The annual Spruce Hill May Fair will be held on Saturday, May 13 at Clark Park and, as always, will feature tons of fun activities for children, live music performances, unique handmade items for sale by local artists and craftspeople, food from some of the top vendor trucks, book and plant sales, and the usual raffle with great prizes from local merchants.

The May Fair is also an opportunity for West Philly groups looking to do community outreach to interact with the public. Currently, the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) has vendor tables available for local non-profits, artists and crafters.  Continue Reading

Aetna Gallagher is Madame Bovary (Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas)

West Philly’s Curio Theatre Company‘s final performance of the season, a laugh-filled retelling of Gustav Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary, premieres this Friday (April 28).

Yes, that’s right – laugh-filled. Entitled The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary, the play is the North America debut of an adaption of Flaubert’s work by Peepolykus, a UK based touring company.

As you may know, Madame Bovary tells the story of a 19th century marriage in the north of France. The story’s got intrigue, passion and adultery. What it didn’t have is whimsy – until now. The work retells the tragic story of Emma Bovary in a way that may remind theatergoers of Curio’s hilarious adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 2013. Peepolykus also wrote that play.  Continue Reading

Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar has closed its location at 40th and Walnut after nearly five years of operation. It seems that the restaurant never recovered after a January fire and the water damage it sustained in the aftermath. What seemed like a temporary closing has now become permanent, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. The 40th and Walnut location is no longer listed on the restaurant website.

The University of Pennsylvania, which owns the building, is currently looking for a new tenant to occupy the restaurant space on the first and second floor of the building. “The goal is to find a tenant that will appeal to both the University and surrounding community — there is no timeline at this time for a new opening,” Penn’s Executive Director of Real Estate Ed Datz told The DP.

Have you, or someone you know, ever gotten into a traffic accident as a cyclist or pedestrian? Perhaps, you or someone you know was on the other side, behind the driver’s wheel? Either way, you’re certainly not alone. A driver hits a pedestrian every five hours in Philadelphia, according to the website of Vision Zero, an initiative of The City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director’s Office of Transportation & Infrastructure System (oTIS). In 2016, there were 369 deaths and serious injuries as a result of automotive crashes.

oTIS wants to drastically reduce and ultimately eliminate traffic-related deaths (of including but not limited to bikers and pedestrians) throughout the city. Their initiative, Vision Zero, hopes to accomplish this ambitious goal by 2030.

Using municipal data of traffic crashes by neighborhood, the oTIS produces some alarming and urgent statistics. In our previous post, we wrote about Vision Zero’s report that deemed 52nd Street and Baltimore Avenue and 40th and Market streets as the most dangerous intersections in the entire city.  Continue Reading

UC Green will honor the memory of community greening activist Winnie Harris on Saturday by planting a mighty swamp oak in Clark Park.

Winnie Harris (center) was murdered in West Philadelphia on Feb. 3.

Tragically, Harris was murdered in her home earlier this year. She was a longtime advocate of community green space and served as volunteer coordinator and executive director of UC Green. Community members are invited to a light breakfast at 9:15 a.m. at City School at 41st and Baltimore on Saturday (April 22). Everyone will then walk together to Clark Park to plant the tree and then spend the rest of Earth Day doing what Winnie loved – planting trees in West Philadelphia.

UC Green volunteers will help McMichael School students and staff plant four trees near 35th St. and Fairmount Ave. Other volunteers will help homeowners and residents in Spruce Hill plant about 28 trees.

The event is open to the public and anyone who plans to attend should call or 215-476-0124 or e-mail eleatherbarrow@ucgreen.org.

Dock Street Cannery & Tasting Room will open on April 27 at 4 p.m. (Photos by Rana Fayez).

Starting Thursday, April 27, you’ll be able to buy some Dock Street Brewery beer, such as No Exit double IPA, Jip the Blood Berliner weisse and Golden IPA, in cans. Customers will be able to see the canning line in action at the new tasting room, which will be located right around the corner from the restaurant on 50th street.

Dock Street head brewer Mark Russell (right).

Why is this recent shift in product packaging? Head brewer Mark Russell says that’s where the beer industry is headed.

“Craft beer, in general, is heading towards cans. Lots of other breweries are also looking at cans, it’s something you can take outdoors. When you look at shipping costs, cans are a lot cheaper, too,” said Russell.

Russell went on to further advocate for beer in cans as a preferred format due to their ability to contain less air and allow less light in, two aspects that affect beer. Dock Street hopes to offer Summer in Berlin and Man Full of Trouble in cans soon as well.

The tasting room will be offering a curated selection of cocktails in addition to the beer. On the shelves, there will be a rotating selection of Pennsylvania liquors like Faber. However, if you’re trying to order one of the restaurant’s famous pizzas in the new space, you won’t be able to. The tasting room will stick to providing a seasonal snack menu from different vendors throughout the area.  Continue Reading