West Philly resident Mike Howard has a 12-year-old brother, Christopher, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and a very rare chromosomal abnormality called Kleefstra syndrome. Christopher is only one of 50 to 60 people in the world diagnosed with this condition.

As you can imagine, life has been quite hard for Christopher and his family. The boy has been in and out of the hospital for years now and it’s getting harder and harder for his family to cover all the medical expenses as Christopher’s insurance company is becoming less and less helpful.

To help his brother and his family, Mike has set up a fundraising page on Gofundme.com. Mike’s family are unaware of his fundraising efforts as he wants to surprise them and Christopher on his birthday.

To read more about Christopher and to donate, click here.

Jazmin Idakaar, founder of the charity group Sweet Charity Sundays, has sent word that her group has got quite a few new members since our first publication about it, but more new members are welcome. The group meets every Sunday at The A-Space and knits, sews or crochets for those in need.

The group donated 28 items in February and 50 items in March and is always in search of new contacts for shelters in need. Also, once the cold weather is over, they will be reaching out to hospitals to make chemo caps and items for preemies, so contacts at hospitals or similar organizations would be most welcome.

If you would like to join the group or have ideas for places where the group can donate their handmade items, please email: sweetcharitycrafts[at]gmail.com. For more information, visit their website or Facebook page.

Yoga instructor and Mariposa Food Co-op member Michal Waldfogel will be teaching a donation Vinyasa yoga class at Wake Up Yoga (4916 Baltimore Ave) to raise funds for the Mariposa Co-op expansion. The class will be held on Saturday, March 31, 1-2:30 p.m. Bring a monetary donation, or sign up on this afternoon to become a member of Mariposa. No pre-registration is required.

This is an open level vinyasa class, appropriate for all levels of practitioners. For more information on the class, visit this page. To read more about the Mariposa Expansion Project, click here.

Reader Scott Buchanan emailed us with this information:

“…On Monday (Feb. 20) the house at Spring Garden & Budd Street (in West Powelton) burned out. The one resident, an older gentleman named Victor Martinez, had been living there for 14 years but now has no place to go. He’s able to stay at the Red Cross Home through Friday, but he doesn’t have any family and is on a very limited income, which is making finding a new residence extremely difficult.

Another neighbor (Sarah Esposito) and I have been trying to organize the neighbors to help get him afoot again.”

Scott and Sarah have set up this page where you can donate money to help Victor:

https://www.wepay.com/donations/gifts-for-victor-martinez

West Philadelphia independent small press, Thread Makes Blanket has announced that its next project will be its first full-length book entitled Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda by local writer, performer, and organizer Ezra Berkley Nepon. Justice is a historical work that documents the history and legacy of New Jewish Agenda, a national grassroots democratic organization prominent from 1980 to 1992, that organized a progressive Jewish voice for the political issues of their time, including peace and justice in the Middle East and Central America, Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament, economic justice in the U.S., and a powerful Jewish Feminist Taskforce that included work on LGBT issues and the emergence of the AIDS pandemic. Furthermore, the movement that NJA created united activists from a wide range of religious and secular communities.

Nepon, who is also the author of the 2010 play Between Two Worlds: Who Loved You Before You Were Mine and who recently spent three years in NYC working for transgender rights with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, says of the book, “My passion for telling this story is informed by my own commitments to feminism, anti-racism, Palestinian solidarity, and queer liberation. I researched this history by digging through archive boxes at NYU’s Tamiment Archives, interviewing seven former members, reading every relevant book I could get my hands on, and asking every Jewish activist I met what they remembered about NJA. In 2006, I turned that research into a website to make the information publicly available. Now, I’m asking for your help to publish a book that can be passed from hand-to-hand to share this crucial people’s history of progressive Jewish activism.”

With just 11 days left in its IndieGogo campaign, Nepon and Thread Makes Blanket have just under $1,000 left to raise. If you’re interested in radical Jewish history, People’s History, or history of social movements, consider supporting the project. The book features original cover art by Abigail Miller, and backers may also choose to receive a Celebrate People’s History poster in collaboration with Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative.

For more information or to support the project, click here.

– Emma Eisenberg

A new West Philly-based film project is in the works thanks to local writer and director Dan Papa. ‘Maya’ is an independent feature film that will be shot in the area and will tell a story about the changes love goes through over time (see promo video below). The film is planning to shoot in April, 2012, but Dan and his team need some help with it.

An online fundraising page has been set up on Kickstarter (link). The goal is to raise $7,000, which is the minimum of what it takes to produce a movie. You can pledge as little as $1. The project will only be funded if the full amount is pledged by March 1, 2012.

Besides fundraising, Dan is currently casting the male lead role. If you are age 24-30 and have some experience in theater and film please email danieljamespapa [at] gmail.com. Don’t forget to include a video of your recent performance. Dan also wants to hear from anyone interested in being on the crew or who would like to contribute equipment.

For updates, camera tests, and other videos, visit the film’s Facebook page.