The Best Things You Can Possibly Do in Philly This Week

The PinkPantheress concert and the Flyers playoff games are among the best things you can do in Philadelphia this week and weekend. (PinkPantheress photograph courtesy of Live Nation; Flyers fans photograph via Getty Images)

Flyers and Sixers playoff mania continues, a reclusive rapper comes out of seclusion, a big art bazaar takes to the waterfront, plus much, much more. It’s all right here, expertly curated by Philly Mag’s arts and entertainment editor.

CONCERTS

Note: Due to Friday’s Sixers playoff game at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Bruce Springsteen concert previously scheduled for the same date and venue has been postponed until May 30th.

Rhiannon Giddens

21st-century folk at its finest.
May 5th at the Miller Theater

Searows

The Pacific Northwesterner is touring in support of his fantastic and haunting new album, Death In the Business Of Whaling, which sounds like this.
May 8th at Union Transfer

The Wailers

Keeping the Bob Marley flame alive. This is their “50 Years of Positive Vibrations” tour. And I think we could all use some of those.
May 8th at Lansdowne Theater

MMRBQ

Featuring Godsmack, Alice Cooper, and the Hooters, among others, this year’s annual WMMR music fest will feel a bit odd without the presence of the late, great Pierre Robert. But still a good time … assuming the weather holds up.
May 9th at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion

Janelle Monáe lays down some guitar licks for her pal PinkPantheress at Coachella (Getty Images)

PinkPantheress

Fresh off of a dazzling set at Coachella.
May 9th and 10th at the Met

Case Oats

Otherwise known as Casey Gomez Walker, a relatively new alt-country performer out of Chicago. Her star is rising. For more, read this Rolling Stone piece from last year: “Artist You Need to Know: How Case Oats Struck Alt-Country Gold”.
May 10th at Johnny Brenda’s

Jay Electronica

This 2025 GQ article explains how the “reclusive hip-hop oracle” just resurfaced with a bunch of new, poignant music. He’s performing with turntablist extraordinaire Kelly Green and Philly rapper Blest Poet.
May 10th at Underground Arts

CLASSICAL

Philadelphia Orchestra principal bassist Joseph Conyers (photo courtesy The Philadelphia Orchestra)

“Musicians’ Choice”

In which members of the Philadelphia Orchestra get to decide what music they play. Look for some key solos by principal bassist Joseph Conyers.
May 7th through 9th at the Kimmel Center

Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra

Featuring the future Lang Langs, Yuja Wangs, and Hilary Hahns of the world.
May 10th at the Kimmel Center

THEATER

NEW THIS WEEK:

The Woman Question

Philly theater veteran Suli Holum is back with a new play that she wrote and performs in, about the pioneering women from the 1894 class of the Woman’s Medical who fought for women’s health and reproductive rights.
May 6th through 24th at Peoples Light

Philadelphia playwright Chaz Martin / Photograph courtesy of Azuka Theater

Class C

This play from Philadelphia dramaturg Chaz (it rhymes with “Oz”) Martin is set in a future American that is divided by its citizens being assigned government classifications over things like fertility status. This is a joint production from Azuka Theatre Company and Simpatico.
May 7th through 24th at the Drake

Girl Dolls: The American Musical

Local talents (and 1990s kids) Jackie Soro and Pax Ressler team up for this world-premiere musical that centers on the American Girl doll mania and uses that to explore all sorts of topics. So far, no cease-and-desist from Mattel or American Girl.
May 9th through 17th at FringeArts

ONGOING:

Romeo & Juliet

A new choreography by Philly’s own Juliano Nunes of the classic, presented by the Philadelphia Ballet.
April 30th through May 10th at the Academy of Music

Seng’s Hair Salon

Interact Theater Company presents this brand new play set in an Asian-owned hair salon in South Philly.
Through May 10th at the Drake

EXHIBITS

Smokin Joe Frazier at weigh-in at the Philippine Coliseum , 1975, Leroy Neiman, is part of the new exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (image courtesy PMA)

“Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments”

Why do more people visit the Rocky statue than any other monument in Philadelphia? Did you know that about as many people visit the Statue of Liberty each year? And wait — is the Rocky statue even a monument? Or is it just a movie prop? This fascinating exhibit curated by local monument expert Paul Farber explores all of these questions, and so much more.
Through August 2nd at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

“These Truths: The Declarations of Independence”

History buffs or just folks who want to learn more about how this fragile democracy we all are trying our best to preserve came to be will love this new exhibition that includes many copies of the Declaration of Independence, some of which show editorial notes made by the hands of the Founding Fathers. Read more at The Philadelphia Citizen. Part of the whole semiquin thing.
Through January 3rd at the American Philosophical Society

“A Nation of Artists”

A two-venue exhibit showcasing more than 1,000 pieces of American art, part of the whole … oh, never mind.
Through TBD at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and PAFA

SPORTS

Flyers players and fans celebrate after the team’s Game Six win in Philadelphia on April 29th (Getty Images)

Flyers vs. Hurricanes

Games three and four of the second series, as we continue our underdog pursuit of the Stanley Cup.
May 7th and 9th at Xfinity Mobile Arena

Sixers vs. Knicks

Also games three and four of the second series. A busy week in South Philly!
May 8th and 10th at Xfinity Mobile Arena

Rockies vs. Phillies

And because South Philly just isn’t busy enough … Yes, we are in second-to-last place in the NL East but the Mets are in last, so, silver lining.
May 8th through 10th at Citizens Bank Park

Eagles Autism Challenge

You’ve got your choice between a bike ride, a 5K run/walk, and a sensory walk, all to raise money for a good cause. These events have raised more than $50 million over the last eight years. Not bad!
May 9th at Lincoln Financial Field

MISCELLANY

Stella Farms Strawberry Festival

The South Jersey farm that’s revered for its summer corn hosts its annual springtime fest, complete with pony rides, a petting zoo, food and beer vendors, and, presumably, lots of strawberries.
May 9th at Stella Farms

Art Star Craft Bazaar

More than 80 craft vendors – most of them local – gather on the waterfront. Go buy stuff!
May 9th and 10th at Cherry Street Pier

LOOKING AHEAD

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters in 2025 (Getty Images)

The Foo Fighters did the most rock n’ roll thing last week. On Wednesday night, they announced a surprise show at the relatively tiny Irving Plaza in New York for the next night – and tickets were only $30, fees included. Wild. You have a bit more notice if you want to see them in Philly. The band will take to the stage at the Linc on August 13th, with openers Queens of the Stone Age and Philly’s own Mannequin Pussy. You can pick up floor seats for under $250, first level for around $140. More info here. Rock on!

Everybody Wants to Know if Philly’s Jeopardy! Champ Is Single

Philadelphia Jeopardy! champ Greg Shahade (photo courtesy Greg Shahade)

       Listen to the audio edition here:

When I watched Monday night’s edition of Jeopardy! to see how my acquaintance Greg Shahade did on the show, I had no idea that the Rittenhouse Square resident and international chess champion was going to end Jamie Ding’s 31-game winning streak and become the new champion. I was as surprised as the rest of the viewers. But soon after he won, something else began to surprise me.

“Is he available?” one Philly friend asked me, after my interview with Shahade published. Soon after, someone else asked me the same version of that question — this time, a guy. Another friend, who works in an office in Center City, told me on Wednesday that Shahade’s “hotness” was the subject of much cafeteria conversation among the ladies the day before, prior to him winning a second match that evening. (He’s onto game four tonight.)

And as I looked around on social media comments on my own story and the countless other stories about him that have been published since then, it is quite clear that this 47-year-old brainiac is a bona fide Jeopardy! heartthrob. Need further proof? More people are searching for “Greg Shahade wife” on Google than are searching for “Greg Shahade Jeopardy.”

Shahade says he’s been getting lots of messages, including some of a more, shall we say, intimate nature. “Just like a little weird, slightly odd stuff,” he explains. “People don’t know me, it’s just sending like a weird proposition in my inbox or something. I don’t wanna go into too much detail.” On Wednesday night, he texted me, describing some of the messages as “mildly stalking.”

Philadelphia resident Greg Shahade on Jeopardy! / Image courtesy of ABC/Jeopardy!)

So … is Greg Shahade married? Does he have a wife? A husband? What’s the deal? America wants to know, as they do with any attractive celebrity, whether they’re a Hollywood-level celeb or a mere Jeopardy! champ. We are a celebrity-obsessed culture, for better or for worse.

Shahade is most certainly unmarried. He’s also non-monogamous. He is, in fact, polyamorous.

