University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative is offering a new job training opportunity for local residents. Applications are being accepted through March 29 for a training program with University of Pennsylvania that will prepare individuals for entry-level, Science Lab Helper jobs.

The program is recruiting individuals with a wide range of prior experiences in janitorial work, housekeeping, labor and science labs. Program graduates will have the opportunity to earn a stipend while in training and receive on-the-job training at the University of Pennsylvania, earning $15/hour.  Continue Reading

A new reading series is launching this Thursday (March 15) at the Dock Street Cannery + Lounge (705 S. 50th St), and this is a great chance to meet some talented Philadelphia-based writers.

The event is hosted by West Philly authors Matt Jakubowski and Christine Kendall and showcases writers Ru Freeman, Emma Copley Eisenberg and Marc Anthony Richardson who will be reading from their work. Doors will open at 5 p.m. for drinks and snacks; the readings start at 7 p.m. Come early to secure a seat! Books will be available for sale during the event, provided by Bindlestiff Books.

Here’s some more information about the writers from the event organizers:

Ru Freeman is the author of the novels A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane, a New York Times Editor’s Choice Book. She is the editor of the ground-breaking anthology, Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine. Her writing appears internationally in the UK Guardian, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. She blogs for The Huffington Post on literature and politics, is a contributing editorial board member of the Asian American Literary Review, and is the recipient of many fellowships including from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Lannan Foundation. Ru teaches creative writing at Columbia University.  Continue Reading

Garden Court residents are invited this Thursday, March 15 to the neighborhood association’s (GCCA) general meeting where they can learn more about zoning and how it impacts their neighborhood.

The meeting will include a special presentation by Martine DeCamp, senior planner for the City of Philadelphia assigned to University City and Southwest Philadelphia, who will share an overview of the city’s zoning process. You can also learn about how you can get involved and ask your most pressing zoning questions. Refreshments will be provided.

The meeting will be held at Mosaic Community Church (123 S. 51st St.) from 7 p.m. until approximately 8:30 p.m.

It’s worth noting that a recent proposal by the Post Brothers to build a 243-unit addition to Garden Court Plaza at 4701 Pine St. (see rendering) was rejected by the city for not conforming to the current zoning code (CMX-2) because of its height, density and open space and required a special variance. You can read more about this project here and here.

Philadelphia schools, from elementary schools to universities, are participating in the National School Walkout to protest gun violence after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.. The walkout is scheduled for 10 a.m. and will last 17 minutes, commemorating the 17 victims who died in the shooting.

Some local schools and parents shared information about their participation in the walkout on social media. Other schools sent out instructions to their students advising them on how to make the event safer.  Continue Reading

Source image by Kaitlin Moore, “The River,” taken at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, August 2017.

This Wednesday, an exhibition of astrophotography (photographs of the sky at night) by Penn undergrad Kaitlin Moore will be opening at the Brodsky Gallery on Penn campus. Moore, a former astrophysics major, is interested in communicating both the scale and distance of astronomical objects in her photographs. She chose works that demonstrate the juxtaposition of normal, everyday objects, like buildings and trees, with wide, long-exposure shots of the stars.

“I tried to keep from being intimidated or scared of the scale of [my subject matter],” Moore says. “I had the opportunity to acknowledge my fear, and turn it into something beautiful.”  Continue Reading

If you are one of those who were patiently waiting for this coffee shop to open in Garden Court Plaza on the 4700 block of Pine Street, the wait is finally over. Kensington-based coffee shop, ReAnimator Coffee, opened its West Philly location this past weekend. The shop is run by co-founders Mark Capriotti and Mark Corpus, who had been supplying Mariposa Food Co-op with bulk coffee beans for a while and also operate cafes in Fishtown and the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. You can read more about them in our earlier post here.  Continue Reading