Grid Magazine December 2019 [#127]

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A homeless man’s wisdom: “Be compassionate”

The majestic hawks living among us

Philadelphia museums reflect on slavery

p. 14

p. 10

DECEMBER 2019 / ISSUE 127 / GRIDPHILLY.COM

T O W A R D A S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

Remake your holiday with DIY gifts and classes

p. 16

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Monthly Maker Kate Leibrand Philadelphia, PA tweemade.com @tweemade TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF I have my MFA in Fine Art and am a former preschool teacher who was always looking for new things to create. About three years ago I tinkered with a sidewalk chalk recipe, and it took over my life! I became obsessed until I had a perfect recipe, and then I thought, “why not make it look like a donut?” I founded TWEE, a company that makes handmade sidewalk chalk and now sells all over the world.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE? TWEE makes sidewalk chalk in all kinds of crazy shapesdonuts, pizza, sushi, unicorn horns, planets, you name it!

Everything is hand poured into molds, then decorated, then packed. We are currently working on a new design that will be available in November- fortune cookies!

WHAT’S THE HARDEST PART? The hardest part for me is harnessing creative juices and making them work efficiently in the business world. There’s so much I want to do, I have to remind myself to focus and work towards specific goals and deadlines that will benefit TWEE. WHAT ARE YOU GOALS? My main goal is to learn as much as possible through this process. I never thought I would be utilizing skills like 3D design and animation in a chalk business, but I am!

Discover more stories nextfab.com/grid #nextfabmade

NextFab is a network of collaborative makerspaces.

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EDI TOR ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

Making It

managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editor Timothy Mulcahy copy editor Andrew Bonazelli art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Constance Garcia-Barrio Claire Marie Porter Meenal Raval Lois Volta Samantha Wittchen photographers Milton Lindsay Albert Yee illustrators Anne Lambelet Lois Volta distribution Alex Yarde alex.yarde@redflagmedia.com 215.625.9850 ext. 107 published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY. C O M

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T

his morning’s commute would have been much more difficult without my Yuba Sweet Curry bike.

For reasons too tedious to share, my son didn’t have his bike, his regular means of getting to and from school. But thanks to our bright orange cargo bike, I was able to haul both him and his backpack with no problem.

I bought the bike about a month ago from Firth & Wilson in Fishtown, and it has been a game-changer for me. We live in West Philly, about five or six blocks from Mariposa Food Co-op, and, though we supplement our produce from Philly Foodworks, Mariposa is where we do the lion’s share of our shopping. With the additional carrying capacity the bike offers, I can routinely transport a substantial amount of groceries and a child at the same time. I also used it to bring hundreds of copies of Grid to the Philly Bike Expo. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as I have a handful of projects it will help me tackle.

Regular readers may remember that our cover story from October featured families using cargo bikes instead of cars. They may even recall that the family on the cover had bright orange bikes.

So, maybe I am highly impressionable.

But I’d prefer to think of it this way: Over a decade since this magazine started, I am still being influenced and inspired by the stories we tell, and I believe that other people are as well.

The author of this month’s cover story, Samantha Wittchen, is a pretty remarkable person. She holds an engineering degree, she’s a graphic designer for both print and web, and she has a consulting business called iSpring Associates, whose mission is “[t]o use our skills, knowledge and intelligence to help organizations understand the value of sustainable behavior and develop

ways to embed that behavior in their organizational DNA.” She’s also a professional musician and teacher.

But the thing that I find most impressive about Samantha is her willingness to try new things. She’s not afraid to be an absolute beginner, and when she decides to explore something, she is tenacious and commits to it. She is proof that when you regularly push your boundaries, you begin to build the mental muscle that allows you to dive into something unfamiliar, and to fight the initial frustration that a neophyte inevitably feels.

I hope her essay about her maker journey, as well as her round-up of the outstanding makerspaces around the city, inspires you to try something new. She’s a good salesperson for sewing. I wonder if I’ll be making my way over to Butcher’s Sew Shop and writing about my new handmade bag two months from now.

By the way, you may have noticed that I’m name-dropping a bunch of businesses throughout these notes. I’m going to start doing that more often. A couple of days ago, Little Baby’s Ice Cream announced they were closing, and, while I accept that businesses are impermanent, it reminded me yet again about how important it is to support local businesses. So, this holiday, if you aren’t making every gift, or giving gift certificates to these makerspaces, be sure to shop with our local merchants. They need to make it, too.

ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com COV E R IL LUSTRTIO N BY AN N E L AMBELET

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

publisher Alex Mulcahy

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by

lois volta

DEAR LOIS,

Can we define “self-care” in a way that does not push us toward consumerism?

I

n my work as a home consultant, I see firsthand the need for reducing and rethinking our use of “self-care” products, and this means addressing the immense social pressures involved, especially for women. The wellness industry, in particular, has blurred the lines between commercialism and self-care, hijacking our conceptions of dharma, enlightenment and self-worth by selling us useless, smelly, expensive products. As such, it should be examined and scrutinized. At a young age, girls slide into the role of desired object, learning to construct their self-image in accordance with American commercial values. Later in life, serums and creams are sold to exploit the aging process. We hold on to the socially constructed concept of beauty by praying for a healthy glow and tight skin. Heaven forbid our bodies change. We could redefine our conceptions of beauty, but there is a fear that no one will love an old, wrinkly spinster. Through all of this, the wellness industry is the secret friend holding our hands as we slather and pluck, convincing us that the snake oil will help us transcend our disappointment with what is actually our natural and innate beauty.

This feeling of inadequacy affects women much more than men. However, we all reap what corporate America sows. We contribute to the garbage harvest by purchasing 4

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products as a form of escape from the hell that our nonsense junk-centered society creates. We chase the excitement of purchase and the possibility that magic creams and indestructible drill bits will set us free and provide contentment. We are bombarded with messages attempting to convince us that we are One Product Away from being happy.

Actual self-care is an action, and is in opposition to all forms of commercialism; it is not something you can buy. Self-care is

scrubbing the shower rather than filling it with countless products we can only hope will “work.”

Self-care means preparing healthy food and creating a place that makes wellness possible. We have been brainwashed to think that we need manufactured products in order to be good to ourselves. Can we simply be good to ourselves by eating an apple instead of a bag of chips? Cleaning our kitchen and organizing our closets is self-care, not buying a new outfit or oil diffuser. We have to be willing to dive into the moment and see what beauty lays before us.

We also want to lean into choices that make us proud and show that we value ourselves.

Eating well, committing to the spaces where we live and work, creating positive new habits—these actions are the key to true selfcare and take us to places from which we can inspire, help and be a force for good.

Start by being the role model for your children that you needed as a child.

The idea that we can buy ourselves to heaven has left our homes a cluttered mess.

It doesn’t make any sense to blow our money on “moon powder” that makes us one with the universe at the expense of simplicity and charity. Addressing the needs of the home is a basic way of taking care of ourselves. It does

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

TH E VO LTA WAY

IL LUSTRATIO N BY LO I S VOLTA

Grid_Holiday_111119.pdf 1 11/11/2019 10:35:25 AM

THE HOLIDAYS IN PHILLY

not cost money, but it might cost the pride of thinking we are above cleaning. It could also mean the realization that no one is going to save us from our own dirt and grime. You can’t buy humility.

When we free our minds from the commercialism that whispers to us to buy, our bodies will follow. When we work with the heart, we understand there is more to life than ourselves; we connect to a deeper current of caring for all life. The current beauty paradigm only exists because of the exploitation of our fears. Can something this corrupt be beautiful?

Our homes are places that remind us that habit and ritual bring freedom. In caring for our homes, we directly create spaces that save us from guilt and future drudgery, C which are the very feelings the wellness industry preys upon. Healthy habits make M us feel better. With time, we regain a sense Y of pride and purpose, and can consciously CM and creatively contribute to our immediate MY surroundings. This energy can’t help but push outward to the benefit of family and CY community. Caring for others is another CMY form of self-care.

K Our refusal to participate in destructive social norms can be part of a greater societal healing process. How have we fallen so far from grace and natural beauty that we turn our gaze from the mistreated workers in packing facilities? What if we cared deeply about where our precious products came from—about who suffers in making sure our toenails are the perfect shade of burgundy? Unfortunately, it is a daunting task to fully understand the damage we create by simply living. Simple living is a different approach; it requires less, and less is more.

Nothing we buy will satisfy our desire to be whole and one with creation. What we do have is the ability to co-create spaces of well-being. This looks different for everyone, but in general, it relies on self-responsibility and participation within community.

You won’t find that at a spa, but you might find it clearing the table and loading the dishwasher. Self-care is an action. lois volta is a home consultant, musician and the founder of Volta Naturals. loisvolta.com

HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON

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EN ERGY

by

meenal raval

Better buildings, better future

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ou tune up your bike each year, right? And your car? So, why not buildings?

By improving the energy efficiency of our buildings, a report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy claims our country could reduce emissions by 33 percent.

