Celebrating Bethlehem's Southside Culture
Twenty years ago in 1999, Bethlehem’s Touchstone Theatre created an arts and cultural festival to help the community through the devastating closure of Bethlehem Steel. “Steel Festival, The Art of an Industry” aimed to celebrate everything Bethlehem had become during the years in which the plant was in operation. Two decades after the first Steel…
To open the recent Festival UnBound, Touchstone Theatre staged the play Prometheus/Redux at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts from Oct. 4-6. Long term residents of Bethlehem will know that this production connects with the play Steelbound produced in 1999. Touchstone Theatre created the 1999 production to give residents the opportunity to process…
On the first Friday of every month, Bethlehem’s Third and Fourth Streets radiate with life. The diverse array of shops, art galleries, restaurants, salons and boutiques turn into a city-wide celebration of the arts, culture, and music that residents can find in the South Side Arts District. In September, the SouthSide Arts District hosted its…
One year after Bethlehem Steel shut down in 1998, Touchstone Theatre hosted Steel Festival: The Art of an Industry, which created and assembled several works of art and cultural projects to help the community cope with the loss. As many in the city worried about the economic future of the city, lost jobs and pensions,…
“My childhood dream was that I would be able to ride a bike.” Frozan, Afghanistan National Cycling Team When I ask my younger family members to tell me their dreams, I get significantly more exciting and unusual responses than a more simplistic “to ride a bike.” Attain superpowers, become the president, save the world, win…
Author Delia Marrero is the Development Coordinator for Lehigh Valley Girls Rock, an organization dedicated to empowering girls and women + trans and nonbinary folks through music and art. The National Sokols Hall hosted Lehigh Valley Girls Rock’s Ladyfest fundraiser on Saturday, June 15, 2019. Bands came together and filled the hall with the sounds…
As a student at Lehigh, I am at Zoellner Arts Center a lot. I sit on its lawn while I read, do homework, or take a much needed break from either of those. Zoellner itself is a quiet refuge for many Lehigh students, who retreat to the third floor for the private music rooms to…
I experienced my first Bethlehem First Friday on June 7th. This summer is the first chance I had to go, and, honestly, I hadn’t heard of it before that week. Man, was I missing out! I spent most of my time at Domaci perusing the maps, posters, and vinyl floor covers while snacking on popcorn…
“This changed the norm, no one could imagine that there were athletes who were gay.” As a member of a Division 1 track and field program, I personally can attest to the absurdity of the notion that accomplished athletes can’t be gay. My co-captain and best friend is bisexual, and many of our best athletes…
Walking into the auditorium of the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (Charter Arts) last Wednesday, I was immediately stunned. With the projector set up by the Southside Film Institute, there was little to differentiate the assembly hall in the center of South Bethlehem from an AMC theater. My arrival cut dangerously close…