[KeyStoneChapter] Fwd: August-September Audio Described Events
Simon Bonenfant
sbonenfant2 at gmail.com
Thu Aug 6 16:56:21 UTC 2026
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Audio Description Learning Network <adlearningnetwork at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Subject: August-September Audio Described Events
To:
Hello ADLN Community,
This is ADLN admin Simon Bonenfant. I hope you’ve been enjoying your
summer!
This month, the ADLN is proud to feature 6 audio described events presented
by the Black Star Film Festival, starting today, August 6th, through Sunday
August 9th.
Founded in 2012, the Black Star Film Festival is an annual celebration of
the visual and storytelling traditions of the global majority —showcasing
films by Black, Brown, and indigenous people from around the world.
Additionally, I’d like to spotlight an event happening in September called
Lunar Retreat. This multi-sensory performance is presented by Nichole
Canuso | Branching Paths and FringeArts, as part of the 30th annual
Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
I’m proud to be an accessibility and outreach consultant for this project,
and would love to see you there.
Details about these events and more are below!
Black Star Film Festival:
August 6, 2026 (Thursday)
*Event:* Lamentations Shorts
*Venue:* Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater
*Time:* 11:30 AM
*Description:* “Navigating grief into comfort.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/lamentations-shorts
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
August 6, 2026 (Thursday)
*Event:* Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets
*Venue:* Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts, Pearlman Theater
*Time:* 5:30 PM
*Description:* “Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets is a
collection of stories about the inhabitants of a land, specifically the
Black community of North Philadelphia in the 20th century, an epicenter of
African American social, cultural and political life both locally and
nationally. The place of the documentary is a portion of the original
homeland of the Lenape between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers and the
stories told cover an age of industry shaped by developing electromagnetic
technology.
Featured oral history narrators include Chief Robert Redhawk Ruth, Dr. Rae
Alexander-Minter, Rev. Joseph Williams, Cecily Moore Banks, Elaine Brown,
David Litofsky, Dr. John Churchville, Rev. Frank Tyson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma
and Karen Warrington. Their life stories are animated by photos from the
archive of photographer John W. Mosely.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/tenants-of-lenapehocking-in-the-age-of-magnets
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
August 6, 2026 (Thursday)
*Event:* West Side Familia
*Venue:* Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater
*Time:* 8:00 PM
*Description:* “West Side Familia is a feature documentary about an
overlooked Puerto Rican community on Manhattan’s Upper West Side whose
cultural and political influence helped shape New York City while remaining
largely erased from its official history.
The film begins when director Taylor Hosking witnesses neighborhood elders
scaling a traffic light pole to hang a Puerto Rican flag ahead of the
annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, a decades-long tradition they continue to
fight to preserve amid rapid gentrification. That moment launches a deeply
personal investigation into the hidden history of the neighborhood and the
generations of activists, artists, musicians, and community leaders who
transformed it into a cultural force.
Centered around a legendary neighborhood biker crew and advocacy group
founded in the 1970s, West Side Familia explores how communities protect
memory, public space, and identity in the face of displacement. Through
archival footage, intimate present-day vérité, and conversations with
elders who lived the history firsthand, the film uncovers stories of
resistance, celebration, and survival that connect the Upper West Side to
broader movements across New York and the Puerto Rican diaspora.
At once cinematic, joyful, and politically urgent, West Side Familia is
both a love letter to a disappearing New York and a living archive of the
people determined to keep its spirit alive.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/west-side-familia
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
August 8, 2026 (Saturday)
*Event:* Finding Your Laughter!
*Venue:* Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater
*Time:* 5:30 PM
*Description:* “In this deeply personal documentary, Arlieta has gone
against all popular advice and quit her day job to care for her father,
Milton. She has to learn how to laugh in the midst of a disease that is not
very funny, using improv to affirm and validate his experiences. Inspired
by her father’s own artistic career, Arlieta turns to comedy to process her
emotions. It’s challenging for her and her “bonus mom” Charmaine to watch
Milton decline, but they support each other and find healing through
laughter.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/finding-your-laughter
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
August 8, 2026 (Saturday)
*Event:* Quintessence Shorts
*Venue:* Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater
*Time:* 8:30 PM
*Description:* “Inexplicable energy expanding the universe.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/quintessence-shorts
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
August 9, 2026 (Sunday)
*Event:* Heredity Shorts
*Venue:* Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater
*Time:* 4:30 PM
*Description:* “Imparting and transmitting legacy.”
*Website:*
https://blackstarprojects.org/festival/2026/events/heredity-shorts
*Special Notes:* Email: STAR at BLACKSTARFEST.ORG
Phone: 267.603.2755.
