June 2014

Sunday Suppers

Art of Food — Produced by Monica Rogozinski

Sunday Suppers, a community outreach program started by Sociologist and Chef Linda Samost, is changing the way families think about food. These suppers take currently place inside Memphis Street Academy in Kensignton, with plans to expand to other locations within the next couple of years. Sunday Suppers provides low-income families a free healthy meal and a chance to attend a sit down dinner in a restaurant atmosphere. Once a week, participants meet at the school’s cafeteria for a program that includes nutrition and cooking lessons, and some group exercise prior to sitting down for a freshly prepared meal. At the end, each family gets a to-go bag with ingredients and directions to make healthy meals at home. As a result of coming to the Sunday Suppers “families are expanding and altering their food choices” as well as having more opportunities to socialize and volunteer. Join Friday Arts as we take a look into how Linda Samost runs Sunday Suppers each week, and the ways it’s positively impacting problems affecting the community such as hunger, obesity, and diabetes.

Put A Ring On it

Art of Life — Produced by Karen Smyles

Philadelphia Bronze started as Mainline Ringers in 2008 as a result of a community of ringers looking for an advanced ensemble in which to participate and grew from a small group into a full ensemble. In 2013 they rebranded, doubled in size, and now are Philadelphia Bronze. The musicians are known as “ringers” and come from as far away as Bucks County and Lancaster County, and are auditioned at the beginning of every year. They primarily perform classical works, however , they have done gospel, jazz and even pop. The group was started by Director, Martha Alford, an accomplished flutist, and has a home-base at the Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, PA.

Looking to expand the reach and experience of the group, Alford reached out to Impulse, a youth handbell ensemble from Marlboro Township, New Jersey, for a collaborative performance this past February. The director of Impulse, Ryan Guth, was eager to participate and saw it as a great opportunity for his young musicians who have been receiving quite a bit of recognition from their web performances of contemporary works on handbells .

In June, Art of Life talks with the directors of both groups about their music, and their desire to bring the handbell into the forefront of the music world. We drop in on rehearsals and see how it all comes together as they prepared for their Valentine’s Day performance.

We also visit the Malmark Handbell Company in Plumsteadville, PA to talk with Neil McDonald, Director of Sales, about the making of handbells and chimes. Malmark manufactures the world’s largest range of handbell ringing instruments and everything is made right there on the premises.

Dance Everything You Can: The Accidental

Art — Produced by Michael O’Reilly

Trey McIntyre says the title of his latest dance, THE ACCIDENTAL, came from the fact that as he was choreographing at the Pennsylvania Ballet studios, he was making it up as he went along, looking for the unexpected, the things that would surprise him. Technically termed as “contemporary ballet” (all the turnouts and none of the tutus), McIntyre’s choreography feels more like the collision of pirouettes and “parkour” – instead of using gravity and inertia to propel themselves down public stairs and city railings like street runners do in “parkour”, the dancers play off each other, using the weight of their partner as if it is an obstacle to overcome, but with a grace that only a classical ballet dancer could bring to surmounting that obstacle. To call the accompanying music a score might be too formal a word for the handful of songs from the Patrick Watson album (Adventures In Your Own Backyard) that make up the soundtrack, but that does not mean their is not power in the music McIntyre has chosen. In this ART segment you will find a intimate and rigorous portrait of a dance – interviews with the dancers and choreographers and the heady rush of movement as the FRIDAY ARTS cameras take you from rehearsal to Academy of Music performance and back again, often in just the space of a heartbeat.