“I’m never going to be monogamous, but I’m not, like, really super actively seeking things right now,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not open to things. Does that make sense?”

He’s not private about being polyamorous. His Instagram bio is “Chess, Jeopardy, CrossFit, Poly, Donut Expert”, and he has blogged about his experience being polyamorous. The outlet TV Insider headlined their article about his Monday win “Meet Greg Shahade, Polyamorous Chess Master Who Defeated Jamie Ding” and even swiped photos from his social media accounts depicting him with his polyamorous partners.

“They did it because they figure it’s gonna get them the most views, because polyamory to people is very divisive,” he observes. “Like, it makes people crazy to even hear the word.”

Shahade had some concerns about talking about being polyamorous for the purposes of this article. “A lot of the articles on polyamory make it sound like really crazy, and like exotic and like, whoa, like what is this weird thing that’s happening? But for me it’s just kind of, like, not that strange. It’s pretty normal or, I wouldn’t say it’s boring exactly, but it’s not like crazy things are happening. I feel like I live a pretty normal romantic life. One of the most important things for me is to kind of help make polyamory more mainstream.”

Polyamory is, of course, different things to different people who practice it. For some, it might mean that they have two partners and that there are clear rules about what interactions are like and also about whether any of them can see other people. “For me, I wanna have freedom, and I want everyone I’m close to to have freedom to do the things they want,” Shahade explains. “It’s nice when there are no limits to what kind of connection you can have with a new person you meet, and it makes life easier when there’s just no rules. But the thing that makes it a lot easier for me is that I don’t feel jealousy in the way that most people do.”

OK, Greg. But clearly the people want to know: is he available?

“I wouldn’t say ‘available,'” he answers. “I don’t go around just talking about how I’m ‘available,’ but I’m always happy to meet new, cool people that I find interesting and connect with well. I don’t like the idea of somebody not being ‘available’ because of another person, and the people I’m close to are the same. But I know that society is very monogamous, and that usually once you’re in a relationship, you just shut down all kinds of relationships with other people, and for me, that’s just not how I do things.”

Should Philly Restaurants Add Auto-Gratuity During the World Cup?

Food and drink at Sonny’s Cocktail Joint in Philadelphia, which already has an auto-gratuity policy. Will more Philadelphia restaurants add an auto-gratuity to all checks during the World Cup in Philadelphia? (photo by Eddy Marenco)

       Listen to the audio edition here:

Over the course of 39 days in June and July, amid all of our semiquincentennial festivities, more than 500,000 tourists are expected to descend upon Philadelphia for the six FIFA World Cup matches we are hosting at Lincoln Financial Field and the free FIFA Fan Festival in Fairmount Park. Given the fact that the rest of the world cares about soccer exponentially more than do we in this fragile republic, a large number of those tourists will likely be from countries where tipping is not customary. And so the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association (PRLA), the trade association representing the tourism and hospitality industry in the state, is proposing that Philadelphia restaurants add a 20 percent auto-gratuity to all checks.

“Our first goal is to protect the employees,” says Ben Fileccia, the longtime Philadelphia restaurant veteran turned senior vice president of strategy and engagement at PRLA. “We have tens of thousands of tipped employees in Philadelphia, and they will be showing off this city and providing incredible hospitality while serving all of these international guests.”

Tipping protocols vary from country to country. In some countries, there is no tipping at all, while in others, tipping is minimal and far from the 15 to 20 percent level that your average diner in Philadelphia leaves. Some Philadelphia restaurants, like Provenance, Juana Tamale, Sonny’s Cocktail Joint, and WineDive Rittenhouse, already have an auto-gratuity policy, but the vast majority do not.

“We don’t want our wonderful servers to have to explain anything about our tipping norms to each guest,” Fileccia explains. “It will get complicated and uncomfortable. This way, it will be very fair, and, again, we’re only talking about 39 days. When you have an international guest here or there, it washes out at the end of the night as far as the servers’ tips are concerned. But when you suddenly have a bunch and many may congregate at the same restaurants, that can really change the outcome.”

Restaurants markets elsewhere in the country have also been considering the idea. But the New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association has not gone so far as to tell its members to add an automatic gratuity. They are, instead, focused on educating the diners about cultural differences here.

“I definitely would be pro-mandatory tips if it eliminates awkwardness and confusion with foreign guests and ensures everyone is making the money they deserve,” offers Justin Bacharach, executive chef and co-owner at Rittenhouse hotspot dancerobot.

Bacharach says he spoke with servers at the bar and restaurant to get their take. One server said they’d be fine without mandatory gratuity and that they’ve had guests from a non-tipping culture who still tip, just maybe not 20 percent. Another told him they were all for the automatic tip, because they felt that they would be working even harder than normal, and so their compensation should match their increased efforts.

One person who is definitely not a fan of the idea is Fergus “Fergie” Carey, owner of Fergie’s Pub, the Jim, and the soon-to-debut The Monto in Old City. He’s originally from the soccer-worshipping country of Ireland, which also happens to be a place where you simply don’t tip. When he runs his annual tours to his homeland, he instructs his guests not to tip. And when foreign visitors come to Philadelphia for the World Cup, he imagines many will come and respect our culture and tip, though perhaps to less of a degree than a Philadelphian would.

“I don’t think we should make a big change just because we have some new people coming,” Carey insists. “If somebody is coming over to my house, I don’t change the way I do things just because I have a visitor.”

Carey says he really doesn’t believe that his employees will be compensated less during the World Cup, overall.

“But I think we can play it by ear,” he suggests, adding that if there’s suddenly an epidemic of no-tipping at his spots, he could make a change a couple of weeks in and add an auto-gratuity.

Not so fast, says Fileccia.

“This is exactly what we don’t want,” he insists. “We want it to be implemented fairly and just have restaurants plan on doing it ahead of time. Otherwise, they are going to have a customer come in during the first two weeks, and there is no automatic gratuity, and they come back, and all of a sudden there is one.”

Plus, Fileccia explains, if you want to start an automatic gratuity program, you really need to talk to your payroll company and accountant.

“It’s not as easy as just flipping a switch,” he says. “Plus, once a tip becomes automatic, it is a ‘service charge’, and the legal implications of that are different as far as the IRS is concerned. It changes the tax responsibility.”

Marc Vetri, the mastermind behind Vetri Cucina (where Fileccia once worked as general manager) and Fiorella says that he doesn’t have auto-gratuity at his restaurants, nor will he for the World Cup. “And I definitely would not advocate for it,” he states. “I mean, I just don’t understand the point. We have international customers all the time.”

Of course, all of this chatter about hundreds of thousands of people visiting from other countries — roughly half of those aforementioned 500,000 are projected to be traveling internationally to get here — highlights the glaring fact that tipping doesn’t exist in those countries in part because the compensation system is completely different in some of those places; a server in a French restaurant doesn’t need tips to make a living wage, because they are paid well by their employer. If you were to yank tipping entirely from Philadelphia, the whole system would fall apart. So isn’t this a good time to think about how our system could be better?

“We talk to servers and bartenders constantly, and the way we do things actually works for them,” Fileccia counters. “The vast majority do not want us to change the way that restaurants here operate.”

Mother’s Day Is an Unhappy Day for Millions – One West Philly Woman Wants to Help

Meirav Ong, who leads grief weaving workshops in Philadelphia (photo by Anwar Ali)

       Listen to the audio edition here:

For many, Mother’s Day means brunch, Hallmark cards, and beautiful bouquets. But for others, it’s far from a happy occasion. This was a fact to which I was admittedly ignorant until several years ago when, on Mother’s Day, the pastor at my West Philly Presbyterian church shared the following prayer, which I’ve since shared every year on social media:

It was the loss of her mother that led West Philadelphia textile artist and self-described “grief tender” Meirav Ong to launch a “grief weaving” series of workshops at her studio near Clark Park, where she leads other weaving workshops such as Weaving 101 and a weaving and stitching camp for kids over the summer. Her next grief weaving workshop is on May 9th, the day before Mother’s Day, and is specifically focused on the grief that people can have surrounding that holiday. It’s called Grief Weaving: Dead Mom Club Edition.

“I joined the dead mom club eleven years ago, when I was 25,” Ong explains. “It’s the worst club you can ever join. She had gastric cancer and died within 14 months of her diagnosis.”

Ong says she found that the process of weaving, which includes working with your hands and lots of repetitive motions, all while creating a piece of art, helped her deal with her grief, something that Sinko says makes perfect sense to her.

