This Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day, and here are a couple of West Philly events where you can celebrate it.

Kimberly McGlonn outside the new store.

• Grand opening celebration for Grant Blvd’s new flagship store will be held from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. in the Shop Penn Retail District on Earth Day. The sustainable clothing brand will use the new space on 140 S. 34th Street to create jobs making items like zero waste shirting and men and women’s work wear pieces. The store in University City will also provide both pricing and fabric story transparency for garments, so shoppers can understand the cost of the items.

Created in 2017, Grant Blvd is one of the largest female Black-owned businesses in Philadelphia and North America’s first Black-owned B Corp in the fashion industry. For more information about the business and its founder and CEO Kimberly McGlonn, read our story here. Continue Reading

Families are invited to take part in fun Halloween/Fall events hosted by local non-profit organizations: Spruce Hill Community Association, Penn Museum, The Woodlands, and CinéSPEAK. Here are more details:

Halloween Family Fun Day

UPDATE: This event has been cancelled due to rain in the forecast for Sunday, Oct. 23.

The Woodlands (40th and Woodland), is hosting its annual Halloween Family Fun Day. This year’s Family Fun Day will feature a pop up Mini Mütter Museum, and performances by Karen Smith’s “Spiritual Atmosferic Cleansing” and Tangle Movement Arts. Philadelphia Orchard Project’s (POP) Learning Orchard, located at The Woodlands, will be open for visitors throughout the event. Go here for more details. Continue Reading

University City District (UCD), in partnership with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and Friends of Clark Park, is bringing back a popular summer event – free outdoor movies in Clark Park every Friday night in August! This year, UCD will present four Music Movies, with great music at their center (see the schedule below).

All movies are screened at dusk (after 8 p.m.), in fair weather only (don’t forget to bring your blanket or chair). The event may also be postponed if the ground is too wet. Friday, Sept. 9 has been reserved as a rain date to screen one film.

August 5: Summer of Soul (2021)
August 12: Wayne’s World (1992)
August 19: Soul (2020)
August 26: West Side Story (2021)
September 9: Rain Date

More information is available here.

Artwork by Allison Rich

Shakespeare in Clark Park is set to return this week with The Taming!, a “raucous comedy” presented in two “very different” acts. The new production pairs Shakespeare’s problematic masterpiece, The Taming of the Shrew, with a community-created adaptation of John Fletcher’s Elizabethan revenge play, The Tamer Tamed.

The Taming of the Shrew is directed by Kathryn MacMillan while The Tamer Tamed has been adapted by Charlotte Northeast and is directed by Ang Bey.

The creative team of The Taming! is exploring themes of love, patriarchy, and domestic violence, and will contextualize Shakespeare’s original text from a modern viewpoint and from multiple perspectives. The community members who make up the Active Conscious Chorus in the adaptation of The Tamer Tamed will respond to the text. Continue Reading

Several Philadelphia’s cultural institutions and agencies, including the Academy of Natural Sciences, The Barnes Foundation and WHYY, are offering free summer learning opportunities for children ages 5 and under and their families.

A number of activities and programs have been scheduled at various locations in West Philadelphia through mid-August (for more locations, check out the Summer Pod Brochure 2022):

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Discover, Play, Share: Summer Family Fun

When: July 23 and August 6, 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

Where: Mt. Vernon Park, 37th and Mt. Vernon St.

What: Outdoor storytimes, puppet shows, STEAM experiments, music, and movement. Take-home learn-and-play kits and snacks. Continue Reading

The Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival is returning Saturday, July 16 live and in-person! The 2022 Festival will be held at Saunders Park Greene (39th & Powelton) from Noon-7 p.m. and promises to be the best one yet.

The all-day event, which celebrates West Philadelphia and jazz musicians, is free and open to the public. It is organized by People’s Emergency Center (PEC), The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and a committee of community members, with technical assistance from Nu Millennium Media Productions.

The headliner this year is the Orrin Evans Quartet, performing from the TD Bank Main Stage. The Quartet is led by none other than pianist, composer, and independent recording artist Orrin Evans, gracing the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival stage for the first time. Continue Reading