In 1987, the 5-foot-3 mom said "no" to drug dealers who'd turned this lot, the size of a block, into an open-air bazaar. With some 20 neighborhood women calling themselves Grupo Motivos, Brown tossed out the dealers, strung up barbed wire and locked the gate. Over the years, no one's come forward as the women planted gardens and put up fences in six more lots.

"You dispelled the caricatures in favor of an honest analysis and I appreciate that."

In the last two decades, Koresh Dance Co. has built its foundations on sexually potent athleticism and animal grace.

Springtime for Pennsylvania Ballet means an eclectic, electric quartet of dances.

Martha Colburn's Join the Freedom Force is a frenzied collage of protest.

Judging by This Is Happening, the third great LCD Soundsystem record in a row, the albums occupying most of James Murphy's time lately have been the ones David Bowie made in Berlin.

Jón Þór Birgisson's surprisingly sprightly solo bow finds the angel-voiced Icelander on earthlier if no less fantastical footing than with Sigur Rós.

Actually, it's a bit stupefying to think that there could be any more than one (barely functioning) set of machines involved here.

Saturday's May Day, the worldwide labor movement's day of celebration.

For art-damaged neo-post-punkers, Baltimore's trio Future Islands comes on disarmingly friendly-like at first, all bounceable blankwave beats and twinkly electro-pop melodies.

The description of this performance on the Grand Opera House's website pegs Vijay Iyer as a "South Asian pianist," despite the fact that he was born and raised in upstate New York.

Seeking high-energy music based in the Irish tradition, but happy to hear the boundaries stretched a bit?

As with other Starr projects, aesthetics drive the Ranstead Room's environment as much as the drinks.

It ain't easy being half of a comedic hip-hop duo, but the naturally funny Nathaniel Holt of Rowan & Hastings doesn't make it look hard.

The New Filmmakers Weekend rounds out the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival and marks the largest collection of films in PJFF's history.

Charlaine Harris is not the greatest writer of all time. The author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels has no unique way with words — but goddamnit if they aren't the equivalent of literary crack.

Courtney Brown and Jackie Barry, juniors at the University of the Arts, have concocted an ambitious extracurricular activity: a zine yard sale.

Nerds everywhere squeal! Free Comic Book Day is pretty self-explanatory, a holiday to celebrate the graphic land of the comic book

Sure, Scott and Crowe may tell it like it is, but Flynn will make you feel like a kid again.

The 360-degree head spin, split-pea-soup projectile vomit, Linda Blair: Stories of demon possessions and exorcisms cross cultures and religions. But they can't be real ... right?