This may be because when contractors design buildings, their primary priorities are function, comfort and ease of use—not energy efficiency, according to Dianne Herrin.

Herrin, the vice president of Practical Energy Solutions, an energy consulting group based in West Chester, says energy efficiency is more than switching to LED lighting and controls. Typically, building systems are designed to function reliably, but not necessarily efficiently.

An efficiency professional like Herrin can also check if a building is performing as designed once built.

“Per our experience, with 12 years in the business, existing buildings, regardless of [the] age of [the] building or system, rarely has efficiency not reduced the energy use of a building,” she says.

“Even buildings certified as LEED … could be wasting energy because they’re complicated to manage,” she continues.

“You can’t know until you measure it.”

For new buildings, she says energy consultants can work with contractors to use building simulation modeling to hash out the “impact of design changes on energy use” before the building is built.

Herrin, who has been following the climate crisis for three decades, also mused that smart buildings—commercial buildings with centralized control systems that allow the facility manager to adjust settings

based on occupancy—are a game-changer in terms of energy efficiency. They allow systems to run only when there are people present. And, she adds, “not running when you don’t need it.”

While Herrin says the 33 percent emissions reduction is realistic, I think the report’s numbers are very conservative, and that we can reduce energy use much faster.

Last year, I called in the PECO Smart Ideas team to look at the electricity used by my bike shop, Philly Electric Wheels. The assessor suggested replacing our lighting fixtures, which would allow us to recoup the cost within a year from reduced electric bills.

I can now verify their claim, and add that our electricity usage was reduced by more than 30 percent from lighting changes alone.

Currently, there is a bill being discussed in City Council that would require owners of large buildings to tune up energy and water systems in their buildings. If they exceed 50,000 square feet, the Building Energy Performance Policy bill would require properties such as office buildings, hospitals, schools and hotels with large carbon footprints to make their energy systems more efficient.

The larger buildings in our city use quite a lot of energy. Regularly checking on thermostats, motion sensors and HVAC systems could save money, use less energy and water, and reduce emissions.

Green Building United says it costs building owners between 8 and 12 cents per square foot to get this tuneup. According to the city’s 2017 Energy Benchmarking report, we have about 2,000 large buildings that are between 50,000 and 200,000 square feet. The new bill would result in building owners spending an estimated $14 million on efficiency. Nice, huh?

meenal raval is a catalyst for the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign and Solarize Southeast PA, to assist people transitioning away from fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas and gasoline.

6

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P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

Making changes to the buildings where we live and work would be an easy way to cut Philadelphia’s energy consumption

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street stories & curbside characters

Heart and Home This formerly incarcerated homeless man rebuilt his life and by constance garcia-barrio signed his first lease at age 40

R

ichard “ ram ” ramson knows Philly’s streets as few do because he’s lived on them. Behind most homeless people lie secrets, according to the native Philadelphian.

“Most of us have suffered trauma that we don’t talk about,” he says. Having faced housing insecurity since age 10, Ram, now 40, signed a lease in June for the first time in his life.

Ram and his 21-month-old daughter, Symphony, moved into their apartment thanks to a partnership between the philanthropic arm of Berger Rental Communities and One Step Away, a magazine sold by homeless vendors through a program

by Resources for Human Development, a national human services nonprofit group.

“I’ve been selling One Step Away since 2012,” Ram says. “I’m grateful they put a roof over our heads.”

Trauma came early for Ram. “My mother was a drug addict and my father was [an] alcoholic,” he says. “An aunt living in the Southwark projects took me in. Things went well until a neighbor introduced her to crack.”

Eventually neglected by his aunt, Ram began breaking into cars at age 10 for change to play video games. “I came to the attention of DHS [Department of Human Services] when I got locked up,” he says.

Ram bounced around to different facilities, including Carson Valley School (now Carson Valley Children’s Aid).

“I was living at a group home in Norristown when a staff member in her 30s abused me,” he says. “It was my first sexual experience. I didn’t tell anyone.” Ram didn’t talk about what happened until years later, but the effects of abuse and neglect shaped his life. “You can’t put a Band-Aid on trauma,” he continues. “The wounds are too 10 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 201 9

deep. They put you at risk for homelessness and illness.”

Ram remained with DHS for eight years.

“During that time, my father visited me once,” he says.

As a young man, Ram was convicted of breaking and entering. When he failed to pay court-ordered restitution, he was put in jail for a month. Incarceration had one positive result, though.

“You sit down and think about how you came to be behind bars,” he says. “Jail can be a time of growth—look at Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. I began writing in jail.”

