Philadelphia Daily Record

Vol. II No. 133 (293)

Keeping You Posted With The Politics Of Philadelphia

September 6, 2011

Philadelphia Daily Record

Takes Center Stage PHILA.’S POPPING arts scene struts its stuff around the city as September begins. Artists both world-famous and up-and-coming are performing in dozens of venues as part of our Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe festival. We take a look at one imaginative local performer on page 3.

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Phila. Firefighters Union Local 22 and Penn Treaty Special Services Dist. invite all to attend unveiling of “All the Heroes of 9/11” Memorial at Local 22 Union Headquarters, 5th & Willow, 1 p.m.

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THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

6 SEPTEMBER, 2011

We’re On The Fringe For Two Weeks Local Artist Tells Tales With Circus Feats

by Nathan Lerner For 16 days, the upcoming Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe will dominate the local culture scene with an uninterrupted smörgåsbord of avantgarde dance, theater, music and interdisciplinary work. Now in its 15th year, the ambitious convocation will encompass a mind-boggling 2,000 artists appearing in more than 1,200 performances at venues throughout the region.

The event was founded in 1997 as the Philly Fringe Festival. Today, it has morphed into a dimorphic entity. The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is curated and includes some of the world’s leading performing artists. In many instances, it affords the only opportunity that Philadelphia audiences will have to see shows that are traveling internationally.

This is complemented by the Philly Fringe, an unfiltered platform for performing artists who are unfettered by the curatorial process and enjoy total artistic freedom. For some aspiring performers, it provides their first chance to take the stage and appear in a public venue. For more experienced performers, it constitutes an invaluable incubator for further honing their skills and obtaining audience feedback.

Chestnut Hill native Lauren Rile Smith will be producing her new show, imaginatively titled “Ampersand,” as part of the Philly 25 AUGUST, 2011

Fringe. The 24-year-old Smith is the founder of the performance group Tangle. Her innovative piece involves an amalgam of traditional circus arts, such as trapeze, acrobatics and aerial rope, with narrative concerning the themes of memory and belonging in an urban milieu.

Smith graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in English literature and philosophy. After graduating, she made a somewhat unlikely transition and enrolled at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.

Smith recalled, “When I started training, I was inspired by the blend of athleticism, narrative and physical artistry in contemporary circus arts.” Smith subsequently undertook further training at LAVA and Ruby Streak Trapeze Studio, both of which are circus schools located in Brooklyn.

Currently, Smith works at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the University of Pennsylvania.

According to her, “It allows me to switch gears between the headcentered world of books and libraries and the body-centered world of training circus arts.”

Smith recalled, “I chose the name ‘Tangle’ for our acrobatic performance company because we are all about the possibilities that arise when things get complicated.” She continued, “Tangle also evokes the shapes of bodies you might see onstage when we perform.”

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Smith reflected, “We devised the show together as a company over a long, collaborative process. We’ve been rehearsing and collaborating on Ampersand since March. ‘Ampersand’ is our first full-length show, and our first performance at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, so we’ve put a lot of love and sweat into it.”

She clarified, “We named the show ‘Ampersand’ after the typesetter’s symbol for ‘and.’ We’re inspired by stories of unusual connection and intersection.” Smith described the show as being “all about melding performance disciplines, using music and found text to create new concepts, bringing bodies together in movement, building structures from which we can take flight.”

In presenting “Ampersand,” Smith will be joined by her 17-year-old sister, Pascale. The latter will be performing on aerial hoop and collaborating on a trapeze piece. Augmenting the Smith siblings, Kate Aid, Tasha Connolly, Maura Kirk, Lee Ane Pompilio, Sarah Nicolazzo and Deena Weisberg will be performing at the show.

Smith is looking forward to presenting “Ampersand” at the Philly Fringe. She said, “I’m excited to bring this show to the festival because I think it’s very special — not quite like any other dance, theater or even circus-arts show, but sharing elements of many different styles of performance.”

Ampersand will be performed at |

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Philadelphia Soundstages/Invincible Pictures, 1600 N. 5th Street, Thursday, Sep. 8, 7:30 p.m. & Friday, Sep. 9, (6:30 & 9 p.m. Info: www.tangle-arts.com.

(Nathan Lerner, the director of Davenport Communications, is actively involved in civic and cultural affairs. He welcomes feedback at culturevulture1@aol.com.

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe run through to Saturday, Sep. 17. For tickets, call (215) 413-1318 or visit www.livearts-fringe.org.)

Good News: It was A Disaster (Officially) Hurricanes bring plenty of trouble in their wake. Getting disaster certification after one strikes, however, is always a spot of good news.

The US Dept. of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency announced federal aid has been made available to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to supplement recovery efforts in the area affected by Hurricane Irene during the period of Aug. 2630.

