Greensgrow’s new, larger and more permanent location at 5123 Baltimore Avenue is ready to welcome its first customers. The soft opening is this Friday, so stop by and check it out. Grand Opening is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8. The former temporary Greensgrow West location at 4912 Baltimore Ave. closed on August 7.

Greensgrow signed a long-term lease with the city for 5123-29 Baltimore Ave. in Spring 2015 and began developing the new lot late last year. Previously empty and overgrown with bamboo, the new site was reimagined by student architects from Drexel University who gathered input from local residents with an eye towards green building practices.

The site features a high tunnel, demonstration green roofs and rain gardens, repurposed shipping containers, and even a tiny house. An outdoor classroom is being built by students from the Workshop School for Greensgrow’s educational workshops and will be open for neighborhood schools and organizations to use. Several West Philadelphia partners and organizations such as Cedar Park Neighbors, the Baltimore Avenue Business Association and the Philadelphia Water Department, contributed critical support to getting the site cleared for reuse. The new fence was built with the support of an Indiegogo campaign started by a neighbor.  Continue Reading

A 9-story, 130-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail is proposed to be built on the parking lot at 4900 Spruce Street (see rendering above), and this will be the focus of a Garden Court Community Association (GCCA) meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

“Information has been spotty at best so this is intended as a cross RCO community meeting,” writes GCCA Vice President and Zoning Chair Lauren Hansen-Flaschen. GCCA has been designated as an official RCO (Registered Community Organization) for the project, and developers are expected to be present at the meeting.

The building’s proposed height of nine stories and other features will require zoning variances. The developers of the nearby 8-story Croydon Hall Apartments, a once notorious squatters’ haven, are proposing the project. They own the parking lot at 49th and Spruce and lease spots there to Croydon residents. But the lot has remained mostly empty.

The meeting will take place at The Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Martin and Malcolm arm wrestling for the future of the movement in The Meeting, one of three short plays that comprise this year’s Theatre in the X (Photos by West Philly Local).

Theatre in the X, the all-black free theatre that is quickly becoming an August staple on 52nd St., kicked off its third season Sunday evening in Malcolm X Park at 51st and Pine.

This year’s works include New Black Math, “a creative explanation of what a Black play is”; The Meeting, a poignant and provocative fictional meeting between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.; and Love, Queens who Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,  a choreopoem that examines gun violence, abuse, love and heritage from the perspective of a black woman. Continue Reading

The new rabbi at Kol Tzedek, Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari (Photo courtesy of Kol Tzedek.)

Kol Tzedek, the reconstructionist synagogue based at the Calvary Center for Culture and Community on Baltimore Avenue, has a new rabbi, Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, and a new Torah school director, Rabbi Michelle Greenfield. Their first services will be this Saturday, Aug. 6.

A New York native, Fornari has served as director of the Boston-area Jewish Education Program and as a part-time prison chaplain. He was ordained from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. As a student, he spent two years working at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York, teaching, preaching, and providing pastoral care for congregants.

The synagogue’s search committee chair, Rob Auritt, told the Jewish Exponent that Fornari, who is transgender, has a “singular ability to engage people of all levels of Jewish experience and previous participation in organized Judaism, people of all sexual orientations and gender expressions, and those committed to anti-racism and to a multiracial Jewish civilization.”

Fornari replaces Kol Tzedek’s founding rabbi, Lauren Grabelle Hermann, who left for a position at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York.  Continue Reading

July was great in West Philly, with its traditional Shakespeare in Clark Park nights, University City Dining Days, and other popular events. August doesn’t look too shabby either with more outdoor theater and concerts, outdoor movies, and more. Here’s what’s happening this month in the area:

Theatre in the X will present three Sundays of three powerful plays at Malcolm X Park this month.

Theatre in the X will present three Sundays of three plays at Malcolm X Park (51st and Pine): The Meeting by Jeff Stetson, Love, Queens who Suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder by Jamila Capitman and Heather Thomas, and New Black Math by Suzan-Lori Parks. Aug. 7 at 6 p.m., Aug. 14 at 3 p.m., and Aug. 21 at 6 p.m. Free event.

BlackStar Film Festival featuring work by and about people of color in a global context will take place at the International House Philadelphia (37th and Chestnut) on August 4-7.

After taking July off due to the heat and student exodus, Uhuru Flea Market will return to Clark Park ”B” (43rd and Chester) on Saturday, Aug. 20, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (rain date: Sunday, Aug. 21).

The 40th Street Summer Series‘ August concert will feature a powerful performance by The Liberian Women’s Chorus for Change, an award-winning group composed of renowned singers, dancers, and musicians from Liberia. Saturday, Aug. 20, 6 p.m. For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page. Free event.

Due to rain, Bat Night at The Woodlands was cancelled last week, but all are invited this month to enjoy a double feature event – Bat and Moth Night – on Thursday, Aug. 25, starting at 6 p.m. Free event.

The Clark Park Movie Series kicks off on Friday, Aug. 26 with a screening of Finding Nemo. This is a free, family-friendly event. Movies begin at dusk.

West Philadelphia Jazz Heritage Series will continue at Malcolm X Park. August performances: Aug. 4 – Budesa Brothers; Aug. 18 – Perfect Solution. 7 p.m. Free.

Summer Nights Concert Series continues at Penn Museum. Concerts are every Wednesday at 5 p.m. Aug. 3 – Barakka; Aug. 10 – Leana Song; Aug. 17 – El Caribefunk; Aug. 24 – Farah Siraj; Aug. 31 – Animus. $10.

Audiences were enthralled last summer for Theatre in the X’s almost three hour all-Black presentation of Shakespeare’s Othello (Photo West Philly Local).

Theatre in the X, a group comprised of three local theater artists – Carlo Campbell, Walter DeShields and LaNeshe Miller-White – is returning for its third season to Malcolm X Park this month with free outdoor performances.

In honor of their third season the group will present ​three Sundays of three plays: The Meeting by Jeff Stetson, the story of a fictional meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X; Love, Queens who Suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, a choreopoem written and compiled by Jamila Capitman and Heather Thomas featuring the writing of Philadelphia poets; and New Black Math by Suzan-Lori Parks, a creative explanation of what a Black play is.

Performances take place at Malcolm X Park, 5100 Pine St., on Aug. 7 at 6 p.m., Aug. 14 at 3 p.m., and Aug. 21 at 6 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own chair for a guaranteed seat.  Continue Reading