A Note from Artistic Director Marla Burkholder
Start here.
This season at Journey Arts is unfolding a little like a map. In every offering, we invite you to find yourself on the map, in the mirror, on the threshold, in the story this season at Journey Arts.
Find your place, take stock of where you are, declare your starting point — and then step out and take in the possibilities.
you are here.
you are here.
2025 - 2026 Season
Table Sessions: Kristal Sotomayor’s “Expanding Sanctuary”
Journey Arts’ beloved Table Sessions returns in April, curated by award-winning filmmaker Kristal Sotomayor. Prime yourself for an ebullient evening with the boisterous sounds of the kumbia-klezmer-punk collective Mariposa Galácticas, whose music is inspired by their Ancestor’s shared roots in “radical joy.” Then sit forward for a screening of Kristal’s short film Expanding Sanctuary — the winner of the 2024 BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Award — which flips the script on the current moment by telling the story of an immigrant mother’s triumphant fight for safety for Philly families. And, of course, leave filled not only with joy, but with a delicious dinner by the James Beard Award-winning Chef Cristina Martínez of South Philly Barbacoa.
To Be Here
TO BE HERE honors the layered identities of Philadelphians and reimagines what it means to belong. Rooted in communal storytelling, artists Lynda Grace Black and Magda Martinez invite lifelong residents to come together with newer arrivals. Through shared stories of resilience, loss, and transformation, participants explore the experience of being here now, in a city shaped by both historic legacy and present-day complexity.
Culminating in spring 2026, TO BE HERE will take shape as a multi-day exhibition and performance, offering visitors the chance to follow stories down several paths. At its heart, TO BE HERE reflects a broader, more inclusive vision of being Philadelphian: one that embraces contradiction, honors sacrifice, and makes space for everyone’s story.
MIWA
Rooted in both ancestral memory and contemporary life, MIWA traces the threads that connect Haitian women across geography and time. Filmmaker Lunise Cerin gathers stories and visuals in Haiti and the U.S. and interweaves them into a five-part film collage, while singer/songwriter Talie Cerin mines personal and diasporic influences—Haitian folk, spirituals, and soul—for a musical portrait of Haitian spirit.
The sisters’ creative dialogue will become an evocative live performance premiering in Philadelphia in November 2025. MIWA audiences will wander through an unfolding series of small, immersive worlds crafted by artist/maker Nia Benjamin to house and highlight Lunise’s film in five distinctive experiences, leading to a culminating performance of MIWA’s music featuring Talie on vocals and guitar, alongside a stellar ensemble.
