The first annual BlackStar Film Festival is being held at the International House in West Philly (3701 Chestnut St.) this weekend. The mission of the new festival is to showcase films not always featured in other festivals by celebrating “the visual and storytelling traditions of the African Diaspora and to showcase independent film and video works by and about black people from around the world.” The four-day festival includes forty films of all genres, including documentaries, music videos, and experimental films along with traditional narratives. Tickets ($8) are available online.

One of the films being featured at the festival is FunkJazz Kafé: Diary of a Decade, a documentary chronicling the evolution of black and popular music told by musicians themselves – old, current and future. Famous faces in the film include: Roy Ayers, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, George Clinton, Dick Gregory, Chuck D, Dallas Austin, Cee Lo, and many others. The film was written, directed, and produced by Jason Orr. There will be a Q&A session with him after the screening, which is tomorrow (Aug 4) at 8 p.m. Check out the trailer below.

– Kelly Lawler

Reminder: The 2nd Porch Hop hosted by community groups 48th Street Neighbors and Mel-Lo Town Watch is this Saturday (Aug 4), from 5 to 8 p.m. See the list of participating porches below.

FYI, one of the Porch Hop organizers, Patty Bulack,  invites neighbors to stop by her porch after 6 p.m. for a jam session.  A classical singer will perform (Patty will be playing piano to accompany her), and sax and guitar players will be on hand.  Patty’s son will be on the drums. They are planning to play recordings from a newly released CD of a neighbor around the corner.

For more information, please visit the event’s Facebook page.

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The West Philadelphia Block Captains Forum is coming up on Saturday, August 4, and registration is open now. This is a unique and exciting opportunity for skill-building, leadership development and networking for block captains from West Philadelphia. Participating block captains can attend free workshops, including Computer and Internet Training, Zoning and City Planning, Crime and Safety, and Community Organizing. District Attorney Seth Williams will be a keynote speaker at the forum, as well as a guest panelist in the workshop on Crime and Safety.

The Block Captains Forum will take place at Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia at 5501 Cedar Avenue, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is organized by The Partnership CDC/NAC, SCI-West and LISC. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

If you are a registered block captain from 19139, 19104 or 19143, you are encouraged to register for the forum. You can do it online here, by calling Leon Robinson at The Partnership CDC at (215) 662-1612, by emailing him at lrobinson@thepartnershipcdc.org, or by stopping by the office at 4020 Market Street. For more information, visit this page.

The 4300 block of Larchwood Avenue will be closed today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a large multi-family porch sale, so drivers will have to detour around that block during these hours. We hear that housewares, furniture,  kids and adult clothes and toys are among the items offered for sale.

If you know of other sales today or tomorrow, please leave a comment below.

The Green Block Build Collaborative, a coalition of community organizations including LISC and The Partnership CDC, is inviting Walnut Hill residents and neighbors to the Green Block Party tomorrow, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the 4700 Block of Sansom Street. This is a free community event where residents can learn about how to transition to a cleaner, greener and healthier future. See the flyer below for more details.

Last night Clark Park hosted the first performance of the “Merry Wives of Windsor” as part of the annual summer “Shakespeare in Clark Park.” It was great – see the review below written by Kelly Lawler. Also, please check out our photos of the merry performers and the crowd watching them. Not only is Shakespeare in Clark Park a great chance to connect with friends and neighbors and see a great show, it’s also a great place to people-watch.

If they weren’t using Shakespearean language, a passerby might mistake the performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor for a party or a dance or a barbecue in Clark Park’s bowl. And indeed, everyone has fun with the play; the actors, the musicians, and the audience all revel in the ridiculousness and hilarity. And the result is a very pleasant theater experience.

The play, one of Shakespeare’s less-famous comedies, follows several wives and lovers through an absurd series of events. Falstaff, a knight, is in debt and decides to alleviate this problem by seducing the wives of two rich merchants, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Meanwhile, Mistress Page’s daughter, Anne, is in love with Fenton, but her father wants her to marry Slender and her mother wants her to marry Dr. Caius. Hilarity ensues.

Merry Wives takes place in Elizabethan Windsor in England, but as is the norm with Shakespeare productions now, it is put in a different setting. The director, Rebecca Wright, chose to place it in an old West setting, complete with cowboy hats and boots and country music. It works well in an outdoor performance like this, where the physical space is so large and so distinct that the actors and the set and the props must also be large and hammy to compensate. If the play were inside a normal theater it might have seemed cheesy, but instead it worked well in the park. The production was at its best when it utilized the space it was in. Not being able to have a traditional “back stage” area the actors were forced to stay in character for the whole performance, even when not in the scene. But this allowed things like young lovers Fenton and Anne to wander off and have a romantic talk under a distant tree.

The production also utilized music very well. A three piece band accompanied much of the show, complete with a banjo and a real washtub-bass. Original songs were written for the production, which was more of a musical than other Shakespeare, but worked really well both with the absurd story of Merry Wives, and with the Western setting. It was also great for the audience who got to clap along to the beat, and join in the party-like atmosphere of the play.

All in all the performance is a lot of fun. The story is easy to follow and quite funny. With a picnic blanket and basket, Shakespeare in Clark Park is a really lovely way to spend a summer evening.

– Kelly Lawler

If you missed last night’s show, there are four more left. For more information, go here.

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