West Philly kids are doing great in sports and are in the spotlight of some current and upcoming sporting events.

The Taney Dragons. (Photo from Taneybaseball.com)

• The Taney Dragons, Philly’s youth baseball team that made it this year to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., keeps winning! In their second game, on Sunday, they defeated the team from Texas. We learned that there are at least three West Philly kids on the team. According to neighborhood sources, these kids are: Eli Simon, No. 4, a student at Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust), Tai Shanahan, No. 7 (who had the game-winning hit on Sunday), goes to St. Francis de Sales (47th and Windsor), and Carter Davis, No. 9, lives on 49th St.

We’re very excited about the success of these and other young stars on the team (their amazing pitcher, Mo’ne Davis, is on this week’s cover of Sports Illustrated!). Taney’s 3rd game is tonight, at 7:30 p.m., when they will take on a team from Las Vegas, Nev. You can watch it on ESPN. Also, there’s a free Taney Dragons Pep Rally and Watch Party tonight, 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., in the City Hall Courtyard (Broad and Market Sts). Go Taney!

• It’s not every day when you get a chance to practice with tennis stars like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, but a West Philly kid will be at this year’s U.S. Open. Eleven-year-old Tauheed Browning, a student at Legacy Youth Tennis and Education Center, is heading to Flushing Meadows, New York, to participate in Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on Saturday, Aug 23, as part of the 2014 U.S. Open Tennis Championship. Tauheed will get to warm up with tennis professionals and another Legacy student, Brandon Caban of Drexel Hill, will compete against the pros in a target-hitting contest in the hopes of bringing back $15,000 to provide tennis and life skills education to more than 4,500 young people from the greater Philadelphia area, many of who come from low-income and under-resourced communities.

Tauheed is a student at PA Leadership Charter School, and is from Overbrook. He is one of the youngest Legacy student-athletes with very high potential, according to a spokeperson at the center.

Tauheed Browning. (Photo courtesy of Legacy Youth Tennis and Education)

Elissa Sklaroff with the Clark Park photo collage.

West Philly residents Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen, whose Clark Park photography project was featured in a June post, are inviting everyone to check out their photo collage in the park on Saturday, Aug 16. Elissa and Jim were documenting events in the park and capturing images of diverse Clark Park visitors of all ages – people who “bring the magical park to life.” Since the beginning of the summer, they have been sharing their photos with the park community and with their “models” by creating a “photo garden” – from nearly a thousand photos taken over the course of the summer, they selected and posted the most representative ones in clusters on the kiosks around the park.

“Feedback has been positive, including lovely comments posted by some who have stopped to look,” Elissa wrote us in an email.

Now, as Elissa and Jim are nearing the final stages of their Clark Park photo project, they have created a collage with an idea to capture the project and the park in a more complete way. All the decorative materials used in the collage were made from recycled materials: “green” shopping bags, soda cans, etc.

The collage will be displayed in the park on Saturday and from 2-4 p.m., Elissa and Jim will be giving prints out to anyone in the park whose picture they used. Additional copies or posters will be available to the public later by request, at either Elissa’s email address (elissa.sklaroff [at] gmail.com) or Jim’s (klasen.james [at] gmail.com).

It should be very festive, writes Elissa, as it is an Uhuru flea market day as well. Many of the vendors have agreed to display printed copies of the collage at their tables and even on food trucks! Elissa and Jim want those in the photos to be happily surprised to see themselves in many locations.

When a friend asked Elissa, “Why are the pictures so close together?” she replied, “Because as humans we are all close together and these photos show how the diversity in Clark Park emphasizes our commonality. This is what we hope we are saying to everyone.”

“We thank everyone with whom we connected during this project”.

(Photos by Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen)

Here’s a reminder of what’s happening today around the hoods. And guess what? All of these events are free!

Night Market on Lancaster Ave @ 35th, 6 – 10 p.m. Update: West Philadelphia Orchestra will perform at the Night Market starting at 8 p.m.

Street Movies! at Malcolm X. Park (52nd and Pine), 7:45 p.m.

The Awesome Fest concludes at Clark Park (43rd and Baltimore) with the screening of Skanks. 9 p.m.

Also, the Clark Park Farmers’ Market is from 3 – 7 p.m.

Work in progress at the Lea School playground. (Photo courtesy of West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools)

UPDATE (8/14/14): The Greening Lea project has reached its fundraising goal after a sizable donation from the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA), West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools reports. SHCA’s gift of $1,000 completed and even exceeded the $3,000 fundraising goal for Greening Lea’s August project several weeks early!

8/7/14: Here’s a great chance to make something good out of a bad situation. The Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) has a chance to get a great playground set from the recently shuttered Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland) and they need some help.

The new playground set was built at Wilson in November 2010 through a grant from The Hamels Foundation, the charitable organization of Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels. The plan is to move the playground set onto the Lea playground (near the existing structure there) at the corner of 47th and Spruce, roughly doubling the size of the school’s play area.

But the committee in charge of Greening Lea, the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools project to make the Lea School’s footprint greener and more kid-friendly, needs to raise $3,000 to help cover the costs of transplanting the playground structure. The grant will help cover costs for a new porous surface that will be built under the new and existing play structure to make it safe for kids. The new surface will also help with the Greening Lea plan to manage stormwater run-off. The current massive asphalt playground, if future plans play out, will be converted into an inviting tree-lined space.

