☀️ Mother’s Day fun | Things to Do

It’s Mother’s Day weekend! I plan to spend time with mine dancing, dining, and possibly catching a play. Thankfully, the forecast looks sunny and warm for the weekend so there are tons of great ways to spend the holiday honoring mom or other mother figures in your life. How will you celebrate? Let me know!

— Rosa Cartagena (@_RosaCartagena, Email me at [email protected])

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It’s last minute (so act fast) but there are lovely options for places to find Mother’s Day brunch in and around Philadelphia, including a City Cruise with French toast or a Mommy & Me High Tea with a classy tray of tasty bites. Find the right place to celebrate Mom.

🪷 Back in action: Another possible Mother’s Day activity kicks off at Longwood Gardens tomorrow. After a three year renovation hiatus, the dazzling waterlily court reopens on Friday, where you can see more than 100 varieties of waterlilies and lotuses blooming and floating. Don’t miss the illuminated fountain shows.

📚 Love for sale: Romance lovers, this one’s for you. A new bookshop focused specifically on romance — think romantasy, rom-coms, and historical bodice rippers — just opened in Manayunk with a lot of fanfare. Find your next beach read.

🍸 Members only: Palizzi Social Club is Philly’s most exclusive bar and for a limited time this month, they’re opening up their membership for the first time in two years. Here’s what to know.

⛳ Last chance: Golf stars have taken over the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course for the PGA Truist Championship, which ends on Sunday. Here’s our hand guide.

🎭 Dine and drag: Philly drag queen and opera singer Cookie Diorio — who delivered an unforgettable performance as the Grinch’s ex-wife in a 2024 holiday spectacular — will host The Arts Affair benefit next week. Try a Mural Arts printmaking workshop, hear jazz, and see dance performances from PHILADANCO members.

🔑 Key contributions: This week, Quinta Brunson (who crushed it on SNL and the Met Gala red carpet), announced a new Abbott Elementary mural coming to her elementary school in West Philly later this month; at the event, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will give the actor-comedian a key to the city.

📅 My calendar picks this week: Rittenhouse Square Fine Craft Show, Art Star Craft Bazaar, Mother’s Day Gospel Celebration

Celebrating motherhood can take a lot of different forms, but one thing I love to do with my mom and other moms in my life is visit museums. She’s the biggest reason I became interested in museums because when I was a kid, she dragged me to countless exhibits. There are so many amazing museums in Philadelphia, where you can see artwork inspired by motherhood. I recently had a chance to visit the Fabric Workshop and Museum and one very cool piece caught my eye: Philly artist Aimee Koran’s Mama Space Suit, a blue and white jumpsuit that likens motherhood with space exploration with fascinating results. It’s on view now as part of the museum’s “Soft/Cover” exhibit. Also keep out for the Inquirer’s story about Koran’s fascinating work, coming out Sunday.

📚 Book and cook: Foodies and home chefs might find community at Binding Agents, a cookbook store in the Italian Market that hosts a book club-meets-potluck every month.

🎆 Fireworks: Fourth of July planning is underway in the city and this week we learned the headliners for the annual Wawa Welcome America concert — Jazmine Sullivan and LL Cool J. Catch up on the lineup so far.

💳 Travel tips: If you’re flying anytime soon, you’ll now need a REAL ID at the airport. Here’s everything you need to know.

🥃 Bitter bottles: Chicago’s famous spirit Malört is newly available to purchase in Pennsylvania, so we decided to do an Inquirer taste test of the controversial drink. It’s, um, pretty unpleasant!

🥪 Hoagie hangout: Deli Boys star Asif Ali came to town last week and tried his first-ever hoagie. He spent some time with my coworker Hira Qureshi to taste some authentic Philly hoagies.

This weekend Philly boasts a particularly jazzy lineup. Here are two highlights from our Spring Arts Guide, from local jazz journalist Shaun Brady:

🎷 Friday: Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin has never shied away from asserting the influence of John and Alice Coltrane on her work, paying homage to the couple’s music with her 2020 album Pursuance: The Coltranes. But the title of 2023’s Phoenix staked a claim to a new voice rising from the ashes of the past, and the lineup of strong women voices represented on the album — including activist Angela Davis, vocalist Dianne Reeves, pianist Patrice Rushen, and poet Sonia Sánchez — made a bold case for Benjamin rising toward their ranks. She plays at the Annenberg Center.

🎺 Saturday: A new quartet with a bracing, risk-embracing sound, History Dog brings together four prolific Brooklyn-based improvisers: trumpeter Chris Williams, drummer Lesley Mok, bassist Luke Stewart, and vocalist Shara Lunon. The band’s debut album, released the day before this Fire Museum show, is Root Systems — a title that vividly captures the quartet’s underground spirit and far-branching tendrils, which wend deep into electric and acoustic sounds, jazz, new music, and purely experimental territory. See them at Calvary Community Center.

The Wells Fargo Center has a new name, announced this week: the Xfinity Mobile Arena. It’s not the catchiest moniker and of course now that it’s been unveiled, Philadelphia has thoughts. Some folks are already figuring out nicknames, like Xbox, or pointing out that its proximity to Xfinity Live! will likely lead to confusion. What do you think of the arena’s new name? Do you have any suggestions for what you think it should’ve been called instead? Let’s hear it.

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I finally saw Sinners this week and there’s so much to love, from the incredible music to Michael B. Jordan’s twin performances. What did you think of the Mississippi vampire film everyone’s talking about? Write to me.