foreigner. In Paris, about six hours away from Chateau Lafayette where he lived, only Rue La Fayette, one of the city’s longest streets, bears his name.

    That and a glitzy shopping mall with 10 floors, best known for its rooftop views of the city.

    “Lafayette is very well known [in France] but not as a historical figure,” said Duhl. “And one of the educational aims of this exhibition is to educate people about this compelling figure … so that the new generation can really develop an idea about who Lafayette really was, because he has disappeared basically from manuals.”

    The “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” exhibit at Paris’ Musée des Archives Nationales seeks to educate French visitors about the historical importance of Marquis de Lafayette.

    On a weekday morning, there was a mix of visitors to the exhibition that, Hauchecorne said, was a rare bilingual event at the Archives. Parisians and school children have been visiting, as have Americans on vacation, to know more about the man who has been shown rapping lines that are becoming of his high self-esteem: “No one has more resilience or matches my practical, tactical brilliance!”

    Even though previous exhibitions have not had much materials translated into English, the Archives, which houses records dating back to the 1st millennium, has had Americans dropping in before.

    Most notably: Tom Cruise performing a motorcycle stunt as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018).

    “Lafayette, between France and America: History and Legend” runs through July 14 at Musée des Archives Nationales, 60, rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 75003 Paris. archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr

  • Meek Mill joins the July 4 ‘One Philly: Unity Concert for America’ lineup

    Meek Mill joins the July 4 ‘One Philly: Unity Concert for America’ lineup

    The event billed as the nation’s largest free concert and biggest celebration of America’s 250th anniversary just got bigger.

    Meek Mill will join headliners Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, and The Roots to perform at the “One Philly: Unity Concert for America” on July 4 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

    ESM Productions and Live Nation Urban announced the addition of the Dreams and Nightmares rapper to the Parkway bill on Tuesday morning, hot off his Saturday night performance at “Lit in AC,” a hip-hop festival featuring early 2000s bling-era rappers T.I., Eve, Shyne, Havoc, and Ms. Jade.

    Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff; Kathy Sledge, lead singer of ’70s R&B girl group Sister Sledge; and State Property, the Philly hip-hop collective that includes Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Peedi Crakk, and Chris and Neef, are also scheduled to perform.

    While the bill includes mostly Philadelphia-area musicians — Aguilera grew up outside Pittsburgh — performers also include Seal, the Brit whose hit “Kiss From a Rose” still stops music fans in their tracks; Infinity Song, the Detroit-born soft rock and soul family; and Jordan Davis, the Louisiana-born country music singer.

    Comedian and part-time Media resident Wanda Sykes is hosting. Gillie da Kid and Wallo267 are also slated to make an appearance.

    The nearly seven-hour show will start at 5 p.m. and end just before midnight, with a fireworks finale to follow. Admission to the concert starts at 3 p.m.

    The “One Philly: Unity Concert for America” is presented by the City of Philadelphia and produced by Center City-based ESM Productions with executive producers Scott Mirkin, Shawn Gee (The Roots’ manager and head of Live Nation Urban), and Roots frontman Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.

    Wawa is a sponsor of the concert, but the show is not part of Wawa Welcome America, the series of events leading up to the July 4 holiday, which this year will include concerts with Queen Latifah, Eve, Idina Menzel, and Pink Sweat$, among others.

    The “One Philly: Unity Concert for America,” according to the news release announcing the event, is “designed as a non-partisan celebration of unity, diversity, and democracy” that brings together “voices, perspectives, and performances that reflect the richness of the American experience across generations and genres.”