Before Melissa Torre brainstorms new scents and ingredients for skin care products, she thinks about food. Prior to founding Vellum St. Soap Company, in 2016, Torre spent about five years running her bakery, Cookie Confidential, as well as 10 years managing Tattooed Mom, on South Street. She credits her experience as a chef with sparking
More
Far from any port in North Philadelphia’s Fairhill neighborhood are four massive shipping containers, retrofitted with doors and windows. North Philly native Chikrock Gonzalez ,42, converted two 20-foot and two 40-foot shipping containers into a tire shop after the pandemic forced him to close J&C Tire Shop. “The whole idea was, I had a tire
MoreEditorial Assistance from Cory Clark On January 4, 2021, one of the world’s largest security companies, G4S, published an intelligence report detailing the potential risks to Washington, DC, leading up to inauguration. In the report titled “January 2021 Washington, DC, Security Outlook,” G4S warns specifically about the security threats to the United States Capitol on
More
In terms of domestic life, I think a lot about what angers me. As a cleaning lady, I’ve had clients who’ve pitied me, and others who’ve barked orders at me while offering me their scraps. I’ve had those who’ve stiffed me. Those who’ve looked down their noses at me. And those people made me mad.
More
On May 19, 1925, a boy named Malcolm Little was born. His father would eventually be murdered by a white supremacist organization called the Black Legion. His mother would later suffer a nervous breakdown following her husband’s murder, thus causing Little to be sent into the foster care system. After getting into drug dealing and
More
When Jerome Shabazz started Overbrook Environmental Education Center (OEEC) in 2002, he set about transforming a former EPA brownfield site into a community space where the neighborhood could connect with nature. Today, it’s a verdant oasis on Lancaster Avenue’s commercial corridor. “It’s the intersection of environment, public health and community,” Shabazz says. But OEEC doesn’t
More
On October 12, Indigenous People’s Day, radio station WURD (96.1 FM/900 AM) held an on-air Environmental Justice Summit in partnership with Bartram’s Garden and From the Source Reporting Collaborative. Part of the station’s EcoWURD initiative, the day-long summit included speakers and panels discussing high-level topics such as leadership in environmental justice as well as grassroots
More
In the fight against the spread of COVID-19, Philadelphia has employed hotels as COVID Prevention Spaces to house homeless, elderly and health-compromised populations. One such space, the Holiday Inn Express at 13th and Walnut streets, is scheduled to cease providing that service today. The hotel has served as a shelter for the homeless since April.
More
In 2006, the board of The Philadelphian, a condominium located on Pennsylvania Avenue, faced a financial dilemma. A previous Board of Directors had allowed necessary upkeep to fall by the wayside for years, leaving the 1960s building in desperate need of repairs. Rundown appliances, poorly insulated areas, and many more interior issues were creating high
More
Nafis Middleton, a local rapper and anti-violence activist known as Fis Banga, was detained on Tuesday, December 15, by Philadelphia police from the 35th District in what he describes as “a traffic ticket gone wrong.” Middleton, 27, has been writing and producing anti-violence skits and raps for more than five years, but this week he
More