News

Hot off the presses: PFP's magazine! The 40th issue of Works in Progress features essays on local Chinese and Vietnamese musicians, the President's House artist residency project and Chinatown's Mid-Autumn festival. JOIN PFP and get your issue in the mail now! Or read the pdf here.

You can read /download the previous issue of Works in Progress featuring the travels of Kulu Mele, stories of Linda Goss and others, the current tatreez exhibition at PFP (on Palestinian women's needlework), the activities at recent PFP Liberian and Cambodian culture camps, and more.

Looking for 50 new members! Help sustain community-based folk arts in these hard times, and in PFP's 23rd year! We invite (and need) your help. Join us (at any amount). . .

PFP is on Facebook! Click the link on the left to be a fan. . .

In the news: The Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS), founded by Asian Americans United and PFP, is profiled in NEA Arts, available here.

Events

Look forward to fall at PFP. We're planning fall events: conversations and artist salons, a new exhibition growing out of our recent Community Folklife Documentation Workshop, and the premiere of a documentary about klezmer musician Elaine Hoffman Watts. Excerpts here. . .

In the meantime, explore the past year on this site:

Online: Tatreez: Palestinian Women's Embroidery in Philadelphia. Curated by Nehad Khader, this exhibition traces local women's connections to homeland and to one another. View an online version.

More media! Visit our exhibitions and events sections for images, audio and video of recent programs featuring local folk and traditional artists. (For example, see time-lapse photos of Losang Samten's sand mandala residency at PFP last December!)

Exhibits

At PFP (extended through the fall): Under Autumn Moon: Reclaiming Time and Space in Chinatown. Joan May Cordova and Kathy Shimizu share photographs and block prints documenting Chinatown’s Mid-Autumn Festival, a vital celebration of culture and community. Initiated and produced by Asian Americans United (AAU) for 15 years, Mid-Autumn Festival has been a resource for sustaining this last remaining community of color in Philadelphia's center city, and for pushing back against predatory development schemes. Organized as part of a series of events celebrating AAU's 25th Anniversary. Read more.

At PFP: Storied Objects. Taking a stand against injustice, making a huge sacrifice for future generations, coming together with others in celebration and struggle: everyday, people are engaged in epic sagas, building best hopes into satisfying lives....

At PFP: If these walls could talk. Bill and Miriam Crawford's actual dining room: four walls collaged with 40 years of social change memorabilia....