A Healing Space, an Evening of Empowerment

The Queen Within and Sappho's Way is Empowerment presents Along with Renown Speaker and Minister Paula Benson Smith : A Healing Space, an evening of empowerment. Come experience the Art of Healing The Queen Within through Self-Care. There will be speakers, networking of local entrepreneurs, and vendors at this amazing community building event! Donations of toys will be collected as toys for the Mercy's Women and Children Shelter in Philadelphia. 

Admission : free; please bring a toy donation and money to support vendors. 

Time: 5:30-10:00PM

Networking hour afterwards

Round three!- Action Skills 101 - Know Your Rights Training

We received so much positive feedback about our first Action Skills 101 - Know Your Rights Training that we are bringing it back for those who want more and for those who missed it the first two times around.

Based on feedback, we have changed the format as follows: 

(1) We will not play the video. However, we strongly encourage everyone to watch it at least once before the training. The video can be found at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTU9oLF2MzI&feature=youtu.be

(2) We will have a split format of one hour of training and one hour of role play (we got the most positive feedback about the role play, so we have extended that time). We will have a fifteen minute break in between. As we did with the first two trainings, we will also have an attorney from the ACLU who will do a brief presentation along with a Q&A session.

If you have any specific topics you would like to have included in the training, please email Marianne at rodeo.edu@gmail.com. Our current topics include (1) how to plan a demonstration (this time we will include how to research local laws), (2) what is legal and what is not, and (3) dealing with police.

Event Horizon Series 

presents

December 3rd Brian John McBrearty, Inception and The Time Merchant

Brian John McBrearty is a Philadelphia-based guitarist and composer. Brian's music combines American primitive guitar style with ambient textures, minimalist composition techniques and elements of drone and psychedelia. A graduate of New York University’s renowned jazz program, Brian released his debut album as a solo artist, Things I Recall, in Summer 2015. Brian recorded Things I Recall in his South Philadelphia home using two microphones, a 1965 Fender Mustang and a 1970s Japanese-made Martin knockoff, and the result is a meditative, hypnotic, melodic collection of guitar orchestrations of cinematic scope that recall the work of John Fahey, David Pajo’s Papa M project, and Sonny Sharrock.

Inception - The starting vibration and continued exploration of sound,syncopation and groove. Imagined dimensions and hues of pitch and landscapes. A trio made of Matthew Lo Re -Guitar , Steve Testa - Bass , John Testa - Drums

The Time Merchant - With over 50 albums, the ever prolific Time Merchant is on a constant quest to explore sound. The first album appeared in 1994. Little else is known as The Time Merchant tends to keep out of the public eye, preferring instead to hide away in the recording studio (the wave chamber), working methodically to create the next sound world. Works have explored several genres, including: experimental, dark ambient, atmospheric. pure electronic, and various combinations.

Admission is FREE

The Craig Liggeons Variety Hour Show

Comedian Craig Liggeons presents an hour of good old fashioned family friendly variety show hilarity, in the tradition of the Carol Burnett Show and the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. If you remember that, you'll love this!

FUN FOR KIDS AND PARENTS ALIKE! 

LAP CHILDREN (kids under 2 who do not require a seat) are FREE!

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance at http://craigliggeons.bpt.me/

JACK WRIGHT - solo saxophone

TWO TO TUTU TOO - Neil Feather and Rosie Langabeer - homemade instruments /piano

BIG PLASTIC FINGER - 5 piece psychedelic band, led by saxophonist, Bonnie Kane

JACK WRIGHT - solo saxophone: Described twenty years ago as an "undergrounder by design," Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone improviser based mainly in Philadelphia. He has played mostly on tour through the US and Europe since the early 80s in search of interesting partners and playing situations. Now at 72 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams called him in the 80s, on the road as much as ever. And he continues to inspire players outside music-school careerdom, playing sessions with visiting and resident players old and new. His partners over the years are mostly unknown to the music press, and too numerous to mention. He's said to have the widest vocabulary of any, including leaping pitches, punchy, precise timing, sharp and intrusive multiphonics, surprising gaps of silence, and obscene animalistic sounds. A reviewer for the Washington Post said, "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king". For more info go to springgarden music, for soundssoundcloud.com/#jackwright and writings jackiswright.wordpress.com/

TWO TO TUTU TOO - Neil Feather and Rosie Langabeer: https://soundcloud.com/rosielangabeer/live-in-denver

NEIL FEATHER http://neilfeather.com: Guggenheim Fellow, Sound Mechanic, Neil Feather has been creating radical and unusual musical instruments since 1970 and is increasingly known as one of the most original musical thinkers of his day. His instruments each embody uniquely clever acoustic and engineering principles, and are visually arresting. The music he plays on the instruments is equally original, embodying new principles and resulting in a nearly alien idiom of music.

Neil Feather has been involved in Baltimore’s fertile and eccentric culture since moving there in 1985. He was a founding member of the Red Room Collective and the High Zero Foundation.

