It can be easy to get discouraged these days. Everywhere we look, there are signs of a struggling planet and, often, it’s difficult to see a clear path to an effectual response. 2022 may well eclipse recent years as the hottest on record. Rainfall has alternated between being absent or violent in Pennsylvania, one of
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Subway Dancers By Constance Garcia-Barrio At Broad and Erie, with luck, you’ll board a subway car where veteran street dancers from the Motion Monarchs and Project Positive stand poised to burst into action. “What time is it?” one dancer asks. “Show time!” another says. As the train roars toward City Hall, one dancer grabs the
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Photographs Courtesy of The Tasty Double Duty By: Alexandra W. Jones You have to love what you do to work 60 hours plus per week, like Sofia Baltopoulos and Kate Hiltz. The pair are co-owners who double as line cooks, marketers, and managers for Philly’s vegan diner The Tasty. “Kate and I both work pretty
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If you’re like me, summer means paddling on our urban waterways. And, if you’re like me, the thought of getting out on the water offers freedom from your largely homebound life and the hassles of visiting crowded parks while social distancing. Many people from New Jersey and Pennsylvania consider paddling to be exercise, just like
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Photography By Albert Yee Gentle Soul By Alexandra W. Jones Sometimes a single Instagram post can change your life—or at least that was the case for Bryon and Natasha Dockett. A few years ago, as vegan bloggers, they posted a shot of their homemade dinner online and got a message in their inbox. It looked
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East Kensington cafe serves food, drink history and community during the pandemic.
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Looking back at the start of the pandemic, I’ll remember everything closing in March. Walks around my neighborhood took me past locked storefronts with apologies taped to the doors, and almost every email announced a cancellation. I got an email about the City Nature Challenge the evening of March 12. The City Nature Challenge (CNC)
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Photograph by Tyler Holmberg Make Your Bed Story by Alexandra Jones In a city where arable land can be hard to come by, farmers and students from Sankofa Community Farm are building free garden beds for Southwest Philly residents with aspiring green thumbs. The farm, located at Bartram’s Garden, has served as a place where
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Photo courtesy of Overbrook School for the Blind Learning From Nature By Constance Garcia-Barrio At the overbrook school for the Blind (OSB), situated on what was once Lenni Lenape land, staff members seem to have embraced the Native American belief that the Earth is a wise teacher. The school’s new million-dollar M. Christine Murphy Horticulture
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Opportunity for Growth I still remember weeping at 13 years old as I ate my first tasteless sliced tomatoes in America, our new home. My South Asian family reassured me that it would taste better with some Tabasco sauce. I now know that migrant workers in California grow, pick and pack produce that travels thousands of
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Illustration By Sean Rynkewicz Middle of the Road Story By Randy LoBasso You might not be familiar with the work of the late John Forester, but if you ride a bicycle, he’s had a huge impact on your safety and the way you interact with the roadway. The godfather of “vehicular cycling,” Forester promoted the
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