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An interview with Philadelphia educator Keziah Ridgeway on how teachers can move past America’s tradition of whitewashing history lessons

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. This jingle echoed through my head as a kid every Columbus Day when our history teacher would devote a whole lesson to the man who discovered America. Christopher Columbus was a visionary, a pioneer who spawned the dawn of a new world that would eventually become the United

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6 mins read
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ParentChild+ provides more than educational support for parents and children, using emergency funds to help buy groceries and diapers during pandemic

Closing the Gap is a four-part series by Grid highlighting education nonprofits working to make sure Philly’s literacy gap doesn’t get bigger during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the fourth and final installation. Click on the following links to read the previous pieces on Mighty Writers, ATTRACT, and Springboard Collaborative. Like the other nonprofits, ParentChild+

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2 mins read
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ATTRACT supports low-income students with care packages and Zoom learning sessions during pandemic

Closing the Gap is a four-part series by Grid highlighting education nonprofits working to make sure Philly’s literacy gap doesn’t get bigger during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the second installation. Click on the following link to read the previous piece on Mighty Writers. For Founder and CEO of ATTRACT, Tierra Jones, cares for the

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3 mins read
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Mighty Writers pivots to provide kids with meals and virtual support during the pandemic

Closing the Gap is a four-part series by Grid highlighting education nonprofits working to make sure Philly’s literacy gap doesn’t get bigger during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the first installation. When seven-year-old Aki Mir passed by a lemonade stand in South Philadelphia with her mom, she heard someone calling her name but wasn’t sure

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2 mins read
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Museum program teaches high school students about watershed and tap water research in their communities

A  lot of americans have a vague idea of where their water comes from, says Kayla Callender, a former participant in the Independence Seaport Museum’s River Ambassador program. “We take water for granted,” she says. “We assume it’s never going to run out.” The River Ambassadors program is bridging the disconnect between citizens and their

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3 mins read
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One Art Community Center is an oasis of healing, learning and support in West Philadelphia

Photo courtesy of Hoshea Hart-Rogovin One Love by Alex Jones On an unassuming block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia, Malaika Hart and her family have spent more than a decade working toward their vision: an oasis of sustainability and healing where an abandoned lumberyard-turned-short-dumping-ground once stood. That vision has become One Art Community

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6 mins read
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An Arab cultural center uses art as a common language

Drum class at Northeast High School Students participate ata community workshop celebrating and exploring food from many cultures atNortheast High School Hafez Kotain instructing a drum class at Northeast High School Teacher Jay Fluellen in his music classroom at Northeast High School Students participate ata community workshop celebrating the diversity of food from many culturesNortheast

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13 mins read
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FACTS Charter and Philadelphia Folklore Project collaborate to cultivate traditional arts, justice

Photo courtesy of Toni Shapiro-Phim Ephemeral Beauty, Lasting Lessons by Alex Jones The Philadelphia Folklore Project has been supporting and documenting folk arts and artists in the city’s diverse communities to create social change since 1987. “We have these long-term collaborations, long-term commitments to [communities] that develop into things depending on what’s needed at the

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3 mins read