“There’s a power in physical movement, particularly physical movement with a repetitive nature, that can really help you externalize anxiety,” she explains. “And art can be a very beautiful way to share what you cannot or do not feel comfortable saying with words.”

Plus, she says, an event like Ong’s grief weaving workshop allows you to be around others who are grieving, but where you are are working on a project like creating art, as opposed to sitting around in a circle talking about your grief. “It’s all about the community, being around others,” she observes. “You don’t feel as alone. You have this companionship of people who have a shared experience.”

Ong begins the grief-weaving workshops with vocal toning, a common meditation technique where all of the attendees hum together in a way designed to create vibrations throughout their bodies.

“Through your exhalations, you vocalize different vowel sounds associated with different parts of your body,” Ong says. “It’s an audible exhalation that I like to think clears the sticky junk out of your body on a cellular level through vibrations. It’s like ‘shaking it out.’ And it’s something really powerful when you do it in a resonant harmony with others.”

Then it’s off to weave. Each attendee gets their own frame loom, which is similar to those looms you might have made potholders on when you were a kid, but larger.

An attendee at one of Ong’s previous grief weaving workshops in Philadelphia

Ong provides the yarn and other materials, and also suggests that each attendee bring supplemental materials and ephemera related in some way to their grief; those materials are worked in with the yarn. “The idea is that you will leave with a piece of wall art that you created out of your grief.”

For West Philadelphia resident Brook Chambers, who attended one of Ong’s workshops in December, those supplemental materials were pieces of clothing worn by her grandfather, who died last August, as well as the shirt she wore to his funeral.

“There’s this part of the workshop where we all ripped our fabrics into long strips, and that was a really energetic release for me,” Chambers recalls. “Meirav really helped me transform my grief into a comforting object that has an energy all its own. It’s a manifestation of this heartbreak and distress, taking those ripped pieces and making something beautiful.”

The wall art that Brook Chambers made at the grief weaving workshop in December (photo courtesy Brook Chambers)

Northampton, Massachusetts-based marriage and family therapist Ellie Lotan met Ong at Melacha U’Vracha, a retreat in Vermont that centers on Jewish ancestral skills, and invited her to Northampton to lead a grief-weaving workshop. Lotan wasn’t grieving the death of a loved one, at least not in the normal meaning of that phrase.

“My daughter is getting older, and for me, it’s all about the grief that comes with that, the grief of having your baby not be a baby anymore,” Lotan tells me. “So I gathered things from her babyhood — pajamas that didn’t fit her anymore, a baby blanket — and created a beautiful piece of work using those. It’s now hanging in my daughter’s room.”

Ong’s grief-weaving workshops last for four hours or so, and she says that if you’re not one who wants to openly talk about your grief, this is the place for you. “The workshops are all about sharing in a creative way, but they are not rooted in talking,” she says. “I personally find that ‘grief spaces’ that are very focused on verbal sharing to be really exhausting, and so my hope is to create a space where you can quiet your mind and use your hands for making, allowing you to be with whatever comes up in that making process.”

The cost for the workshop is $225 (or $350 for two people) and space is very limited. You can register here. More grief-weaving workshops are scheduled for June, July and September.

Philly Chess Master Talks Defeating Jamie Ding on Jeopardy!

Philadelphia chess master Greg Shahade, who defeated Jamie Ding on Jeopardy on Monday night / Photograph courtesy of ABC/Jeopardy

The Flyers lost on Monday night, yes. But Philadelphia still scored a major win, with Rittenhouse Square resident Greg Shahade ending Jamie Ding’s 31-game winning streak on Jeopardy!. Shahade didn’t just beat Ding. He beat him by $13,990. We caught up with Shahade right after the match, which he watched at the home of his sister Jen Shahade, professional poker player, chess wiz, and author of the new book Thinking Sideways: How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life. (Smart family.)

Congratulations on your big win. How are you celebrating?
We had a bunch of people over, and now my nephew is excitedly watching the Flyers game, so I had to move to a quieter place.

I love that you just won Jeopardy!, defeating Jamie Ding, who had close to $900,000 in winnings, and instead of having dinner at Parc, you’re watching the Flyers game.
I didn’t say I was watching it. He is watching it.

Got it. What was your process getting onto Jeopardy!?
I got into trivia late in life, like a few years ago. I took the online Jeopardy! test a few times, and the first time they invited me to do a second test was in August 2024. I took the second test. Then they invited me to do an interview-type thing. They already know at that point that you know trivia, but they also need to know if you would make a good cast member. They want to make sure that you can speak in a reasonable manner. And they want to know what you’re into, what your interests are. And then in January, they invited me to be on the show.

And aside from trivia, what are your interests?
Well, I’m an International Master at chess, which is one level under Grandmaster. I come from a chess family. My sister won the U.S. Women’s Championship of Chess a few times, and my dad is a four-time Pennsylvania state chess champion. And I’m really into CrossFit. I go to CrossFit OBA on Washington Aveue and Orangetheory in Center City.

What’s it actually like the day of the taping?
They tape five shows in a day, and when you get there, you don’t know if you’re gonna play the first game of the day or what. I think they draw names out of a hat. It’s randomly decided. And I got drawn for the first game. You do a practice round so everybody can get used to the buzzer, and if you’re not good at the buzzer for some reason, they will tell you what you are doing wrong. I had no issues with the buzzer, but I was very, very nervous.

And when you saw the categories, was there one that made you particularly nervous?
Not really. I knew that I’d be better at some categories than others. Like, there was a fashion category. I wasn’t very good at that, but then you still have five other categories out there in each round. And even if you’re not good at a certain category, sometimes you still get the answers right anyway.

What does it take to be successful on Jeopardy!?
It’s a tough question. There’s so much that goes into it. And this game could have been different. Like, there’s an alternate universe where I show up and get totally crushed. That could have happened. But you have to play a lot of practice games online. You have to study a lot of old Jeopardy! matches. And then betting strategy is huge. You have to be a little aggressive with your bets, and it also helps if you can find those Daily Doubles. I found all three.

Greg Shahade and family members right after his Jeopardy! win

And you made some very big bets on them, which made me nervous.
I knew I was going to go all in. It wasn’t a close decision, because in my training, I get the Daily Doubles right about 83 percent of the time, which is a very high number. So I really needed to bet on myself and just hope that the question is one that I know. And the one — the one about Oscar Wilde — I knew what it was but I just couldn’t get the name of the play out. I was really panicked. Time was running out, and I was just going through every single Oscar Wilde play in my head and just before time ran out came up with, “What is Lady Windermere’s Fan?” And, fortunately, I was right.

What’s your advice on betting for future contestants?
Well, it depends on how often you get the questions right in training. Me, I’m at 83 percent. But if your number is 60 percent, that would change it. You also have to think about what your opponents’ scores are and their strength levels. I know that Jamie is very, very, very good, so I wanna be aggressive and just take my shot, whereas let’s say I’m playing somebody where I am just much, much better than them, I might not want to risk it. But overall, you should be pretty aggressive.

The Double Jeopardy round was a real nail-biter. You had quite the lead over Jamie, but he was slowly catching up. But then you ended the round with just more than double his money, meaning it was all over unless you did something outrageously stupid with your Final Jeopardy bet.
Right, and it turns out that we all got Final Jeopardy right, but it didn’t matter at that point. The whole thing was like an out of body experience. There was so much adrenaline pushing through me.

What were your interactions with Jamie like before the match? Was he trying to psych you out?
No, no. He is like the sweetest person — really, really nice. Before the match, I did hype myself up a bit. Hit my chest a little bit, just kind of like to get pumped.

And after?
He said some really nice things. And when I got back to the green room, where all the other contestants for the day are, everybody was applauding. I guess because it was a good game but also because they were probably happy not to have to face a 31-day champion. And then they moved me to the champion’s dressing room — you get your own dressing room once you win. And then, you’re right back out there playing again in 20 minutes. You just had one of the biggest moments of your life, and then they throw me right back out there.

Getting back to the betting, are you a poker player like Jen?
No, no. I used to be a professional poker player, but I basically stopped in 2011 after Black Friday. Then I taught Jen some things, and now she’s a professional poker player.

So should I bet on you winning again tonight? I know you can’t tell me, but what’s going to happen?
All I will say is that I’m playing two very nice people on Tuesday night. [Laughs]

From Rocky to Rizzo: Monument Expert Paul Farber Talks Statues and Public Spaces

Paul Farber, who just moved the Rocky statue inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art / Photograph by Kyle Kielinski

Few people know more about monuments than Paul Farber. He’s the founder of Monument Lab, a Philadelphia-based public art and history organization that studies how monuments shape our understanding of the past — and how communities can rethink them. His new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments,” sees the Rocky statue moving inside the museum and examines how a statue of a fictional boxer became the city’s most famous work of art — and what that says about our collective memory. Here, the Mount Airy resident talks about our obsession with a movie prop, the dismantling of the Frank Rizzo statue, and how all of this relates to the Berlin Wall.

