Colors explode in a series of abstract shapes on the white walls of Woodmere’s Smith Hall’s Kuch Gallery. The popping hues on canvasses and triptychs are part of the melodious exhibition “Listen With Your Eyes: A Moe Brooker Retrospective,” featuring more than 40 pieces by Brooker, a South Philly native, PAFA graduate, respected art professor, and renowned artist.

“Listen With Your Eyes” is Woodmere’s homage to Brooker, who died in 2022 at 81. The exhibition — more than 20 years in the making — is the first ever exhibition dedicated solely to Booker’s work and features his paintings, sculptures, weavings, and sketchbooks. It covers Booker’s early realism in the 1970s and spans through the 2000s, when his pieces evolved in size and became dreamier in style.

His canvases are visual renditions of the jazz and classical music he loved so much; he uses the brightest hues in the palette, some pieces even appear psychedelic. Some are down right funky. All are synesthetic. It’s clear when Booker heard music, he saw colors and he was able to manifest what he saw in his mind’s eye as a tableau of intentional strokes.

The painting, also called “Listen With Your Eyes,” is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a whimsical mix of pastels punctuated with neon crescendos. A yellow globe rises from a garden of blue, purple, brown, and cloudy smaller circles; like a lazy sun on a hot summer’s morning.

Brooker’s work is not just musical, he weaves in the Philly landscape in such a way that I know he saw his city as a magical playground. In The Measure of Every Part is a funhouse, a collage of concrete shapes; a harmony of colors doused in rhythm and blues.

In this way, Brooker saw Philly in 2009 much like I see Philly today.

“Listen with Your Eyes: A Moe Brooker Retrospective” is on view through Jan. 17, 2027 at Woodmere Smith Hall located at 9201 Germantown Avenue.

— Elizabeth Wellington

The encore has arrived.

When word got out that Bruce Springsteen was releasing a YouTube concert film of his May 30 show with the E Street Band at Xfinity Mobile Arena, entitled Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour (Philadelphia Freedom Cut), I naturally assumed the whole thing was going to be made available at once.

That was incorrect.

Instead, Springsteen chose to divvy it up in four parts, releasing the show, in which he was outspoken and explicit in his criticism of President Donald Trump, as each chunk was finished by in-house E Street filmmaker Thom Zimny.

The release of the show in sections was in the spirit of the tour itself, which was quickly pulled together after Springsteen wrote “Streets of Minneapolis” in response to the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by ICE agents last winter.

“The whole thing, the pop-up tour, was about immediacy and being in this moment, providing something that I felt an audience, my audience, could use in this moment,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone.

It also had the advantage of not needing to be consumed in one three-hour stretch, instead breaking down the marathon Springsteen experience into four easily consumable streaming episodes.

Now, seven weeks after the release of the first seven songs — starting with a rousing anti-Trump speech and a emphatic version of Edwin Starr’s “War” — the last of those came out this week.

The final section keeps up the protest theme.

Springsteen opens by shouting out the Pennsylvania Immigrant coalition before launching into the immigrant song “American Land,” in which he raises a fist and sings “the hands that built this country, we’re always trying to keep out.”

And, before Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” late Civil Rights leader John Lewis’ concept of “good trouble” is evoked as Springsteen urges his fans to “say something, do something, sing something” if their feeling angry or hopeless at the state of American affairs in 2026.

But the final 38 minute section also contains the celebratory parts of the show: the rousing, house-lights-up catharsis of “Born to Run,” the crowd pleasing “Dancing in the Dark,” and horn happy soul strut of “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” Plus, there are lots of crowd shots of Springsteen fans getting loosey goosey on a Saturday night.

If you were there, look for yourself.

The concert film as a whole is a moving snapshot of Springsteen at 76, a still electrifying performer leading a band that’s steadfastly backed him for a half century. And as much as the “Land of Hope and Dreams” show is pointedly political, it is just as much about the bond between Springsteen, his fellow musicians, and their audience.

That deeply felt bond, in Philadelphia’s case, goes all the way back to the Main Point in Bryn Mawr in 1973, a date that he notes before thanking his audience “for a lifetime.”

— Dan DeLuca

It’s been a busy year for North Philly star Jill Scott. She released her first album in more than a decade in February, embarked on a world tour, and more recently appeared in Netflix’s Why Did I Get Married Again?, the third installment of Tyler Perry’s rom-com series.

Now almost 20 years since her acting debut in the first movie (Why Did I Get Married?), Scott revisits the role of Sheila, the sweet and strong woman subjected to downright awful and fatphobic treatment from her (now ex) husband.

Over the course of the trilogy, Sheila gains confidence and thankfully sheds the frumpy old clothes of her past. The new film sees Scott’s character shine in a stunningly chic wardrobe with eye-catching accessories and flattering silhouettes that perfectly hug her curves (shout out to costume designer Raiyonda Vereen). Shrinking, shy Sheila is gone; in her place is a seductive and stylish woman who could easily walk a runway, with some of Scott’s undeniable star-power surfacing. It’s wonderful to see plus-size fashion get the spotlight here with pieces like a leopard print and black lace negligee and a bright-colored striped button down dress with a matching tote bag. I’d definitely line up to buy that clothing line.

Plus, since it’s Halloween, I’ve got to share a spooky movie rec: the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. Filmed and set outside of Pittsburgh, George A. Romero’s legendary horror film isn’t just creepy (and pretty gory), it’s also a fascinating social critique in 1968. Its sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978), made top 25 in the Inquirer’s ranking of the 50 best Philly movies.

‘Why Did I Get Married Again?’ is streaming on Netflix; ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is streaming on multiple platforms including YouTube, Prime Video, and HBO Max.

— Rosa Cartagena

Among other art we loved, is the massive N. C. Wyeth mural, “Apotheosis of Franklin” that hangs in Penn’s Hill College House.