May 10-12: National Public Gardens Day | Judy Wicks | Center City Jazz Festival | Chinatown Parklet launch | Architecture and Finance walking tour

In addition to Love Your Park Week events, this weekend has activities for garden lovers, sustainability enthusiasts, young professionals, jazz and history buffs and more. Enjoy it!

TOUR National Public Gardens Day

Friday, May 10, Times and locations vary. Philadelphia has 30 public gardens in a 30-mile radius, making it “America’s Garden Capital.” Many of those gardens invite visitors to join them in celebrating National Public Gardens Day this Friday. Participating gardens will give free seed kits to all who attend. Featured gardens include Longwood Gardens, Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, Bartram’s Garden, Chanticleer, the Philadelphia Zoo and the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation. A full list of gardens is available here

SHOW Grid Alive with Judy Wicks

Friday, May 10, 7 p.m., Trinity Memorial Church, 22nd and Spruce streets. Grid Magazine is planning big stuff for Friday’s Grid Alive – the show that brings each of the magazine issue’s people and topics to the stage for an open discussion. This Friday’s event celebrates the 50th issue of Grid. This Grid Alive invites Judy Wicks, founder of  White Dog Café, Sustainable Business Network and Fair Food; Rob Fleming, sustainable design director at Philadelphia University; and William Woys Weaver, from The Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism. Hosts Alex Mulcahy and Nic Esposito promise a fun, talk show affair with live music and local beer and wine. Cost: $5

MUSIC Center City Jazz Festival

Friday-Saturday, May 10th-11th, Various locations. The Kickstarter-launched jazz festival, which began last year, returns bigger and better than before. Founded by musician Ernest Stuart, the event has expanded to showcase more than 20 concerts at six different locations over the course of two days. Popular Philly venues Milkboy, University of the Arts, Chris’ Jazz Cafe, Fergie’s, Time and even the Philadelphia Museum of Art will all become festival venues, overflowing with the sounds of some of the area’s top jazz talent. Cost: $15-50

CELEBRATE CHINATOWN PARKLET

Saturday, May 11, 11am-1pm. 10th Street at Cherry Street. After a false start, Chinatown’s new parklet is officially open. The grand opening will feature music, a photo-booth, and a lion dance at noon. Tweet a photo from the parklet on the 28th (using  #parklet) to @PCDC_Events, and you’ll get $1 off a TeaDo drink in the month of May.

TOUR The Preservation Alliance Walking Tour: Bankers’ Heaven: Architecture and Finance in Philadelphia

Saturday, May 11th, 10am-noon, Meet at east entrance to Bourse Building, 111 S. 4th St.. Saturday’s walking tour will take you back to Philadelphia’s banking and financial capital heyday. Preservation Alliance guides will lead guests around the old banking epicenter, once home to the first stock exchange, the Bank of the United States, the US Mint, the first securities exchange, the first commodities exchange and other major banking and insurance institutions. Cost: Adults $10, students $8, children 10 and under free. 

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