To celebrate the Night Market (Philadelphia's favorite street food festival!) that will take over Walnut Street from 39th to 45th with dozens of food trucks and entertainment, we are going to hold a free party outside on the front plaza, the brick courtyard area on the Walnut Street side of our building. Just like the Night Market, our event will run from 6pm until 10pm. No reservations or tickets needed. Just step right up! 

From 6pm until 7pm, there will be a sidewalk chalk station where you can decorate the ground!

Monica will be leading an improvisation game called "Park Bench" from 7pm-9pm where you can enter a scene and act out an in-the-moment interaction between you and a stranger on a park bench. 

From 9pm-10pm, there will be a flip book station, where you can draw and assemble your very own book of a moving image!

TAKII 23 ~Gotta Catch 'Em All!~Saturday July 8, 10am-10pm and Sunday July 9, 10am-10pm

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://takii.pdnmz.com/EMAIL: info@takii.pdnmz.com

THE WORLD'S MOST EXTREME ASIAN CULTURE FUSION FESTIVAL! SINGLE DAY & WEEKEND-LONG ENTRY OPTIONS (AKA #1 Contender's Passes) ARE AVAILABLE!

TAKII 23 ~Gotta Catch 'Em All!~ is going to feature the following "BRAND-NEW DEBUT" guests & performers:

1) Michele Knotz (current generation Pokémon voice actress (Jessie, anyone ^_^), among other prolific roles)

2) Carter Cathcart (acclaimed dub voice actor (roles include Weevil Underwood from Yu-Gi-Oh! & James from Pokémon)

3) Chris Smith (Pokémon enthusiast & seasoned talent acquisition professional)

4) REAKT (J-Pop & anime cover artist from Tokyo, Japan)

5) Kyo Daiko (Philly-based taiko drumming ensemble)

REGISTRATION: http://takii.pdnmz.com/registrationFESTIVITIES: http://takii.pdnmz.com/festivitiesGUESTS & PERFORMERS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/guests-performersLOCALE & DIRECTIONS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/locale-directionsRULES & REGULATIONS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/rules-regulationsINTERACTION: http://takii.pdnmz.com/interaction

TAKII 23 ~Gotta Catch 'Em All!~Saturday July 8, 10am-10pm and Sunday July 9, 10am-10pm

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://takii.pdnmz.com/EMAIL: info@takii.pdnmz.com

THE WORLD'S MOST EXTREME ASIAN CULTURE FUSION FESTIVAL! SINGLE DAY & WEEKEND-LONG ENTRY OPTIONS (AKA #1 Contender's Passes) ARE AVAILABLE!

TAKII 23 ~Gotta Catch 'Em All!~ is going to feature the following "BRAND-NEW DEBUT" guests & performers:

1) Michele Knotz (current generation Pokémon voice actress (Jessie, anyone ^_^), among other prolific roles)

2) Carter Cathcart (acclaimed dub voice actor (roles include Weevil Underwood from Yu-Gi-Oh! & James from Pokémon)

3) Chris Smith (Pokémon enthusiast & seasoned talent acquisition professional)

4) REAKT (J-Pop & anime cover artist from Tokyo, Japan)

5) Kyo Daiko (Philly-based taiko drumming ensemble)

REGISTRATION: http://takii.pdnmz.com/registrationFESTIVITIES: http://takii.pdnmz.com/festivitiesGUESTS & PERFORMERS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/guests-performersLOCALE & DIRECTIONS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/locale-directionsRULES & REGULATIONS: http://takii.pdnmz.com/rules-regulationsINTERACTION: http://takii.pdnmz.com/interaction

Andrew’s Video Vault at The Rotunda

FREE Screenings Continuous From 8 PMon 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 programed by film director and educator Andrew Repasky McElhinney.  Andrew’s Video Vault programs original, obscure, neglected, marginalized and commercial 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. 

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. 

JULY 13 – CLARA BOW DOUBLE FEATUREKid Boots (1926 / 60 minutes)Eddie Cantor stars in this slapstick comedy. His friend Tom wants a divorce, but must stay married long enough to receive an inheritance. Unfortunately, he’s in Palm Beach, and tempted by all the beautiful girls there. Cantor tries to help him stay faithful, but then falls for Clara Bow himself (and who wouldn’t?).Mantrap (1926 / 70 minutes)Lonely Canadian bachelor Joe (Ernest Torrence) takes a trip to Minneapolis. He meets a pretty manicurist (Clara Bow) in a barber shop, and soon takes her back to Mantrap, Canada to marry her. The only trouble is she can’t help constantly flirting with other men – including the divorce lawyer who comes to town.Guest Host and Curator: Andrew Gilmore 

