Arts & Culture

Juneteenth Lehigh Valley will be celebrated with a week of festivities in 2023.

As Lehigh Valley residents treated themselves at the Easton Farmers Market Strawberry Day on Saturday, they also reached into their pockets to help less fortunate neighbors displaced by a Memorial Day row homes fire in Easton.

Take a look at stories throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

Sugaray Rayford, who in 2020 won the Blues Music Awards for B.B King Entertainer of the Year and Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year, will perform at the festival, which will be held noon-10 p.m. June 24 along Hamilton Street.

Over a 19-song, hour-and-40-minute show, Live’s performance in the summer's first paid-ticket show at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks ranged from acceptably perfunctory to positively stunning, but not with the consistency the band had with its former members.

The 21st Century program is to help students with academic support and art and music enrichment.

The Lehigh Valley schools announced the change last week — a switch made to accommodate the bicentennial celebration of Lafayette College in 2025-26.

Easton held its inaugural LGBTQ+ Pride Month flag-raising in Centre Square on Wednesday evening, celebrating the community and advocating for acceptance and love among more than 100 people.

The middle schoolers took the photos at a three-week class at the Easton Area Community Center.

The "You Point, We Pick" program will be back at Burnside Garden, 1461 Schoenersville Road, starting Saturday, June 3.

”A Sousa Band Concert” with the Allentown Band playing the music of famed composer and conductor John Philip Sousa will be held Sunday, Oct. 13, at Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown. At the show, the first Sousaphone — the large-belled instrument in the tuba family named after Sousa — will be displayed.

Cut the Scrap! opened in June on North 19th Street in the West End of Allentown. Crafters can trade in secondhand art supplies, shop for goods or take an art class.

The Karl Stirner Arts Trail will introduce their 2024-25 artist-in-residence Chakaia Booker with the premier of a piece built from recycled tires, No More Milk and Cookies, at the trail this Sunday.

Several events are in the works to celebrate Latino culture across the Lehigh Valley during Hispanic Heritage Month, which starts Sunday, Sept. 15.

"67 Women, 67 Counties: Facing Breast Cancer in Pennsylvania' will be on display at the Bethlehem Township campus through Sunday, Sept. 22.

Art In The Park, which will showcase the works of hundreds of local musicians, painters, photographers and sculptors, will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept 14, in West End Park.

Allentown Farmers Market, Brass Rail and food truck fare complement free local and regional musical talent through mid-October.

An Evening with Sherlock: BAPL Rare Book Auction, a fund-raising event, will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The library will hold a rare and vintage book sale in the Cohen Room at its main location, Main Library 11 W. Church St., Bethlehem.

Trevor Wallace and Michael Blaustein will take their "The Stiff Socks Podcast" on tour for the first time and will stop at Wind Creek at 8 p.m. Dec. 8.

The Nitro Circus tour will perform at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at Allentown's PPL Center. Tickets, at $54-$204, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 13 at PPLCenter.com.

On Thursday, Sept. 12, PPL Center turns 10, and since that opening show by The Eagles, the arena has offered more than 1,365 events and brought more than 4.58 million visitors to downtown Allentown for events.

In the decade since Allentown's PPL Center opened on Sept. 12, 2014, with a concert by The Eagles, the venue has presented 83 concerts, including comedy shows.