You were a child, and that child is still in you. Without looking at the past and forgiving little you, there’s no way future you can get past the past.
After years of working as a teacher, organizer, and facilitator, Matthew Armstead is pushed inward to show themself the care and accept the support they show others. Through poetry, movement, and song, Matthew embodies a chorus of voices. Black people don’t have to be perfect. Queer fam don’t have to perform to be cool. We all just get to be. Yes and…you get to forgive yourself.
Song Bridge is a compassionate journey about learning to sing again. Travel across time together toward collective healing.
Dates & Location
Sept 11 at 5:30pm
Sept 18 at 2:30pm*
Sept 25 at 2:30pm*
MAAS Studio, 1320 North 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122
*These dates the show is followed by a talk back.
Song Bridge was developed in Café Darkness: A Writing Workshop for People of Color.
Audience reflections on Song Bridge:
“Joyful, vibrant, heart tugging, and spell binding. Matthew has the poet’s gift of making the personal universal, which they use to weave through memory, emotion, and song, drawing in the audience with a master crafter’s skill. Each listening or viewing is an emotional outpouring allowing an unfolding of shades of meaning and layers of emotional experience that echoes from your own heart. A cathartic, uplifting, performance experience.”
“You don’t want to miss what Matthew’s going to do. It would be a mistake. Bring a group or the church van.”
“An opportunity for soul retrieval, in that it’s an opportunity to see parts of our/yourself that you may have lost along the way. And the way in which Matthew presents gives audiences an open door to possibly relocate those parts for reintegration.”
Song Bridge is co-produced the Cannonball Festival , where informal and formal discussions will follow most showings.
Cast & Crew Credits
Matthew Armstead - Creator & Performer, Rhetta Morgan - Director & Container Holder, Cat Ramirez - Director & Producer, Dwight Dunston - Space Holder, Ingrid Lakey - Space Holder, Karen Orrick - Space Holder, Robert Carter - Production Photography
Access Information
The MAAS Building has an outdoor garden with a cobblestone entrance on 5th street where the box office is located along with a local chef selling food, a fire pit surrounded by bench seating, cocktail tables with high chairs, covered area with limited bench and chair seating, and a bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. There is an entrance on Randolph street with a smooth floor and a restroom on the ground floor is accessible by a wheelchair or other assisted mobility devices. Unfortunately, the MAAS building is not ADA accessible as stairs are the only way to access the Studio, the indoor performance space on the second floor.
Cannonball Festival is an independently produced performing arts festival, concurrent with the Philadelphia fringe, that presents risk-taking independent artists in back-to-back performances next to delicious lounge spaces, fostering creative collisions and community conversation.
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Philly Fringe is a 4-week long, city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance. Each September, the Festival explodes into every nook and cranny of Philadelphia with more than 1,000 artistically daring performances, including national and international performances curated by FringeArts, and works that are produced by independent artists and promoted by FringeArts.