Latest / philly has heART / Mazzoni Center feat. Simon J. Trowell and Dylan van Duyne

Transcript

Mazzoni Center feat. Simon J. Trowell and Dylan van Duyne · philly has heART

• 0:15
  Hey, Lucinda. How are you? Happy Memorial Day
• 0:21
  weekend. We are recording this on Monday, yes,
• 0:24
  although this is going live on Wednesday. How
• 0:26
  was it? Rainy beach weekend, but still. Is that
• 0:30
  cozy? Is it cozy out there? It was. It was. It
• 0:34
  was nice. You got to kind of relax and kind of
• 0:38
  chill, but then also you leaned into the booze
• 0:42
  and food for the weekend. I saw you had a very
• 0:45
  aggressive Bloody Mary that looked like it may
• 0:48
  have doubled as a brunch meal in itself. Yes,
• 0:51
  definitely. Not judging. No, no, no, no. You
• 0:54
  have to add the accoutrement. You need to make
• 0:58
  sure that there's a little protein with it. You
• 1:01
  need a pickled item. You need a pickled item.
• 1:04
  It could be a cucumber. It could be a pickle.
• 1:07
  What else could they pickle? An onion? Yes. Yes.
• 1:11
  I had pickled peppers. Damn. You know. Can we
• 1:14
  talk about the Sotheby's auction? Oh, my gosh.
• 1:19
  No, we can't. I missed that. The modern art pieces
• 1:23
  are going insane. I want to say they hit a billion
• 1:28
  dollars of sales. What artists were represented?
• 1:32
  Jackson Pollock. Rothko. Basquiat. Kenneth Noland.
• 1:38
  Joseph Yeager. That's quite the lineup. The Mark
• 1:43
  Rothko's rare canvas brown and blacks and reds
• 1:48
  from 1957 was the star of the night, reaching
• 1:52
  $85 .8 million. A William D. Kooning painting
• 1:59
  from a different decade of his career. which
• 2:04
  sold for a combined $27 .2 million. Oh, the night
• 2:10
  continued. The now and contemporary evening auction
• 2:13
  totaled $266 million. Eat the rich. Okay, Robert,
• 2:21
  I have one topic of conversation that I want
• 2:24
  to bring up. Perfect. Lay it on me. So I was
• 2:29
  sitting on the couch doing a little light editing
• 2:32
  to episode forthcoming. Guess it was Saturday
• 2:36
  afternoon. Okay. PBS was on the TV. As it is.
• 2:43
  All of a sudden, I hear our podcast theme music
• 2:50
  on a commercial for Wisconsin Cheese on PBS.
• 2:55
  What is that? Now, I didn't expect exclusivity
• 3:02
  when I licensed our music in perpetuity, but
• 3:07
  I also didn't expect for it just to pop up on
• 3:11
  a commercial. You know what, Lou? If it's going
• 3:15
  to be any commercial, I'm glad it's cheese. Wisconsin
• 3:20
  cheese. That's a liberal state, right? On to
• 3:25
  the convo? On to the conversation. Greetings,
• 3:42
  this is Robert Marsh and you're listening to
• 3:44
  Philly Has Heart Podcast. In this podcast, we
• 3:46
  sit down with the artists, gallerists, educators,
• 3:49
  curators, and other creatives who comprise the
• 3:52
  Philadelphia art world to discuss upcoming performances,
• 3:55
  exhibits, and other events and initiatives that
• 3:57
  are not to be missed. The art scene in Philadelphia
• 4:00
  is so rich that it can seem daunting. Consider
• 4:03
  this your weekend cultural recommendation. With
• 4:06
  me always is my producer, Lucinda Dagerland.
• 4:09
  Hello, hello. Today we have the Mazzoni Center's
• 4:13
  Simon Trowell and Dylan Van Dyne. Thank you both
• 4:16
  for joining us today. Thank you. For those who
• 4:20
  have been listening for a while, you know we
• 4:22
  already had the pleasure of having Dylan on the
• 4:24
  podcast ahead of last year's Mazzoni Center Honors.
