Jazmin Idakaar, founder of the charity group Sweet Charity Sundays, has sent word that her group has got quite a few new members since our first publication about it, but more new members are welcome. The group meets every Sunday at The A-Space and knits, sews or crochets for those in need.

The group donated 28 items in February and 50 items in March and is always in search of new contacts for shelters in need. Also, once the cold weather is over, they will be reaching out to hospitals to make chemo caps and items for preemies, so contacts at hospitals or similar organizations would be most welcome.

If you would like to join the group or have ideas for places where the group can donate their handmade items, please email: sweetcharitycrafts[at]gmail.com. For more information, visit their website or Facebook page.

In November 2010, over beers in Kensington’s El Bar, West Philadelphia resident Jesse Montgomery and friend Alex Shephard, two bibliophiles and voracious cultural consumers right out of Oberlin College, surveyed their options as literary career hopefuls in the uncertain world of publishing and literary criticism. Instead of accepting the dark pronouncements on how books and literary culture are dead among young people, Montgomery and Shephard set out to craft their own online community, Full Stop, that would be committed to “an earnest, expansive, and rigorous discussion of literature and literary culture.”

Montgomery and Shephard brought on as editors former Oberlin classmates Max Rivlin-Nadler, Amanda Shubert, and Eric Jett (who also designed the sleek website look), partnered with Google Ads (later replaced by Lit Breaker), and hit the ground running in January 2011. Starting out by publishing reviews and interviews and later expanding to include features and a daily blog, Full Stop “aims to focus on young writers, works in translation, and books we feel are being neglected by other outlets while engaging with the significant changes occurring in the publishing industry and the evolution of print media.”

In December 2011, in response to what the Full Stop editors characterized as “a year of global unrest,” they launched a new series called “The Situation in American Writing” inspired by a 1939 Partisan Review questionnaire that asked leading writers of that time about literature, politics, and the intersections between the two. “The Situation” spoke with prominent contemporary writers including George Saunders, Marilynn Robinson, Steve Almond, and Aimee Bender, and was picked up by such publications as The New Yorker, The Millions, The Rumpus, The LA Times, HTMLGIANT, and The Daily Beast.

When asked what was on the horizon for Full Stop, Montgomery wrote, “We just launched a new series called “Thinking the Present” that focuses on contemporary political questions and current non-fiction. Expect a series on pedagogy soon as well as more puns about birds and basketball.”

Despite the scattered locations of the other editors (New York City, Northampton, and Charleston, W.Va), Montgomery says he’d like to give Full Stop more of a local Philadelphia focus and was excited about running more content specific to Philadelphia readers.

If you’re interested in contributing to Full Stop, contact Jesse Montgomery at: jesse [at] full-stop.net

– Emma Eisenberg

This week’s featured adoptable cats are Chewy and Roy.

West Philly resident Gina and her roommates have been taking care of the cats, but they are all going to graduate next month and need to find them a new home.

Roy and Chewy are brother and sister black and white cats. They are medium sized, very lovable, neutered, with updated shots, and can be adopted together or separately. They were victims of a break in at their old home, so they get very scared of plastic bags and loud banging noises. They are good with other animals and kids as long as you give them a week or so to get used to their new surroundings.

Here are their photos:

 
If you’re interested in adopting one or both of these cats or would like to meet them, please email Gina at: ginapiccari [at] gmail.com

 
A growing number of West Philly residents are trying to get “The Fuzz” back online.

Resident Amara Rockar has started an online petition aimed at persuading police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to allow Detective Joseph Murray to start tweeting again. Murray’s Twitter account, which has provided timely updates on crime and public safety for several years, has been offline since Jan. 11.

“Detective Murray’s use of Twitter is exactly the kind of useful and positive police-community interaction that the Philadelphia Police Department should encourage, not silence,” the petition reads. “Please approve his Social Media use under his official title immediately so that his updates to our community may resume.”

Murray’s Twitter account fell victim to the police department’s skittishness about its officers using social media publicly.

Murray’s updates on crime were invaluable for citizen awareness.

Dock Street’s West Philly T-Shirt contest is still on and West Philly-based artists are encouraged to participate. You can submit your design through Saturday, March 17. The winner will be announced on March 28.

Apart from seeing your friends and neighbors wearing a tee with your work of art, you can win free beer for a week – 14 drink coupons or two beers per day!

The design can be based around the brewpub, a specific beer or Dock Street beers in general.

Here are the rules:

1. Any West Philadelphia-based artist/illustrator/designer can enter.
2. All entries must be black and white.
3. Art must be submitted electronically (.pdf, .ai, .jpg, .png, .tiff, .gif)
4. There are no entry fees.
5. Submissions will be judged on creativity, style, printability and representation of Dock Street.
6. Dock Street Staff will vote on top 3 and announce on March 20. Once they’ve selected the top 3, they’ll open the voting on their website, Facebook and Twitter and at the brewpub on March 28.
7. The winner gets their artwork printed on a run of Dock Street tees and receives 4 t-shirts for their trophy case, free beer for a week (14 drink vouchers) and a bottle of one of Dock Street’s limited release beers. And of course, bragging rights!

Also, please send the following to dockstreetinfo [at] gmail.com:

-Name
-Address
-Telephone
-Email Address
-Preferred canvas for art

Neighbor Claire King spotted this female Red-bellied Woodpecker last week in her backyard on Regent Street.