First Person Arts Makes It Personal (Again)

The annual festival features Maria Bamford, Hari Kondabolu, Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and more.

by PATRICK RAPA_· 11/2/2017, 12:25 p.m.

Founded in 2000, First Person Arts festival is all about the storytelling. Sometimes the shows are funny, or eye-opening, or gasp-inducing, but they always call for interesting people getting up on stage and giving it their all. This year’s fest — November 5-18 — has an impressive lineup of known and unknown talents. I already mentioned Margaret Cho yesterday. Here are five more highlights:

Nadya Tolokonnikova @ First Unitarian Church | Monday, November 6
This Russian activist/musician/performance artist knows a little something about performing in a church. She and the other members of Pussy Riot famously donned masks and staged an anti-Putin protest in a Russian Orthodox Church back in 2012 — and went to prison for it. Tolokonnikova will discuss her experiences in a talk called The Price of Protest. (P.S. I embedded an interview at the end of this post.)

Read more: https://www.phillymag.com/things-to-do/2017/11/02/first-person-arts-maria-bamford-pussy-riot/