Federal funding is available to Commonwealth and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged

by Hurricane Irene in the Counties of Chester, Northampton, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming.

basis for hazard-mitigation measures for all Counties in the Commonwealth.

Thomas J. McCool has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. McCool said damage surveys are continuing in other areas, and additional counties may be designated for assistance after the assessments are fully completed.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing

Toomey Hails White House For Reversing Course On Ozone Standards US Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) released the following statement Friday about President Obama’s decision to withdraw the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ozone standards.

“The White House’s decision to withdraw the EPA’s proposed ozone standards has taken a huge

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regulatory burden off the table for small businesses and job creators seeking to expand and hire new workers” Sen. Toomey said.

“As I travel across Pennsylvania, I consistently hear from job creators expressing concerns about the EPA’s regulatory overreach. That is why I have introduced legisla-

THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

tion that will require the EPA to consider the jobs impact of any new regulations. With the nation’s unemployment rate near double digits, this latest announcement from the White House is encouraging, and I hope the administration will continue pursuing commonsense regulatory reform.”

6 SEPTEMBER, 2011

Design Competition For Fire, Police Heroes Memorial Will Be Announced Supporters of the Philadelphia Fire Fighters Local 22 and Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 Memorial Fund (the Fund) will announce a Design Competition for the building and placement of a Memorial honoring Philadelphia Fire Fighters and Police Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty this Wednesday.

The Wednesday announcement will take place at 1:00 p.m. at the southeast corner of Franklin Square (6th & Race Streets).

The design competition is being run and judged with the cooperation of the Philadelphia Branch of the American Institute of Architect and will be open to professional and student architects throughout the mid-Atlantic region. The memorial project has received broad and cooperative support from Historic Philadelphia, Inc., the organization that renovated and oversees Franklin Square and the Betsey Ross House.

Philadelphia At-Large Councilman Jim Kenney, a Fund Trustee, will

be master of ceremonies at the announcement.

The Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to ensuring Philadelphia firefighters and police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty are honored in a fitting and respectful combined memorial site that is accessible to the public. The Fund has a website that will be updated prior to the Wednesday announcement. See http://fallenheroesmemorialfund.or g.

City Plans To Restore Neighborhood Commercial Districts The Philadelphia Dept. of Commerce and the Office of Arts, Culture, & the Creative Economy announced the ReStore Corridors Through Art program, which aims to energize commercial corridors through art and creative spaces.

Temporary art projects will be installed in vacant or under-utilized properties to enhance the streetscape and to attract new visitors to the neighborhood. These businesses and artists will follow the national trend of using empty commercial spaces for art. Cities like San Francisco, New York and St. Louis have seen increased economic activity and new creative communities thrive as a result of projects similar to ReStore Corridors Through Art. 6 SEPTEMBER, 2011

“Bustling commercial corridors are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods and the backbone of our business community,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “Public space for art and creative use will engage the community in new ways. Our Administration places a high value on supporting Philadelphia’s creative industries.”

ReStore Corridors Through Art will create partnerships with community organizations, businesses and artists to transform storefronts into imaginative and innovative spaces. These spaces will be designed to bring more activity and traffic to the targeted areas, increase visibility for the art community and present opportunities for THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

Philadelphia’s residents to improve their neighborhood commercial corridors.

“Philadelphia is a place where the words ‘creative’ and ‘economy’ really do come together,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan Greenberger.

“That’s why the City is so excited to bring increased resources and attention to our neighborhood commercial corridors, and to do so in a way that engages the community through art. The first project has already sparked a high level of interest, and we are confident that our investment – along with the hard work of the artists involved – will help to further the redevelopment of these important centers of |

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commerce.”

Organizations were chosen based on several criteria.

• Overall concept plan, including quality and scope of proposal; • Compatibility with the City’s goals; • Preliminary stakeholder commitment and partnerships; • Organizational capacity to manage project; and • Potential connectivity to other neighborhood initiatives and programming.

“It is gratifying that our Com-

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merce Dept. is looking to the power of art and artists to revitalize commercial corridors,” said Chief Cultural Officer Gary Steuer. “We are eager to continue to work with the Commerce Department and other City agencies to weave the arts and creativity into our efforts to make Philadelphia the best possible place to live, work, play and do business. The arts can play a critical role in place-making and Philadelphia is at the leading edge of this work nationally.”

ebrating the project’s launch is being held this evening at 6:00 p.m. More than twenty artists will produce work inspired by the Chestnut Hill community. More information about New Trails can be found at http://www.newtrailsphila.org.

The next project, “Lancaster Avenue Arts,” will launch at a later date. It will be a coordinated effort between Drexel University and the local community to install art on the 3500-3900 blocks of Lancaster Avenue.

The first project to be completed is “New Trails” on Germantown Avenue and within Fairmount Park in Chestnut Hill. The main gallery is located at 8517 Germantown Avenue, where a public reception cel-

THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

6 SEPTEMBER, 2011