Sept 15-16th

FringeArts: Hello! Thank you for taking the time to talk with us on the blog! First, why don’t you introduce yourselves!

ANKOLE: Jambo! We’re ANKOLE – a Circus Arts and Wellness Community hailing from Lenape Territory aka the boogie-down Bronx. We heard about Fringe Festivals hosted in various states and our former Aerial Arts instructor used to perfom in them. A quick Google search led us to Philly Fringe and we were blessed to perform last year. This is our 2nd year returning.

FringeArts: Hello ANKOLE! We’re so happy to have you here on the blog AND in Philly for this year’s festival! Can you tell us a bit about your show?

ANKOLE: We pay homage our Ancestors’ African and Native-American Sprituality rooted in Nature where a duality of feminine and masculine energies were honored and one embodying such created harmony and balance. “Queerness” or “Gender Expansiveness” were considered normal and existed before European-Christian ideology, colonization and slavery tainted our culture. As a BIPOC Queer cast, we’re sharing this message by performing Circus Aerial, spoken-word and Afro-beat + Waacking + Vogue + House music and dance.

FringeArts:  It sounds to me that in NFRW/T you assist the audience in a utopian time-travel mission… and that sounds BRILLIANT! We’re so excited to see it! What led you all to not only make this show, but to live as artists?

ANKOLE: We were born for this! Everyone has a gift/talent/passion to share with the world and being Healers, Artists and Activists is ours. We are FREE to be 100% ourselves with no filters, no boundaries and in doing such we inspire, empower and uplift our people.

FringeArts: This conversation is ALREADY healing, so we can’t wait to see the show! What’s been the most special part of making THIS show?

ANKOLE: To touch every aspect of the show and allow our Artists to collaborate with one another to make the vision come to life. Its hard work! but we choreographed, costume designed, set-designed, directed…pretty much wore ALL the hats for this entire production. Among the challenges were a lot of giggles and silly blooper moments because We consider ourselves one big happy Circus family 🙂

FringeArts: And we LOVE a circus family! Are there any specific shows in the 2025 Philly Fringe, circus or not, that you’re particularly excited to see this September?

ANKOLE: 2nd International Black & Indigenous Circus Week hosted 09/14/25 – 09/22/25 brings other Artists from around the country to not only showcase their art but to collaborate as business owners and visionaries to create more pathways for our culture to be seen and recognized in Circus Arts.

FringeArts: That’s going to be an incredibly exciting week on the Fringe! We’re excited to see the amazing art presented, and the potential futures built throughout the week! Ok, one FINAL question: Who would you be in a zombie apocalypse?

ANKOLE: A Tree. We don’t do zombies. So we will probably just be a Tree watching from the sidelines while all that mess comes to pass.

FringeArts: And even ass a tree, you would probably provide some sort of help and support to those humans living in a zombie-fied world! Thank you so much ANKOLE for taking the time to share with us! We are incredibly excited to see NFRW/T!

September 13 & 27th

FringeArts: Hello! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today! We’re delighted to have you on the blog! Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Reina Bracha: I’m Reina Bracha. I grew up in South Florida and now I live in West Philly. I heard about the Philly Fringe because I was an audience member for shows the past two years including some that my friends produced.

FringeArts: We love our Fringe-web of friends and artists! And we LOVE when our audience members become the performers! Can you tell us a bit about your show?

Reina Bracha: invisibleDISS is a solo show I wrote and am performing in about the experiences of navigating the broken systems that do not support people with so-called invisible disabilities. It’s surprisingly fun(ny), weird, emotionally moving, and thoughtful. I perform emails, texts, DMs, voice notes, diary entries, doctor’s notes, official SSDI documents, and more into an embodied auto-documentary narrative collage. I hope this can be a kind of communal ritual for audiences to experience and hopefully transform the way invisibly disabled people are held in community.

FringeArts: Absolutely wonderful! That’s one of the amazing things about Fringe shows! Building community between audience and performer is incredibly special! Clearly community and feeling seen is an important part of THIS show, but I’m also wondering what has compelled you to be an artist on a larger scale?

Reina Bracha: It’s just the way I’m built. Making art is like breathing. I need it to survive.

FringeArts: We feel exactly the same! Has there been anything especially special, perhaps especially life-giving, about working on InvisibleDISS?

Reina Bracha: Working with the puppet has been pretty great and has allowed me to stretch my comedy skills.

FringeArts: We love to hear it! Ok, and outside of your show, are there any shows YOU recommend that our readers see? Are there any shows that you’re excited to see?