ROSIE LANGABEER - http://www.blog.rosielangabeer.com/: Multi-instrumentalist composer/musician from Aotearoa, New Zealand and a Phila/ Baltimore resident. Suspende and surreal evolutionary methods with a large focus on improvisation and collaboration.

BIG PLASTIC FINGER - http://bigplasticfinger.com: The physical and ephemeral multi state band led by Bonnie Kane (saxophone, flute, electronics -http://bonniekane.com) creates music for "those who fit out".  Traversing the realms of psychedelic, trance, noise and jam band, tremendous instrumental performances are in store.  The band features

Bonnie Kane- sax, flute, electronics (NYC, Phila, Holyoke, MA)   

Scott Prato - guitar, electronics (NYC, Phila, Holyoke, MA)

Mark McClemens - drums (NJ)

Travis Woodson - bass, electronics (Phila)

Tracey Lisk - vocals, electronics (Phila)

Odean Pope + Andrew Cyrille

Odean Pope, tenor saxophone

Andrew Cyrille, drums

Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present a return performance by Philadelphia saxophonist Odean Pope and Brooklyn drummer Andrew Cyrille, two avant-garde jazz giants who played their first duo together at an Ars Nova Workshop concert in 2013.

Odean Pope, who has lived in Philadelphia since he was 10-years-old, began his career performing with Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown, frequently at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater. He then went on to work with jazz artists such as Jimmy McGriff and Max Roach, and, in the late-1970s, he formed Catalyst, a funk-infused jazz quartet with Philadelphia-based musicians Eddie Green, Sherman Ferguson, and Al Johnson. He is the leader of the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir and the Odean Pope Trio.  About his most recent album,Odean’s List, All About Jazz writes that it “is a compelling reminder of Pope’s relevance as a composer and improviser, one whose talent deserves greater recognition.”

Andrew Cyrille, a Brooklyn-born drummer with Haitian roots, has worked with Coleman Hawkins, Milford Graves, Anthony Braxton, David Murray, Reggie Workman, and Marilyn Crispell. Cyrille was a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, and he played on Taylor recordings such as Unit Structures and Conquistador, as well as other essential free-jazz albums, like Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestraand Marion Brown’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. In January, Cyrille’s 21st Century Big Band, a 12-piece ensemble that performs its leader’s compositions, played for the first time at Lincoln Center, in New York City.

Admission is FREE 

Andrew's Video Vault at The Rotunda

FREE Screenings Continuous From 8 PM on the Second THURSDAY of Every Month!

Since 2004, Andrew’s Video Vault is a free, once-a-month screening series at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia. Andrew’s Video Vault programs original, obscure, neglected, marginalized and commercially unavailable video media. It connects the West Philly neighborhood to the University of Pennsylvania community and fosters a multicultural examination of motion pictures in a relaxed, educational setting.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Cinema Studies Program and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania. This  project is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Support also provided by PECO. This program is administered regionally by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

NOVEMBER 10

Don Siegel Double Feature

CHARLEY VARRICK (1973/111 minutes) Gripping crime film starring Walter Matthau, in one of his best performances, as a bank robber whose life goes through a series of twists and turns when it turns out his last payload was mafia money. Also stars Felicia Farr, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon.

THE BEGUILED (1971 /105 minutes) Bizarre Southern Gothic drama stars Clint Eastwood as an injured Yankee soldier taken in by an all-girls boarding school in Louisiana where things quickly get hot, heavy, humid, and twisted. Also stars Geraldine Page.

Guest Host and Curator: Mike Zaleski

DECEMBER 8

TOO MUCH JOHNSON (1938/67 minutes) Newly discovered Orson Welles footage—silent, unedited camera rolls from 1938. Originally filmed to accompany the Mercury Theatre’s production of William Gillette’s 1894 comedy Too Much Johnson, but never used. Footage features frequent Welles collaborator, Joseph Cotten.

FÅRÖ DOCUMENT 1979 (1979/100 minutes) Documentary by Ingmar Bergman about his adopted home, the island of Fårö, where he filmed many of his best works and lived until the end of his life.

GLITTERBUG (1994/60 minutes) Montage of Super 8 footage shot by filmmaker Derek Jarman from 1970 to 1986 — part home-movie, part formal experimentation and part social documentary. Music by Brian Eno.

Admission to all Andrew's Video Vault screenings is FREE

Philadelphia Science Fiction Society

General Meeting, Decemberr 9, 2016, Speaker at 9:00 pm, meeting at 8:00 pm 

Carmen Maria MachadorCarmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2017. She is a fiction writer, critic, and essayist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, AGNI, NPR, VICE, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, Best Horror of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and Best Women’s Erotica. 

She has been the recipient of a Millay Colony for the Arts residency, the CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing, the Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship, and a Michener-Copernicus Fellowship, as well as nominated for a Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards and longlisted for a Tiptree Award. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, and lives in Philadelphia with her partner. 

General Meetings are open to the public and are held at International House, 3701 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA, at 8:00 p.m.; or at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA at 8:00 p.m.

Social gathering begins at 7:30 p.m. The Business Meeting begins at 8:00 p.m. The Program begins at 9:00 p.m.