Paul, how is it that a kid from Mount Airy became one of the nation’s leading experts on monuments?
Victor, first, I need to thank you. A few years ago, you wrote something previewing my WHYY podcast about the Rocky statue, and you said of me, “He’s no schmuck.” I keep meaning to put that on my business card.

I do what I can.
But to answer your question, I graduated from Penn with a degree in urban studies and then received my PhD in American culture at the University of Michigan. The whole time, I knew I wanted to do the work of social change, and I needed to find a pathway for that, which became monuments. I didn’t really find monuments. They found me.

How did that develop?
I wrote my dissertation about the Berlin Wall and kept bumping into pieces of the wall displayed across the country — in a presidential library, in subway stations, in a casino, in a food court. And I wondered, if these pieces of the wall have been displaced from Germany and are now popping up all over the United States, how does that help us understand our monuments? Then I taught a class at Penn on monuments in urban spaces. And I founded Monument Lab in 2012.

And when it comes to the Berlin Wall, how does that fit into the world of monuments? It certainly wasn’t built as a monument.
Right, it’s what we call an “unintentional monument.” It was set up as a physical barrier but became very much a part of the cultural imagination. For example, when Robert F. Kennedy went to Berlin in 1962 (one year before his brother would say “Ich bin ein Berliner”), he said, “We have a wall of our own: a wall of segregation.” So the Berlin Wall became a part of political discourse in that respect but over time also turned up in Alvin and the Chipmunks and Golden Girls episodes and in poetry written by Michael Jackson.

So I think this is a good place for you to define monuments, because it’s clearly much broader than Frank Rizzo and Rocky.
Well, at Monument Lab, we define a monument as a statement of power that has a public presence. But broadly, there is no single definition of monument in our culture. After conversations with literally tens of thousands of people in public spaces over the last 15 years, especially outside of City Hall and in public parks in Philadelphia, it’s clear that people think of the bronze and marble figures towering over them as monuments. But they also use the word to talk about historic sites and spaces, murals, mosaics, archaeology, museums, as well as acts of protest — ways they see history making an imprint.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never known someone to get so excited about monuments.
[Laughs] I’m actually very ambivalent about monuments. I believe it’s really important to have symbols that last beyond your own generation, but I don’t think that a monument alone saves us. Monuments are both at the center of cultural conversation and also really hard to understand. If you want to know the history of a place or person, you look for a documentary, you read a book, you talk to local residents to find out the narrative. You don’t go to a statue and read a plaque or stare at a figure frozen above you.

In preparing for this interview, I was thinking about my own experience with and memory of monuments, and one image that kept returning to my mind’s eye was that of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad being toppled two years after 9/11.
The tearing down of monuments dates back to antiquity. Gestures of the new power. Monuments are built with an intention of permanence, but that often isn’t what happens. The first monument takedown in the United States was in July of 1776. Upon the reading of the Declaration of Independence in Lower Manhattan, people pulled down the statue of King George III and melted it, in part for Revolutionary War bullets.

In 2021, Monument Lab conducted the first-ever audit of America’s monument landscape, looking at upwards of 50,000 monuments across the country. Give me one point of data that stood out.
There are way more monuments to mermaids than to U.S. congresswomen who actually lived. The audit gave us a lot of insight into what we choose to remember and how we choose to remember it.

The conversation surrounding monuments seemed to take a major turn in the 2010s when people started tearing down Confederate monuments.
That’s right. And before long, it reached a fever pitch.

Prior to the 2020 removal of the Frank Rizzo statue in Philly, I spoke with the sculptor who created it. His thought was that instead of removing the bronze, why not add features and exhibits that put the statue in historical context, that explain the various controversies surrounding Rizzo.
The problem with that is in how monuments communicate. They communicate often beyond language and from a distance. Most monuments in public spaces are meant to be seen from hundreds of feet away, so the addition of a plaque or a QR code doesn’t do the job. Maybe you could have a sign as big as a billboard, maybe projections, maybe local students as live interpreters. But that requires three things: maintenance, money, and mindsets.

What was your reaction to seeing the so-called Gravy SEALs come out with their AR-15s to “protect” the Columbus statue in South Philly?
It was upsetting but not surprising. We’ve seen similar armed patrols with Confederate monuments around the country. But, yes, what do we do with all the Columbus statues? It’s hard, because it’s viewed as a zero-sum game; it’s “us versus them,” like there just isn’t a path forward. Christopher Columbus has become a symbol, including in places he never set foot or could ever have dreamt of. The armed patrols certainly don’t speak for every person, but they do communicate the loudest. We need to find the in-betweens and find coalition. I’ve seen it work. It just takes focus, purpose, and resources to really try to knit together understanding.

I’ve been closely watching the work of Avenging the Ancestors and Michael Coard surrounding the opening of the slavery exhibit at the President’s House in 2010 and, more recently, Trump’s attempts to remove that same exhibit. What are your thoughts?
Avenging the Ancestors are among the most important monument builders and advocates that this country has seen in a long time. They epitomize what history can be for us: telling the full truth. You can’t separate freedom and enslavement; they go together. In a moment of what is a relentless attack on history and truth, you now have people fighting both in the courts and out in public space. And now Philadelphia is in the headlines for standing up for what is right.

And now for a far less serious matter: Is it fair to say that the most internationally famous monument in Philadelphia is, in fact, a movie prop?
[Laughs] Here you have an object that was made for a movie, specifically for Rocky III, that has become the most visited and renowned monument in Philadelphia. Four million people visit it every year. Those are Statue of Liberty numbers! There are many, many other statues that have been movie props that don’t get elevated to monuments, and there are also other statues depicting figures from pop culture that are largely ignored. There’s something so fascinating, beautiful, strange, and meaningful about the way that this statue has become a monument.

What is your reaction to people who roll their eyes at Rocky?
I admit that I was initially dismissive of the Rocky statue as a monument. I scoffed at its significance as a cultural artifact. It was my mom, Ruth, who called me out on this. She pointed out to me the line that forms to see it, every day of the year. No matter the weather. No matter the time. And she said there’s a lot to be learned from that line. So I spent a number of years just spending time at the line and talking to people. And what really struck me was the blurring of art and life. Monuments can be in the eye of the beholder. Also, the Rocky statue could have been made out of Styrofoam for the purpose of the film, but it wasn’t. It was commissioned as a real fine-art sculpture in bronze from a real artist. So it’s been a growing process, and when you see it now, the way it’s risen to the level of symbolism both on and off the site, it’s deeply interesting. But it’s not lost on me that this is a statue to the most famous Philadelphian who never lived.

So just to catch readers up: Sylvester Stallone said last year that he wanted the original Rocky statue back and gave a bronze copy to the city. That copy is sitting at the top of the Art Museum steps. But then he relented and said the city could keep the original and that he would take back the copy. That original is now inside the Art Museum for your just-opened exhibit, “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments,” after which it will go on top of the steps. Meanwhile, the Joe Frazier statue that was erected down by the Sports Complex in 2015 will be installed at the site of the original Rocky statue at the bottom of the Art Museum steps.
Phew! There has been a lot of back and forth.

I don’t mind telling you that I am not a fan of this plan, that the fake boxer should not look down from above on the actual Philly man who was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
When we have interviewed people over the years about monuments they would like to see in Philadelphia, Joe Frazier’s name comes up consistently. In our exhibition, Joe Frazier is a major protagonist, and part of that is actually the entanglement of his story with the Rocky franchise. Before Rocky became a Hollywood character, Joe Frazier ran up the Art Museum steps, he ran through the streets of Philadelphia, he worked in a Kensington slaughterhouse where he trained by punching raw sides of beef.

In one of Rocky’s more memorable scenes, Stallone himself punches beef in a slaughterhouse.
Originally, Stallone actually wanted Joe Frazier to be in Rocky III, with Frazier playing Clubber Lang. But as part of the audition, Frazier and Stallone had a sparring session, and Frazier hit him so hard that, as Stallone put it years later, it felt like having a piano fall on him. He said he was reminded that actors act and boxers box. You simply cannot tell the story of Rocky without telling the story of Joe Frazier.

