Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
This weekend the last of the film festival offerings are screened and a few events, like the Franklin Institute’s “Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy,” begin. The world premiere exhibit, in honor of ‘The Year of Astronomy,’ includes artifact and drawings of Galileo (including his telescope) on loan from the museum in Florence, Italy. The exhibit will remain at the Franklin through September.
An ongoing event is the Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival with Sakura Sunday on April 5. The event, held in Fairmount Park (there are $2 shuttles running from the Union League Building on Broad Street, Center City to the Sakura Sunday events in the Park, which do not charge admission). Sakura Sunday includes live music, dance and martial arts performances, origami and calligraphy workshops, shiatsu massages, food, and tea ceremonies.
If you’re looking for a show and feeling ambitious, you can watch everything that Shakespeare has ever written (more or less) at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).” A very amusing production, the play comes with the following “Warning!: This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness. We cannot be held responsible for expectant mothers.”
On campus, the weekend is laden with Fetter Concerts and A Window on the Work dance piece by Lisa Kraus and Cynthia Lee ’02 on Sunday, 4pm, Troy Dance Studio. Finally, you could always go outside and enjoy Swarthmore’s own cherry trees, magnolia blossoms, and greening lilacs.
Several Japanese folk dance and taiko drumming groups from Swat will also be performing at Sakura Sunday.