Note: End of Black Star Film Festival listings.
August 11, 2026 (Tuesday)
*Event:* From Nature to Nylons: A Touch-Based History of Textiles
*Venue:* Science History Institute
*Time:* 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
*Cost:* $3
*Description:* “Created in collaboration with Philly Touch Tours, Touch
Tours is a recurring program taking place on the second Tuesday of every
month. This touch-based tour offers guests a private learning experience
that combines a personally guided exploration of select gallery exhibits
and a hands-on study of objects from our collections.
>From Nature to Nylons begins with an introduction to natural fibers, such
as wool and linen, and moves on to the development of plastics and
synthetic materials like nylon and Gore-Tex. Guests will leave with a
better understanding of how these fibers changed our world, and how the
changing world influenced our desire for advanced high-tech textiles.
This tour is specifically designed to engage guests who are blind and
visually impaired. We also strive to be inclusive for all visitors with
various abilities. Please reach out to communicate your accessibility needs.
Reservations for the touch tour are required, and participation is
restricted to 10 guests. Because reservations are limited, guests are
encouraged to register early. To register, use the form provided on the
event page.”
*Website:*
https://www.sciencehistory.org/visit/events/from-nature-to-nylons-a-touch-based-history-of-textiles-202608/
Special Notes: If you have any questions or would like to pay cash for the
tour, email touchtours at sciencehistory.org or call 215.925.2222.
August 23, 2026 (Sunday)
*Event:* Signers Hall Touch Tour
*Venue:* The National Constitution Center
*Time:* 9:00 to 10:30 AM
*Description:* “Created in collaboration with Philly Touch Tours, staff
will guide visitors through a fascinating story telling experience and
interaction with the full size statues of those who added their names to
the Constitution as well as those who dissented. Contact
kmarinello at constitutioncenter.org and bkrisch at constitutioncenter.org to
reserve a spot.”
*Website:* https://constitutioncenter.org/
*Special Notes:* Interested in learning more? Check out this recent NPR
radio segment
<https://www.npr.org/2026/06/18/nx-s1-5835738/museum-blind-disability-america-250>,
which features staff from Philly Touch Tours as well as the National
Constitution Center.
September 12, 2026 (Saturday)
*Event:* Lunar Retreat
*Venue:* Nichole Canuso Branching Paths and FringeArts, 30th Annual
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
3401 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Time:* 2:00 PM
*Description:* “Lunar Retreat is a multi-sensory performance installation
inspired by the gravitational push and pull between the Earth’s oceans and
the Moon. Audiences enter the experience in groups of 12 people at a time
and are guided through gentle invitations from dancers, pre-recorded
prompts on headphones, and a tactile set design.
The slow, rhythmic inevitability of the growing distance between the Earth
and Moon, known as the “lunar retreat,” is the poetic motor for this work,
which uses the powerful patterns found in nature to invite people into
exchanges that juxtapose tender, personal experiences alongside the
vastness of global, environmental, and cosmic phenomena. Lunar Retreat
creates opportunities for participants to settle their nervous systems and
explore meaningful exchanges that touch on loss, grief, healing, and
transformation. Lunar Retreat reflects on our deep evolutionary ties to the
ocean and the moon, reminding us that we are all interconnected with the
natural world.
With Lunar Retreat, we are extending an expansive invitation—inviting all
of us, no matter how we identify—to come together and reflect on our
relationship to cycles and grief and the natural world. To increase the
accessibility of the work, we have built relationships in the Blind and Low
Vision communities, through workshops, showings, explorations, and
conversations. As a result of the feedback from our workshops, we have
built audio description and tactile elements into the design of the show.
As part of our set design, we created alternative, tactile props
specifically for Blind and Low Vision audiences, to ensure that the sensory
world of the piece is fully available to those experiencing it through
touch.”
Website:
https://fringearts.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/?acode=ac26e22e43357d49f461320273befe68&#/instances/a0FUO00000CAhRN2A1
*Accessibility Services:* Audio Description, Touch Tour, Performance
Docents, and post-show talk-back.
*Special Notes:* Tickets: $35 per person, discount 20% off with code
Lunar20
groups of 10 25% off, $26 per person.
Access tickets: $2, max 4
Contact: Simon Bonenfant, Accessibility Consultant, sbonenfant2 at gmail.com
or Lee Etzold, Accessibility Coordinator, letzold at helloartscollective.com
To purchase tickets via phone, call the FringeArts box office at
215.413.1318.