• 4:28
  Ahead of Pride, we wanted to have our friends
• 4:30
  at the Mazzoni Center back on the pod. But before
• 4:34
  getting into exciting events coming in this June,
• 4:38
  Simon, can you walk us through the Mazzoni Center's
• 4:41
  origins and some baseline information for those
• 4:45
  who are new to the organization and missed Dylan's
• 4:48
  first guest spot on the pod? Certainly. So it's
• 4:52
  my pleasure to be the Chief Executive Officer
• 4:54
  at Mazzoni Center. Mazzoni Center is about 47
• 4:58
  years old. And our mission is to provide quality,
• 5:04
  comprehensive health and wellness services in
• 5:07
  an LGBTQ environment. And we do it for two reasons.
• 5:10
  We do it to improve people's quality of life,
• 5:13
  and we do it to preserve the dignity of their
• 5:16
  lives. We do that through offering a range of
• 5:19
  services, primarily primary care. But in addition
• 5:23
  to that, we offer specialist care. We have medical
• 5:27
  case management. We have a food bank. We provide
• 5:31
  behavioral health care. So when we look at what
• 5:34
  we do for people in the community, we very much
• 5:36
  look upon it as whole person care. So looking
• 5:40
  at every aspect of an individual and how to care
• 5:43
  for them. Last year, we discovered that in addition
• 5:47
  to artists featured during Mazzoni Center Honors,
• 5:50
  the organization also collaborates with the art
• 5:53
  and theater company, most recently Falsettos
• 5:56
  and Rent. Do you have a favorite collaboration
• 6:00
  from the past? I've been with Mazzoni now for
• 6:04
  about one year as the CEO. Prior to that, I was
• 6:08
  on the board of Mazzoni Center. I think looking
• 6:12
  back at last year, probably would have to be
• 6:14
  Mazzoni Centre Honours that we hosted at the
• 6:17
  Kimmel Centre. It really is our sort of major
• 6:20
  gala event. I had a wonderful cast that participated,
• 6:25
  and I think it was just an incredibly... memorable
• 6:29
  evening for all of the audience but all of the
• 6:32
  participants as well and a successful evening
• 6:34
  for us. We are currently hiring a new development
• 6:38
  director and so our gala event for this year
• 6:41
  we've not revealed as yet. We think it's only
• 6:43
  appropriate that we bring that person on and
• 6:45
  get their input and ideas but we will be featuring
• 6:49
  some sort of event later this year and we're
• 6:51
  very excited about it. Dylan, what about yourself?
• 6:54
  Do you have a favorite production of the past?
• 6:57
  I'll definitely echo Simon. Mazzoni Center Honors.
• 7:00
  And a friend of mine, who I know is a friend
• 7:02
  of the pod, Eli, has been a guest as a member
• 7:05
  of Ballet X at that event as well. So it was
• 7:07
  a nice kind of joining of two worlds of supporting
• 7:10
  as my position of a board member at Mazzoni Center
• 7:12
  Honors and then also seeing my friend perform
• 7:14
  as well. So shout out to Eli. We loved macaroni.
• 7:17
  Yes, we did. Yes, we did. It was so good. Dylan,
• 7:21
  you have a project coming up in collaboration
• 7:23
  with Barry's and Canopy. Barry's and Canopy,
• 7:26
  Philly, Red Room Rush, Love Through Strength.
• 7:29
  Is this the evolution of the Barry's Pride Weekend
• 7:33
  class? It's actually the fourth part of a four
• 7:36
  -part series. It is the evolution of a partnership
• 7:39
  that extends past just Barry's Philadelphia and
• 7:41
  Canopy Hilton Philadelphia, but more broadly,
• 7:44
  a partnership between Hilton and Barry's. So
• 7:46
  we're happy as the Philadelphia studio to be
• 7:48
  hosting this class. And the intentionality of
• 7:51
  picking it during Pride Weekend is purposeful.