AUGUST 10 – ’90s DRUG-FUELED FREAK-OUTSGift (1993 / 80 minues)Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli’s experimental, shot-on-video feature telling a story of a couple’s heroin addiction, set in the rock and roll world of Farrell’s band Jane’s Addiction. Made while the band was at the height of success and publicly struggling with real-life substance abuse issues, Gift wavers uncomfortably between death-wish braggadocio and an eerie call for help. The stripped-down lovers’ melodrama is framed by vivid Tijuana-shot concert footage of Jane’s Addiction in their fleeting heyday.The Love God (1997 / 82 minutes)Director Frank Grow’s little-seen masterpiece is a phantasmagorical tale of love and obsession at lower Manhattan’s Love Hotel, a dumping ground for prematurely-released mental patients. Grow sees the film through the deranged eyes of his bugged-out characters while never losing sight of their humanity. Awash with garish day-glo colors and madly stomping along to a score by Australia’s Lubricated Goat, The Love God unloads some wild shocks while barely hiding a deep compassion just beneath the mayhem.Guest Host and Curator: Dan Buskirk

SEPTEMBER 14 – BOLDLY INTO THE DARKSelected ShortsThe men and women who made these animated films were free; they did not have to answer to any studio, appeal to any demographic, or argue with actors, nor were they were bound by the laws of gravity, time and logic.  Each answered only to his or her heart and imagination.  As a result, these films go places and do things no feature film would dare… Begotten (1990 / 72 minutes)In Begotten, Edmund Elias Merhige separates the darkness from the light to reveal the beginning of everything: matter, motion, myth, sex and Cinema itself are born on the screen in blood and fire.  We are witness to forbidden rituals and images that conjure the savage poetry of James Dickey and terrible beauty of Ingmar Bergman.  Though we can’t look away, we feel we shouldn’t be watching…Guest Host and Curator: Ted Knighton

OCTOBER 12 – GRINDHOUSE GOTHICThe Witch Who Came From the Sea (1976 / 88 minutes)“Molly really knows how to cut men down to size!” was the tagline for this deeply atmospheric “video nasty” with great location cinematography, dramatic heft, and a haunting turn from Millie Perkins as Molly, who seems to leave a trail of deadly sexual multialtions in her wake, but why…? Toys Are Not For Children (1972 / 85 minutes)Jamie’s (Marcia Forbes) obsession with her absent father and the toys he gave her as a child ruins her marriage and leads her into a life of prostitution in this exploitation drama filled with equal parts of the bizarre and of melancholy.Guest Host and Curator: Mike Zaleski 

NOVEMBER 9 – PRE-CODE COMEDYShow Girl in Hollywood (1930 / 77 minutes)Flapper comedienne Alice White stars in this musical comedy as an unemployed chorus girl who decides to leave Broadway and go to Hollywood to find a job in the new field of “talking pictures”, but finds it’s not as easy to get into the movies as she had hoped.Girl Crazy (1932 / 74 minutes)Zany vaudevillians Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey star in this George & Ira Gershwin-scored musical comedy. Gambler Woolsey hires taxi driver Wheeler to drive him to Custerville, Arizona, where the sheriffs always get bumped off. Woolsey tries to get out of paying his taxi bill by talking Wheeler into running for sheriff against the town’s nastiest bandit, and hilarity ensues.Guest Host and Curator: Andrew Gilmore

DECEMBER 14 – DIABOLICAL FRENCH DRAMAUnder The Sun of Satan [Sous le soleil de Satan] (1976 / 97 minutes)Gerard Depardieu stars in Maurice Pialat’s film about the nature of evil, where a particularly zealous priest in the French countryside becomes tempted by the devil and is obsessed with saving a young murderess (Sandrine Bonnaire) who has killed one of her lovers. The Devil, Probably [Le diable, probablement] (1977 / 95 minutes)Robert Bresson’s penultimate film follows the attempts of a suicidal young man (Antoine Monnier) to find some meaning or value in society by immersing himself in religion, politics, and even psychology, all for nought.Guest Host and Curator: Samm Deighan

POSTPONED DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER FORECAST! We are working on a new date. Stay tuned. 

NOT AT THE ROTUNDA! This is outside at the 40th Street Field, on 40th Street between Walnut and Locust. 

The 40th Street Summer Series presentsDan Blacksberg's Hot Klezmers + The West Philadelphia Orchestra

On Saturday, July 22nd we are presenting a special double headliner! Philadelphia-native and internationally renowned trombonist Dan Blacksberg brings an all-star klezmer band to the Summer Series for an evening of joyous music and dancing. Dan and his Hot Klezmers will bring a party with music drawn from klezmer's long history in Eastern Europe and in early 20th century America to the modern klezmer of today. Audiences of any age, and size can move their bodies and get their Ashkenzi groove on. 

