Poets, performances, and art for sale

Looking for some last minute reasons to leave the house this weekend?  Check out a few of these suggestions from WHYY’s Arts + Culture reporter Peter Crimmins:

Ntozake Shange at the Art Sanctuary

The author of the celebrated poem turned Broadway show turned feature film, “For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf”, will help consecrate the Art Sanctuary’s move from North to South Philadelphia. The organization dedicated to African-American arts – including music, dance, and literature – is spending this week breaking in their newly refurbished building at 15th and Bainbridge with a showcase of events in the lively arts tradition. The four-day grand opening caps on Saturday with Ms. Shange at the old space at the Church of the Advocate (18th and Diamond) where Tyler Perry’s film is likely to be addressed.

Ntozake Shange at the Art SanctuarySaturday, December 416th and Bainbridge streets11AM – 1PM

 

The Nearanight Lectures

Somewhere between the Cabinet of Wonders and the Periodic Table, the Nightjar Apothecary hung out its shingle. Performance artist/gentleman scientist Brett Keyser measures a teaspoon of known fact with a vial of snakeoil and heats it over the Bunsen of what-might-have-been.  The theatrical lecture in a Victorian style guides listeners down a wormhole of Man’s relationship to its own creation: the scientific method. A whimsical romp between the Scylla and Charybdis of quantifiable thought and mystical inspiration.

The Nearanight LecturesFriday, December 3Chemical Heritage Foundation5 – 8 PMfree

 

Art Sales:

What are you giving this Christmas?…cream-colored ponies? Crisp apple streudals? Doorbells? Sleighbells? Schnitzel with noodles? It’s very likely one or all of your favorite things can be found at the many art sales this weekend; highly likely something not on your list, too. An upstart art collective fast gaining ground – Little Berlin – is preparing a new home in Kensington and staging an Art Dash on Friday night to pay for it. 50 original pieces of art for 25 bucks each; if you snooze, you lose. On Saturday, a shared studio space perched above the Italian Market will open for a Small Art Sale; we only discovered 837 Studios (at 837 League Street, hidden a ½ block above Washington Avenue at 9th street) during the recent Open Studios and were quickly warmed by the art inside the weirdly inhospitable space. Save room for dessert: next Friday, Space 1026 will auction off items by its members; this weekend you can get a preview of their edgy prints (which include fart jokes).

Art Sales:Little Berlin837 StudiosSpace 1026 auction previewWeekend of Dec 3 – 5