• 7:53
  10 % of the proceeds from this class are going
• 7:56
  to go to the Mazzoni Center. So this will happen
• 7:58
  on Saturday, June 6th at 10 a .m. on Jefferson
• 8:01
  Plaza. From 10 a .m. to 10 .50 p .m. And then
• 8:04
  there'll be additional programming happening
• 8:06
  afterwards. And afterwards, we'll have a drag
• 8:09
  queen present. There'll be some drinks with our
• 8:11
  friends over at Mi Vida. And we'll have an opportunity
• 8:13
  for people to kind of just mingle. And that's
• 8:15
  a big part of Pride as well, right? In addition
• 8:17
  to raising funds for life -saving organizations,
• 8:19
  also just being in community with other LGBTQ
• 8:21
  folks as well. Will there be treadmills? There
• 8:25
  will not. We're not going to be bringing the
• 8:27
  treadmills over from our Barry's studio at 19th
• 8:29
  and Samson. Will there be benches? There will
• 8:31
  be mats that we will provide, so you don't need
• 8:34
  to BYO mat. We'll have mats present. During a
• 8:37
  typical Barry's class, there is a double floor
• 8:40
  option. Will they all be double floor? Yeah,
• 8:45
  that's definitely one way to think about it.
• 8:47
  What I'll say is you can imagine our typical
• 8:49
  four -round format. Two of the rounds will be
• 8:51
  more cardio -focused. The difference is you wouldn't
• 8:54
  be doing cardio on a woodway treadmill. You'd
• 8:56
  be doing it on the floor, the floor being the
• 8:59
  mat instead of the bench. And there'll still
• 9:01
  be two strength -focused rounds. So it'll be
• 9:03
  a mix between cardio, and then we'll have long
• 9:05
  resistance bands if you've taken various before.
• 9:07
  You know the bands I'm talking about, right?
• 9:09
  But those will allow us to work on some strength
• 9:11
  work as well. And you're bringing the light bands.
• 9:14
  Those are the red ones. Or are those the purple
• 9:16
  ones? There's red and there's blue. We're not
• 9:19
  going to bring the purple band. So for any listeners,
• 9:21
  sorry if that's a disappointment, you can grab
• 9:23
  your blue band. But yes, red is light and blue
• 9:25
  is medium. A little inside baseball. Yes. Is
• 9:29
  there anything else anyone needs to know about
• 9:32
  what to expect for the... Pride weekend class.
• 9:37
  Yes. So we're doing a citywide fundraiser outside
• 9:40
  of the Canopy Hilton Partnership called Philly
• 9:43
  Fitness Pride Kickoff. So it's the third year
• 9:46
  that we're running this event. This year, we
• 9:47
  are really grateful to be partnered with our
• 9:49
  friends at Lululemon. So we're officially calling
• 9:52
  the event Philly Pride Fitness Kickoff, powered
• 9:54
  by Lululemon. And we're excited because we have
• 9:57
  20 different classes happening across the city.
• 10:00
  So you can imagine, right, there's some yoga
• 10:02
  classes, there's some HIIT classes, there's some
• 10:05
  strength classes. So there's a really good mix.
• 10:07
  And they're happening all on either Saturday,
• 10:09
  June 6th. or Sunday, June 7th. And there's a
• 10:12
  variety of time as well, right? If you're someone
• 10:14
  that wants to wake up first thing in the morning
• 10:15
  and take class, there are those options for you.
• 10:18
  If you like a late afternoon class and you like
• 10:20
  your sleep on Pride weekend, we can all appreciate
• 10:22
  that. There'll be those options too. So you can
• 10:25
  go to tinyurl .com backslash phillyfitnesspridekickoff2026.
