{"id":251851,"date":"2025-09-24T19:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251851\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T19:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:53:17","slug":"journey-arts-new-season-features-three-productions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251851\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey Arts\u2019 new season features three productions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year after reinventing itself<\/a>, the West Philly-based Journey Arts kicks off its 2025-26 season<\/a> this November. The three productions will \u201cexplore the enduring strength of identity, heritage and community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a world where belonging is for everyone and that your story belongs on the stage,\u201d said Carly Rapaport-Stein, its executive director. \u201cYou belong here in whatever capacity you want to be here and your story matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new season begins on Nov. 6 with \u201cMiwa,\u201d a multimedia experience crafted by sisters Talie and Lunise Cerin, followed by the organization\u2019s signature \u201cTable Sessions\u201d in April. The season ends in June with \u201cTo Be Here,\u201d an exhibition and performance created by artists Lynda Grace Black and Magda Martinez.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiwa\u201d<\/p>\n

Running from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 at the Icebox Project Space in Fishtown, \u201cMiwa\u201d \u2014 Haitian Creole for \u201cmirror\u201d \u2014 will feature documentary footage from Lunise, along with a concert from Talie. The multimedia exhibit explores \u201cheritage and practice of ritual,\u201d Talie said.<\/p>\n

Lunise\u2019s documentary follows a handful of women in Haiti and Haitian-American women in Philadelphia. Broken down into five themes, the film is to be projected in five rooms throughout the gallery. Nia Benjamin, director of creative projects at Journey Arts, is creating installations that will accompany the projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cMiwa\u201d creators Lunise and Talie Cerin. (Photo by Christian Hayden)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe different rooms are identity, community, land, celebration and spirit,\u201d Lunise said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be creating these little rooms you walk into and it\u2019s going to be an immersive experience of those different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final installation in the exhibit will be the concert. Talie composed and arranged traditional Haitian folk songs into new ones, a statement \u201cabout the old, what we bring with us when we migrate, and the new things we make with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTable Sessions\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, Journey Arts\u2019 signature series, \u201cTable Sessions,\u201d\u00a0 returns. This will mark the fourth year for the series, each of which is an intimate night of dinner and conversation, all paired with an artist. The meal is coupled with the artistic themes of the night, amplifying them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to feel like you are up close with the performance of the evening and just having a nice dinner, with friends and strangers,\u201d said artistic director Marla Burkholder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event was originally proposed in 2022 as a two-season run, but popularity has led to \u201cTable Sessions\u201d sticking around, and it has since become a staple offering for Journey Arts. Tickets are offered on a sliding scale, allowing attendees to choose what they wish to pay.<\/p>\n

The artist for this year\u2019s sessions has not been revealed, but you can check the \u201cTable Sessions\u201d page<\/a> to stay updated.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Be Here\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Be Here,\u201d the final production of Journey Arts\u2019 2025-26 season, opens on June 11, running for three nights at Christ Neighborhood Church House in Old City. The work is a collaboration between Lynda Grace Black, a mixed-media artist primarily working in fiber and textiles, and Magda Martinez, a playwright, poet and performer.<\/p>\n

The \u201cexhibition of performance\u201d explores the relationship between newcomers and old-timers in Philly, and what it takes to be here, in the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cTo Be Here\u201d creators Magda Martinez and Lynda Grace Black. (Photo by Christian Hayden)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways it\u2019s about resilience,\u201d Burkholder said. \u201cIn some ways it\u2019s about finding home in a new place, and it\u2019s about finding community, with others who are very different than you, but share these \u2018leaving home, coming home\u2019 stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The piece, currently being woven together by Black and Martinez, is based on sessions in which 15 to 20 Philadelphians from diverse backgrounds come together to tell stories and create art.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like \u201cMiwa,\u201d identity is a major thematic element of \u201cTo Be Here.\u201d Rapaport-Stein said that while this theme is critical to these productions, it\u2019s valuable to see them holistically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important in these works to be able to see the fullness of the humanity of a human being within and extended around their identity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Getting tickets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year after reinventing itself, the West Philly-based Journey Arts kicks off its 2025-26 season this November. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":251852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,80079,133268,133269,1448,2830,1311,1148,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-251851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-icebox-project-space","10":"tag-journey-arts","11":"tag-nia-benjamin","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-theater","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115261028155563611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}