2024 Rechristening
Marian Anderson Hall
We always bristled at the name of the Kimmel Center’s main concert venue, in part because it reminded us we had to pay our phone bill but also because there was nothing at all “Philadelphia” about “Verizon Hall.” Now the room bears the name of the South Philly opera singer who famously performed an open-air Easter concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, became the first Black lead singer to grace the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, and went on to win all sorts of awards and honors. Much better.