• 10:30
  That will take you to the Eventbrite to be able
• 10:32
  to book one or several of your 20 classes. Is
• 10:36
  anyone planning on going to all 20, and is that
• 10:39
  possible? Maybe Lucinda is, is what I'm hearing.
• 10:43
  It is probably not possible. Lies and allegations.
• 10:46
  Because there's going to be some overlap of time.
• 10:49
  One last question, and you may have already...
• 10:53
  You may have already covered this, but if not,
• 10:55
  I just want to reiterate how much of the proceeds
• 10:57
  are going to the Mozzoni Center for the twinning
• 11:01
  classes across the city. Yeah, so for Philly
• 11:03
  Fitness Pride Kickoff, 100 % of proceeds go to
• 11:06
  the Mozzoni Center. So we ran this first in 2024.
• 11:08
  We raised over $4 ,000. We ran it again in 2025.
• 11:11
  We raised over $4 ,000. We have an ambitious
• 11:14
  goal of $10 ,000 this year, but this is the most
• 11:17
  participation we've seen in terms of studios
• 11:19
  across the city. So if you're listening and you're
• 11:21
  one of those studios, just want to express appreciation
• 11:23
  for you being a part of this event as well and
• 11:25
  opening up your doors for one of our many charity
• 11:27
  classes. And Simon, outside of these fitness
• 11:31
  classes and Pride Month, how can the audience
• 11:34
  continue to support the Mazzoni Center? Probably
• 11:37
  the best way is to go to our website, mazonicenter
• 11:41
  .org. At the top of the website, there is a donation
• 11:44
  link, and there is an opportunity there to make
• 11:48
  a contribution to our work. It goes to the direct
• 11:51
  support of that provision of comprehensive health
• 11:54
  and wellness services. So we appreciate any support
• 11:58
  that your listeners might like to provide. Last
• 12:02
  question for Simon. What is a little known fact
• 12:05
  or piece of intel about the Mazzoni Center that
• 12:08
  you wish people knew? I think one fact is people
• 12:12
  may not realize why we're actually called the
• 12:16
  Mazzoni Center. So back in the early 80s, there
• 12:21
  was a new disease that was beginning to affect
• 12:25
  many people in our community across the city
• 12:28
  and beyond. And that, of course, was HIV and
• 12:32
  AIDS. At that time, a volunteer who was working
• 12:35
  for us by the name of Dr. Peter Mazzoni began
• 12:38
  to take care of people in our community. And
• 12:43
  at a time when people were absolutely terrified
• 12:45
  by this new disease, Dr. Mazzoni was somebody
• 12:48
  who would go out and really treat patients as
• 12:52
  friends and equals, help with care for them,
• 12:56
  collecting blood samples. And ultimately, his
• 12:59
  name became synonymous with compassionate and
• 13:03
  affirming care. So we were delighted that we
• 13:07
  were able to name the organization. after Dr.
• 13:10
  Mazzoni. Dr. Mazzoni very tragically passed away
• 13:13
  in the early 90s at the age of just 31 from AIDS
• 13:18
  complications, but we're delighted that that
• 13:21
  name now lives on and is synonymous with the
• 13:25
  care that we provide. So that's a fact that people
• 13:27
  may not know about Mazzoni Center, but one that
• 13:29
  we absolutely take to heart and believe that
• 13:33
  it's important for us to continue his mission
• 13:35
  in the city of Philadelphia. Simon, can you share
• 13:39
  with our audience where they can find the Mazzone
• 13:42
  Center, both in real life and online? Sure. In
• 13:45
  real life, we have two locations in Philadelphia.
• 13:48
  Our main health center is at 1348 Bainbridge
• 13:52
  Street. And we also have a small, low -threshold
• 13:56
  sexual health clinic that can be found at 12th
• 13:59
  and Locust, right in the middle of the neighborhood.