But that’s still in the future. The goal now is to get the new playground structure in place. The work at the playground has already begun. Click here to donate. As usual, any amount will help.

Photo courtesy Scribe Video Center.

As part of the annual (17th!) outdoor film screening series Street Movies!, Scribe Video Center will present a great selection of independent films on Thursday, Aug. 14 at Malcolm X. Park (52nd and Pine). Malcolm X. Park is the only West Philly location where the films are being presented this summer, from August 2 until August 21 (although you can catch them in other neighborhoods).  This year, the program includes animation, shorts, and powerful documentaries celebrating cultural histories and exploring issues of community concern. The events also include live entertainment and a video emcee to complete a great night of movies under the stars.

Tomorrow’s screening starts at 7:45 p.m. All the films are free and family-friendly! Emcee: DJ C (WPEB 88.1 FM).

Here’s more information on the films to be shown at tomorrow’s event (from the Street Movies! at Malcolm X Park Facebook page):

“The Mill Creek Documentary: Past, Present, and Future by Joyce Eli Bevins
‘The Mill Creek; Past, Present and Future’ documentary is an urban preservation outreach project documenting the Mill Creek Community during the 20th Century to date through personal interviews. The goal of the film is to serve as an outlet and resource to preserve, inform, empower, heal, and inspire the Mill Creek community, its residents and surrounding communities. (USA, 2014, 4 min)

711 Sidney King School of Dance by the 711 Precious Places Group and Scribe Video Center
The Sydney King School of Dance was one of several neighborhood-based black dance schools founded in Philadelphia during the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s. Responding to the cultural needs of a vibrant post-war black middle class, these studios produced world-recognized dance professionals and fostered a lasting appreciate for the arts. Through interviews with King’s students, this video underscores the role the Sydney King School of Dance played in supporting its West Philadelphia community and shaping the direction of American dance and performance. (USA, 2010, 10 min)

Creation Story by Natasha Ngaiza
Clay animation weaves in and out of live action to reveal the intimate relationship between mother and daughter, hair and history. (USA, 2011, 9 min)

The Moorish Science Temple of America: Branches to Philadelphia, Rooted in Peace by Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc., Temple #11 and Scribe Video Center
The Moorish Science Temple of America highlights its one hundred years of existence as one of the first Islamic organizations in America, and its historical impact in Philadelphia. (USA, 2014, 16 min)

Them That Do: Juanita Hatton by Lori Waselchuk
Part of the Them That Do series, which features local Philadelphia block captains. This segment highlights Juanita, who is passionate about keeping her neighborhood clean. (USA, 2014, 5 min) Editor’s Note: Check out a series of posts connected to Waselchuk’s multimedia documentary project Them That Do.

Revival From the Roots: Part 1 by Media Mobilizing Project
Media Mobilizing Project presents the first installment of a three-video series, “Revival From the Roots: A Tour of Neighborhood Schools.” The series follows Jerry Jordan, President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and Helen Gym, parents and award-winning education advocate, as they hear firsthand from students, parents and teachers fighting to turn around public education from the bottom up. Part one of ‘Revival From the Roots’ features West Philadelphia, with visits to school communities at West Philadelphia High, Lea Elementary, Penn Alexander Elementary, Barry Elementary, and the now closed Alexander Wilson Elementary School. (USA, 2014, 8 min)”

Abandoned property at 5237 Baltimore Ave. (Photo by Larissa Mogano)

A losing battle to get an absentee owner to clean up their property on the 5200 block of Baltimore Avenue has left nearby residents desperate for help.

“It stinks, it’s crawling with bugs and rodents and as we recently found out (the hard way) there’s now poison sumac growing there too,” said Cedar Park Cobbs Creek resident Larissa Mogano who lives next door to the abandoned home at 5237 Baltimore. “We’ve had more pests than ever: cats, mice, possums, skunks.”

The property has a long list of violations, according to a Department of Licenses and Inspections search, dating back to 2011. These include housing code violations for garbage and weeds. Most of the earlier violations have been marked “complied.” But a whole new list of violations, some issued as recently as August 4, have not.

Another neighbor, Pamela Gray, who lives in the other half of the brick double structure, spent $500 to replace a fence that was destroyed by a branch from an overgrown mulberry tree in the back yard. This same tree took out another neighbor’s back door awning last year. In the front, the porch roof has a gaping hole that invites squirrels to run around in the rafters at night.

Gray, who has lived in her house since 1972, said she once knew the owners as very nice people who kept the property in great shape. However, since they moved out over seven years ago, the property has fallen into disrepair. When contacted, the owners have repeatedly promised to clean things up, but these promises have remained mostly unfulfilled. Mogano has called Philly311, and posted to several websites including the Cedar Park Neighbors Facebook page, Publicstuff.com and SeeClickFix. Gray has called the Licenses and Inspections department of the City of Philadelphia several times and has contacted her city councilwoman, Jannie Blackwell.

The city has made cracking down on absentee property owners a priority in recent years and Mogano, Gray and others hope 5237 Baltimore will get some more attention soon.

“I just want the homeowners to clean it up so me and the other neighbors can appreciate our own back yards,” said Mogano. “I understand people wanting to hang onto their properties, and I hope they’re able to do that, but it’s disrespectful to the rest of us who live here not to maintain it in the meantime.”

– Selah Lynch