Gender-expansive joy, Cannonball Platform, and horses

Welcome, new readers! You can check out the 'about' page if you'd like a little context. Each newsletter closes with a Philadelphia moment, institution, or window cat of the week because I love it here. And I'm always open to suggestions, feedback, responses at solidseam@gmail.com.

We are in the full Fringe swing of things now! I'm making up for lost time after being sidelined by sickness and so glad to be in the fray. I was at opening night for Pig Iron's Poor Judge last night and the vibes in the overstuffed Wilma lobby were glorious.

Fringe coverage

While there is seemingly no Fringe coverage at all in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I'm delighted to have found this new blog from Matthew Sekellick, Plays Unpleasant, with theater reviews. (Thank you to Savannah Reich for sharing it on instagram!) I've found a lot to agree with and a lot to push against and I just love having informed coverage of some of what's happening here. Matthew's review of Poor Judge includes the kind public service of a spotify playlist of all of the Aimee Mann songs featured in the show. If you are subscribed to this little newsletter, the Plays Unpleasant substack is probably right up your alley as well.

Connor Hogan also wrote about some shows they saw this week. Connor says they are not reviews, so that's fine, but whatever they are, I hope there will be more of them...

Broad Street Review and thINKingDANCE continue to have some coverage of Fringe as well. I've been enjoying desire amaiya's poetic reviews, like this one of Leigh James Huster and Chloe Marie's show sorry just seeing this. Are you finding good writing about Fringe shows anywhere else? (Besides fleeting instagram stories?) Are there any shows you think people are sleeping on and should know about?

Cannonball Platform

Those Cannonball wizards keep cooking up new stuff. I continue to be gobsmacked at the sheer level of activity these incredible artists and organizers are able to achieve. Next week, September 19-22, they'll be hosting a series of conversations that seem really ripe for digging into. The tagline seems to be "presenting is about more than booking," which is not all that catchy, but is true.

I'll be moderating a panel on Friday, September 20, at 3pm, and panelists include Ben Grinberg, Mikaela Boone, and Alyssa Bigbee, with questions like:

"Cannonball's explosive growth since its founding points to the immense need for support among independent artists – and the potential for co-producing and co-presentation models to capture audience attention. ... What elements of this experiment can be applied to other contexts? Where is it working, how is it leveraging partnerships with other Philadelphia-based organizations (such as FringeArts and Pig Iron) for maximum impact, and how can it continue to evolve?"

Check out the whole line-up at Cannonball's instagram. Registration fees are very reasonable, include some meals, and are probably tax-deductible.

last two weeks for Rose

If you saw John Jarboe's Rose: You Are Who You Eat last year in the Fringe, you can check out a different iteration currently on view at the Fabric Workshop and Museum until September 29. The exhibit has an abundance of rooms and videos and music and installations and a clothing swap and resource center and more and more and more and it's interesting to see how Jarboe takes the same source material used for the performance and continues mining it for this wildly ambitious exhibition. I'm a huge fan of the Fabric Workshop for their exhibits, but also because it's free, I've never seen it crowded, and every staff member I've met has been so chill and kind.

The programming that goes with the exhibit is equally impressive. I'm crushed to have missed the visit from the Euphoria Quilt Project, which solicited gender-expansive joy quilt blocks and received submissions from 40 states and 5 countries. But there's still a handful of events left, including a poetry night with Lady Dane next Friday, which you could combine with some snacks from Reading Terminal Market and a visit to The Rose Garden exhibit.

Sisterly Affection (a bit of Philadelphia appreciation)

This week's entry comes courtesy of my fickle friend, the 57 bus. I was reading a magazine when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “do you ride?” I was puzzled, do I ride bikes? Motorcycles? “Your shirt,” he said, seeing my confusion. Oh god, what shirt am I wearing? Ahh, yes, my shirt with horses on it that I bought during my first ever visit to Chicago, when Liz Lerman’s The Matter of Origins was at the MCA in 2011.

We quickly established that we were both from Texas and both Virgos. Those might be our only points of intersection, as he also shared that he was barrel racing horses at 5, driving a tank in Vietnam by 17, not a fan of Tim Walz, and a spear fisherman, at least back in the day. He himself was wearing a shirt with small, discreet sailboats on it and he does indeed like to sail, so his hope that I would ride horses because I was wearing them on my shirt was not unwarranted.

 Thank you to the gods of SEPTA and the city of Philadelphia for always bringing unpredictability to the most routine matters.