Published on : Saturday, June 21, 2014
Every day is geek day in Philadelphia. Brainiac activity abounds in University City, a vibrant section of West Philadelphia that boasts numerous institutions of higher learning, including the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, along with 51,000 college students and groundbreaking advances.
Outside of the classroom and on the other side of the city, startups and co-working spaces dot North 3rd Street between Old City and Northern Liberties, earning the corridor an amusing and appropriate nickname, N3RD Street (read: “nerd street”).
Bucking stereotypes, Philadelphia’s nerd population is social, creative and downright fun, following the example of the original Philly nerd, Ben Franklin. Here are some of the ways nerds, geeks, techies and even those with average IQs can get into the not-so-counterculture.
Nerdy Events, 2014-2015:
Tens of thousands of pop culture fans converge on Wizard World Philadelphia Comic-Con. They mingle with the people who actually create the industry’s movies, toys, video games, TV, horror, anime and manga (Japanese), plus rub elbows with celebrities and artists such as Whoopi Goldberg, Christopher Lloyd and David Boreanaz. June 19-22, 2014.
Several times a year, the adults-only Mega-Bad Movie Night at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University brings together science nerds and movie geeks to drink beer and eat popcorn before sitting down to laugh at irresistibly terrible movies. Academy experts take the stage to mock—or rather, point out—the scientific absurdities that plague the films.
There’s one night a year when geeks truly rule Philadelphia, and that’s during the Philadelphia Geek Awards, hosted by nerd-tastic blog Geekadelphia and The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, where the event takes place. The black-tie-with-a-silly-twist awards ceremony honors those who excel in various industries, including game development, comic book design and arts and culture.
Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood transforms into Hogsmeade during the Harry Potter Festival. The fan festival enchants with events including a Potter Pub Crawl, an opening Sorting Hat Ceremony, a Horcrux scavenger hunt, an all-day Quidditch Tournament at Hogwarts (a.k.a. Chestnut Hill College) and classes in defense against the dark arts. Local businesses, not to mention participants, costume themselves according to the magical theme. The Knight Bus free trolley transports wizards, witches and muggles from point to point, and costumed characters show the way.
Now in its third year, the Locust Moon Comics Festival shines a spotlight on comics and comic book culture. The event draws creators, fans, artists and illustrators from all comic genres, fostering a sense of community and resulting in a day of graphic-filled fun. October 25, 2014.
Organized by Technically Philly, Philly Tech Week celebrates and encourages the technology and innovation thriving in the Philadelphia region. More than 70 citywide events include a women-in-tech summit, a gamer party, a NASA-sponsored international space app competition and a full day of tech programming at The Navy Yard.
The citywide Philadelphia Science Festival brings to life the roles science, engineering and technology play in everyday life. Over the course of the 10-day festival, venues as diverse as breweries and labs present debates, exhibitions and informal science education experiences for people of all ages, and mostly for free. April 24-May 3, 2015.
Renowned poets, journalists, novelists, historians and children’s book authors enliven the minds ofPhiladelphia Book Festival attendees, who come together at various events around town to exchange thoughts on reading and literacy. The Parkway Branch of the Free Library hosts headlining authors, while the 53 neighborhood branches hold events throughout the week.
Ever since a Californian named Hobart Brown tinkered with the design of his son’s trike in the 1960s, people have competed in kinetic sculpture derbies to demonstrate how they can improve modes of transportation. The annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby is a parade of wacky human-powered and handmade vehicle floats vying for the titles of Best Engineering, Best Art, Best Costumes and, to the amusement of the cheering crowd, Best Breakdown. May 2015, exact date to be announced.
What’s an un-conference? It’s a self-organizing conference, and in GameLoop Philly’s case, it’s for game developers, by game developers and, of course, in Philadelphia. During approximately 20 sessions, professional and aspiring game designers exchange ideas, and then let loose at an after-party. May 2015, exact date TBD. University of the Arts, Terra Hall, 211 S.
Every June 16, James Joyce fans spend Bloomsday reading from Ulysses with hundreds of likeminded literature lovers at three locations throughout the city: in front of The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, in Rittenhouse Square and at the Parkway Central Library branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. This free literary fest expands to multiple days to include events such as a Ulysses-themed pub quiz, author readings and other celebrations of the Joycean spirit. June 2015, exact dates TBD. Rosenbach, 2008 Delancey Place; Rittenhouse.
