Among the tents and under the July hot sun, the dance group Batala kicked off their nearly hour-long performance as the audience clapped along.
The troupe performs traditional Brazilian samba reggae rhyme using a large drum.
“It’s so fun to get the people moving, and you can ask them to clap and participate,” said Ingrid Marti, a Philadelphia resident originally from Barcelona, Spain, who joined the group in 2018 as a way to find community.
“The crowd can engage with you, it’s amazing,” she said.
Lemus guides families on creating traditional Latin American art, July 13, 2025. (Vida Lashgari/WHYY)
Tia Moen and Angie Kelley were visiting from Austin, Texas, when they found out about the event by “wandering up Ben Franklin Avenue.”
“One of the reasons why I love just wandering cities that I don’t really get to spend time in is that I feel like I’ll stumble upon like … what the people of the city are actually about and doing,” Kelley said. “We’re going to learn a little bit more about Philly and what their constituents are about is exciting and awesome.”
Moen said she appreciates art and is an artist in her own “personal, creative ways.”
“When you come to events like this, and you realize that everybody also wants to be out here with each other and create art and write poetry, it just grounds me into that humanness again,” Kelley said.
Tia Moen and Angie Kelley sit together by an exhibit, July 13, 2025. (Vida Lashgari/WHYY)
Claiborne said the Barnes plans to continue the event next summer.
“It helps us to reach and educate children and engage them in the arts to play and literacy,” he said. ”It also infuses Philadelphia’s cultural sector with capital in the way that we support individual artists, organizations and institutions.”