Would you agree that the Art Museum steps themselves have also become a monument in a way that the museum itself is not?
Yes. How many people run up those steps each year? People flock there. It’s this pilgrimage where people really lay down their burdens. They come almost as a civic sacred offering. And there is something legitimately extraordinary happening there in our understanding of monuments. At the same time, when you stand at the Joe Frazier statue or in front of his shuttered gym in North Philly, you feel a lack of will regarding the preservation and acknowledgment of real-life boxers — especially Black boxers — that marks a disparity in resources and spotlight. And that is something that is very ordinary in our monument landscape. If I had a magic wand, I’d make sure there was real investment in Frazier’s gym itself.

What are you trying to say with this exhibit?
When you go to the Rocky statue, appreciate that there are protagonists all around us, some historic, some still living. Look around you and see all the stories but also see the gaps in how we translate these stories into real-life commemoration. We have over 150 pieces of artwork and artifacts that cover thousands of years of human history.

Will I finally understand Philly’s Rockymania after seeing “Rising Up”?
The question at the center of this exhibit is this: Why do millions of people each year visit the Rocky statue? And in each gallery, we kind of answer that in a different way. It’s a show about monuments through the framework of what is fascinating and meaningful and strange about this monument — while also taking seriously people’s engagement with it and opening up a broader conversation.

Beyond the Rocky Statue

Keith Haring’s We the Youth mural / Photograph by Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Paul Farber picks his three favorite less-recognized monuments.

Underground Railroad Site
William and Letitia Still were huge figures in the Abolitionist movement, and their rowhome still exists, as does the original marble stoop over which Harriet Tubman, who took more trips to Philadelphia than did William Penn, often passed.” 625 South Delhi Street

Keith Haring’s We the Youth Mural
Philadelphia has one of the few surviving Keith Haring–created public murals, and this is one he painted with local children in 1987. It is a true rarity, an international treasure that is constantly under threat by developers and needs our protection. Many people have seen it, but too many of us take it for granted.” 22nd and Ellsworth streets

Pro Bono Fountain
There was a time when the public didn’t have access to free, safe drinking water, and this was the first public fountain of its kind in Philadelphia, presented to the Fairmount Park Commission in 1854 by a local paper-mill mogul. The spring-fed fountain itself was sealed in the 1950s due to pollution and water-safety issues, but the carved white marble and granite are still there, looking like an entrance to a temple. The inscription on it reads Pro bono publico, which translates to ‘for the public good.’ And then underneath it is inscribed Esto perpetua, which means ‘let it remain here forever.’ The model proved successful, and, by 1890, there were 50 such fountains in Philadelphia.” Forbidden Drive between Margarge Dam and the Rex Avenue Bridge

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Published as “From Rocky to Rizzo” in the May 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

Inside One South Philly Couple’s Cat Nightmare

Left: William and Valerie Cowan outside their South Philadelphia home (photo by Victor Fiorillo) | Right: Just some of the cats next door (photo via court exhibit)

       Listen to the audio edition here:

William and Valerie Cowan have a lovely home in the East Passyunk neighborhood of South Philadelphia. It’s tastefully decorated. It’s lovingly appointed. The three-bedroom house, which they share with their toddler and will soon share with a newborn, is immaculately clean. There’s just one problem: it smells like cats — a lot like cats, a lot like a lot of cats — as I discovered when I did a walk-through last Friday.

“It’s been quite horrible,” says Valerie, who works as a nurse practitioner in the medical ICU at Jefferson. “I’m trying to sleep at night, which is already hard enough at nine months pregnant, and the smell upstairs in our master bedroom has been unmanageable.”

It’s not much better elsewhere in the home, where that unmistakable ammonia scent (as well as some other animal-like odor that clings to your tongue) hits you as soon as you walk through the door. I could only last about five minutes before walking outside to get fresh air.

The source of the foulness is inarguably the cat situation next door to the Cowans. Their immediate neighbor to the south, with whom they share a wall, has a history of keeping numerous unspayed and unneutered cats inside in unsanitary conditions, a history that began in full force during COVID. They roam the streets, they pile into the windows, they make noises at all hours that the neighbors can hear and, yes, they pee and poop pretty much everywhere they can, leading to that aforementioned and most unwelcome aroma.

According to the Cowans, they didn’t notice anything odd in the air when they toured their house before moving from Queen Village in 2020. But that soon changed, and the scent became inescapable by the summer of 2024. The smell permeated their entire house, and flowed out freely onto the street. The Cowans soon noticed hundreds of flies in the neighbor’s windows. This fly problem quickly became their fly problem, and they estimate that they killed close to 850 inside their home during the summer of 2025. They actually used a white board to keep track:

(photo via court exhibit)

The Cowans reached out to the neighbor to try to find a resolution. She was apologetic and told them that she was trying to come up with a solution. But the cats remained and seemed to grow in number. The stench persisted. In March 2025, the Cowans’ daughter, Clare, was hospitalized for days due to a bacterial infection; during her recovery at home she had a compromised immune system, which alarmed the couple given the unsanitary conditions next door, as they expressed to their neighbor.

As the neighbor (who we’re not naming) tells it, she began taking in cats during COVID and, at one point, agreed to take a pregnant cat from a friend. A series of deaths in her family and the sense of isolation during COVID led to the deterioration of her mental health, she says, and her home and housekeeping deteriorated right along with it. Things just unraveled.

The Cowans say they have lots of sympathy for her – it’s kind of impossible not to – but at the end of the day, their house stinks and they want something done about it. So the couple called the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA). According to PSPCA spokesperson Gillian Kocher, the organization’s Animal Law Enforcement division has been out to the home 20 times and removed more than 40 cats.

Screenshot

“However, due to the physical condition of the home and the cats’ ability to hide within the structure itself, we are unable to safely capture them without the owner’s commitment to using humane traps or making structural changes to prevent cats from moving between floors and wall spaces,” Kocher explains.

The cat owner concurs that there are holes and other problems with the home that make it possible for the animals to evade capture, but she insists that she’s been fully cooperative with the PSPCA officers.

The Department of Licenses & Inspections has also paid the home multiple visits, starting in the sticky summer of 2025. Since then, inspectors have issued more than 20 violations. In March, inspectors noted several issues, from the “storage of combustible rubbish” to the presence of “cat feces and urine” to “an unpleasant smell throughout the property… that is also affecting the neighboring properties” to structural problems.

Then there is the lawsuit. Last summer, the Cowans hired an attorney to take their neighbor to court; the neighbor is representing herself, telling me that she cannot afford to hire an lawyer. The suit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in August, argues that the neighbor’s actions or lack thereof have made their home virtually uninhabitable, citing “noxious” odors.

“The odor and resulting conditions constitute a real, substantial, and unreasonable interference with [the Cowans’] use and enjoyment of their property,” reads the suit. “The harm suffered is more than a slight inconvenience or petty annoyance, and would be found offensive, seriously annoying, and intolerable to a normal person living in the community.”

The attorney also collected affidavits from three other neighbors attesting to the problems at the home.

A PSPCA rescue operation at the cat owner’s South Philadelphia home (image via court exhibit)

One said that she could see multiple cats in the home’s windows “crawling on top of each other,” as the affidavit reads. “It seems to me like they were trying to access the fresh air … Kittens were continuously in the windows, which makes me believe that the cats inside were breeding.”

“I am concerned about my ability to sell my home given the persistent odor,” wrote another. “I am also concerned about the welfare of [the] cats. I do not believe that living in a row home in the city is a place where someone can keep 20 or more cats … or take care of them in a way that they deserve.”

The suit sought not monetary damages against the cat owner but rather an injunction against her, preventing the offending activity. On March 11th, the judge granted the injunction and ordered the neighbor to contact the PSPCA within five days to arrange for the surrender of all of the cats in her home. They also gave her 30 days to hire a professional cleaning company “certified to clean biohazardous waste” to properly clean, sanitize and remediate the property. After said remediation, the judge said that she could possess a maximum of two cats and that they must be spayed and neutered.

It’s been more than a month, and the Cowans’ neighbor still hasn’t surrendered all of the cats in her home. She tells us that she has eight. I saw two in her windows.

She also hasn’t hired a company to clean the house, claiming that she’s received estimates close to $10,000, money she says she just doesn’t have. (The Cowans say they have offered to contribute to the cost of cleaning.)

“I don’t want to live like this,” the neighbor says. “But I don’t know what to do. I have no one who can help me.”

I asked William how he plans to proceed, given that she’s in clear violation of the judge’s order.