Reina Bracha: My fellow Studio 34 shows like Minivan and Great Bends

FringeArts: Amazing! Finally… and this is super important… If you could visit one fictional world or place to live in for a year, what would it be?

Reina Bracha: Narnia, duh

FringeArts: DUH! How could we be so silly as to have to even ask! We’re very very excited to see your show, and we’re sure our readers are too! Thank you for being on th3e blog today!

September 20th

FringeArts: Hello! Thank you so much for joining us on the magical digital platform that is the FringeBlog! Would you like to introduce yourself to our wonderful readers?

Kevin Turner: Kevin Turner, I’m an NYC comedian originally from Bedford NH. I heard about the Philly Fringe through other performers and social media.

FringeArts: Hi Kevin! Thank you for joining us to talk about you and your show “Obsessive Comedy Disorder”! could you tell us a bit about the show, and perhaps why you made it?

Kevin Turner: OCD is dark. A lot of people misunderstand it. I wanted to talk about my OCD honestly and see if I could make it funny. Overall, the show became about your identity and who you are when you have a mental health disorder that attacks your identity. I spend a lot of the show building trust with the audience so that when I get very honest, the audience still feels safe and free to laugh. I think the show resonates with anyone anxious or obsessive, but it’s in honor of those suffering in silence. People with OCD wait–on average–12 years before seeking treatment.

FringeArts: Wow. Thats pretty special, especially the way that you’ve thought out building trust with your audience. This is something so important when it comes to the performing arts, but is perhaps not always something that is verbalized. Do you think that your show is more different or similar to what one might consider “stand up”?

Kevin Turner: I know the content of my show goes further than a traditional stand-up comedy show in a club. The fringe feels like the best medium to present my work.

FringeArts: Well, we’re very happy to have you in the Fringe! I wonder what the process of creating this show has been like for you? Has there been anything special 0r perhaps therapeutic about working on this show?

Kevin Turner: Pursuing my comedic goals to have a positive impact on mental health and how we discuss it is very rewarding to put into practice. I’m grateful to be able to perform this hour and hear stories from audiences. It’s a blessing.

FringeArts: And its blessing for us as well! We’re very lucky to get to see you (and laugh at you) on the stage! One last little silly question: What’s your zodiac sign and do you think it describes you well?

Kevin Turner: Virgo. I don’t really follow astrology, but other people tell me it fits me. I bet astrology fans are reading this saying “classic virgo.”

FringeArts: Well according to a quick search on the WorldWideWeb, Virgo’s dislike taking center stage… so perhaps not “classic virgo”? Either way, we’ll leave it up to the experts! Thank you for joining us today and we’re SO excited to see your show this year!

September 4-28th

FringeArts: Hello! We’re absolutely delighted to have you on the blog today, but before we get ahead of ourselves and start asking you about your show, lets have you introduce yourself to our readers!

RJ Rushmore: RJ Rushmore. I’ve lived in Philadelphia on and off since 2010, but my wife and I are one of those cliche couples who moved from Brooklyn to Fishtown at the height of COVID. Having worked in the Philadelphia art community for many years, it’s impossible to say how Fringe first got on my radar. Last September, I went to a bunch of great shows. That was right around the time that we first started thinking about producing this play, so of course Fringe seemed like a great thing to be a part of.

FringeArts: And we’re so excited that you pulled the trigger and decided to do a show! And speaking of your show… why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you’ve been working on?

RJ Rushmore: We’ve adapted this show from a selection of short stories that David Wojnarowicz wrote early in his career, before he was an internationally-known artist and AIDS activist. Most people today know that work as a book, The Waterfront Journals, but David also wrote these stories as something that could be produced for the stage. Each piece takes the form of a self-contained monologue by a different character. These are true stories, some from David’s own life and some shared with him by people he met in this travels. Together, the form a journey into forgotten landscapes at the edges of American society to encounter hustlers, dreamers, and survivors of 1970’s and 1980’s America.

FringeArts: What a wonderful thing, to transform Wojnarowicz’s writing into a form that he intended, but that has largely remained undone! And what an exciting opportunity for all of us to get to see it! I have to ask, what’s been the best thing about creating this thing we call art?

RJ Rushmore: The opportunity to collaborate with and learn from others. We’ve been upfront with everyone on this production: I do not know what I am doing. My experience is in projects like murals and sculptures, not performance. But nearly every interesting art project I have ever worked on started with someone saying, “Here’s a napkin sketch of my idea. I do not know how to make it a reality. Let’s gather a team and find out together.” So, that’s what we are doing here.

