This Saturday (Apr. 13) between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., many residents will be joining forces to clean and beautify their neighborhoods as part of the citywide initiative. Residents and community groups were asked to register their cleanup projects on the Streets Department website and over 500 projects have been posted throughout the city, with dozens in West Philadelphia.

If you would like to volunteer in one of the organized efforts please click on the map below to go to the projects page. Or you can just step outside and clean around your home, office, school, in a nearby park, or an empty lot.

Love is awfully complicated and blissfully chaotic. It’s also ever-evolving, morphing into unrecognizable shapes without forewarning. In essence, love is a free-for-all.

It’s this complexity that’s at the heart of MAYA (view trailer below), Dan Papa’s first independent feature film project. Shot entirely in black and white, MAYA explores love’s profound transformation through time, and the ways people bend and react to that variance. It will premiere Sunday at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.).

“This is the sort of movie you are supposed to feel, and not necessarily understand everything. There is definitely some mystery there,” the 27-year-old writer-director wrote in an email. “Love is a universal subject all viewers can relate to. Maybe the movie will help people pay more attention to the world underneath, the fact that we are all the same at the core.”

In its own right, MAYA, which was shot on a $7,000 budget, is a quintessential Philly project. Papa used the city’s “layers of history, and the empty spaces” to serve as MAYA’s primary backdrop, with interior shots based in Cedar Park (it was also shot on a beach in Cape May.) West Philly’s “unique flavor” is also offered through local actor and Curio Theatre company member Harry Slack’s supporting role.

“Having lived in Philly almost 10 years, I feel a deep connection to certain areas,” wrote Papa, who, while currently living in the Poconos, still considers West Philly home. “It shows that living in the city is not always about brick and concrete.”

But MAYA’s mysticism transcends the screen—according to Papa, local actors Amy Frear and Dan McGlaughin, who play leads Maya and Leo respectively, started dating after filming. “I think we captured some real chemistry,” he wrote.

The screening will follow an improv performance based on the movie score featuring musicians from West Philly’s Flat Mary Road. Dock Street Brewery will provide free draft beers.

Here are the details:

Sunday, April 14, 7 p.m.
International House Philadelphia
3701 Chestnut Street
Tickets: $8 (http://maya.brownpapertickets.com/)

– Annamarya Scaccia

Maya – Trailer # 2 from Dan Papa on Vimeo.

Penn Museum is organizing two great family events this month and inviting West Philly kids and their families to attend.

Philadelphia READS! community night (free):
On Wednesday, Apr 10, Penn Museum celebrates literacy with a free community night and kickoff to a month-long book drive, from 5 to 8 p.m. The event, co-hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s Groundswell Initiative, will include storytelling in the galleries, dance performances, a poetry workshop, and a hieroglyph-writing workshop. Guests are asked to bring a new or gently used children’s book to contribute to Philadelphia READS, a program that provides books to educators in the city.

For more information go here.

Rome’s Birthday:
On Sunday, April 21, “All roads lead to Rome,” as the museum celebrates the founding of Rome (753 BCE) with an afternoon of gladiatorial bouts, toga wrapping, ancient hairdressing, arts and crafts, a pasta demo, pop-up poetry readings in the galleries, and a talk about Rome. This event will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. and is free with Museum admission.

For more information visit this page.

The final public meeting on the University Southwest District Plan is tonight at Quorum in the University City Science Center (3711 Market St.). The meeting is an open house and community members are invited to attend any time between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.

At the meeting, the City Planning Commission will present the draft of the plan including recommendations for zoning changes in the area. You can also learn about the feedback the planning commission received from the Philadelphia2035 online game. The game developers will be there to share results and hear from you about your gaming experience. Most importantly, they will award $500 prizes to the top three local causes supported by participants. The following causes were presented in the game: Greening Lea initiative, Neighborhood Bike Works, the Kingsessing Recreation Center and the University City Arts League. More than 900 people signed up to play the game.

For more information, please contact Andrew Meloney, 215-683-4656, Andrew.Meloney@phila.gov.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell who is a “gentrifier” these days – or whether that word or concept still has any meaning. Film director Kelly Anderson, a self-proclaimed “gentrifier” from Brooklyn will talk about her journey and her neighborhood after a screening of her documentary My Brooklyn (see trailer below) at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.) on Tuesday.

Drawn to Brooklyn in 1988 by cheap rent and a “Bohemian culture,” Anderson watched through the nineties and particularly into the early part of the 21st century as luxury housing and chain stores changed the neighborhood forever. Starting to sound familiar? The changes spark conversations about “authenticity,” who controls the future of the neighborhood and cause Anderson to examine her own role in the changes to the neighborhood.

The film’s themes are relevant to many parts of West Philly.

The film focuses on the future of Fulton Mall, a popular African American and Caribbean shopping Center, that officials are considering razing. “The film’s ultimate questions become how to heal the deep racial wounds embedded in our urban development patterns, and how citizens can become active in restoring democracy to a broken planning process,” according to its website. The film is co-sponsored by the Scribe Video Center.

Here are the details:

Tuesday, April 9, 7 p.m.
International House Philadelphia
3701 Chestnut Street
$10, $8 students/seniors, $5 Scribe and IHP members

Here is a trailer:

Here’s another great event for the whole family happening this weekend in the neighborhood. The University City Arts League (4226 Spruce St) invites friends and neighbors to their 4th annual Chili Bowl event that will be held on Sunday, Apr. 7, from 1 – 5 p.m.

As always, the UCAL staff will fill up bowls made in their pottery studio with different versions of delicious warm chili, veggie and meat, provided by nine local restaurants: Atiya Ola, Distrito, Gold Standard Café, Green Line Café, Guacamole Mex Grill, Harvest, Honest Tom’s, Milk and Honey, and Powelton Pizza. Once again, Greg Salisbury, head of SOOP catering, will be creating meat and vegan chili and Yards Brewing will be supplying beverages.

The annual Chili Bowl event raises funds for the University City Arts League’s Pottery Studio. (Photo courtesy UCAL).

Sounds great, right? All you have to do is to buy a beautiful hand-crafted chili bowl and you can eat all the free chili you want. And if you bring your kids, they all will eat free when their parents purchase a bowl! After you try all the chili you can vote for the best chili-maker in the neighborhood.

“This is a really fun event,” says Noreen Shanfelter, Arts League executive director. “It’s great for the whole family. We’ll have music and face painting for the children to enjoy.”

This event benefits the UCAL Pottery Studio. It will help cover the expenses of a new, third kiln that was recently added to increase capacity at the studio and new lighting.

Pottery is the most popular of all courses at the Arts League and is available for children, aged 5 to 12 after school Monday to Friday, and for adults on the weekends and on several weeknights.

For more information contact the Arts League at 215 382 7811 or visit www.ucartsleague.org.