NextFab is a membership-based makerspace that provides shared workshops, education, and mentoring in woodworking, metalworking, laser cutting, 3D printing, textiles, jewelry making, and digital manufacturing tools. With over 500 members, NextFab offers a supportive community where you can learn new skills, build products, and explore making as a professional pathway. By choosing a handmade gift
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Growing up in the ’90s, Lakisha Bullock was bullied for her appearance at her West Philly middle school. “I had big thick hair. My mom didn’t know what to do with it,” she says. At the time there weren’t a lot of Black hair products that weren’t relaxers and straighteners, she says. So, in high
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Philadelphia-based Kitchen Garden Textiles, which sells napkins, towels, aprons and even coffee filters produced from sustainable fiber sources such as linen and reclaimed cotton, will provide table linens for Outstanding in the Field, a national “roving restaurant without walls,” according to its website, which holds dinners on long communal tables in outdoor settings such as
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With tuition bills looming, Drexel student Janyah Green launched her own candle-making business last year, vending online and at local events under the name Monae Designs. Selling scents such as peppermint and eucalyptus, as well as seasonal specials, the 22-year-old, fifth-year architecture student has successfully created her very own Black-owned, Philly-local brand while studying and
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Local designers want to manufacture in Philadelphia—but it’s not always possible. by Justin Klugh An idea is born anywhere: scribbles on the back of a napkin, a daydream during a webinar, panicked fumbling for a bedside notebook in the middle of the night. While cleaning out her mother’s belongings after her passing, Maddie Flanigan found
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As we move further along into a federal administration that is hostile to policies such as the Clean Water Act and efforts such as the Paris climate agreement, the role of states and populous cities becomes ever more important. Last year was, again, the hottest year on record, and climate projections for Philadelphia tell us
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Editor’s note: The September issue of Grid went to press before the events of Hurricane Harvey. Our thoughts are with those affected by the tragedy in Houston. “Philadelphia is the new Houston” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Philadelphia is the new Silicon Valley,” although we’re of the opinion that Philadelphia is just
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Philadelphia’s food scene is one of the best in the country, and we could go on and on about our favorite places to eat. From the outstanding locavore choices to the ever expanding vegan and vegetarian options—not to mention more local beer and finely distilled spirits than you can shake a martini at—we are now
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While the country has been recovering from the crash in 2008 and sectors such as renewable energy and technology have been making strides, there is one sector that may not yet have seen the bottom of its losses: print media. All over the country, newspapers have been shuttered and alternative weeklies have either disappeared (we
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Most of our brethren around the country know Philadelphia as the place where, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence changed the world order forever. It’s a fact that prompts an interesting reflection: We live in a city that is 94 years older than the United States of America, a period of time in which our
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