September 13, 2026 (Sunday)
*Event:* Lunar Retreat
*Venue:* Nichole Canuso Branching Paths and FringeArts, 30th Annual
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
3401 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Time:* 4:45 PM
*Description:* “Lunar Retreat is a multi-sensory performance installation
inspired by the gravitational push and pull between the Earth’s oceans and
the Moon. Audiences enter the experience in groups of 12 people at a time
and are guided through gentle invitations from dancers, pre-recorded
prompts on headphones, and a tactile set design.
The slow, rhythmic inevitability of the growing distance between the Earth
and Moon, known as the “lunar retreat,” is the poetic motor for this work,
which uses the powerful patterns found in nature to invite people into
exchanges that juxtapose tender, personal experiences alongside the
vastness of global, environmental, and cosmic phenomena. Lunar Retreat
creates opportunities for participants to settle their nervous systems and
explore meaningful exchanges that touch on loss, grief, healing, and
transformation. Lunar Retreat reflects on our deep evolutionary ties to the
ocean and the moon, reminding us that we are all interconnected with the
natural world.
With Lunar Retreat, we are extending an expansive invitation—inviting all
of us, no matter how we identify—to come together and reflect on our
relationship to cycles and grief and the natural world. To increase the
accessibility of the work, we have built relationships in the Blind and Low
Vision communities, through workshops, showings, explorations, and
conversations. As a result of the feedback from our workshops, we have
built audio description and tactile elements into the design of the show.
As part of our set design, we created alternative, tactile props
specifically for Blind and Low Vision audiences, to ensure that the sensory
world of the piece is fully available to those experiencing it through
touch.”
*Website:*
https://fringearts.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/?acode=ac26e22e43357d49f461320273befe68&#/instances/a0FUO00000CAhWD2A1
*Accessibility Services:* Audio Description, Touch Tour, Performance
Docents, and post-show talk-back.
*Special Notes:* Tickets: $35 per person, discount 20% off with code
Lunar20
groups of 10 25% off, $26 per person.
Access Tickets $2, max 4
Contact: Simon Bonenfant, Accessibility Consultant, sbonenfant2 at gmail.com
or Lee Etzold, Accessibility Coordinator, letzold at helloartscollective.com
To purchase tickets via phone, call the FringeArts box office at
215.413.1318.
September 19, 2026)
*Event:* Lunar Retreat
*Venue:* Nichole Canuso Branching Paths and FringeArts, 30th Annual
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
3401 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Time:* 6:45 PM
*Description:* “Lunar Retreat is a multi-sensory performance installation
inspired by the gravitational push and pull between the Earth’s oceans and
the Moon. Audiences enter the experience in groups of 12 people at a time
and are guided through gentle invitations from dancers, pre-recorded
prompts on headphones, and a tactile set design.
The slow, rhythmic inevitability of the growing distance between the Earth
and Moon, known as the “lunar retreat,” is the poetic motor for this work,
which uses the powerful patterns found in nature to invite people into
exchanges that juxtapose tender, personal experiences alongside the
vastness of global, environmental, and cosmic phenomena. Lunar Retreat
creates opportunities for participants to settle their nervous systems and
explore meaningful exchanges that touch on loss, grief, healing, and
transformation. Lunar Retreat reflects on our deep evolutionary ties to the
ocean and the moon, reminding us that we are all interconnected with the
natural world.
With Lunar Retreat, we are extending an expansive invitation—inviting all
of us, no matter how we identify—to come together and reflect on our
relationship to cycles and grief and the natural world. To increase the
accessibility of the work, we have built relationships in the Blind and Low
Vision communities, through workshops, showings, explorations, and
conversations. As a result of the feedback from our workshops, we have
built audio description and tactile elements into the design of the show.
As part of our set design, we created alternative, tactile props
specifically for Blind and Low Vision audiences, to ensure that the sensory
world of the piece is fully available to those experiencing it through
touch.”
Website:
https://fringearts.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/?acode=ac26e22e43357d49f461320273befe68&#/instances/a0FUO00000CAhT02AL
*Accessibility Services:* Audio Description, Touch Tour, Performance
Docents, and post-show talk-back.
*Special Notes:* Tickets: $35 per person, discount 20% off with code
Lunar20
groups of 10 25% off, $26 per person.
Access Tickets $2, max 4
Contact: Simon Bonenfant, Accessibility Consultant, sbonenfant2 at gmail.com
or Lee Etzold, Accessibility Coordinator, letzold at helloartscollective.com
To purchase tickets via phone, call the FringeArts box office at
215.413.1318.
I hope you will be able to attend many of these events, and I will be back
in September!
With best regards,
Simon Bonenfant, on behalf of the ADLN team.
--
Simon Bonenfant
Outreach Coordinator
Hire Musicians LLC.
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