FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2021
Vision 2020 Hosts Philadelphia’s First City of Sisterly Love Celebration
Free, Festive, Outdoor, End-of-Summer Event
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Vision 2020 will present the first City of Sisterly Love Celebration starting on Women’s Equality Day, Thursday, Aug. 26, with its annual Toast to Tenacity™ at noon, followed by a street festival with live music from 1-7 p.m., and three days of free or discounted Sisterly Love Weekend events, Friday-Sunday, Aug. 27-29.
The toast and street festival will take place rain or shine on a closed section of South Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street, in front of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Sisterly Love Weekend will feature tours, exhibits and activities hosted by arts and culture venues, nonprofits and businesses across Greater Philadelphia.
Vision 2020, the gender equity coalition headquartered at Drexel University, is presenting this first-of-its-kind celebration as the grand finale of its 12-month Women 100 event series. Women 100 marked the centennial of women’s voting rights with inspiring programs and the women’s equality exhibition, Seat at the Table. During the street festival, the public can tour the award-winning exhibition in Commonwealth Plaza, the lobby of the Kimmel Center. Face masks are required indoors.
“Toast to Tenacity is the perfect kickoff for this celebration,” said Lynn Yeakel, founder and president of Vision 2020. “It honors the suffragists with the uplifting message that women can achieve great things when they work together and refuse to give up.”
The street festival will feature booths aligned with the sisterly love theme and entertainers representing Philly’s vibrantly eclectic music scene. The seven acts selected promise a feel-good romp through genres from rock to hip hop, alt-pop, R&B, soul and classical.
“After more than a year of cancelled or virtual-only events, there is a strong desire to get together and have some fun,” Yeakel said. “We invite everyone to join us while following all city and CDC COVID-19 guidelines in effect on our celebration dates.”
Vision 2020 is producing the City of Sisterly Love Celebration in cooperation with Avenue of the Arts, City of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Ready.Set.Philly! and Visit Philadelphia.
Kimmel Cultural Campus President & CEO Anne Ewers said, ““We are honored to take part in this event, exposing the brilliant Seat at the Table exhibition to the public. Our Commonwealth Plaza has long been a public gathering place in which to experience amazing art, and we are so grateful this work has remained and will reintroduce audiences to the beauty of interactive art installations once again.”
About Vision 2020
Vision 2020 is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of individual delegates and allied organizations working together for gender equity in the United States. It is headquartered at Drexel University College of Medicine in the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership.
Image attached: City of Sisterly Love artwork