If you’re not scared of us, you should be. What was accomplished in The Philadelphia Renaissance, marked roughly by the ten year period 2000-2010, or “the Aughts,” covers so much ground, from the popular arts through the higher arts and into the humanities in general, and breaks with so many American cultural traditions, from the rejection of European classicism to a preponderance of fame-and-profit motivated forces, that it is difficult to believe that forces could’ve coalesced so serendipitously. Yet, the aesthetic favored by Philadelphia Renaissance artists is dark— eerie, chiaroscuro, steeped in multiple meanings, secret passageways, many of them extending back over centuries of European high art and culture, and the secrets there unearthed of form and theme. Conversely, part of the miracle of The Philadelphia Renaissance is that, distinctions and classifications aside, it brought an entire generation of younger Philadelphia artists together, in every personal capacity imaginable— rock musicians, poets, painters, journalists, novelists, DJs, hipsters, and literary theorists mixed and mingled, sans restraints, of vanity or otherwise. Put simply, the Philadelphia Renaissance years were generous ones, and the ferocity of the forces unleashed, from Dirty Frank’s and McGlinchey’s to Woody’s at 13th and Walnut, bound us to each other with passion, joie de vivre, sometimes antagonism but always engagement. No one who had a stake in this Renaissance was ignored, and even when we fought, it was from ideals, principles, and whatever ethos came under discussion to ignite them, and us.