• 14:01
  And if you want to find us online, it's www .mazzonecenter
• 14:06
  .org. And on social media? You can find us on
• 14:10
  Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube at Mazzoni
• 14:15
  Center. We're taking a break for rapid -fire
• 14:18
  questions. And we're back with rapid -fire questions.
• 14:24
  Dylan, we recall you ordered your cheesesteaks
• 14:27
  without whiz. This question is for both of you.
• 14:31
  Your favorite place to score a cheesesteak? Angela's
• 14:35
  in South Philly. It's going to be Jim's Steaks.
• 14:38
  Your favorite restaurant or bar in the gayborhood?
• 14:42
  I'll jump in. Kiddo. Yeah, on Pine and 12th.
• 14:48
  Love the food there. Excellent. I want to give
• 14:51
  some love to Little Gay Pub. It's great to have
• 14:53
  them in Philly. And their ambiance and their
• 14:56
  drinks are wonderful. Favorite part of a Barry's
• 14:59
  class? Team Tread or Team Floor? I'm Team Tread.
• 15:04
  I've been a runner. For 20 years, so you can
• 15:07
  always find me starting on a treadmill. And my
• 15:09
  confession is I have never been to a Barry's
• 15:11
  class. Oh, we're going to have to get him in
• 15:14
  there. We're going to change that soon. Yes.
• 15:16
  And finally, what are you most excited for for
• 15:20
  this Pride? I'm excited that it's going to be
• 15:24
  on the Parkway. Yeah. I mean, that is where all
• 15:26
  the big events in the city go. Why shouldn't
• 15:28
  Pride be there? Exactly. It's going to be wonderful.
• 15:30
  Yes. I'm excited. Pride's taking a new meaning
• 15:34
  for me this year. I'm engaged in getting married
• 15:36
  in October, so particularly excited to celebrate
• 15:39
  with my fiancé, and we're actually getting married
• 15:41
  on Hourfest weekend. Nice. This is kind of like
• 15:44
  the predecessor to Hourfest in October, so looking
• 15:47
  forward to that event as well. Weekend with celebrations.
• 15:50
  Love it. Thank you so much for joining us today,
• 15:52
  and everybody continue to check out the great
• 15:54
  work of Mazzoni Center. Thank you, guys. Thank
• 15:58
  you. for Dylan's noon hour class for that Saturday.
• 16:17
  That is going to turn out hopefully better than
• 16:20
  the 7 a .m. class you've brought me to before
• 16:22
  where I needed to step out. Never forget. Robert,
• 16:27
  can you kick us off with other picks for the
• 16:30
  weekend? The Outsiders continues its run at the
• 16:33
  Academy of Music ending June 7th. Beethoven and
• 16:37
  Marsalis is kicking off tomorrow. Thursday the
• 16:41
  28th, and runs until Sunday the 31st. This Philadelphia
• 16:45
  Orchestra production will be at the Kimmel Center.
• 16:49
  If you are into Phil Orrick, be sure to catch
• 16:52
  The Next Generation. The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra
• 16:56
  on May 31st at the Kimmel Center. The Philadelphia
• 16:59
  Gay Men's Chorus presents British Invasion. Featuring
• 17:04
  the Beatles and Bowie, Amy and Adele, the men
• 17:06
  are blending British brilliance with Philly pride
• 17:09
  at the Seaport Museum from the 28th through the
• 17:13
  30th. These are your last moments to catch Val
• 17:17
  Rossman's from our April bonus episode. Show
• 17:21
  Outside In at Muse Gallery. Robert, do you have
• 17:25
  any plans for the weekend? Um... Jig is up. We
• 17:29
  are recording this a month in advance. See you
• 17:31
  in May. And with that, Philly has heart. And
• 17:35
  heart! Thanks for tuning in to Philly Has Heart,
• 17:48
  your weekly cultural update. Subscribe and join
• 17:52
  us next time as we keep amplifying the artist
• 17:55
  -shaping Philadelphia culture.