Ram is now a poet, rapper and actor in local plays. “I got out of jail in the spring of 2003, and I did my first open mic at Little Jamaica [a restaurant] in Germantown.”

Between 2003 and 2012, when he began selling One Step Away, Ram worked as a dishwasher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in the seafood department at Whole Foods on South Street and in T-shirt order fulfillment at Amazon.

“I mean to support myself,” he says.

One Step Away opened avenues for him. “I saw guys on the street selling the paper, and I asked how to become a vendor,” says Ram, who sells the paper near Weavers Way Co-op in Chestnut Hill. Contact with the public led to fruitful conversations for Ram, a natural-born talker who does occasional gigs as an emcee. “I got paid speaking engagements at St. Joseph’s University in classes studying

Richard “Ram” Ramson sells One Step Away near Weavers Way Co-op in Chestnut Hill. Opposite page: Ramson holds a copy with himself and his daughter, Symphony, on the cover.

P HOTO G RAP HY BY AL B E RT YEE

You can’t put a Band-Aid on trauma. The wounds are too deep. They put you at risk for homelessness and illness.”

— richard “ram” rams on

homelessness and social issues. I also did substitute teaching in the after-school program at Friends Select.”

In time, he ventured into new terrain.

He started making bracelets and necklaces, and became a vendor at a September fashion show at MaKen Studios, a repurposed industrial site.

“My jewelry … attracts good vibes into people’s lives,” he says. “It helps them on their journey.”

But Ram still didn’t have a place of his own. Sometimes he stayed with family or friends; other times he stayed in rented rooms or homeless shelters like Our Brothers’ Place, Station House or One Day at a Time.

“I could make you a list,” he says. “At

one point, I lived directly on the street for 20 days. Food wasn’t a problem since I was making money selling the newspaper, but you had to sleep with one eye open because you never knew what was going to happen. You didn’t want people stealing your belongings, and you had to deal with the weather.”

A turning point came when Ram learned about a gathering organized by Inner Journeys, a healing center that “uses the Natural Laws of Healing to provide tools and techniques for transformation through energy healing and personal growth,” according to its Facebook page. “When I heard about Inner Journeys from two friends on the same day, I knew I had to go,” says Ram, who still attends sessions at Inner Journeys. “Over

time, [therapists] Kathy [Morris] and Sheila [Quarles] worked with me and made me realize that I had to take responsibility for my life. I got to the point where I opened up about trauma. I let go of my secrets.”

“Ram’s willingness to show up showed his commitment and determination to heal,” says Quarles, a Reiki master and partner at Inner Journeys.

Inner Journeys changed Ram’s outlook, and he also wanted more stability after his daughter, Symphony, was born. “Children need a stable base,” he says. “An environment where they can thrive.”

Going forward, Ram would like to establish his jewelry business and work as a motivational speaker. “I’ve persevered through rough times, and I want to talk about it,” he says. “Some people say that, with the life I’ve had, I should write a book. Maybe I will.

I would also like to tour with the songs I compose. I’m on YouTube at Ram Riches.”

Ram also suggests simple ways to help homeless people: “You don’t necessarily have to give them money. Food, clothing and life skills—for example, how to save money—can make a big difference. Giving a homeless person a chance to earn money, the way we can by selling One Step Away, is another huge help.”

Resources at homeless shelters could also instill hope. “Peer support—guidance from someone who’s lived on the street and then found a home—can make a difference,” Ram says. “Sometimes just having someone listen to you with real attention can help.

Maybe people could do that: volunteer as listeners at shelters.”

Ram offers a few final words of advice: “If you see someone living on the street, you’re looking at trauma. Be compassionate.”

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urban naturalist

It’s a Bird Eat Bird World Two captivating aerial predators by bernard brown love city life

L

ast winter, a Cooper’s hawk burst into the intersection of 50th and Chancellor Streets in West Philadelphia, a few feet from where I stood on the corner. Its red eyes gleaming, the steel-gray bird banked a hard left to shoot down 50th after a pigeon.

The action was so sudden and fierce that I looked around for someone else who had seen it, but I was the only human there.

I got the confirmation I was seeking a few weeks later when neighbors across the street reported seeing a Cooper’s hawk in their garden, patiently waiting by their bird feeder.

Cooper’s hawks, along with their smaller (but very similar looking) relative, the 14 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 201 9

sharp-shinned hawk, specialize in hunting other birds. The young fledge with brown backs and brown-streaked undersides. The brown shifts to blue-gray as they mature, and the markings on their bellies end up as light orange bars.

