Now + Then Marketplace is Setting Up Shop at the Historic Leader Theater With 45 Vendors and Screening of Night of The Living Dead
On Saturday September 16th, Meantime will host Velocities 2, a daylong activation of the former Leader Theater in Philadelphia highlighting the building’s history as a cinema and neighborhood event space. Curated and programmed with Steph Irwin, Jerry Kaba and Eugene Lew, the event features vendors by Now+Then Marketplace, workshops, a special film
screening, live analog synth sounds, and visual projection performances for the first time in nearly sixty years.
The event will take place at the former Leader Theater (currently under renovation) in the West Powelton neighborhood of Philadelphia. The building was constructed in 1912 and featured silent films, vaudeville acts, and eventually talkies on its way to becoming a popular movie destination for the neighborhood and beyond. After closing in 1968, it was later used by the
Police Athletic League (PAL) and a retail store. The ornate brick and terra cotta facade, recently encased in metal cladding, is almost restored and is now visible for the first time in decades.
The Velocities pop-up market will focus on analog artisans and handmade products, including vinyl, books and vintage fashion, as well as local food and non-alcoholic beverages. Hands-on making workshops will include Modular Synths 101 by Jerry Kaba and Stefano Daddi; lock picking by TOOOL; and data storage on cassette tapes by Iffy Books. As revealed through research by cineSPEAK, George Romero’s horror classic Night of The Living Dead was the final film screened at the Leader in 1968 and attendees will be invited to experience the film projected onto unfinished walls and accompanied by multiple Philadelphia-based musicians creating unique sounds in the reverberant space. Sound Museum Collective will create a site-specific installation on the theater’s balcony. Rounding out the evening will be light projections created by Gralin Hughes, Grant Bouvier and Luminous Abstract that encompass the entire domed theater space accompanied by soundscapes produced by Richie Brown, Sandy James, and Tangent Universes.
On Saturday September 16th, Meantime will host Velocities 2, a daylong activation of the former Leader Theater in Philadelphia highlighting the building’s history as a cinema and neighborhood event space. Curated and programmed with Steph Irwin, Jerry Kaba and Eugene Lew, the event features vendors by Now+Then Marketplace, workshops, a special film screening, live analog synth sounds, and visual projection performances for the first time in nearly sixty years.
The event will take place at the former Leader Theater (currently under renovation) in the West Powelton neighborhood of Philadelphia. The building was constructed in 1912 and featured silent films, vaudeville acts, and eventually talkies on its way to becoming a popular movie destination for the neighborhood and beyond. After closing in 1968, it was later used by the Police Athletic League (PAL) and a retail store. The ornate brick and terra cotta facade, recently encased in metal cladding, is almost restored and is now visible for the first time in decades.
The Velocities pop-up market will focus on analog artisans and handmade products, including vinyl, books and vintage fashion, as well as local food and non-alcoholic beverages. Hands-on making workshops will include Modular Synths 101 by Jerry Kaba and Stefano Daddi; lock picking by TOOOL; and data storage on cassette tapes by Iffy Books. As revealed through research by cineSPEAK, George Romero’s horror classic Night of The Living Dead was the final film screened at the Leader in 1968 and attendees will be invited to experience the film projected onto unfinished walls and accompanied by multiple Philadelphia-based musicians creating unique sounds in the reverberant space. Sound Museum Collective will create a site-specific installation on the theater’s balcony. Rounding out the evening will be light projections created by Gralin Hughes, Grant Bouvier and Luminous Abstract that encompass the entire domed theater space accompanied by soundscapes produced by Richie Brown, Sandy James, and Tangent Universes.
Meantime is a Philadelphia-based project committed to activating underutilized commercial spaces in an effort to enliven street-life, creative production, and entrepreneurship opportunities for local communities. Meantime is joined by Philadelphia-based experiential event producer Steph Irwin; Jerry Kaba founder of Practice Gallery, AWFUL Wrestling, and Modular on the Spot Philly; and Eugene Lew (HUNGRYMONSTERS) in the planning, producing and curating of the Velocities series.
We are collaborating with Meantime to host Velocities 2, a daylong activation in the former, historic Leader Theater in West Philly. The event features 45 Now + Then Marketplace local vendors, workshops including Modular Synths 101 and data storage cassette tapes by Iffy Books, a special film screening of the horror classic Night of The Living Dead, which, as revealed through research by cineSPEAK, was the last film screened in the Leader Theater in 1968, live analog synth performances, and visual projection art on the same wall they projected movies on nearly sixty years ago.
Schedule:
12-6 pm / Now and Then Marketplace with food trucks
2-5 pm / Workshops
1-5 pm / Daytime music performances with light projections sampled from ‘Night of the Living
Dead’
6-9 pm / Evening music performances with light projections on the entire domed theater space