“We can hold her in contempt, but like, what are we gonna do?” he said, noting that they’d already spent about $40,000 in legal expenses. “Fine her, and then she’s not going to pay? Our lawyer said, ‘You could pay for the cleaning,’ and I’m like, oh great, another $10,000? How do we even get into her house to clean. How does that even work?”

Valerie is due on May 14th and says she’s concerned about how the ongoings might be affecting her pregnancy. “I’m not having direct contact with the cat urine or feces,” she notes. “I think the biggest health concern is actually more the stress that the whole ordeal will put on my body and the baby, how the stress impacts the developing pregnancy.”

So what’s left to be done? Perhaps the only thing that can reasonably be done: move.

“We are considering leaving,” William says. “We’re meeting with a realtor to try to figure out our options. But we love our house. It’s a block away from the elementary school. Our plan was to raise our kids in the city. We don’t want to move, we’re trying to fight it as much as possible to stay in our house.”

Emma Copley Eisenberg Talks Fat Liberation, South Philly, and Her Brand-New Book

Writer Emma Copley Eisenberg, who has a new book called Fat Swim / Photography by photography by Kyle Kielinski

Writer Emma Copley Eisenberg, whose byline has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, McSweeney’s, and right here in Philly Mag, made a big splash with her 2024 novel, Housemates, inspired by her experiences living in West Philly. This month, the queer Haverford grad and fat liberationist returns with Fat Swim, a collection of short stories about our city. Here, she explains why she’s moved to South Philadelphia, why she’s pissed at Serena Williams, and why she requests that you never, ever call her “curvy.”

Hi, Emma. How are you?
Well, I have to go to the dentist right after this.

My condolences.
I’m trying to make sure my body doesn’t collapse as I approach 40.

At 51, I more than commiserate. At what point did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was very, very young. Do you remember the magazine called Cricket?

I sure do! That and Highlights.
[Laughs] My mom was a children’s librarian and my dad was a labor organizer for Broadway actors. I am, by the way, named after Emma Goldman, the socialist activist who also ran an ice cream store for years. So I come from a very nerdy, bookish family. And my parents got me Cricket. I entered its little literary contest when I was seven and won. It was the best thing that ever happened, and I realized, Wow, I can communicate to people through my writing. That was the coolest feeling.

I just blazed through your 2024 novel, Housemates, which is set in a West Philly queer group house, very close to where I lived for years. It made me really miss that neighborhood and the quirky community of people who make it up.
It really has its own way of life out there. I’m originally from Martha’s Vineyard — before it got fancy — and grew up in Chelsea in New York City. I came to Philly in 2005 to go to Haverford, graduated in 2009. Then I went to West Virginia for a couple of years and moved into that West Philly house in 2011.

Why West Philly?
I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t know where to live. What I did know was that a lot of my friends from Haverford were in West Philly and that it was filled with artists and queers. It felt very alive. Truly diverse.

For those people who don’t understand the concept of a West Philly group house, please explain.
You are living with a bunch of other people in a very communal way. It felt very warm — it was like a family that you came home to at the end of the day. I felt much less alone, and that was good because this was a very alone period in my life.

I think it was during your early days of West Philly living that you wrote for Philadelphia Weekly.
[Sighs] I miss Philly’s alt-weekly days. I did a lot of fact-checking and arts writing for the Weekly, back when the paper was doing a lot of really important journalism about race and sexual assault, and I also wrote for The Philadelphia Citizen [now Philly Mag’s sister publication], which was very new at the time and trying to do something really different.

I know a lot of folks are anxiously awaiting Fat Swim, which comes out on April 28th. This is a collection of short stories, all fiction?
Yes. It’s a little strange, in a way, because Fat Swim was supposed to be my very first book. I started writing it more than 10 years ago but just wasn’t happy with some of the stories. So in 2020, I published The Third Rainbow Girl, a nonfiction book about two girls who were killed in West Virginia in 1980. That was my first book. Then Housemates in 2024. And now Fat Swim, which is weirdly both my newest and oldest book.

Are these stories set in Philly?
Most, yes, and a lot of the characters from one story will know characters in another story. One story is set at the Jersey Shore; a couple are in rural central Pennsylvania.

Housemates was clearly inspired by your experience living in the group house. Is that level of inspiration from your personal life also turning up in Fat Swim?
I like to say that I write about my real-life experiences whether I’ve lived them or not. Some of the things I have not lived directly, but I feel are emotionally true or connected to something that I grappled with or thought about. Like all fiction writers, we take little pieces from everywhere, bits of other people, things we imagine, things we watch on TV, and we make this nest.

Books written by Emma Copley Eisenberg

What’s the oldest story in Fat Swim, and which is the newest?
The oldest is called “Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar,” after the real bar in South Philly. I’ve only been a patron a handful of times, but I have heard many stories. It’s about a particular character who is a person I’ve seen around in South Philly many times, even if she’s not a real person. She’s a character struggling with sexuality, her friendships, what it means to be a white working-class person in Philly, and with a choice she made a long time ago to become a parent or not — a choice that is now haunting her.

And the newest?
“Camp Sensation.” What if there was a camp in the woods of central Pennsylvania where you could go fix your relationship with your body, where they could help you understand what a body is and how to love it? That story is particularly vulnerable for me, because it is not completely realist. It has some strange and magical elements, which was new for me.

I’ve gathered that your body is something you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. What is your relationship with your body these days?
It changes all the time. My thinking and my sensations and my feelings about my body and my understanding of it have changed so much and continue to change every day, so there is no one quote-unquote journey. I think the idea that there could be one journey is something that troubles me a lot.

Is there a better way to describe or discuss it?
Maybe we should think about how the shapes of stories we use to talk about our bodies are really limited. Like, there’s the weight loss journey: Here’s a before picture where I’m fat and the camera is making me look pale and washed-out and ugly. Oftentimes, in those photos, the fat body is very dehumanized. But then, in the after photo, the person is thin and happy and colorful, and their life seems more full. That’s one shape of a story we get a lot. And now that I’ve been fully exposed to the fat liberation movement — a social justice movement founded during the 1960s along with the civil rights movement and the disability justice movement — it’s really just about body autonomy and saying that every person has rights and values just as they are. Even fat people. Fat people shouldn’t have to change their bodies to have basic protections in the workplace and comfort as they move and travel in the world.

Do you consider yourself a fat liberationist?
There’s a difference between me as a person and my art — the books I write. My books don’t have any message or political views. But in my public-facing life and me writing opinion pieces and advocating, yes, I definitely believe in the ideology of fat liberation. Which, again, to me just means body autonomy and basic rights and respect.

It seems like not that long ago, we were all cheering on these commercials that suddenly had fat people in them. You didn’t have to be a waif to get a job in an advertisement. But more recently, I feel like everybody is talking only about Ozempic; the pursuit of not being fat almost seems bigger than it ever was before.
There are so many people smarter than me out there looking at this moment in a sociological and historical way. I’m just a fiction writer. But my armchair comment from my little couch is that this has been really sad to see. Any kind of public joy over the existence of fat people is met with slapping us on the wrist and saying, Just go away. You’re gross. You’re disgusting.

People are just … mean. Like it’s junior high all over again.
I fully anticipate that when you publish this interview online, there will be comments that say, “She’s advancing this idea that is unhealthy and disgusting.” It’s very much in every ecosystem. Seeing fat people living normally and not hating themselves can provoke a very intense and immense reaction that is very interesting to me.

And getting back to those ubiquitous Ozempic ads, they don’t seem to be helping one bit.
It’s not just the GLP-1 ads. I did not need Mike Tyson coming on during the Super Bowl to tell me how much he hates fat people in his “real foods” commercial. And then you have Se­rena Williams, someone I really used to admire, coming out and promoting GLP-1 programs. Of course, then we find out that her husband is an investor in that company and profiting on it.

You left West Philly for South Philly in 2025. Why the big change?
I’m still in West Philly a couple of times per week, seeing people that I love, eating at all the restaurants, and hanging out at Clark Park watching queer acrobatics and cats on leashes. But I fell in love with Art and got married and we decided to choose a new neighborhood together, to start the next chapter of our lives in a new place. And Art is Chinese-Viet American and wanted to be near all the soup.

Favorite stop for soup?
Café Nhan for pho tai, and I also really like those delicious spongy meatballs and the brisket in the soups there. And the other thing about South Philly we love is that there is this culture of protecting each other’s packages. [Laughs]

Many of my friends in South Philly eat out all the time, just because there are so many options within walking distance. Do you cook at home at all?
Oh, yes. I usually make something that is very gluten- and pasta-forward. But, really, Art should do the cooking. They are a hot pot aficionado master.