The females are bigger than the males, hence male Cooper’s hawks and female sharp-shinned hawks overlap in size, making them especially difficult to tell apart. Female Cooper’s hawks are about the size of a crow, and male sharp-shinned hawks are about the size of a blue jay. Cooper’s hawks tend to target birds from about starling size on up to pigeons, while sharp-shinned hawks take smaller prey, starting at star-

lings and working down from there.

Both hawk species are acrobatic flyers.

They adapted to chasing prey through forests, into and out of thickets and around tree trunks. These are skills they also put to work in the city.

“It’s better than a space fight scene in Star Wars,” says South Philadelphian John Jensen, who reported watching a sharp-shinned hawk hunting sparrows in his neighborhood.

“Watching it fly underneath cars, flush birds out, go back and forth across the street, all while traffic is driving along.”

Not surprisingly, these hawks hang out where human habits rope in their prey for them. While both hawks are well-known to frequent bird feeders (or, as they might view them, hawk feeders), they have been showing up more often at urban bird feeders throughout their ranges.

A study published in 2018 looked at records from Project FeederWatch, a citizen science initiative run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It found that from 1996 to 2015, both species (lumped together for the anal-

C R E AT I V E C O M M O N S P H OTO G R A P H C O U R T E S Y O F TO M KO E R N E R / U . S . F I S H A N D W I L D L I F E S E R V I C E

A Cooper’s hawk sits perched on a birdfeeder on the lookout for its next meal.

ysis since they can be so hard to tell apart) showed up more often than they had in previous years at bird feeders in cities across their range. The authors took a closer look at Chicago records and found the birds getting established even in more impervious areas of the city. It seems that as long as there are sparrows, starlings and pigeons to eat, the hawks will follow.

They weren’t always so easy to find. Up until the middle of the 20th century, both species were frequent targets for hunters who saw the hawks as a threat to chickens and songbirds. They were also victims of DDT, the once-popular insecticide that weakens bird eggshells. DDT was banned in 1972, by which point raptors were no longer shooting targets, and populations of both species began to recover.

Here in Philadelphia, Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks show up in the fall after a summer raising their young in nearby forests. We might view winter as cold and dreary, but a constant supply of sparrows, starlings and pigeons offers these predators an easy vacation.

Keith Russell, program manager for Urban Conservation with Audubon Pennsylvania, says that Cooper’s hawks began breeding in Philadelphia starting in the early 2000s, and since then have been nesting regularly, making them year-round Philadelphians.

In the meantime, observers with Philadelphia’s Mid-Winter Bird Census, run by the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club and coordinated by Russell, have found Cooper’s hawks to be a little more common than sharp-shinned hawks. He was careful to note that no one has done an analysis of Philadelphia’s hawk population trends, so it’s impossible to say for sure whether they’re following the same pattern as in Chicago and other cities. Nonetheless, he claims, “They are present everywhere. You can see them in Center City; you can see them anywhere in the city.”

Most hawks that Philadelphians see will be red-tailed, Russell says, with Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks coming in second. You can see them perching near bird feeders, but I enjoy watching them hunt in the air. When I see a flock of pigeons or starlings flying in a tight ball, dodging up and down, back and forth, I check for a larger bird herding them from just outside the flock. I watch it take shots at the flock, trying to pick off one unlucky bird, and then I look for someone else who watched it, too.

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story by constance garcia-barrio — photography by milton lindsay

ye sterday a n d

Today The great-grandaughter of a former slave examines how four local museums are talking about slavery a century and a half after emancipation

J

ust when I began to sense the significance of the life of my great-grandmother, Rose Wilson Ware, or Maw (1851–1964), she died. Maw and I had 18 years of overlap since I was born in 1946.

During the summers of my childhood, my parents, my brother and I would visit Maw’s farm in Partlow, Va., drink cool water from her well, look into her wizened face and hear how Maw’s grandmother, Hannah, stepped off a slave ship in Baltimore, possibly in the late 1790s, and walked with a coffle of other enslaved Africans to Virginia.

I would squeal with delight as my dad, now long dead, pushed me in a wheelbarrow over land that Maw and her husband, Jake, bought

with money earned from sharecropping after freedom came.

Even with my trove of memories, much eluded me. I would ask Maw so many questions now: how she “learned her letters,” illegal for enslaved Blacks; what she recalled of the Civil War; how she held on to her farm as a middle-aged widow in the Jim Crow South.

