Play On, Philly! (POP), the acclaimed innovative educational music program which began in 2011 at West Philly’s St. Francis de Sales School, is inviting neighbors to their first collaborative concert tonight at 7 p.m. at West Catholic Preparatory High School (45th & Chestnut). Admission is FREE.

This season, POP has been focusing on collaboration, creativity and composition, as part of a new program, POP Creates. All of their concerts this season will be collaborations, including Orchestra 2001 and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera, Messiah College, and Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three, to name a few. The impressive guest artist list includes: Trio Cavatina, Joseph Lin, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, the Takacs Quartet and Time for Three.

Tonight’s concert is a collaboration between St. Francis de Sales Firebird String Orchestra and Junior String Philharmonic of Lehigh Valley (JSP). The highlight of the concert will be a joint performance of Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and selections from The Nutracker Suite. Pieces by Bach and Pachelbel will also be featured. The concert will be conducted by Kenneth Bean, Music Director/Conductor of JSP and Naomi Gonzalez, Conductor at POP.

To read more about Play On, Philly! and to check the schedule of their upcoming events, visit: http://www.playonphilly.org/

(Photo courtesy of Play On, Philly!)

2013 West Philly Local Pumpkin Carving Contest Readers’ Choice Winner Milena Velis.

On first glance, Milena Velis’s carved pumpkin seems out of place.

A thick, padlocked chain marks an X in front of a fence. In the distance, the moon rises above a school building framed by bare, gangly trees.

It’s an image in stark contrast to the werewolf, skeletons, pumpkin heads, and haunted forest that comprised the entries in West Philly Local’s 2013 Pumpkin Carving Contest. But while Velis’s pumpkin may not show a spooky motif synonymous with Halloween, it could be considered the most frightening of them all.

After all, what’s more terrifying than the School District of Philadelphia shuttering 24 schools—including local University City High School and Alexander Wilson Elementary—and laying off nearly 3,000 staff members in the face of steep budget cuts and choked funding?

The chilling implications of the public education crisis on Philadelphia and its families is largely why Velis’s pumpkin, which took two days to design and nearly three days to carve, won Readers’ Choice in the contest. To the many West Philly Local readers who voted, her pumpkin symbolized the “scariest thing” to happen to Philadelphia this year. Velis said this was her intention with her Scariest Pumpkin category entry—to memorialize what happened at the beginning of the school year.

“Part of it is just that there’s something so unbelievable about the permanent closing of schools that it does take a while to process it. That’s true for a lot of people,” Velis, a 29-year-old Cedar Park resident, told West Philly Local. Continue Reading

Click to enlarge.

This Friday and Saturday (Nov 15 & 16), Penn Museum and VIX Emporium are teaming up to present one of the first holiday shopping opportunities for local residents and guests – a special two-day craft fair titled “Gifts in the Galleries.” The craft fair means unique, handmade gifts, like jewelry, clothing, accessories, hand knits, ceramics, home wares, original artworks, prints, stationery, soaps, candles and more from over 50 independent artists and craftspeople who will be there in person to present their work.

Gifts In The Galleries will take place in the Kintner and Dietrich galleries and the Widener Lecture Hall, located on the west end of the Museum, near 33rd and Spruce. Admission to the craft show is free, plus guests will receive a coupon for $5 off general museum admission on Saturday, so this is a great opportunity to view the museum’s vast collection of relics from all over the world. On Saturday, visitors are also encouraged to join the free instructional drum circle with internationally renowned Middle Eastern percussionist Joe Tayoun. For more information, go here.

Gifts in the Galleries
Penn Museum (33rd & Spruce)
Friday, Nov 15 – 4-7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov 16 – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Photo from West Philadelphia Orchestra’s Facebook page.

This is a reminder that the always entertaining West Philadelphia Orchestra is coming to the Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore a free concert for kids tonight (Sunday) at 6 p.m. Philly’s Balkan brass band will also have a performance for grown-ups beginning at 7:30 p.m. that will feature Ismail Hakki Fencioğlu and Shtreiml (billed as “Turkish roots and Jewish blues.”) Tickets for this concert range from $5 for Crossroads members to $30 for ticket, which includes donation. The concerts are organized by Crossroads Music; visit their website for more information.

If you want a glimpse of what West Philadelphia Orchestra is about, check out the video below (hint: it’s impossible to sit still when you watch their performances).

A couple of months ago, West Philly Local wrote about the call for short film submissions for the 2013 Sloppy Film Fest. Some of your creative neighbors and friends got busy and put together homemade flicks in a “fast and loose” manner, just like the fest organizers wanted. And now it’s time to check out their work. The Sloppy Film Fest, a free show organized by Project Arts, will take place tonight from 10 – 12 p.m. at Dahlak Paradise (4708 Baltimore Ave). Each film screened at the fest is between 5 and 10 minutes long.

The Sloppy Film Fest has been held on and off for the last 15 years. “The idea is to promote DIY filmmaking,” Project Arts executive director Rich Wexler told West Philly Local back in September. Kids are welcome, at least for the first part of the show, as it will begin with films rated PG and PG-13.

More information is available on the event’s Facebook page. And here’s a teaser:

We can’t get enough of Philly Thriller. The popular local community dance project has grown since its introduction in 2009 and this year included 34 dancers and a long waitlist of those who wanted to be part of the project, according to its founder Rashida Holmes. If you missed Philly Thriller perform this Halloween check out the video below shot by Rich Wexler of Project Arts. Rich also spoke to Rashida about her project and chatted with some Philly Thriller dancers. Enjoy!