The Philly Fringe festival is back this month with its usual wide array of performances and venues. Many of the programs will take place in West Philadelphia. For the full list of festival events and to purchase tickets, see the Live Arts/Fringe Festival website. Highlights of local neighborhood events, in no particular order, include:

• Monsters: A Workshop and Happening on Sept 16, 3 pm at the Penn Museum. Participants will work with artist Douglas Repetto to make a herd of moving tables that will be set free among the artifacts.

• Le Mirage/Dead City Philly by DysFUNctional Theater. Sept 10 and 11, 8 pm at the Rotunda. A 1892 novella reimagined as a rock opera and set in modern day Philadelphia. Debuted at the Fringe festival in 2011 and back by popular demand.

• The Legend of Nahia by Duende Musical. Sept 7, 8, 12, and 15, 7 pm at the Calvary Center, 801 South 48th St. A story set in an imaginary town in Spain about a a female survivor of sexual assault healing through music, art, story telling, and dance.

• You Don’t Say by Tangle Arts Movement, Sept 13, 14, and 15 at 8 pm with a special show at 3 pm. Although the venue, Philadelphia Soundstages (1600 N. 5th St), is not in West Philly, neighbors are probably familiar with the group’s outdoor show in Clark Park, Tiny Circus. Their Fringe show purports to include a rope, trapeze, and a dinner table as the performers explore relationships and miscommunication all while defying gravity.

Continue Reading

A resident helped prevent burglary the other night by reporting suspicious activity on his neighbor’s porch.

On Tuesday, at approximately 12:10 a.m., he was driving on the 800 block of S. 48th Street looking for a parking space when he saw a man standing on the porch of one of the houses, police said. The neighbor knows the owners of the property and thought the person’s activities were suspicious. When the man opened the window and started climbing into the house the neighbor called the police.

Two police officers were nearby and quickly arrived at the location. They caught the suspect near the front windows of the home, both of which were pushed open, and took him in custody. Police say that one of the windows had an air conditioning unit that was pushed in. Nothing was taken from the house.

According to police, the suspect is a known burglar in the area. “Witness did an incredible job. Noticed a stranger on his neighbor’s porch and made the right call,” tweeted Detective Joe Murray from the Southwest Detectives.

Reed’s Coffee and Tea House at 38th and Lancaster is hosting a Democratic Convention Watch Party tomorrow, from 6 to 9 p.m. and all neighbors are invited. President Barack Obama is expected to accept the party’s nomination tomorrow evening. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Thanks to our reader Tony D. for this info: The 32nd Annual Hamilton Street Porch Sale, a four-block long sidewalk sale, will be held in Powelton Village this Saturday (Sept. 8). The sale began as a small yard sale and has grown over the years to a four-block long sale with over 100 vendors, a mix of long time residents and local vendors.

There will be a wide variety of items for sale, including: housewares, bookcases, furniture, pottery, clothes, family treasures, books, antiques, plants, food, jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, and more.

The sale will take place all along Hamilton Street from 34th Street to 38th Street from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain date: Sunday, Sept. 9).

The Walnut Street West Library is hosting a Back to School Party (Facebook page) tomorrow from 4-6 p.m. Library staff will talk about the children and teen programs offered this school year, including LEAP Afterschool, Chess Club, Spanish, Robotics, Teen Book Club, Teen Movie Club and other fun stuff.

Supplies will be available for back-to-schoolers to make their own boomarks.

Free book bags with school supplies will also be available on first-come-first-serve basis. Rumor has it that there will also be free food and drinks.

Kareem Drayton, who is accused of raping a local resident during gunpoint robbery in the Fall 2011 and a few other robberies, will be back in court on Friday, Sept. 7. Drayton initially confessed to the rape, but has since fired his lawyer and asked to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial at his last court appearance, according to court records. The judge will consider Drayton’s request at Friday’s hearing.

Some members of the 48th Street Neighbors town watch group, which was created as a result of the Fall 2011 rape and robberies, were present at the previous hearing and are planning to attend Friday’s hearing to show their support for the victims.

The hearing will be in room 802, at the Criminal Justice Center (13th and Filbert), beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m.

Drayton’s alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Tyshanek Presley, was sentenced on August 13. About a half-dozen residents were in the courtroom for the sentencing, along with about 20 members of Presley’s family.