Emma Copley Eisenberg with spouse Art Phùng

How did you two meet?
On Tinder. [Laughs] We found love in a hopeless place. I was looking for someone in New York, just because West Philly is very small, and I felt like all the people it made sense for me to date, I had already dated — or they had dated a friend of mine. So I thought I would fish a New York City fish, but instead fished a Trenton fish, who is Art. We did long-distance for a while and then when the COVID lockdown hit, it was sort of like, commit or never see each other again. So we spent the pandemic making doughnuts together and watching Tiger King like everybody else.

Are you working on the next book?
I am! I’m writing another novel, and I write a Substack newsletter every month called Frump Feelings. I just got a Pew fellowship, and that will allow me to really spend a lot of time on my book over the next year. It’s in the very early days.

Okay, for a change of pace, how about if I just throw out some words and phrases and ideas to you, and you give me quick responses?
Sure!

TikTok.
Something I just deleted due to all the fascism on there. It used to be a really fun place to get inspiration about nails and nail art.

“Plus-sized.”
I hate all the euphemisms. Plus-sized. Curvy. No thanks. I like fat.

Relaxation.
Swimming. I swim in any pool I can find. Sometimes I rent pools using that app Swimply, which is like Airbnb for pools.

Friday nights.
They are made for getting high, watching a comedy special, and eating guacamole. That’s our Friday-night tradition.

Winning $10 million in Powerball.
I would open a socialist ice cream shop/bookstore and fix all the air conditioners in all of the Philly libraries.

How to piss me off.
Talk about the Mets. I hate the Mets.

Fuck, Marry, Kill: tequila, bourbon, gin.
I would most definitely fuck gin, because of that Patricia Highsmith old-world martini glamour, kill tequila due to a really bad throwing-up experience in high school, and marry bourbon. It’s smoky yet reliable.

Playlist.
Bad Bunny. No, I don’t speak Spanish. It doesn’t matter. And sad music feels really satisfying, because I am a depressive. So I listen to a lot of Lana Del Rey and Robyn, whose new song “Dopamine” has been getting me through. I’m excited to see her on tour this fall, even though I’m almost 40 and it’s hard to stand up for two hours.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Published as “Lit and Liberation” in the April 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

Ask Dr. Mike: What the Hell Is Up With These God-Awful Seasonal Allergies? 

Mike Cirigliano, aka Penn’s Dr. Mike, who explains why seasonal allergies are so bad and what medications might help

       Listen to the audio edition here:

Meet internal medicine physician Michael Cirigliano, affectionately known as “Dr. Mike” to not only his 2,000 patients, who love his unfussy brilliance, tenacity, humor, and warmth (he’s a hugger!), but also to viewers of FOX 29’s Good Day Philadelphia, where he’s been a long-time contributor. For 32 years, he’s been on the faculty at Penn, where he trained. And he’s been named a Philadelphia magazine Top Doc every year since 2008. Now, he’s our in-house doc for the questions you’ve been itching (perhaps literally) to ask a medical expert who’ll answer in words you actually understand. Got a doozy for him? Ask Dr. Mike at victor@phillymag.com.

Dr. Mike, we just sent four astronauts up for a nine-day lunar flyby — the first manned NASA flight outside of low Earth orbit since Nixon was in the Oval Office — and brought them back safely to earth despite traveling at 25,000 miles per hour at temperatures twice that as the surface of the sun with a basically untested heat shield. And yet, we can’t seem to do much about seasonal allergies. 
Well, we live on a planet that has so many plants and trees. That’s what makes the Earth so amazing. But they can also make people miserable.

How many people have seasonal allergies? 
About one third of the population suffers from what we call either seasonal allergies or allergic rhinitis. It makes you have thickened nasal passages, itchy eyes, runny nose, lines under your eyes, and a little bit of swelling — you just feel miserable. And it can really affect your sleep to the point where you call people like Dr. Mike.

What are most of these people allergic to? Tree pollen? 
Well, without getting too fancy-schmancy here, there are allergens everywhere. But right now, the thing that is making most people miserable is tree pollen. That starts in March but really starts to kick in now and lasts into early summer. That’s followed by grass pollen, which kicks in around June and July.

What medications actually help? 
You have your nasal steroids. I like Sensimist, which is Flonase but with an improved applicator. Some people were complaining that Flonase had a bad smell and a bad taste, and the new design not only reduces those side effects but also gets better penetration into what we call the osteomatal complex. It’s the Grand Central Station of sinus schmutz, where all your maxillary frontal sinuses drain into. You want to keep that open because, if you don’t, you have the possibility of sinus infection. So nasal steroids are critical. The other thing I am a believer in is nasal lavage.

Like a neti pot? 
So, a neti pot looks like a teapot and is from ancient times, before we had polymer plastics. A neti pot also uses gravity, and you have to hold it up and let it drain into your nose. I don’t recommend the neti pot. I recommend something like NeilMed sinus rinse. You put distilled water or boiled tap water or spring water into the squeeze bottle from the box and add this little packet of salt and bicarbonate. If you don’t put that in, it will burn the hell out of you and you’ll never do that again — and you squeeze the bottle and it flushes out all the schmutz.

Dr. Mike demonstrates nasal lavage, which can be helpful in treating seasonal allergies

Why can’t I just use water out of the tap directly? 
There have been cases, especially down South, where there’s an amoeba in the tap water that can get into your brain and kill you. I do nasal lavage in the morning when I wake up and at night before I go to bed. I have a little touch of a deviated septum, and this has kept me out of the operating room. I’m afraid of surgery! For most people, Sensimist and nasal lavage should do the trick in keeping your sinuses clear.

My wife is on the CVS brand of Flonase and Claritin, and she uses eye drops. Plus, she takes Benadryl at night because she can’t sleep with allergies otherwise. Is she doing this right? 
No. Some big mistakes. First of all, I realize why she’s taking Benadryl, but what worries me is that the Benadryl will actually dry her out at night, which will lead to an accumulation of nasal secretions.

We’re actually in New Jersey right now, so should I just pick up some indica weed gummies for her sleeping? 
Oh, God. Here we go. I would suggest we come up with a better plan for her than taking Benadryl at night. The eyedrops are fine, but I think that if she can do the NeilMed twice a day with the Sensimist, she will see improvement and get better sleep. As for antihistamine, I suggest Allegra, which causes the least amount of drowsiness out of Benadryl, Allegra, and Zyrtec.

And if none of this works?
Well, maybe it’s time to see an ear, nose and throat person, or an allergist. There may be a deviated septum issue. Maybe she’ll need immunotherapy. But she should not be suffering. There’s no reason for that. No reason! There’s also avoidance therapy …

I’m guessing this is where you say that she needs to avoid nature. Problem is, she teaches at an outdoor, nature-based school and is literally in the woods all day, every day. 
I imagine she’s not going to want to wear an N-95 mask in the woods. But at home, she should not have the windows open. Put the air conditioner on instead. Also, she needs to wash her hair and her clothes at night to get rid of all of the pollen that has accumulated. If she’s working in the woods, she’s going to have tree and grass pollen all over the place.

She just sent me a link for an expensive air purifier.  
There you go. That’s another one.

I was hoping you would tell me it was a waste of money. 
Put one in the bedroom.

I’m 51 years old and have never experienced any kind of allergy in my life. Am I out of the woods, so to speak? 
You’re never really out of the woods until you die, alright? Any time of life, you can have these allergies. You might not be allergic to something but if you get exposed to it repeatedly, you can suddenly become allergic. Now, if your seasonal allergies are accompanied by a dark discharge from your nose or if you have a frontal headache or your teeth hurt, call me. This can be a sinus infection. And then we need to figure out if you need antibiotics. Sometimes, we’ll need to do a CT scan of the maxillofacial region.

I think I’ll just get a beach house and stay down there until this is all over. 
Well, maybe, maybe not. There’s actually a lot of wind and grass down there. There’s a lot of pollen.

I just can’t win. 
You’re screwed, basically, unless you go into a bubble where there are no allergens and the air is completely controlled, like on Artemis. But we have so much beautiful foliage and other outdoor things, and from a point of view of health, it’s good to get out. The benefits outweigh the risks.

Death Valley or Antarctica, here I come. 
Well, yeah. In Death Valley, you’ll die from heat exposure and dehydration. In Antarctica, you’ll freeze to death.

Or be allergic to polar bear dander. Screwed no matter what.  
No, no, no, no, no. We have technology, buddy. And, you know, it’s part of the fun of being on Planet Earth. Did you see the moon? Who the fuck wants to live over there?

