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
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There’s a better place than the fridge for children’s art. Dorothea Gamble and Dagmar Mitchell of the Northern Liberties art boutique Trunc feel strongly about this—and are actively looking for young artists. “We want to get children in the shop,” says Gamble. She and her partner, Mitchell, both 65, pride themselves on selling art, furniture,
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From oil painting to storytelling, native Philadelphian Joan He has dedicated herself to creating art in all forms since childhood. Currently living between Old City and Fishtown He is getting ready to release her second novel, The Ones We’re Meant to Find, on May 4. In this work, she introduces her readers to “cli-fi”— a
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Music therapy can ease distress at life’s beginning, help us say needful words at life’s end and restore us in rough spots along the journey, according to Scott Horowitz. Horowitz, 38, a board-certified music therapist and assistant clinical professor of music therapy and counseling at Drexel University, offers an example: “Re-creating the soundscape of the
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On February 9 and 10, Philadelphia artists and creatives held the Digital Rally for Philly Arts, a livestream event spanning more than 24 hours designed to highlight the value of arts and culture in the city ahead of City Council’s budgeting decisions for the next fiscal year. The budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year closed
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After operating for more than 8 years, Spring Garden music hotspot Voltage Lounge is being forced to close its doors after falling behind on rent. “At some point in the near future we will get that space back from Voltage,” says Craig Grossman, general partner at Arts + Crafts Holdings. Arts + Crafts Holdings, which
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Amidst shots and descriptions of swirling hurricanes, raging fires, and dying ecosystems, the documentary Can We Cool The Planet? begins with the words of climate strategist Jane Long, “We can’t go back, there is no path backwards.” But what if there was? Philadelphia filmmakers Ben Kalina and Jen Schneider, and their team of collaborators from
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In February 2019, a group of nine creative engineers, researchers, artists, and designers who had been working and playing together for years founded the Philadelphia Packaging Company. United around attributing value to objects of all shapes, sizes, and traditional economic worths, the collective began telling the stories of businesses that engage in packaging or selling
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The imp of irony plotted an odd course between painter Jane Golden and Philadelphia. If Golden hadn’t gotten a grim diagnosis years ago, the city could have missed out on lots of healing. Since her arrival here decades ago, Golden, 67, executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia, has brought wholeness to many neighborhoods with museum-quality
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It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has radically impacted how festivals operate in 2020—but at least one artist, Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, is taking advantage of the shift. For the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, he’s bringing a socially-distanced outdoor experience to the table: a walk around Philadelphia’s perimeter. Born from a 2016 collaboration with Ann
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Virtual learning may not seem optimal for interacting with the natural world, but for the teenagers in the Philadelphia Watershed Stewardship Program, digital instruction has been a source of empowerment. Now in its fourth year, the program has more stewards than ever before. Students from more than 40 high schools applied to the program to
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