In a recent interview with The New York Times, Chris Rock shared an observation about racism he’s made before. When the color line is broken by a Jackie Robinson or a Barack Obama or some such trailblazer, it isn’t progress for Black people. It’s progress for white people. Rock says, “[T]he real narrative should be
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We are all human and are going to make mistakes, both large and small. We aren’t always the best versions of ourselves. We have the capacity to cause damage to the people in our lives and to the planet. It is far easier to see faults in other people, especially politicians, because of the grief
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Refuge manager Lamar Gore watched as Tropical Storm Isaias tore up footpaths and surged over the boardwalk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. “It was too much for the banks to hold,” says Gore. Gore’s place of work, John Heinz, is the first and largest urban refuge in the United States. It is responsible
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The Class of 2020 didn’t attend prom, senior week, graduation parties, or various other rites of passage associated with graduating high school. Those graduates, now college freshmen, sit perched at their laptops from wherever they feel safest during a global pandemic. “Missing out on the rest of my senior year, I just kept having the
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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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In early September, a flyer circulated announcing a “Proud Boys Rally” on Saturday, September 19, at Clark Park. Almost immediately, counter-events with names like “Families Against Fascism” and “Defend West Philadelphia” popped up, urging residents in the community to occupy the park that day with a unified message: hate has no home here. This past
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Today I walked my children past a city-owned vacant lot where the broken sidewalk is almost impassable and the weeds encroaching on the already narrow path are as tall as they are. We walk by everyday and they complain about how the weeds scratch their legs as they try to get through—and I’m sure they’re
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It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has radically impacted how festivals operate in 2020—but at least one artist, Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, is taking advantage of the shift. For the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, he’s bringing a socially-distanced outdoor experience to the table: a walk around Philadelphia’s perimeter. Born from a 2016 collaboration with Ann
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While the craft beer renaissance has generated an uptick in breweries throughout Philadelphia (with as many as 16 new breweries opening in 2019 alone), Rich and Mengistu Koilor are on a mission to add to the city’s thriving beer scene by opening its first Black-owned brewery. The West Philadelphia brothers behind Two Locals Brewing Company
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