HotBox Yoga’s new location at 3527 Lancaster Ave. (Photo from Hotboxyoga.com)

Manayunk-based Hotbox Yoga is set to open their new studio at 3527 Lancaster Ave this Fall and the owners are “beyond excited,” according to information on their Facebook page. Hotbox Yoga will take over the space in the two-story building previously occupied by Power Yoga Works. Power Yoga Works closed operations at this location on Sept. 1, according to Philadelphia Magazine.

The opening date for the new studio is not known yet but the owner, Brad Young, told Philly Mag he’s aiming for early October. Currently, the space is being renovated and upgraded, according to Young.

Just a reminder that West Philly is home to a couple of other yoga studios. Studio 34 is operating at 4522 Baltimore Avenue and Bikram Yoga University City opened two years ago at 42nd and Chestnut. In case you missed it, Dhyana Yoga moved from 40th and Chestnut to Rittenhouse Square earlier this year.

Hey, have you heard the buzz? The fifth annual Philadelphia Honey Festival is this weekend and the national historic landmark Bartram’s Garden (54th and Lindbergh) is one of the venues. Bartram’s is excited to host the event again and invites everyone to celebrate bees and honey with them on Sunday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Lots of fun and educational activities are planned: “Pollinator Defense Kitchen” with special guest artists from Mural Arts, “So You Want to be a Beekeeper?” presentation, Langstroth-style open hive demonstration, Be-A-Bee children’s parade and other kids’ activities. Also, there will be a plant sale and marketplace with local vendors, farm tour and farmers’ market. Kayak rentals will be offered by Hidden River Outfitters. Admission is free. More information and schedule is available here.

Photo courtesy of Bartram’s Garden.

Coinciding with Honey Festival, Bartram’s will also host a Bitters Cocktail Party on Sunday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Guests are invited to enjoy the Garden in all its late summer splendor and handcrafted Bartram’s Bitters cocktails created by celebrity bartender Katie Loeb. The bitters are a Philadelphia Distilling Company creation based on a historic Bartram family recipe and Katie Loeb is Philly’s own Cocktail Queen and “farm-to-bar” pioneer. Delicious pairings of local cheeses, fruit and honey will be provided by Fair Food. Local band Noggin Hill will perform bluegrass favorites. Tickets are $25 ($20 for Bartram’s Garden members; $30 at the door) and can be purchased here.

FYI, Bartram’s Garden has limited parking and the organizers recommend traveling to both of these events by bike or public transportation (#36 Trolley).

Seriously, you need to bee there. OK, sorry, we’ll see ourselves out.

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) announced today that all Philadelphia public school students are now eligible to receive free school meals. Families will no longer need to complete applications to determine eligibility. All students in the SDP can receive free breakfast and lunch starting this fall, according to the announcement.

The new School Breakfast and Lunch program requirements have been introduced as the District’s Division of Food Services transitions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the 2014-15 school year. The new benefits will “include better access to school meals by easing the strain on household budgets, reducing the paperwork burden on families and eliminating the stigma associated with the free lunch program,” the announcement reads.

“Our goal is to provide as many students as possible with access to healthy, nutritious meals,” Dr. William R. Hite, Superintendent, said in a statement. “We want to keep students’ focus on learning, not hunger.”

Julián Castro, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be in town on Friday, Sept. 5 to tour parts of West Philly designated as a Promise Zone.

Castro will be in parts of Mantua, Powelton, West Powelton and Belmont. The tour is related to the recent $4 million initiative by the William Penn Foundation and Drexel University to transform early childhood education in West Philly. The initiative seeks to increase the number of neighborhood children in high-quality child care and to raise children’s performance on literacy tests.

Project organizers hope that improving early childhood education is the first step toward changing life in the Promise Zone, which includes some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.

Neighborhoods included in a “Promise Zone” are placed in the front of the line for federal grants and aid in an effort to help create jobs, reduce violent crime, improve educational opportunities and assist local leaders navigate federal programs.
 

A group of millennials who hope to wield their privilege and social capital for the “redistribution of land, wealth and power” in Philadelphia and nationwide are holding an organizing meeting in West Philly on Monday, Sept. 8.

The newly formed Philly chapter of Resource Generation, a nationwide non-profit whose mission is to organize young people “with wealth and class privilege in the U.S. to become transformative leaders working toward the equitable redistribution of wealth, land and power,” according to the organization’s website.

The idea is “to convince our elected leaders to tax rich people more, creating and participating in a cross-class giving circle, and giving young, wealthy/class privileged people tools to use their positions to help redistribute land, wealth and power,” said organizer Julia Stone in an e-mail.

Locally the group is pushing for the end of tax breaks to help fund schools. “Tax us rich folks more to fund schools,” a flyer reads.

The meeting, which will include light refreshments at 6:30 p.m. and a presentation at 7 p.m., will be held at location that will be passed along to those who RSVP at RGPhillychapter@gmail.com.

BalletX. (Photo via FringeArts.com)

Each year, the Fringe Festival brings socially-set performances and presentations by innovative artists to various city’s neighborhoods and venues. This year, the festival, presented by Fringe Arts, will take place Sept. 5 – 22 and will feature music, dance, theater, spoken word and circus performances, and visual art installations (some of them free).

Check out below the guide of the Fringe Festival events in West Philadelphia. West Philly venues for the festival include The Rotunda, The Porch at 30th Street Station, University of Pennsylvania, St. Francis de Sales Parish and more. You can also pick up the print version of the guide at the Green Line Cafe at 45th and Locust.

By the way, West Philly based circus-theater company Tangle Movement Arts will present their newest full-length show, Loop, at the festival. Loop premieres on Thursday, Sept 18 at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept 19 at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Sept 20 at 3 and 8 p.m. at Philadelphia Soundstage (1600 N. 5th St.). Tickets ($15-20) are now available via www.tangle-arts.com.  Continue Reading