Photo courtesy UCD.

This year’s second and final Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, the bi-annual event showcasing neighborhood businesses, is happening this Thursday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. from 43rd to 51st street. As always, there will be tons of $1 specials – all kinds of food, drinks, sweet treats, merchandise, tickets, special memberships, mini lessons and much more! In addition, the event will feature live music performances, jugglers and Polynesian dancers.

The event is presented by the University City District (UCD) and Baltimore Avenue Business Association (BABA).

For more information on participating businesses and their offerings check out the map below or click here.

Click to enlarge

The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program will unveil a new mural in Southwest Philly on Saturday that honors the commitment of incarcerated fathers to their children.

The mural, entitled Fathers and Children Together (FACT), will be installed at 55th and Woodland on Saturday (the day before Fathers’ Day) at 11 a.m.. The public is invited and light refreshments will be served.

The mural is the result of collaboration between the Mural Arts Program, the United Community Action Network at SCI Graterford, the maximum security state prison outside of Philadelphia, and the Fathers and Children Together (FACT) program. The FACT program helps incarcerated fathers reconnect with children in the hopes that they can become positive role models and encourage their kids to choose education over incarceration. During FACT session inside Graterford, kids are able to interact one-on-one with their fathers.

About a third of the mural, which is painted on parachute cloth, was painted inside Graterford. Christy Bottie, who has led art workshops in the FACT program, is working on the rest of the mural with lead muralist Ernel Martinez.

Drawings created together by fathers and their children during FACT sessions make up the border of the mural.

Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.

Penn Museum is bringing back its popular summer concert series this week. P.M. at Penn Museum concerts will kick off in the outdoor Stoner Courtyard on Wednesday, June 17, with a performance by Harrisburg Mandolin Ensemble. Penn Museum’s summer night concerts, which are held every Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. through early September, offer a great opportunity to relax after a long workday in the museum’s green space and enjoy live music from around the globe.

In addition to the concerts, guests can enjoy non-alcoholic beverages and regionally themed light fare available for purchase at the Pepper Mill Café. Tickets are $10 and include museum admission (free for children under 6). Concerts are held indoors during inclement weather. Here’s the line-up for this month, from the Penn Museum’s website:

June 17

Harrisburg Mandolin Ensemble
This Pennsylvania-based group returns to kick off the summer series. Inspired by the early 20th-century tradition of the community mandolin concert, the group lays down original tunes and arrangements, as well as selections of jazz, swing, bluegrass, old-time, folk, and world music.

June 24

Xande Cruz
With a sound as rich and diverse as his native São Paulo, Xande Cruz adeptly blends urban and traditional, colors and sounds, together in a soulful way like none other. His music defies genres by combining Afro-Brazilian rhythms with samples, funk guitars, bass, drums, horns, and vocals.

Asali Solomon (Photo from haverford.edu)

West Philly native and Haverford College professor Asali Solomon will read from her highly-acclaimed novel “Disgruntled” and sign copies at two local venues this Thursday (June 11).

First, Solomon will be at Bindlestiff Books at 4530 Baltimore Ave. for a signing from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Copies of “Disgruntled” have been available in the store for a few weeks now, and will be available at the event.

Then, starting at 7 p.m., Solomon will be reading from her novel at Little Earthquakes, as part of the “Still Untitled” series. Little Earthquakes is a group house at 4710 Warrington Avenue that hosts many events.

In addition to Solomon, New York City poet Ely Shipley will be a guest at Thursday’s salon at Little Earthquakes. Shipley’s first book, “Boy with Flowers,” won the Barrow Street Press book prize, the Thom Gunn Award, and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. His chapbook, “On Beards: A Memoir of Passing,” is forthcoming from speCt! books. The event is free and open to the public. Please email littleearthquakesphilly@gmail.com for more information.

As a reminder, “Disgruntled” is a coming-of-age novel set in West Philadelphia. Solomon invites readers into the journey of protagonist Kenya Curtis, an African immigrant, as she navigates childhood in West Philly. We meet Kenya as a fourth grader at Henry C. Lea School where she tries to fit in but is confronted with her and her family’s Afrocentric identity. The novel is partly autobiographical. Here is a great review of “Disgruntled” in the Los Angeles Times. By the way, Solomon still lives in West Philly.

Here’s a great chance to see the first and longest performing feminist chorus in the nation. This Saturday and Sunday, the Anna Crusis Women’s Choir will perform at International House Philadelphia (37th and Chestnut). The series of concerts, titled “Reclaiming the ‘F’ word,” is part of the choir’s 40th anniversary celebration. The choir, which includes both lesbian and straight women, was founded in 1975 in Philadelphia by Catherine Roma. It is the first women’s choir to become a member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA).

The chorus consists of over 60 singers, plus a sign language interpreter for the deaf and hearing-impaired. The choir celebrates the diversity of women’s lives and culture, and strives to “build a bridge between the world we live in and the world we hope for.”

The songs performed by the choir are about and for women, from a variety of composers, including historical pieces from women composers.

The performances are on Saturday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m. Tickets ($25) can be purchased online or through the International House box office. For more information about the chorus, visit annacrusis.com.

Photo from bicyclecoalition.org

Philly bicyclists will get together this Wednesday (May 20) for the Ride of Silence, the annual international event that honors the cyclists killed or injured by motorists. The ride also raises awareness of cyclists’s right to share the road.

The 8-mile ride will start at 7 p.m. at the foot of the front steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and will go through parts of West Philadelphia before returning to the starting point. A brief pre-ride dedication ceremony will begin at 6:45 p.m.

Last year about 175 bicyclists participated in the ride and this year the organizers are hoping to attract at least 400 riders.

Here are more details about the Ride of Silence route from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia:

From the Philadelphia Art Museum the ride will proceed down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, circle City Hall, continue to Independence Hall, and head over to West Philly via the Walnut St. Bridge. The ride will return to the front of the Art Museum over the Spring Garden Street Bridge.

Riders are asked to gather at 6:30 p.m. The duration of the ride is expected to be one hour. Helmets are required and bicycle lights are encouraged.