FringeArts: And thats exactly the type of work that we always hope Fringe provides a space for! Can you tell us a bit more about anything particularly exciting to you in creating THIS specific work?

RJ Rushmore: Twice now, as I’ve been sitting at a bar or cafe taking notes in my copy of The Waterfront Journals, someone has interrupted me to say something like, “Are you reading David Wojnarowicz? I love his work. That’s a great book.” So, hopefully that’s a sign that there is interest in this show.

FringeArts: I’m sure it is! And an entirely different medium for his readers to experience the work in! Ok, we’re almost at the end of our time! Could you tell us any shows you’re particularly excited to see for yourself in this year’s festival? I know you mentioned that you saw a bunch of amazing shows last year, and I hope you’re carrying on that tradition!

RJ Rushmore: So many. But standouts right now are Pennsylvania Semiconscious Liberation Army and Ben Franklin Sex Party.

FringeArts: Wow! Amazing! We’re very excited for those too! I hope you can get in as many shows as you want to in September! One final question: If you could choose anyone (a celebrity, a friend, a family member) to come see your show and they HAD to come, who would you choose?

RJ Rushmore: Schitt’s Creek creator Dan Levy is a fan of David Wojnarowicz, so it would be amazing if he saw this show.

FringeArts: Oh My Goodness. That truly would be the dream! Well! Dan Levy might not be there (or he might, jury’s still out!) but we hope that our amazing readers come out to see the show! Especially (but not only) if they’re Wojnarowicz fans!

September 26th

FringeArts: Hello! Its great to have you on the blog! Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

Malaika Carpenter: My name’s Malaika Carpenter, and I’m a South NJ-based multifaceted literary artist—a writer, performer, and producer who was grew up in New Jersey and spent my college and early careers years in Philly. The first time that I heard about Philadelphia Fringe Festival, I was an undergraduate student at Temple University and I had gone to a 30 minute solo show in the bathroom of a bar. And I was like, “oh okay!” because the show description didn’t necessarily say that the play was taking place in a bar’s bathroom, but nonetheless, I instantly realized that Fringe was for the brave, for the innovative, and for the one who loves to perform and provoke thought. I really begin to understand what Fringe was about in 2024, when I served as a producer for Quentin Williams’ solo show Where Sunflowers Dance. I saw firsthand all that it takes to self produce your show and to get it on stage and in front of an audience. I saw how exhilarating it feels to get people’s real time reactions and feedback to your work. I was so inspired by Quentin’s performance and felt really energized and inspired being a producer for that show. Then I thought, “if I could do a solo show, what would I do? What would I talk about?” And instantly an idea that I had in 2021, which was all about having a conversation about modern day singleness, especially from a black woman’s perspective, came into my mind. I knew right away that, instead of having this conversation in an essay or a book or a blog post, I wanted to have this conversation as a play in front of an a live audience, incorporating them into the conversation through improv and interactive moments. I also wanted an opportunity to fully express all of the artistic training and practice I have been doing as a writer & literary artist since my adolescence years to now. That’s included improv, comedy sketch writing, acting class including a tiny dash of musical theater, tons of poetry and short story writing, and a smidge of doing a few stand up open mics in 2020. I wanted to blend all those things together into my show, It’s Giving Single, and share my own personal reflection on the joy, frustration, and self discovery of being a modern day single black woman.

I love creating art that sparks laughter, conversation, and cultural awareness among audiences. Since 2019, I’ve been producing shows that mix comedy and storytelling to boost cultural awareness and connection. I’ve done this with Mod Ethnic Comedy Festival — a 2-day festival featuring shows produced and performed by comedians of color. Again with Tokens R Us — a live comedy talk show featuring a panel of ethnically diverse comedians of color who share what it means to be “the only one” through games, storytelling, and stand-up. With sold-out performances in Philly and NYC, and 3-month run at Philly Waterfront’s Summerfest, audiences found it to be “enlightening as it is entertaining.”
And now with It’s Giving Single.

FringeArts: Tell us a little more about It’s Giving Single!

Malaika Carpenter: ‘It’s Giving…Single’ is a one woman show that explores the joys, the frustrations, the messy in-betweens of modern day singleness from a black woman’s perspective. More importantly, this show explores the question: what if singleness is a place for becoming and not a problem to fix? So, it is changing the conversation about singleness, which often is seen as a plight, a problem or just a waiting room until you find love or the one.