Four hundred years have passed since the frigate White Lion brought enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Va., while more than 156 have gone by since President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Those dates may seem distant, yet slavery still echoes in all levels of life in the

Gwen Ragsdale, co-curator of the Lest We Forget Slavery Museum, holds a piece of ironware that was used to restrain slaves.

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U.S. My intimate link with Black bondage through my great-grandmother serves as a reminder that these seemingly far-off eras are only a few generations away.

An elder myself now, I visited some Philadelphia museums to glean what I could about how such institutions discuss slavery’s entanglement in our country’s foundation; and, in so doing, perhaps find answers to some of the questions I would have asked Maw.

A

t the african american Museum in Philadelphia, a plump, life-sized Alice of Dunk’s Ferry, aka Black Alice (c.1686–1802), wrung her hands and fretted in a video kiosk.

Said to have arrived on a slave ship as a child, Alice served drinks and oysters in a tavern at age 5, as her master ordered. She lit pipes for patrons like William Penn (1644– 1718), who tipped her 1 pence, according to retired Temple University professor of history Susan Klepp.

Later, Alice’s master moved her upriver to what became Bensalem, where she operated a ferry and collected tolls for 40 years.

Alice lived her whole life enslaved, Klepp says, but she may have helped other Blacks escape via the ferry. Philadelphians valued Alice as an oral historian who recalled when the city was a tiny town beset by bears and bobcats.

The remaining kiosks and “Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776-1876,” the museum’s core exhibit, present African-heritage leaders who 18

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Above: The Lest We Forget Slavery Museum displays signs used to segregate establishments and bathrooms based on race. Below: A case holds ironware used to restrain slaves.

fought to end slavery and protect the rights of free Blacks. These stalwarts include millionaire sailmaker James Forten (17661842), a Revolutionary War veteran, and one of Forten’s sons-in-law, Robert Purvis (1810-1898), a wealthy businessman of Black and Jewish ancestry, who used his homes in Philadelphia and Byberry (now a neighborhood in Northeast) as stations on the Underground Railroad.

The strength of the museum’s relatively small collection lies in showing, through Black Alice, how William Penn helped to prop up his so-called “Holy Experiment,” the ideal government he established for Pennsylvania, through slavery. The

museum also sheds light on the robust activism of Philadelphia’s free Blacks.

I

would have had a tot of gin, as Maw did every morning, had I known what awaited me at the Lest We Forget Slavery Museum (LWFSM) in Germantown.

“It’s the only museum of its kind in Philadelphia with authentic slavery artifacts,” says c0-curator Gwen Ragsdale. “We may have the largest collection of slavery ironware in the country.”

Leg irons reminded me of my greatgreat-grandfather Robert, Maw’s father, who was “… sold South because he wouldn’t

let anyone but the master whip him,” according to Maw. He would have worn such restraints when slave traders took him from Belle Air, the Virginia plantation where my family labored.

LWFSM, a small museum packed with images, information and artifacts, had its start with a legacy.

“My husband used to spend summers with his great-uncle Bub in Rock Hill, South Carolina,” says Ragsdale, whose powerful storytelling brings each item to life. “Uncle Bub would tell him stories about ‘massa’ [master] and slavery. After Uncle Bub died, my husband looked in one of his uncle’s old trunks and found a pair of hand shackles. That’s how

“We’ve had extreme challenges, and we’ve made huge strides.

The museum is here, lest we forget.”

—gwen ragsdale , co-curator at Lest We Forget Slavery Museum it began. Now we have thousands of artifacts.”

Ragsdale emphasizes slavery’s effect on families. “Blacks couldn’t marry, so they developed the tradition of jumping the broom to declare themselves man and wife,” she says. “But they could still be sold away from each other at any time.”

Another factor threatened couples and families. According to Ragsdale, when a law forbade importing Africans after 1808, some masters ordered enslaved men and women to cohabitate in order to produce children.

The LWFSM collection also covers resistance to slavery. The determined look of D ECE M B E R 20 19

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Sometimes Freedom Wore a Red Coat is an exhibit at the Museum of the American Revolution that traces the paths of several people from slavery to freedom.

businessman William Still (1821-1902) suggests the courage that earned him the title Father of the Underground Railroad. Still hid records of Blacks that he had helped escape in a cemetery, one story says, to aid family members in finding each other later.

Ragsdale discusses slavery’s legacy, such as lynching and the present-day killing of Black men by the police. The tour ends on a high note with a look at African American inventors like mathematician Gladys West, who was instrumental in developing GPS. “We’ve had extreme challenges, and we’ve made huge strides,” Ragsdale says.

“The museum is here, lest we forget.”

I

entered the Museum of the American Revolution with misgivings.