Then the West Philadelphia Orchestra (WPO) will bring their mashup blend of Balkan brass traditions, American jazz, and global beats to the stage. With cutting brass, searing woodwinds and some of the tightest beats around, West Philadelphia Orchestra invites audiences to lose themselves in earthy sounds that shake, break and roll.

This is the 13th Anniversary of the 40th Street Summer Series. Stop by beginning at 6 pm for free scoops of ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, free samples of healthy snacks from honeygrow, free cold brew coffee from Saxbys, and free bicycle and helmet safety checks from Keswick Cycle University City. 

The 40th Street Summer Series is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, Keswick Cycle University City, Univest Corporation, Campus Philly, and Inspire.

Admission is FREE

All My Suns Free (Volume 1) - Screening of 13th / DiscussionDid you know that the United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world?This reflects the larger trends in incarceration practices in the United States.Let's learn more about and address this...

Join us at :: * ALL MY SUNS FREE (Volume 1) * ::On Monday, July 24th, from 5pm until 10pm, at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street), Mothers Of The Universe (MOTU) Events, in partnership with The Fresh Nēgüs, will present:

*ALL MY SUNS FREE (Volume 1)* 

- a film screening and community discussion based affair to explore the realities of youth incarceration, the 13th Amendment, and ideas of where to go from here.

We will screen the critically acclaimed documentary, "13th" (2016) by director Ava DuVernay.

A community discussion featuring formerly incarcerated youth and anti-mass incarceration advocates will follow the film.

// // // // // // // //

This event will introduce guests to the Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (www.YASproject.com) - an organization that provides ongoing, year-round workshops for youth under 18 in the Philadelphia Prison System's adult jails, and continued support and leadership development for youth who have come home from those jails.

Guests are asked to make a nominal donation for admission, benefitting the production of future volumes.

No-one will be turned away. This is an all ages affair.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT NegusFrost@gmail.com

Clavius Productions presents a very special and rare appearance by Alan Courtis of Argentina's legendary sonic mavericks Reynols. Courtis has been pushing the envelope of music and art for close to 25 years. Often conceptual, usually noisy, and always fascinating, he is equally adept at dynamic composition as visceral improvisation. Besides being an integral part of the mighty Reynols, Courtis has collaborated with numerous musical luminaries such as Pauline Oliveros, Phill Niblock, Keiji Haino, Merzbow and Lee Ranaldo. On tour with him is excellent prepared guitarist Cyrus Pireh, currently based in Minneapolis. Kohoutek is extremely pleased to share the stage with them in Philly, DC, and Baltimore, especially at the venerable Rotunda. And to make the night even more enticing, Philly's own Ashley Tini, percussionist extraordinaire, will kick off the festivities with a short solo performance of a Courtis composition. 

Kohoutek (Philly/DC)Alan Courtis (Argentina)Cyrus Pireh (Minneapolis)Ashley Tini (Philly)

Kohoutekhttp://www.claviusproductions.org/The comet Kohoutek was first seen near earth by a Czech astronomer in March of 1973. David Berg, founder of religious cult Children of God, predicted its passing would cause armageddon the following year. A more welcoming family, the Sun Ra Arkestra, performed a concert dedicated to Kohoutekon December 12th, just two weeks before it came as close to our globe as it ever would.

All of this could be insignificant trivia surrounding the name that Philly-by-way-of-D.C. band Kohoutek chose for itself. But somewhere in between all those early '70s deductions, interactions, and overreactions might just live the keys to this group’s expanding music. Inside their open, winding, slow-burning soundscapes lies the hard-edged reality of cosmic science, the hypnotic magic of mass-mind superstition, and the infinite paths of Saturn-bound outer spaceways.

On Curious Aroma, that solar-seeking mix manifests as two spacious, patiently-developing LP sides. The music has the everything-works spirit of improvisation, but Kohoutek are just as curious about shapes and forms, equally interested in seeing which lines they can color inside and which they can bend and break apart. Guitars pick through the thickly-textured sonic space built by electronics and percussion, unafraid to knot or tangle, yet nimble enough to find gaps where others might blur. The rhythmic curves traced by bass and drums prove as apt for psych-drenched heaviness as they are for cloudier foundations.

One side floats forward and backward and sideways until it wraps around space-time; the other melds sparks of feedback and distortion into metal lumber so hard you can touch it through your speakers. Along the way, Kohoutek conjure the ghost of their daunting live shows, which trek through so much aural territory it’s a wonder you can still make out the band by the end.