As someone who has watched almost all of my close friends march down the aisle to matrimony as their bridesmaid or even maid of honor, I’ve felt all of those things about singleness — the pressure to escape or fix it and the impatience and loneliness of waiting on “the one” or “your person” or for love.

Yet, over time and after some heartbreak, I’ve discovered that my singleness journey is this space for self discovery and a place for learning who you really are and what you actually want when you stop focusing on everyone else’s expectations for you.

This play is also my artist statement as a writer and performer. It’s culmination of all my artistic training and expression over the years, from improv comedy to musical theatre to poetry. I blend all of it to share five original stories that take audiences through singleness journey, from the hope to the heartbreak and to the healing.

At the show, I invite audiences to join the conversation through interactive moments I call “the group chat”. Attendees become friends in the group chat as soon as they arrive. Their input on specific show themes and topics will be collected and shared during the show. Together, we’ll explore what does it mean to be single today and what if singleness is a place for becoming.

FringeArts: Fabulous! We love shows where the audiences become integral to the plot! This sounds wonderfully real, raw, funny, and totally consuming! Earlier, you mentioned your work in literary art. I wonder what has made you choose this life of being an artist, both in creating performed art and writing?

Malaika Carpenter: What has made me the most interested and the most passionate to pursue the daring life of being a literary artist is the connection it makes me feel to God, myself, and other people. I find that writing and storytelling is at times a mirror, other times a magnifying glass, and also a window into seeing myself into seeing others, into seeing the world, and just having more clarity. I’ve always found that either in my moments of sheer happiness and joy, or even devastating heartbreak, I turn to pen and paper. Emotions come out honestly and naturally as poems, prose, and songs. I release and process on the page. It’s always been my most natural form of expression. And what I am most interested in doing now is courageously and confidently sharing what I have written with others so I help myself and others feel less alone. I started doing this through producing comedy shows where I create space for conversation and connection through humor. But I am expanding to share more personal works and other forms of self expression like poetry, songwriting, and monologues to create a space for collective reflection, release, and healing. This —opportunities for conversation, connection, and honest self-expression— is what makes pursuing the life of a literary artist worth it. And it’s why I am deciding to do my show, It’s Giving Single at this year’s Philly Fringe Festival.

FringeArts: That’s amazing! We’re very lucky to have you! I wonder, what SPECIFICALLY has been your favorite part of producing It’s Giving Single?

Malaika Carpenter: I’ll be honest, I almost counted myself out of participating in this year’s festival, because I was one week away from the submission deadline, and I had a solid idea, but no venue. So my favorite part of producing a fringe show is the support that I receive from the FringeArts community and my ecosystem of friends. I reached out to the festival director, and I explained my dilemma. What I got back was support. He sent me a list of potential venues that would be suitable for my show, and while almost 90% of them were already booked, just that action of sending me a list to start from, lit a fire under me, to really believe that I could find a venue in one week and make this show happen. And what ended up happening is, is within 72 hours, I found a venue that fit my budget and creative vision. Now, my show It’s Giving Single will be at Billy Penn Studios this September 26th.

The divine alignment and all of the support that I am getting from the Fringe Arts community and my personal network when I ask help is my favorite part of producing a Fringe show. It really helps me to continue to believe in myself and to transform my art from ideas in my mind to living, breathing works onstage.

FringeArts: Malaika it means the world to hear that you’ve had such a good experience working not only on the creative part of your show, but on the logistical part of the process. It’s always our goal to be a resource to our participating artists, however they may need it! We’re so glad you reached out! If we didn’t have artists like you, there would be no festival! Bringing it back to the festival, I wonder if there are any specific shows you’re looking forward to seeing during the festival this September? Where can we find you when you’re not on stage?

Malaika Carpenter: The Image of Yoga, The Black Effect, The Carnival of Feelings and West African Drum & Dance by Anssumane Silla

FringeArts: Wow! An amazing list! One last question for you! And make sure to think hard about this one! If you could have any oddly specific superpower, what would it be?

Malaika Carpenter: I would like to be able to speak and understand every language ever spoken, including slang, informal speech, and dialects. That include hieroglyphics too!

FringeArts: Wow! It may be a bit on brand for me to say this, but the first thing I thought of was how many more shows we would all be able to see if we had that ability! That’s amazing! Well! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us! We’re excited to see your show, and we hope to see some of our readers there!