Kai Wonder was preparing for graduate school when everything changed. Just as they were getting ready to pursue a master’s degree in social work, their mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was given less than a year to live. In the process of grappling with their anxiety about death, Wonder began to research the
More
It’s a wet, snowy, bitterly cold Friday in January in Fishtown, as Roya Williams steps into a bright room, lined with colorful artwork. Her dog, Jack, immediately starts to bark and play with a French bulldog named Chuey, the cute, welcoming “guard dog” at Stash Spot. Williams is greeted by founder Debbie Anday, who gives
More
When Laverne Evans needed a red purse for her birthday outfit this past November, she knew exactly where to go. Evans, 28, made her way to I Spy, You Buy, a curated thrift store in Mount Airy, to see if owner Dolly Park had something in stock. “She told me to come back tomorrow,” Evans
More
Feast jewelry’s Adrienne Manno doesn’t upcycle because it’s trendy or because she’s on some sustainability soapbox. Manno describes the reclaim-and-repurpose aspect of her jewelry making as an organic outgrowth of incorrigible collecting. On her once-frequent travels, Manno would spot and acquire a piece here, an element there, a 1980s faux horn belt at a London
More
In colonial Jamaica a group of enslaved women were bathing in the nude, washing clothes and likely gossiping on a riverbank when some traveling Englishmen spied them, according to Kevin Dawson, associate professor of history at the University of California, Merced, in his book “Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora.” Thrilled with
More
Following the birth of her first son in 2018, Melanie Hasan experienced postpartum depression, a condition that affects millions of women each year. She turned to natural dyeing to find comfort. “Just dipping your hands into a really nice, lukewarm bath and absorbing the color of an onion skin, or just embracing the smell of
More
Feast Jewelry’s Adrienne Manno doesn’t upcycle because it’s trendy. Or because she’s on some sustainability soapbox. Manno describes the reclaim-and-repurpose aspect of her jewelry making as an organic outgrowth of incorrigible collecting. On her used-to-be-frequent travels, Manno would spot and acquire a piece here, an element there—a 1980s faux horn belt at a London flea
More
By Nic Esposito After the credits rolled on Adam McKay’s new film “Don’t Look Up.”, I lay in bed for the next two hours, heart and mind racing as I tried to process the film. It could have been an allegory for the pandemic, plastic pollution or a number of other global crises that scientists
More
Lindsey Troop is the regional manager for Fabscrap Philadelphia. Photography by Drew Dennis. Fashion Forward By Samantha Wittchen Jordan Haddad sat in his 1,800 square-foot studio in South Philly’s BOK. The waste was piling up. His local sustainable fashion company, Lobo Mau, had been saving fabric scraps from all of the clothing it designed and
More
Steven CW Taylor founded Ubuntu Fine Art, displaying his photography from Philly and on international travels. The Beholder Story and photography by Jenny Roberts Massive, glossy photographs line the walls at Ubuntu Fine Art in Germantown. Each image serves as a portal to another time and place, says gallery owner and photographer Steven CW Taylor.
More
I’m wearing spandex right now. No, I’m not at my computer in an Olympic leotard or even Lululemon athleisure. I’m wearing Levi’s jeans, and though they are almost all cotton, they have about 3% spandex, a kind of plastic, woven into them. The unfortunate fact that they have plastic in them prevents them from being
More