Colman Domingo Is (Finally) About to Become a Household Name

Demi Moore rubs elbows with Philadelphia’s own Colman Domingo at the 2025 Oscars ceremony. Domingo hosts Saturday Night Live this week. (Getty Images)

       Listen to the audio edition here:

If you’re remotely up on what’s happening in the world of entertainment, you no doubt know the names Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, and Ralph Fiennes. How about Bradley Cooper, Paul Giamatti and Cillian Murphy? One of the things these men have in common, other than fame and wealth and leading generally charmed lives, is that they were nominated for Best Actor in the 2024 or 2025 Oscars. You know who else was? Philadelphia’s own Colman Domingo. Both years. And yet, when I’ve spoken with some generally well-rounded Philadelphians whom I normally respect, I’m amazed when they scratch their heads and ask, “Who is that again?”

That response, I expect, is all about to change.

Though he now makes his home in L.A., Domingo is a Philadelphian through and through. He spent his formative years at 52nd and Chancellor streets and attended Overbrook High School, where he had gym class with none other than Will Smith. “He was popular,” Domingo recalls. “Me? Not so much. I was the nerdy kid on the school newspaper.” From Overbrook High, it was off to Temple, where Domingo pursued a career in journalism. While at Temple, he wound up taking a theater class as an elective, at the suggestion of his mother.

“My family saw me as being a really shy kid, but my mother knew I had a bit of a personality,” he explains. “It was just hard to make it come out. So she encouraged me to take an acting class as an elective, to help me come out of my shell. And I immediately knew that the theater was where my heart lied and that I could tell people’s stories, but in a different way.” He dropped out of Temple to pursue his dream of being on stage and screen.

Colman Domingo in Law & Order (photo courtesy NBC)

Domingo struggled at first to find success. Like Claire Danes, Idris Elba, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and a slew of other actors, he did the before-they-were-famous Law & Order thing, appearing in three versions of the franchise. He eventually landed a small part in the groundbreaking 2013 film The Butler. (Variety called Domingo, then a virtual unknown, “excellent” in it.)

Domingo’s career picked up in 2015 when he landed a major role in the cult-followed AMC horror series Fear the Walking Dead. In 2019, he took on the recurring role of Zendaya’s sobriety coach in the HBO hit Euphoria.

Then came the Oscars. In 2024, the nod was for Domingo’s starring performance in the critically acclaimed, Obama-produced biopic Rustin, about West Chester–born civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and then, in 2025, prison drama Sing Sing. (An NPR critic raved about his “special kinetic energy” in that.) And who voiced the Cowardly Lion in last year’s Wicked follow-up, showed up as a drag queen dancing with Sabrina Carpenter in her “Tears” video, and, around the same time, appeared on the cover of both GQ and Esquire? Yep. Colman Domingo.

Colman Domingo is seen after receiving the 2025 Lumière Award during the 34th Philadelphia Film Festival on October 26, 2025 in Philadelphia (Getty Images)

He’s not slowing down. Far from it. This Saturday, Domingo makes his hosting debut at Saturday Night Live. I asked him how he’s been preparing for that, since live sketch comedy on national television is a bit different than scripted movies and TV shows where you get multiple takes. “I’ve recently watched a lot of SNL,” he told me with a laugh. “Especially the opening monologues, because they can kind of really make or break the episode. The opening monologues that I appreciate the most are from real tried and true comedians like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.”

The next day, Euphoria returns to HBO after a long hiatus. And then there’s Michael. On April 24th, the Michael Jackson biopic will begin screening all over the globe, with Domingo playing the Jackson family’s controversial father, Joe, without whom the Jackson 5 (and, by extension, the entire career of the most famous pop star of all time) wouldn’t have existed. He’s returning to Philly in May to give the commencement speech at Temple, his (almost) alma mater. And in June, at the kickoff of summer blockbuster season, Domingo co-stars as a conspiracy theorist in the new Steven Spielberg sci-fi epic, Disclosure Day, a movie that has been shrouded in no shortage of secrecy.

“This is a movie about hope and about the question of whether we are alone in the universe,” he says of the film. “And if we invite that question in, what would it do to us? Would it dismantle our civilization, or would it rebuild it in some way? I think it’s really about that. It’s really about a great argument of who are we in this big thing called the universe, and what’s possible.”

So, yeah, we think that maybe a few more Philadelphians will know the name Colman Domingo by the end of the summer.

As for what Domingo will say to the thousands of Temple students he’ll be addressing on May 7th, he tells me he isn’t sure. “I’ve been working on some ideas,” he says. “But with things like this, I tend not to really know what I’m going to say until the day I have to say it.” I’m guessing it will be something like what he told me in a previous interview, back in 2021, when I asked him what advice he gives to anyone who tells him they want to be an actor: “Bet on yourself.”

That mantra certainly has worked out very well for him.

Celebrating the Most Talented Curtis Institute of Music Graduates

Lang Lang / Photograph by Olaf Heine, courtesy of the Philadelphia Orchestra

This week, pianist extraordinaire Lang Lang — fresh off his performance at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony — returns to the Kimmel Center for the umpteenth time to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. If you know Lang Lang at all, you likely know that the musician’s Philly ties run deep; he spent five formative years, beginning at age 15, at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music on Rittenhouse Square. He left town in 2007 but still thinks of Philly as his second home, he says — and remembers his time at Curtis as “fun”: “It was so much more relaxed than China.”

Of course, Lang Lang isn’t the only world-famous musician drawn to Philly via Curtis, which isn’t just one of the most esteemed music schools in the world, but also one of the most difficult schools of any type, anywhere, to get into. Here, a snapshot of other big-time alums.

Leonard Bernstein

Photograph via Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Years Attended: 1939–1941
Career Highlight: Ever heard of a little musical called West Side Story?

The great conductor and composer’s father wanted him to go into the family beauty supply business. Instead, Bernstein, who grew up outside of Boston, studied music at Harvard from 1935 to 1939 before spending two years studying conducting at Curtis. In 1975, Philly dignitaries and socialites clamored to get invites to hear him speak at the Bellevue-Stratford in celebration of the school’s 50th anniversary.

Hilary Hahn

Photograph by Chris Lee

Years Attended: 1990–1999
Career Highlight: One of the world’s foremost violin players of Bach has won all sorts of awards (including three Grammys), but we still love her 2000 performance of Bach’s Sonata No. 2 on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. “Oh my,” exclaimed dear old Fred. “That made me feel so happy!”

The Virginia-born violinist enrolled at Curtis at just 10 years old and wound up spending the next decade of her life there. Just two years after being admitted to Curtis — so, at age 12 — she made her major orchestra debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and then with the Philadelphia Orchestra a year later. Another Philly connection? She plays on the eerie score for M. Night’s The Village.

Yuja Wang

Photograph by Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images

Years Attended: 2002–2008
Career Highlight: In 2023, she pulled off the previously unthinkable, performing all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos — it took more than four hours — at Carnegie Hall.

Like Lang Lang, Wang moved from China to study at Curtis. Today, her live performances have been described as “brilliant,” “dazzling,” and “technically flawless” by music critics, while her flashy style — in fashion, that is — has caught the attention of publications like Vogue and the New Yorker. Wang’s primary home is in Manhattan, but she’ll be spending a lot more time in Philly — she’s going back to Curtis for a newly created role helping “shape the school’s next century of tradition, innovation, and artistic excellence.” Your next chance to see her live? April 2027 at the Kimmel.

The Curtis Institute of Music / Photograph by M. Fischetti for Visit Philly

Star Search

The next generation of Curtis talent to watch

(Photo by Benjamin Ealovega, courtesy Eric Lu)

Eric Lu

Class of 2020
The pianist skyrocketed to classical music fame this past fall when he won the 2025 edition of the quinquennial International Chopin Competition — basically the Olympics of the classical piano world. He’s performing at the Mann on July 21st.

(photo courtesy Micah Gleason)

Micah Gleason

Class of 2024
The Yannick Nézet-Séguin mentee has conducted major orchestras from coast to coast and in Europe and has already earned a “fiercely skilled” rave from The New York Times.

(photo courtesy Himari)

Himari Yoshimura

Class of 2029 (est.)
Curtis describes the 14-year-old violinist, who insists on the mononymous “Himari” for her stage name, as a “megastar.” She’s already performed with the Chicago, Philadelphia, London, and Berlin symphonies, and the school regularly gets calls from media outlets around the world looking to film her story.