George Washington (1732–1799), the war’s hero, and his wife, Martha (1731– 1802), used slavery to “... build and maintain [Mount Vernon], their [Virginia]…

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“These stories were meticulously researched and based on authentic documents. We took pains with every aspect and used language children can understand.”

—philip c. mead, ph.d., director of curatorial affairs at Museum of the American Revolution

plantation,” according to the historic home’s website. What could one expect?

I got a surprise.

A sign near the main exhibit acknowledges the presence of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Black bondsmen accounted for one in five British Americans in the 1770s, it states.

Two more items pull no punches. A re-

production of a slave ship’s interior shows how captured Africans crossed the Atlantic jam-packed. A copy of a 1769 broadside announcing the sale of “a cargo of ninety-four prime healthy Negroes” suggests their commercial value.

Both the British and colonists viewed enslaved Blacks as potential game-changers, people whose labor could provide an edge.

P HOTO G RAP HY COURTESY THE M US EUM O F THE AM E RICAN REVOLUTI ON

At the same time, American patriots may have been of two minds about acknowledging African Americans, judging by one exhibit. Consider the case of Crispus Attucks (c.1723-1770), described by the owner from whom he fled in 1750 as “… a Molatto [African and Native American] Fellow… 6 Feet two Inches high, his knees nearer together than common…”

By 1770, tensions ran high between the colonists and the British because the latter kept imposing taxes on the colonies.

On March 5, 1770, resentment boiled over.

Colonists threw stones and snowballs at British troops, who, confused in the melee, responded with musket fire. Crispus Attucks was among the first Bostonians gunned down.

Some of Paul Revere’s engravings of the massacre, like the one reproduced at the museum, left out Attucks’ racial identity by giving him a light complexion. However, in the 1850s, a sign explains, abolitionists insisted on a new image—also on display— that shows Attucks prominently as a man of African descent. Kudos to the museum for pointing out Revere’s omission.

Some exhibits center on African American women. Feisty Elizabeth Freeman, aka Mumbet (c.1744–1829), wanted her freedom after she heard the Declaration of Independence read. When she said so, her owner hit her with a fire shovel. Mumbet promptly asked an abolitionist lawyer to argue her case. She not only won her freedom and 30 shillings in damages, but also set the stage for ending slavery in Massachusetts.

“Sometimes, freedom wore a red coat” is a key exhibit on slavery. It presents the lives of five Virginians who decided whether to seek freedom by fleeing to British forces.

“These stories were meticulously researched and based on authentic documents,” says Philip C. Mead, Ph.D., the museum’s director of curatorial affairs and chief historian. “We took pains with every aspect and used language children can understand.”

Each story engages visitors in a kind of conversation. It presents the person’s life— for instance, that of Eve, who had to choose between remaining enslaved in the Randolph household or trying to reach British lines. The exhibit gives the pros and cons of each choice, then asks visitors what they would do. One can touch a spot on a screen

to see what each person decided and the outcome. Eve runs away and is captured, while a teenage boy joins the British army as a trumpeter and later settles in Nova Scotia, far from his family. It takes time to read each story—stools are provided—and it’s worth every minute.

I felt hopeful to not only see slavery included, but notice that people of different races spent time with these exhibits.

I

t was as if a time warp in the driveway zapped me into the 1700s at Stenton in North Philadelphia, home of the brilliant and reputedly crotchety James Logan (1674–1751), in pain from a fall that crippled him at the age of 54. As William Penn’s secretary, a successful fur trader and one-time acting governor of Pennsylvania, Logan became a wealthy man. His home shows it.

An 18th century mansion, Stenton sits on five acres that include outbuildings, a formal garden and a meadow where bees produce delicious honey for sale on-site.

Though a Quaker, Logan relied on enslaved and indentured labor.

“Visitors to Stenton can see spaces and passages where enslaved people slept and toiled,” says Dennis Pickeral, Stenton’s executive director. “Many Stenton visitors are surprised that early Pennsylvania Quakers owned slaves.”

Slavery put Stenton in the news several times. The Pennsylvania Gazette of September 1, 1737, carried a story by Benjamin Franklin about Sampson, a Black bondsman who’d escaped from Stenton and was accused later of burning down one of its outbuildings. Caught and convicted, Sampson was condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to banishment from the British empire. Sampson’s fate remains unknown.

At the other extreme stands Dinah (c.1728–c.1803), the once-enslaved housekeeper at Stenton. Freed by the Logans in 1776 at her request, Dinah and her quick wit became news, and later, a legend.

