On September 6, a group of 18 gathered at the Delaware River waterfront with Walk Around Philadelphia. Setting off from Cherry Street Pier, some planned to cover 10 miles on that day’s stroll while others planned to do 120 — completing a circuit of the entire city of Philadelphia. All were bound to learn something new and see their hometown in a new way.
Naima Truxon, who lives in West Philadelphia and has covered 90 miles of the city’s border on past walks, says she enjoyed visiting Glen Foerd, a park with a historic mansion in the far northeast corner of the city. She especially appreciated experiencing it as part of the day’s segment, which took her around the neighborhood. “Let’s say I had been to Glen Foerd before, that I was going to somebody’s baby shower,” she says. “I don’t experience the whole neighborhood. All I experience is probably just the room at the place, right? Whereas, when you do something like this, it gives you an opportunity to just experience everything.”
The initiative’s first lap took place in 2016 when community organizer and artist JJ Tiziou (you might have seen his “How Philly Moves” mural at the airport) set off with three collaborators on a five and a half-day circuit as part of an artist residency with Swim Pony Performing Arts. Tiziou turned it into a low-key tradition, repeating the walks for the next few years by himself or with select invitees. In 2020, he opened it up to his mailing list for a February circuit and then developed the walk as a socially-distanced activity for Fringe Arts that September. Since then, Tiziou has guided the walks and provided community for walkers trekking the Philadelphia perimeter on their own. This September, about 300 walkers took part in at least a segment of Walk Around Philadelphia’s 16th lap around the city, for a total of more than 1,300 participants since 2016.
Although the route along the boundary of Philadelphia looks simple enough on a map, on the ground it can develop new curves and loops. On the kickoff walk, the group encountered an open gate at a fenced-off pier where a large sign announced a coming apartment building. After a quick huddle, the group decided to take that open gate as an invitation. They stepped off the sidewalk and into the high grass and weeds, picking their way down to the river. With the tide out, (the water level on the Delaware in Philadelphia rises and falls by more than five feet with the tides) the group explored a patch of land that would disappear in a few hours.
[Walk Around Philadelphia] is a way to think about borders and boundaries and who drew them … It gives you a hell of a humbling perspective on the city.”
— JJ Tiziou, Walk Around Philadelphia
Even where there are no fences, the city’s border can be tough to follow. “Sometimes it’s like this line goes through the middle of these people’s houses,” says Tiziou. In Eastwick, where the route near Cobbs Creek follows the path of a trail planned by the City but not yet built, the walk group encountered a homeowner angry to have strangers pop up in what she considered her backyard.
Even when walkers cover the same ground, the shifting human landscape presents new experiences. Walker Pearl Raz recalls visiting the Navy Yard last year. “We had just stopped at the shipyard in front of the USS John F. Kennedy, this huge aircraft carrier,” she says. A man rolled up on a motorcycle and told the group that he had served on the ship, and that the experience had led him to become an air traffic controller. “He built his life from that experience, and he shared it with us,” Raz says.
Advisory board member Florastine Byarms lives in Eastwick and met Tiziou through her work in community outreach at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, whose campus sits on City Avenue along the border with Montgomery County. As he explained the program to her, it sounded familiar.
“I recall seeing them in the snow. [At the time] I said, ‘What are these white folks doing walking in the woods in the snow?’” Byarms says she appreciates having a new way to get people outside exercising. She also values how it brings people from different neighborhoods together. “Philadelphia is very segmented. I think the walk gives Philadelphians opportunities to build community and see different parts of the city.”
Tiziou recognizes that it will take work to offer that opportunity to all Philadelphians. On the September 6 walk all but two of the walkers appeared to be white, not reflecting the demographics of a city that is majority Black and Brown. Tiziou says he is focusing outreach in communities of color along the walk’s route, such as Eastwick and Cobbs Creek.
Registration for a walk segment costs $20, but no one is turned away for lack of funds and Tiziou has raised money to offer $200 stipends to people who can’t afford to take a day off work. Roughly one quarter of Philadelphians live below the federal poverty line. “My goal is for one quarter of participants to be free and stipend supported,” he says.
Today, Walk Around Philadelphia includes virtual and in-person meet-ups for walkers to connect with each other and do visual art activities like printmaking. Stickers along the route help raise awareness and a sign at Penn’s Landing points the way to landmarks that are usually left off tourist itineraries but that are inescapable on the ground, such as refineries, landfills and sewage treatment plants.
“Philly’s border is huge and crazy,” Tiziou says. Walk Around Philadelphia “is a way to think about borders and boundaries and who drew them, also about nature and parks and infrastructure. It gives you a hell of a humbling perspective on the city.”