To call these two fully-realized explorations “journeys” would be fair but insufficient. There are paths here that Kohoutek gradually move through, but that motion has the rare, intangible quality of sounding both spontaneous and guided, both new and determined. In other words, throughout the spaces which they travel on Curious Aroma, Kohoutek might not necessarily know where they’re going, but they sure do know how to get there. (Marc Masters, Washington, DC, July 2015)

"What you end up with here is a record of two parts, worldly different, that showcase the broad spectrum of planetary talent that Kohoutek possess. It's both a thinking record and a raucous record that clash but co-exist, symbiotically. Perhaps it shouldn't work but it does and long may Kohoutek continue on whatever space-way they choose to travel along next." (Dave Dingle, When the Horn Blows)

Alan Courtishttp://4gre.org/C/press/AlanCourtis-bio.docxALAN COURTIS (aka Anla Courtis) was born in Buenos Aires in 1972. He has been working in the field of sound-art, electro-acoustic music, drone, noise, improvisation and composition. His written music has been played by ensembles from England, Thailand, Switzerland, Wales, Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, United States and South America. He was commissioned by Phoenix Basel Ensemble (Switzerland), Český Rozhlas (Czech Republic) and was artist in residence at EMS (Stockholm), GRM (Paris), Cafe Oto (London), USF (Bergen), etc. He has more than 400 solo releases and collaborations on labels like: Mego, P.S.F., Pogus, SubRosa, RRR, Blossoming Noise, No-Fi, Antifrost, Tonschacht, 267Lattajjaa, Quasipop, Alt.Vinyl, Riot Season, Kning Disk, Beta-Lactam, Prele, Matching Head, 8MM, Public Eyesore, Musica Genera, Porter, Smittekilde, Sedimental, Mikroton, MIE, Monotype, etc. His music has been broadcasted at radios like: BBC (UK), WFMU (USA), SBS (Australia), Resonance-FM (UK), Ö1-ORF (Austria), CJSF (Canada), WDR (Germany), Sveriges Radio (Sweden), Radio France, NRK (Norway), RTVE (Spain), WNUR (USA), Radio Nacional (Argentina), etc. Courtis has toured extensively in Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Europe, USA, Australia, NZ & Latin America and has collaborated with musicians like: Pauline Oliveros, Phill Niblock, Keiji Haino, Merzbow, Lee Ranaldo, Nihilist Spasm Band, Jim O’Rourke, Yoshimi, BJ Nilsen, Otomo Yoshihide, Stilluppsteypa. RLW, Zbigniew Karkowski, Eddie Prevost, L.A.F.M.S., Makoto Kawabata, Jojo Hiroshige (Hijokaidan), KK Null, Daniel Menche, Mats Gustafsson, Rick Bishop, Toshimaru Nakamura, Thomas Dimuzio, Rudolf Eb.Er, Kouhei, Seiichi Yamamoto, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lasse Marhaug, Rapoon, Uton, Birchville Cat Motel, The New Blockaders, Kaffe Mathews, Jaap Blonk, Gert-Jan Prins, Jazkamer, Cyrus Pireh, C.Spencer Yeh, Okyung Lee & Kemialliset Ystavat. His music always has a strong experimental sense and is usually based on high-skilled techniques of prepared sound, tape manipulations, processing of field recordings, live electronics, objects, cymbals, synthesizers, computer tools, playing traditional (both acoustic and electric) instruments as well as self-built, strange and unusual instruments (eg. unstringed guitar). Courtis has made music for films/videos by Jaime Davidovich, Claudio Caldini, Greg Pope, Hang Jun Lee, Sergio Subero, Pablo Mazzollo, Guillermo Ueno, etc. He has also coordinated music workshops in Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Japan.

Cyrus Pirehhttp://4gre.org/C/bio.htmlCYRUS PIREH was born in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, usa on March 22, 1981. Cyrus studied violin, electric guitar, saxophone, and percussion as well as composition, music theory, electroacoustic music, and electrical theory. Cyrus holds bachelor's and graduate degrees in Music Composition from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As a composer, Cyrus' works involve sign manipulation with the purpose of keeping the interpretive field open. As a guitarist, Cyrus is interested in the limits of the body and the self: always pushing towards a physical transcendence by working to situate that transcendence in the quotidian-- to live an every-day-life-transcendence. As an anarchist, Cyrus actively works to dismantle hierarchy and to heal the damages done by industry's division of people into performers and audience; producers and consumers. In music, it is not possible to obstruct one sound with another. All sounds combine to create one harmony. Humans in harmony liberate each other.

Admission is FREE (donations strongly suggested)

Girls Rock Philly presents Youth Rock Camp Showcase!

Come out and support over 10 new youth bands performing to you live after completing a full week of our summer rock camp! This showcase will mark our 11th summer of rock camp – wow!

The showcase will feature live performances, raffles, GRP merch, as well as live screen printing.

Doors open at 11am with performance beginning at 11:30. Sliding Scale Admission for adults $8-$15. Youth under 18 get in free! Tickets may be purchased at the door. All proceeds support GRP programming.

Special thanks to design partner Nicole Rodrigues for this year’s logo! Check out her work at nikkirodrigues.com