creativeharry.bsky.social
@creativeharry.bsky.social
I love introducing wonderfully weird creative people to each other, then getting out of the way.

Ben and Ruben rescue "naked" VHS tapes. Furai draws the art. I introduced them.

Full story on the blog: https://harryhayman.com/blog/secret-handshake-furai-vhs-salvage-project

#PhillyArt #StreetArt
October 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Mandala, by Delia King, painted in 2012 with Bok students through Mural Arts. Their silhouettes are part of it.

I was not looking for art. I was on my way to play chess.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/delia-king-mandala-bok-mural-arts
#PhillyArt #Philadelphia
September 30, 2026 at 3:03 PM
I tell people about SouthSide, the event space next to SOUTH, and still get "there's an event space there?"

Not an unbiased source. Still a beautiful room.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/southside-bynum-brothers-event-space
#SouthSide #PhillyEvents
September 29, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Opening night at InLiquid for No Other Place to Go. Photography about climate change, and about what it actually feels like to live through it.

NO ADS. JUST ART.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/inliquid-no-other-place-to-go-opening
#InLiquid #PhillyArts
September 28, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Swervedriver in a 650 cap basement on Callowhill.

NOTHING ARE FROM HERE. Their Slide Away festival sold out Union Transfer.

Slide Away 2026: Brooklyn, Chicago, LA. Not us.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/underground-arts-swervedriver-philadelphia-shoegaze

#PhillyMusic #Shoegaze
September 27, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Some nights at the club you're running around worrying about everything. Then you remember to stop.

Ruth Naomi Floyd brought Music for the Soul to SOUTH. I actually sat down and listened.

Novel concept when you run the joint.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/ruth-naomi-floyd-music-for-the-soul-south
September 26, 2026 at 3:02 PM
The Chats, Descendents, then Social Distortion, inside a 1908 opera house on North Broad. My ears may never forgive me.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/social-distortion-descendents-the-met-philadelphia
#TheMetPhilly #Philadelphia
September 25, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Brianna Thomas sang "Freedom Highway" at SOUTH. Written in 1965 for the Selma march, and she made it feel like it was written this morning.

You can stream the Staple Singers. You could not stream that room.

#PhiladelphiaJazz #LiveMusic
September 21, 2026 at 3:02 PM
LOOK AT WHAT IS COMING TO SOUTH!

Now look at November and December. Seriously.

The SOUTH x Unscripted thing is working out pretty damn well.

See ya @ SOUTH...

Full story on the blog: https://harryhayman.com/blog/south-x-unscripted-jazz-november-december-2026

#SOUTHJazzClub #UnscriptedJazz
September 20, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Jane Golden, four decades at Mural Arts Philadelphia:

"We believed in the possibility of change, and that has power."

They changed Philadelphia, wall by wall.

Imagination is infrastructure.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/jane-golden-mural-arts-imagination-infrastructure
#JaneGolden #PhillyArts
September 19, 2026 at 3:01 PM
A scene survives because somebody gives the musicians a damn stage.

Friday at Bourbon & Branch that stage belonged to Diamond Franklin.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/harry-hayman-bourbon-and-branch-philadelphia-jazz

#PhillyJazz #LiveMusic
September 17, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Vanessa Rubin at SOUTH, with Brandon McCune, Kenny Davis and Jerome Jennings.

That voice ten feet away. That is why you see jazz live.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/harry-hayman-vanessa-rubin-south-jazz

#PhillyJazz #LiveJazz
September 15, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Repo Records, South Street, since 1986. Walked out with a numbered red-marble Social Distortion, one of 3,000.

Places like this don't stay open because we post about them. Somebody has to buy the record.

#RepoRecords #Philadelphia
September 12, 2026 at 3:01 PM
I told my girlfriend we would knock out the pickles the night before SOUTH opened. She asked if I was out of my mind.

She was right. We hired a full time pickler.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/harry-hayman-south-pickle-wall

#PhillyFood #SOUTH
September 10, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Philadelphia in the '90s. Zanzibar Blue. Ursula Rucker in the middle of it.

Then came Supa Sista, 25 years ago. And she's not done.

Give people their flowers while they're standing there to smell them.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/ursula-rucker-supa-sista-25-years
#UrsulaRucker #PhillyPoetry
September 8, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Wednesday 21 October at SOUTH: an intimate wine dinner with Brenae Royal of Violet's Paradise. Her 2023 Monte Rosso Zinfandel took 98 points from VinePair.

Space is limited.

https://harryhayman.com/blog/harry-hayman-south-violets-paradise-wine-dinner

#PhillyWine #SOUTH
September 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
PHILADELPHIA...WE GOTTA SUPPORT THIS...LAST TIME I WAS THERE, THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH OF US THERE

Is this the last real, dedicated BLUES JOINT in Philadelphia?

I'm genuinely asking. Holler at me if I'm wrong because I HOPE I AM. Please tell me I am.

#Blues #LiveMusic #Philadelphia
September 4, 2026 at 3:03 PM
"THE EVOLUTION OF THE REVOLUTION" was EVERYTHING.

Culture doesn't happen somewhere else. It happens right here.

One city. One enormous living canvas.

Full story on the blog: https://harryhayman.com/blog/harry-hayman-philadelphia-street-art-experience

#PhillyArts #StreetArt
September 3, 2026 at 3:02 PM
MICROCINEMA JUST HIT THE BIG SCREEN.

Ben Hayman and The Secret Handshake took their wonderfully weird cinema into the Philadelphia Film Society.

The little rooms matter. The strange movies matter.

#Microcinema #PhillyArts
September 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
The city didn't commission a Declaration for the 250th. Mural Arts ran 35+ workshops and let a thousand Philadelphians write their own.

The making was the artwork.

Free at Parkway Central through August 29.

#Philadelphia #PublicArt
August 28, 2026 at 3:03 PM
$70,000 a year. That's what the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia saved by leaving the Kimmel, its home since the building opened in 2001. The whole budget is $1.2 million.

We built a hall for orchestras. One of them could no longer afford to play in it.

#Philadelphia #PhillyArts
August 27, 2026 at 3:02 PM
The Gerald Veasley Unscripted Jazz Series delivered AGAIN at SOUTH, and Andrea Lisa absolutely brought it. Two sets, one room full of music lovers.

AND THAT SEARING GUITAR.

#PhillyJazz #LiveMusic
August 25, 2026 at 3:02 PM
"THE EVOLUTION OF THE REVOLUTION" was EVERYTHING. History. Art. Culture. Community. Resistance. Joy. PHILADELPHIA.

Culture doesn't happen somewhere else. CULTURE HAPPENS RIGHT MF HERE.

#PhillyArts #StreetArt
August 22, 2026 at 3:02 PM
There are experiences that remind you why music has endured for centuries. The show at Marian Anderson Hall in the Kimmel Cultural Center, Beethoven wasn't simply performed; he was felt. #PhiladelphiaOrchestra #ClassicalMusic #ArtsMatter
August 21, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Brian Simpson. Two nights. One unforgettable weekend.

Thank you for lighting up the stage at SOUTH.

The music never stops. See you at the next show.

#BrianSimpson #SOUTHJazzClub #LiveJazz
August 18, 2026 at 3:02 PM