*refreshments will be served*

Join us for a performance of The Community Monologues. The plot of these monologues revolves around a mother who has recently passed away, leaving her son to decide what to do with the rundown property she owned: former home of the beloved Celia’s Jazz House, current home of many neighbors’ hopes, memories, and roots.

Students ages 14 to 74 in University of Pennsylvania’s August Wilson & Beyond seminar created The Community Monologues based on oral history interviews, conversations on gentrification, and their study of August Wilson’s plays, in partnership with West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance / Paul Robeson House. Hear the characters speak their minds in performances by some of Philadelphia’s most captivating actors. Then join in the discussion of how these stories relate to neighborhood life and gentrification in Kingsessing.