Philadelphia’s park system is many things. It is big, but much of it is difficult to access. Some sections are practically ancient, home to historic buildings hundreds of years old; one even dates back to New Sweden. At the same time, the system is constantly being renovated. If you’re lucky, you might have a new
MoreRecently I slid a few dozen times down the curvy slide at Henry C. Lea School, as demanded by my daughter Gilda, who slid on the adjacent straight slide. She is almost three years old and thus has a bottomless appetite for repetitive fun. Her older sister, Magnolia, is in the fourth grade at Lea.
MoreIt’s okay for our hands to be held. Many times when I’m unmotivated to do a project, I know that the main deterrent to getting started is simply that I don’t want to do it alone. My week is split in two: I have my three teenage children four nights a week and the other
MoreStitched together by their mutual love of yarn, it’s a group of local makers and entrepreneurs that make the shelves of the South Philadelphia-born yarn shop Loop such a unique place to shop, according to the store’s co-owner Laura Singewald. Loop works with three to five small businesses in Philly—local vendors that either dye yarn
MoreWhen I was young, I used to love to move my bedroom furniture around. It seemed like I was scooting my dresser and bed across the room twice a year—sometimes even switching bedrooms with my sister. I loved the change that rearranging brought and the newness within the familiar. During one of these furniture moving
MoreAntoine Mapp used to approach drug-dealing teens near his West Philly home and ask if they wanted to learn to play drums to earn a few dollars. “Sometimes they’d say, ‘Get the [hell] out of here,’ then … they’d try it,” says Mapp, 41, whose grandmother started a community drumline, the West Powelton Steppers &
MoreWatch how We Love Philly’s program at One Arts Center is teaching students how to heal themselves and their communities through mindfulness and entrepreneurship and what the school district can learn from this program. Read the full story here.
MoreWhen you approach the storefronts at 52nd and Warren streets, just off Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia, you might notice the handcrafted facades of One Art Community Center’s Earthship-style building, which uses glass bottles and cans placed in cement to provide structure and light. In the center’s backyard, a group of students are working on
MoreYears ago, my parents told Miss Farber, a white 60ish teacher at the elementary school in our Black working-class neighborhood, that when my brother and I graduated they would enroll us in a junior high program for gifted students. “There’s a Hebrew element at that school,” Miss Farber said, “and your children won’t make it.”
MorePortrait by James Boyle. When I trained in martial arts, my instructor taught me that “good form will carry me through.” There were times when I felt so tired that I became sloppy and let my guard down, which would get me punched in the face. I learned that when I became more technical and
MoreIn 2013 the School District of Philadelphia closed 23 schools, including a massive gray stone building on South Ninth Street, the Edward W. Bok Technical High School. In an unexpected twist, the development and design firm Scout bought it for $1.75 million and has been gradually repurposing it into a sanctuary for creatives since July
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