💐 Celebrate mom and your maternal figures this weekend | Things to Do

Get ready to hug your mom (or parent, literal or chosen) this weekend as we celebrate Mother’s Day! I plan to hang out with mine as she teaches dance class. What do you have planned? We’ve got recommendations for brunch below.

This weekend, visit a new cat cafe, see a Jamie Wyeth exhibit, celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, or have fun at Mount Airy Day. (One note: The Home + Garden Festival featured in last week’s newsletter was postponed to May 19.)

— Rosa Cartagena (@_RosaCartagena, Email me at thingstodo@inquirer.com)

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Calling all cat lovers! Two new cat cafes recently opened in South Philly — Get a Gato and Whiskers Cat Cafe Philly. You can grab coffee and cuddle with kitties, what’s not to like? They’re both nonprofits where you can adopt the adorable furry friends.

🍳 Toast to mom: It might be tough to snag a reservation this late in the game, but I’m sure mom would be super impressed if you did. Here are 12 great Philly restaurants for Mother’s Day brunch.

☀️ Fests on deck: On Saturday, see wacky sculptures on wheels race in the Kensington Derby and Arts Festival or head to Mount Airy Day (also Saturday) for a family-friendly day with live music, food, drinks, and more.

🎨 Eerie views: Painter Jamie Wyeth has a new exhibit at the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford and is also the subject of a new documentary called Jamie Wyeth and the Unflinching Eye. The show, “Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled,” centers on his beautifully haunting, horror-infused artworks — mostly capturing animals — and even includes sketches from his teen years.

🎭 On stages: If you’re looking for great shows, check out two from our Spring Arts Guide. At People’s Light in Malvern, Hurricane Diane is a chaotic tale set in the Jersey Shore, where Greek god of wine and debauchery Dionysus is in disguise as a gardener for suburban housewives. In Center City at Proscenium Theatre at the Drake, catch An Army of Lovers, about a Black lesbian activist who doesn’t plan to play nice when she’s hired for a Pride event by a corporate tech giant.

🎸 Send out an S.O.S.: Message in a Bottle is a new dance-meets-jukebox-musical production coming to the Miller Theater beginning Tuesday, May 14. Set to hits by Sting with a story about war and refugees, the show incorporates hip-hop and contemporary dance to relay a difficult journey, based on the short documentary Rania’s Odyssey. Sting even approved the choreography.

🎷 Winners among us: This week in arts news, Philadelphia-based composer Tyshawn Sorey won the Pulitzer Prize for music. The Inquirer’s classical music critic Peter Dobrin talked to Sorey about what the award means to him.

🌹 A room of delights: You might know John Jarboe from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret or last year’s Fringe Festival. She is a cabaret performer and multimedia artist who interrogates trans identity through her personal story told in song, video, and now in an exhibit at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Opening this weekend, Jarboe will host a cheeky Gender Reveal Birthday Salon featuring live music and a cake Saturday as well as a Queer Mother’s Day event on Sunday celebrating queer families and showcasing trans performing artists. Find out more.

📅 My calendar picks this week: Festival of Fountains, The Dream, Main Line Outdoor Beer & Wine Festival

It’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and there are so many ways to celebrate these cultures throughout the Philadelphia region. Start by heading to an event at the Asian Arts Initiative in Chinatown. Tonight, they’re hosting a fashion benefit show called Milfadelphia. Also running throughout the summer is the exhibit “Dream House: Inside Music + Video,” which spotlights artists of color making music videos unlike anything you’ve seen from your favorite pop stars. Plus, there’s even a special lounge for karaoke and Dance Dance Revolution. Explore their full event lineup.

All month at the National Constitution Center, learn about Asian American pioneers like suffragist Mabel Ping Hua Lee, civil rights activist Fred Korematsu, Congresswoman Patsy Mink (the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives) and others. On Friday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting a night of events for AAPI Heritage Month featuring a pop-up from Rice & Sambal, tours of the museum’s Asian artworks, and a set from DJ TITO_VIDA. On Saturday, The Franklin Institute will host a full day celebration with block printing classes, performances from Ballet SUNMI, and workshops in lantern-making and calligraphy. Also on Saturday, the Please Touch Museum will host a dance performance showcasing traditional Indonesian dance from Modero and Company Dance.

Of course, if you’re looking for Asian American food, we know exactly where to go: The Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park just opened last weekend and will run on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the summer.

🎺 Local history: See the new historical marker honoring Philadelphia jazz legend Lee Morgan on 52nd and Chancellor Streets. The trumpeter, who died tragically at 33, has a local gravestone that had vanished, but thanks to a fan, it was recently unearthed. Read the full story.

🍻 Mark your calendars: It’s the season for festivals throughout the region, and we’ve got you covered. Here’s a list of 24 fun Philly festivals, street markets, and outdoor events this spring.

🌊 Room with a view: If you’re hiking or antiquing in the Philly (or Jersey) suburbs, we have recommendations for where you can eat. Here are 7 great restaurants where you can also enjoy waterfront views.

🏖️ News you can use: For everyone vacationing in North Wildwood this summer, there’s a new rule to follow — umbrellas only. The town just banned cabanas and tents from the beach. Here’s why.

Dan DeLuca breaks down some of the best shows coming to town this week:

🎤 More than two dozen music acts have descended on West Philly this week for the NON-COMMvention. The gathering of radio programmers from around the country kicked off Tuesday night and runs through Friday at World Cafe Live. The convention brings together mostly non-commercial public radio stations like University of Pennsylvania’s WXPN-FM (88.5), which hosts the annual event. Thus the name, NON-COMM.

🎤 The Black Crowes, who play Wednesday night, the evening before the band, led by brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, headline the Met Philly. The Decemberists play NON-COMM on Thursday, the night after they perform at the Fillmore Philly.

🎤 Thursday’s Free at Noon pairs legendary Texas bandleader Alejandro Escovedo and songwriter Lizzie No. That evening’s bill includes two worthy Chicago indie bands in Ratboy and Brigitte Calls Me Baby. The can’t-miss-gig of the week is Dublin post-punk quartet Fontaines D.C., sampling their upcoming fourth album, Romance. After that blowout, the action finishes off with one last Free at Noon on Friday with Jade Bird and Ride.

NON-COMM events are accessible first to convention-goers, and next to WXPN members, with limited passes available to the general public. But all the music will both be broadcast on WXPN and live streamed at livesessions.npr.org and xpn.org. The full schedule is at noncomm.org.

If you’re looking for a distraction, the Met Gala this week certainly delivered. Among the best and worst dressed were standout looks from Philly actors that maybe didn’t fit the “Garden of Time” theme as well as event co-chairs Bad Bunny or Zendaya, but still kept fans satisfied. In what my colleague Elizabeth Wellington called “fairy godmother energy,” The Holdovers actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph stunned in a denim corseted gown from GAP with a train that could compete with Cardi B’s (just kidding, nobody beat that insane volume). Rustin star Colman Domingo paid homage to the late Chadwick Boseman and Andre Leon Talley in a black-and-white blazer-cape combo — by Willy Chavvaria — that was undeniably chic, complete with white Calla lilies.

Maestro director Bradley Cooper didn’t attend (boo), but his girlfriend Gigi Hadid was a fashionista fave with her own off-the-shoulder look in white with embroidered florals. Who was your personal best (or worst!) dressed of the night? Let me know!

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This week, I’ve been cuddling with my own cat Mochi, who loves to be outside in the sun. Any fun pet stories? Let me know!