The late autumn wind began to bite during the 1838 Black Metropolis walking tour last year, but historian Michiko Quinones warmed the 10 participants with stories of riches, a riot and secret dealings in Philly’s antebellum Black community. “Some 20,000 Black people lived in Philadelphia in the late 1830s,” Quinones said. “The 1838 census showed
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It was a muggy morning, on a midsummer Wednesday, and the fish weren’t biting. A dozen or so preteens kept dropping their baited lines into the water from a dock and pulling them out empty. Or often, tangled, requiring repeated assistance of nearby camp counselors. A tedious exercise? Perhaps. But just beneath the surface were
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Archers celebrated summer solstice with bows and arrows on the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum archery range this year. Instructors like Kelly Kemmerle, who leads the youth archery program, welcomed Philly residents onto the archery range for safety lessons and target practice. Many attendees were new to the sport, holding a bow and
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After the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the racial reckoning that followed, enterprises from major corporations to independent businesses around the globe released statements of support for the protests and commitments to do better. But Weavers Way, a cooperative grocery store founded in the historically diverse neighborhood of Mount
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I was a student at King [High School] when I heard about the Men [Who Care of Germantown (MWCOG)],” says Jewel Gadson, 19. “I was a hothead. Sometimes I didn’t go to class,” says Gadson, the third oldest of 15 siblings. Gadson, like his brothers and sisters, was in and out of foster care from
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In 1835, future circus magnate P. T. Barnum and an enslaved Black woman he bought for $1,000 bamboozled the public, according to the impresario’s 1855 autobiography and Mark Bramble’s 1980 musical “Barnum.” Barnum, living in New York, heard that the woman, Joice Heth, on exhibit in Philadelphia, claimed to be the 161-year-old former nursemaid of
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Convicted of attempted murder at age 17, Philly performing artist and musician Andre Simms, or DayOneNotDayTwo, his stage name, spent eight years in an adult prison. Released in 2021, he’s now the lead youth organizer with the Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP), 924 Cherry Street, a group of young people working to reform the
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One morning in the dead of winter, Robert, 83, and his wife, Donna, 71, (their last name is withheld at the couple’s request) members of Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden, a nonprofit that aids immigrants and asylum seekers, drove from their East Falls home to Center City’s Greyhound bus station to meet a Central American family just
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Some are compression-short-wearing athletes who trek through the trails of the Wissahickon or beside the Schuylkill River. Some are commuters, taking the city’s bike lanes to and from work every day. Others are “wheelie” kids, groups of teenagers and young adults pulling tricks down Broad Street, not a single care or helmet in sight. All
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Below is an open statement in support of the Coalition to Save UC Townhomes that was written by The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements & Population Health Equity. The sale and demolition of the UC Townhomes in University City and the looming dispossession of families from the 70 units on the property in the
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