News

PFP was honored to receive an award as an "Institutional Pillar in Arts and Social Justice" from the University of Pennsylvania African-American Resource Center at their Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change on February 3rd. More info.

Looking for 100 new or renewing members! Help sustain community-based folk arts in these hard times, and in PFP's 25th year! We invite (and need) your help. Join us (at any amount). . .

PFP is on Facebook! Click the link on the left to like us. . .

Coming soon to a town near you: PFP's documentary, Eatala: A Life in Klezmer, is a loving portrait of a ground-breaking indomitable woman, Elaine Hoffman Watts, and the place of klezmer music in her family over five generations. The documentary iis being screened in film festivals around the country. We received the best short documentary award from the Brooklyn Willifest, and the Elli Kongas-Maranda award from the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society. More info. Buy your copy from our store, or call for more information.

Resources: We're writing about why we do what we do. Some recent essays now online. The 41st issue of our magazine, Works in Progress, features essays on Liberian and African American storytellers, sattriya dance, the President's House artist residency project and the Carnaval of San Mateo festival. Download a pdf here.

Events

Third Thursdays: 2 PM - 8 PM
TEA AND TREATS
Stop by to see our exhibitions, share what you are up to, browse resources, and be a part of good conversation  Refreshments.

February 27 and every Monday: 6 PM - 7 PM.
SATTRIYA DANCE CLASSES
Madhusmita Bora teaches this classical dance from Assam. No previous Indian classical dance experience necessary. 4-class series: $80. Walk-ins: $25 per lesson. Learn Mati Akhora (basic ground exercise), movement vocabulary, and Abhinaya (rudiments of dance acting). Email Madhu for more information.

March 2: 6 PM - 9 PM
THE WILL TO ADORN: PHILADELPHIA STORIES
What does beauty have to do with freedom? Watch the documentary "Hair Stories," by Yvette Smalls, hear Keepers of the Culture storytellers, and share your own stories of how styules of dress and adornment have been means of self and community affirmation. FREE. Limited seating. Doors open at 5:45. More info.

Full calendar of spring events is here, or email us to be added to the mailing list. Don't miss spring programs, including Losang Samten's annual sand mandala residency, the launch of new community documentation projects on folk arts and social change, and more.

Exhibits

Extended through March 2:

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Frito Bastien, Isaac Maefield, and African Cultural Art Forum (Rashie Abdul Samad and Sharif Abdur-Rahim) Four vanguard cultural workers are featured in our first "Folk Arts and Social Change" residency. Two artists and two men who founded and operate a long-standing community-based business fill PFP's gallery with folk arts from the African Diaspora, made and gathered over 40+ years. Community-based economics and politics have helped these arts and artists to endure. Come to see and share your experiences with alternative cultural production. Rashie Abdul Samad says: "If anything is going to change, it will come from exchange with each other." He's right. Stop by! Checkerboards, incense, sculpture, prints, and paintings reflect legacies of community-minded effort and commerce. Read more.

New online

If these walls could talk. Bill and Miriam Crawford's actual dining room: four walls collaged with 40 years of social change memorabilia. Now with audio recordings from Crawford family and friends. . .

If you enjoyed (or missed) our fabulous "Goodnight MIshegas" klezmer concert with Elaine and Susan Watts, you can experience it vicariously: Sing "Goodnight Mishegas" along wth Susan: say goodby to the craziness of the world. Share your hopes for the future. Read more.