Peter Crimmins | WHYY
WHYY’s arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins first became interested in radio in the fourth grade, when he smuggled a contraband crystal-diode radio into the Boy Scout summer camp. Subsequent radio projects were more successful.
Crimmins has been reporting on arts and culture for WHYY News since 2010, as well as filing award-winning radio and print stories locally and nationally. He started his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, cutting his teeth at community station KALX and producing syndicated radio programming for Ben Manilla Productions. He lives in Fishtown with his wife and two dogs.
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Restoration work has begun on the water-damaged Marian Anderson Museum in South Philadelphia. The historic rowhome had once been the home of the famed opera singer and civil rights icon. WHYY's Peter Crimmins reports the work will cost a half-million dollars, and about half of that has been raised.
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The World Series of Spades debuted in Philadelphia last week. A championship tournament of the card game is streaming online as a seven-episode elimination competition. WHYY's Peter Crimmins reports Philadelphia hosted the opening watch party.
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Will Smith has just published his autobiography called Will, and chose to launch his international book tour in his hometown of Philadelphia. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports the very first stop was a small Black-owned bookstore in Fishtown called Harriett’s Bookshop.
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The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is gearing up for what might be its biggest show ever: Harry Potter. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports the immersive exhibit, based on the hit young adult novels and movies, will open in February.
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The Philadelphia Police Department is suffering from low morale, and is struggling to recruit officers. That’s the assessment given recently from the city’s police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports.
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In Philadelphia, the number of people getting vaccinated is going up, and COVID-19 infection rates are going down. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports on this encouraging trend of the pandemic.
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Philadelphia theater companies are beginning to come back to in-person performance, but in a staggered way. Some companies are opening plays right now, others are waiting until next year, and still others are opening hybrid live-and-digital productions around the holidays. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins sorts it out.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra recently released their recordings of music composed by Florence Price, the first Black composer to have her work played by a major American orchestra in the 1930s, but then became nearly forgotten since she died in the 1950s. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports on the orchestra’s plans to make her music widely available.
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Ed Bradley, the television journalist who worked for “60 Minutes” for 26 years and died in 2006, now has a historic marker in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is honoring the Philadelphia native with a blue marker close to where Bradley first worked as a reporter.
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The popular attraction Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary has been scaring people for 22 years. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports this year, the historic prison museum will turn Terror into a Halloween festival.