Live Klezmer music by Susan Lankin Watts, Elaine Hoffman Watts and Dan Blacksberg and their community Klezmer bands, with participatory dancing! Join the Philadelphia Folklore Project as we support the Community Klezmer Initiative for their second annual holiday-season shebang. 

Pay what you can at the door ($10 suggested): Everyone is welcome!

 The Rotunda & Vision Driven Consulting are teaming up to bring resources and capacity-building workshops to self-producing artists/musicians and event curators in all disciplines.

Workshops are held: 2nd Monday of each month

6:00 – 8:00pm at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia)

All workshops in the series are FREE and OPEN to the public! Refreshments provided. 

Special guest presenters and facilitators will be announced each month.

If you want to receive workshop reminders, join Vision Driven Artists - Philadelphia, a closed Facebook group for Philadelphia-based artist/arts organizations.

http://www.visiondrivenconsulting.com/artists.html

2016 - 2017 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

Developing Campus/Community Collaborations (September 12th)

• Hear stories of successful campus and community collaborations

• Learn how to find campus and community partners

• Avoid common problems and learn how to build mutually beneficial partnerships

Goal Identification & Measurement (October 10th)

• Identify what you want to achieve in your projects

• Incorporate critical feedback and self-reflection into your arts practice

• Brainstorm and receive tools for measuring success

Nonprofit, LLC, or Fiscal Sponsorship (November 14th)

• Discuss the pros and cons of various structures – pool experiences and get new ideas

• Craft your mission statement to determine the structure that best suits your practice

• Sole-proprietor, LLC, 501(c)3: understand the structures and how your projects fit into them

2017 Planning (December 12th)

• Plan your upcoming year of work 

• Identify your goals and break them into achievable tasks

• Plot your tasks on a timeline for 2016

Fundraising Basics (January 9th)

• Learn the language of fundraising 

• Maximize opportunities beyond grants to support your projects

• Brainstorm actual fundraising ideas for your work

Taxes for Artists (January 23rd)

• Learn the language of fundraising 

• Maximize opportunities beyond grants to support your projects

• Brainstorm actual fundraising ideas for your work

Grant Writing – Beginner (February 13th) 

• Demystify the language and process behind grant writing

• Receive tools for finding grants 

• Read actual grant proposals to learn common mistakes and important proposal components 

Grant Writing – Intermediate (March 13th)

• Review aspects of a strong grant proposal

• Practice writing an actual grant 

• Receive feedback on your draft proposal 

Real Budgeting for Real Work (April 10th)

• Look at sample budgets and learn how to interpret the story behind the numbers 

• Create a budget tailored to your goals for 2016

• Learn how to assemble a project budget for potential funders

Getting People to Show Up (May 8th) 

• Learn new techniques for building an audience and your ideal project participant

• Troubleshoot issues with audience development that you may have had in the past

• Identify marketing techniques to keep people showing up to your future events

Getting New Projects off the Ground (June 12th)

• Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats of a new project 

• Think through the components of your project and its goals 

• Hone in on the details of your program or project and begin a draft project plan

Crowdfunding 101 (September 11th)

• Learn how to tell if crowdfunding is right for your project

• Discover the pros and cons of  crowdfunding platforms

• Hear from a panel of artists who have run successful crowdfunding campaigns

Speaking Tech (September 25th)

• Learn what event curators and sound engineers wish you knew when arriving to a performance

• Receive sample templates of contracts, tech riders, and advance sheets

• Practice using templates with real-life examples

Setting & Measuring Goals (October 9th)

• Identify what you want to achieve in your projects

• Incorporate critical feedback and self-reflection into your arts practice

• Brainstorm and receive tools for measuring success

Bowerbird is pleased to present Svitanya, a Philadelphia-area women's vocal ensemble that specializes in folk music of Eastern Europe. Founded in 2001, the ensemble started with six singers performing purely a cappella arrangements. The early members included two mother-daughter pairs, fitting for a genre in which songs have been passed from mother to daughter for centuries, and one of these pairs is still part of the group today. 

Svitanya's repertoire is drawn from a variety of regional traditions. Some songs are modern arrangements of old folk tunes, some are original compositions in the folk style, and others are sung as they have been for generations. They range from strong and strident field-working songs to traditional dance tunes to lush and emotive arrangements, all evoking the timbres, rhythms, and harmonies indigenous to the region. While many songs are performed without instrumentation of any kind, traditional ethnic instruments, such as gaida, tapan, tambura and balalaika, are used wherever possible in others.

Admission is FREE

Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM) Youth Night

Youth Night: Open Mic and PYPM Slam Season:

(almost) Every third Saturday of the month, PYPM hosts a youth-led open mic and poetry slam for teens to come and share their work in a safe, uncensored environment.

Go West Craft Fest returns to The Rotunda on Sunday December 18 from 10-4. 

Find unique, handmade holiday gifts by more than 80 local vendors. Jewelry, hand knits, ornaments, home decor, ceramics, stationery, prints, accessories, children's gifts and more, in The Rotunda's majestic Sanctuary space (bundle up because the sanctuary is not heated, though the back space is).

Admission is FREE