How much can a person learn in five minutes? And inside a bar? Attendees find out at Ignite Philly, a night full of presenters who educate and inform in rapid five-minute “sparks” intended to bring about new ideas in Philadelphia. Ignite takes place roughly two times a year.
Held in more than 75 cities across the globe, Nerd Nite proclaims itself to be “like the Discovery Channel with beer!” Once a month at Frankford Hall, the Philadelphia gatherings feature experts in a variety of fields giving fun yet informative presentations while the audience drinks and learns. Live performances, trivia and other shenanigans round out the fun.
Geekdom On Display:
It’s easy to see why biologists at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University have risen to the forefront of ecological and biodiversity research: They draw from a plant- and animal-specimen collection that’s 18 million strong and a library that contains 200,000 volumes and one million archival items. Visitors learn along with them as they glean knowledge from Lewis and Clark’s plant specimens, Thomas Jefferson’s fossil collection, John James Audubon’s bird skins, the country’s oldest fish collection and its second-oldest bird collection, along with 10 million shells and the world’s best collection of grasshoppers and crickets from the Western Hemisphere.
Early naturalist John Bartram contributed immeasurably to the cataloguing and preservation of native plant life, as seen at his homestead, the 45-acre estate now called Bartram’s Garden. There, botany enthusiasts and those who just enjoy lovely gardens can view one of the first plant catalogs in the U.S., along with the Franklinia alatamaha tree that Bartram saved from extinction and the oldest Gingko biloba tree in North America.
The collections-based, non-profit Chemical Heritage Foundation seeks to illuminate the role of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences and technologies in shaping society and to relate them to the humanities, arts and social sciences.
The museum spotlights alchemy and scientific history through art, and programs and public events include Fridays After Five and brown-bag lunches with featured guests.
Home to exhibits such as the iconic Giant Heart and the newly opened 8,500-square-foot Your Brain,The Franklin Institute captures the hearts and minds of science lovers.
Interested in engineering? The Amazing Machine invites visitors to peer inside mechanical objects and play with gears, pulleys and power sources. Into electricity? A display of antique lightning rods complements Sir Isaac’s Loft, where the Energy Transfer attraction highlights the movement of energy from one object to another, and Changing the Light teaches about polarization of light as it travels through ice. Space nerd? They find themselves over the moon with the Space Command exhibit, the Fels Planetarium, the astronomer-guided Night Skies in the Observatory, the IMAX Space Junk movie and meetings of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society.
Filled with more than great books, the Parkway Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphiacontains enough materials to enchant nerds of all stripes. For instance, The Map Collection opens up a world of more than 130,000 current and historical maps, and former band geeks can hum along to one of the strongest sheet music collections (numbering 350,000) in the country, plus the largest lending library of orchestral performance material in the world. The Rare Book Department offers “History of the Book” tours six days a week, as well as a daily exhibition of its collections of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter and medieval manuscripts.
There’s nothing that people won’t collect, and proving that is The Insectarium, the only museum in America solely devoted to the curation, study and display of bugs. Creeping around thousands of live and mounted insects might sound disturbing, but that’s nothing compared to the Cockroach Kitchen display, where thousands of live cockroaches overtake a countertop and bathroom façade.
Fearless geeks tour the medical collection of the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where 20,000 items span the medical realm, from deformed and diseased body parts to the death cast of “Siamese twins” Chang and Eng. Filled with some impossible-to-believe specimens, the collections are still used to advance medical science today. The museum is also home to the outdoor Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden, named for the Declaration of Independence signer and college founder who urged fellow doctors to plant medicinal gardens to supplement their remedies.
The 1837 neo-classical building that houses the intentionally offbeat National Mechanics bar provides a haven for those who’ve ever felt ostracized. The unusual décor alludes to all things mechanical, and regular events such as the carnivalesque freak show that is The Olde City Sideshow and the Science On Tap discussions—all taking place over craft beers—cement this drinking establishment as a geek social club.
Bookworms find hundreds of thousands of pages to pore over at The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, established to share the rare volumes, manuscripts and decorative and fine art amassed by two renowned Philadelphia dealers who specialized in these areas. Treasures from the founders’ collection include the only surviving copy of Benjamin Franklin’s first Poor Richard Almanack,the manuscript of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the papers of poet Marianne Moore, Bram Stoker’s notes forDracula and the drawings of Maurice Sendak. Hands-on tours pry open rare and important items not usually on view to the public and invite visitors to turn the pages of old novels or read from a manuscript. Regular reading groups meet within the two stately row houses as well.
Source:- Visit Philadephia
Tags: Visit Philadephia
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