The 48th Street Neighbors group is organizing their first Porch Hop this Saturday, May 19, from 4 – 7 p.m. and everyone is invited. Nine porches both north and south of Baltimore Avenue along 47th and 48th streets are participating in this event and it’s a great opportunity to meet, greet and hang out with your neighbors. Stop by one porch and then hop over to another.

The 48th Street Neighbors is a community group that has been meeting since September with the goal of making the neighborhood more vibrant and less vulnerable. Laura Crandall, one of the group members and Porch Hop organizer, said that this event will help bring people in the neighborhood together to build community. The group is hoping to continue organizing social events throughout the summer. They have also been taking neighborhood strolls in the evening and hosting monthly potluck meetings.

Everyone is welcome to come to the Porch Hop, but especially folks from Spruce Street down to Kingsessing which are within a few blocks from the most northerly and southerly porches hosting this event.

Drinks and snacks will be provided at each porch and you are encouraged (but not required) to bring drinks (alcoholic or not) and/or snacks to the first porch you visit. All of the details, including addresses are included in the flyer below.

You can RSVP and invite your friends on the event’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/405856216103211/

Good news: Dollar Strolls are returning this summer to Baltimore Avenue, according to University City District. Bad news: it looks like there won’t be a stroll in June, meaning we will have to wait until July for $1 samosas, cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and theater tickets.

Here are the dates:

July 19

August 16

September 20

Stay tuned for more information on participating businesses and their $1 specials, and as a reminder of what we’ve been missing since last summer, check out the gallery below.

This Friday, May 18, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a “Super Swap” of baby, toddler, children’s and maternity clothing, toys, books and gear at the Greenfield Intercultural Center (3708 Chestnut Street), and all parents are welcome to bring clean, gently used items. Boys, gender neutral and older kids’ clothing are especially appreciated.

Make a minimum $5 donation at the entrance to benefit the New Parents @ Penn Group and take what you need/want.

You do not need to bring items to swap in order to participate. All remaining items will be donated to a local women’s charity.

You can drop off items two days before the swap and no later than 10 a.m. on the day of the swap.

To help set up, clean-up or if you have questions contact: Sarvelia Peralta-Duran at sarvelia.peralta@gmail.com. To be added to the Swap distribution list please request to join the Super Swap Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SuperSwap/

This Super Swap is an initiative in collaboration with the Penn Women’s Center, Greenfield Intercultural Center and the Penn Family Resource Center.
 

If you remember the days when you played your favorite games in the neighborhood park, come to Clark Park tomorrow after work for the Old School Game Night. Come out to the park from 4 to 7 p.m. to show your stuff in a four-square tournament, make your way through a giant hopscotch court, and play in the signature kickball match happening in The Bowl. And please bring a positive attitude and a drive for fun!

This event is hosted by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation as part of “Love Your Park” week, a citywide celebration of Philadelphia’s parks. It is open and encouraged for all ages. Evening activities will be accompanied by DJ Patty-Pat’s Back-in-the-Day soundtrack.

Here’s the schedule:

4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Hot Potato, Double Dutch, 4-square tournament, Relay Races and more!

6 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Kickball Match (please come between 4 and 5:30 to put your name down for kickball).

Old School Game Night. Tue, May 15, 4 – 7 p.m. Clark Park “B”, 43rd & Chester.

While Clark Park “B” (43rd & Chester) is hosting the annual May Fair tomorrow (May 12), there will also be a couple of happenings in the “A” section of the park (44th & Baltimore), in addition to the weekly Farmer’s Market.

Friends of Clark Park need help to keep the park beautiful and invite community members from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to participate in the park clean-up as Love Your Park Week kicks off tomorrow. Join your fellow Clark Park supporters and help them rake, mulch, water, weed, and generally tidy up the park. For more information and to RSVP, email: lisa@lisamcdonaldhanes.com

At 4 p.m. don’t miss a rare event – local Girl Scout troop #92373 will be releasing 18,000 ladybugs and 10 lbs of earthworms to benefit the ecological health of Clark Park and West Philly. Earthworms aerate soil, creating increased water absorption and air circulation, and ladybugs feed on aphids and other soft bodied insects that feed on plants. This is the Girl Scout troop’s main community service project for the spring.
 

Modeled on New York City’s Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, Backyard Writers is a selective West Philadelphia-based writing workshop for emerging and established fiction and prose writers. Founded in February of 2011 with support from UPenn’s Kelly Writer’s House, and consisting of 10 writers, group members’ work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Tin House,The Sun, Story Quarterly, Indiana Review, Plain China, Philadelphia Stories, and Apiary, and earned them current positions in the creative writing faculty at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and the Community College of Philadelphia.  

Members have also received such honors as the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, the Community College of Philadelphia’s Judith Stark fiction award, and numerous Best Short Story Awards. They have also published chapbooks with Popular Ink Press and Finishing Line Press, directed Thread Makes Blanket Press here in West Philadelphia, and been contributing writers to Philadelphia Weekly Paper.  Among them, they hold MFAs in Creative Writing from the University of Wyoming, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia (enrolled), and Rutgers-Newark (enrolled).

Backyard Writers invites the general public to an outdoor reading event, featuring beverages and light refreshments for any and all interested in supporting the West Philadelphia literary arts community, and listening to a taste of their newest work.

Eight members of Backyard Writers will each give a short reading from approximately 7:30-8:30 p.m., followed by merry making in the beautiful backyard of collective house, “Fancy House” in a kind of literary salon meets backyard barbecue.

Sunday May 13. 7 p.m. 4951 Catharine Street. RSVP to eisenberg.emma@gmail.com

The Backyard Writers (with relevant links to bios/stories):

Emma Eisenberg
Kathleen Furin
Ben Goldstein
Sara Graybeal
Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Nathan Long
Maxime McKenna
Patrick McNeil
David Poplar
Emily Zimbrick-Rogers