Given the unruliness of time machines, apt to choose their own destinations, you’ll need a bike, car or SEPTA to see the scattered sites where enslaved Black women helped to get colonial Philadelphia going.Take Black Alice, aka Alice of Dunks Ferry, who reached age 116, c.1686 to 1802, historians say. Her parents, from Barbados, arrived
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Located in the city’s historic Germantown area, Uncle Bobbie’s has all of the warm aesthetic qualities of a quaint coffee shop and bookstore, but a quick look at its shelves reveals a deeper purpose. Among its selections, the shop carries fresh copies of titles like “Malcolm X: Socialism and Black Nationalism,” Aimé Césaire’s “Discourse on
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By the time the Continental Army and its French allies crushed British forces at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, enslaved Black women in Philadelphia had long begged Jesus to make them as free as their white neighbors. In Old City these days, you can “meet” two Black women who likely said such prayers—and had them
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Winter cycling isn’t as popular, or comfortable, as in other seasons. Snow in the bike lane, ice on your brakes and icicles in your hair—it’s all going to happen if you ride in the winter. But as an urban adventurer determined to ride all year, I’ve gathered tips to make my winters less terrible, because even
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Nearly every cyclist has had this experience: You’re at the Reading Terminal or the farmers market to grab a few things. Five impulse buys later (beets were on sale!) and the ride home becomes a precarious one. Straining under a stuffed backpack, you swear you won’t make this mistake again. And yet, you almost definitely will.
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On the morning of Monday, May 14, 1838, a small group of black women from South Philadelphia, home at that time to many of the city’s African Americans, made their way north, past Market Street’s smelly fish stalls and dye shops, to Pennsylvania Hall. The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women would soon start in the
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Drive from New York to Washington, D.C., and it might be hard to imagine that there was once anything there other than cities and suburbs. Today a vast landscape of brick and asphalt, concrete and lawn stretches up along the I-95 corridor, broken only occasionally by marsh, farmland or forest. You might wonder what grew
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Who do you picture when you think of a cyclist in Philadelphia? For many, it’s a young white man, and if you aren’t a fan of cyclists, you might attach the pejorative “hipster” as a descriptor. But the cycling population is actually very diverse, especially if you look beyond biking advocates, who are often white. “In
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A powerful little being. That’s how Hannah Caldwell Henderson describes a tiny toddler who stood up during a silent Quaker meeting to say, “Be brave!”Henderson is the chief advancement officer at Germantown Friends School, a private Quaker school that practices unstructured silent worship. Much like meditation, silent worship is a personal, contemplative activity. Unlike the traditional Eastern
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Quiet.It’s a word you don’t often associate with high schools, where hallways and classrooms are usually bustling with the excited conversations of teens. But Bodine High School in Northern Liberties is quiet. Very quiet. In the foreground is a class of 25 seniors who sit still, focusing on their breath. Eyes closed. Legs uncrossed. Hands resting
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