It seems that after the British trounced Americans in the 1777 Battle of Germantown, a pair of British soldiers knocked on Stenton’s door and told Dinah they meant to burn down the house. They asked Dinah, home alone, for fuel for the fire. She sent them to the barn for straw. While they

gathered it, British officers rode up and asked Dinah if she’d seen deserters.

“Yes,” she reportedly said. “There’s two in the barn.”

The officers arrested the soldiers, the story goes, and Stenton was saved.

Recently, newspapers have carried stories of how a 1912 plaque at Stenton honors Dinah as “… the faithful colored caretaker.”

Germantown artist Karyn Olivier has developed a new memorial that invites visitors to see Dinah not merely as a servant, but a whole person.

On a tour of Stenton, I saw two chairs that Dinah could have dusted and dishes she probably washed. Though Maw and Dinah lived in different eras, I imagine that, as house servants concerned with textiles—a treasure in colonial America and a necessity for Maw’s dressmaking—they would have understood each other.

Tours have long noted the Logans’ ownership of enslaved Blacks, but the tours are being revamped to deepen that understanding, Pickeral says. There’s also a focus on informing children.

“When fourth and fifth graders visit the site as part of our History Hunters Youth Reporter Program, they learn about slavery’s impact in every room of the house,” he explains.

I attended the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Plantations Conference in October, which put Stenton and slavery in the news again. At the end of the three-day conference, attendees could join a sleepover and spend time in the parts of Stenton most familiar to enslaved people.

“I lead sleepovers at historic houses to remind people of who built them,” says Joseph McGill, Jr., of Ladson, S.C., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. “It gives voice to our ancestors.”

Fourteen of us, mostly historians, including two from Europe, spent the night. The adventure drew me in because it held the possibility of sharing Maw’s life in another way. I chose to sleep in a child’s room because, as a girl herself before the Civil War, Maw could have slept on the floor in the room of a child she served.

I lay down on the floor made of wood hewn by enslaved men and asked Maw, in this ancestor space, to gift me with knowledge about her life.

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From left to right: Philadelphia Independents owners Tiffica Benza, Jennifer Provost and Ashley Peel stand in front of their Old City shop.

The store sells Philadelphia-themed local wares.

INDEPENDENT WOMEN Old City gift shop boasts locally made “really Philly things”

F R O M L E F T: C O U R T E S Y O F P H I L A D E L P H I A I N D E P E N D E N T S ; M A X G R U DZ I N S K I

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hiladelphia independents, based in historic Old City, is distinct from other gift boutiques in that it sells only handmade items, and only those made by Philadelphia artists. All three owners are Philly transplants who have one thing in common—they came to Philadelphia for school, fell in love with the city and never left.

Historically a city of makers, Philadelphia has also become a leader in the new maker movement: a merging of art and technology that creates a culture that turns consumers into creators and artists into businesspeople.

Philadelphia Independents continues that tradition. It is run by and for makers, and intends to stay that way. It’s for 24

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the tourist who’s looking for that “really Philly thing,” or the Philadelphian who wants something local, unique and handmade, says Ashley Peel, one of the store’s co-owners. The store just celebrated its fifth anniversary.

Peel went to the University of the Arts, and has a jewelry line that she sells in the store. As for the other co-owners, Jennifer Provost, who has a background in fashion design and retail, went to Philadelphia University; and Tiffica Benza went to Temple University and has a marketing background. “Everyone brought something different to the table,” says Peel.

The three make up an effective trifecta for an independent, artsy retail outlet. Peel, whose prior career was nonprofit arts, had

been selling her jewelry at local craft shows and seeing makers and their work in the same place at once, but only once or twice a year. She realized that “people needed to know that all these amazing makers are in their area.”

Through her own work and experience, she found that this was something both tourists and locals were seeking out. She decided she wanted to open a store for her jewelry, and soon found like-minded friends Benza and Provost, who were also thinking of opening a store for artisans.

“We really wanted to create a space where everyday people could find local makers,” says Peel.

They carry work from more than 50 artists and artisans in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. The team will work with anyone on the spectrum of makers from amateur artists to maker professionals, but one thing they all have in common is their love for Philadelphia. “We specifically chose Old City [as a location] because we wanted to cater to people who live in Philly, as well as tourists,” says Peel.

Some of the store’s wares include handmade jewelry, Gritty baby onesies, ceramics, handbags, accessories, prints, photographs and home decor. T-shirts are the biggest-selling item. But Peel jokes that Philadelphia Independents’ biggest contribution is “explaining [to tourists] what the word ‘jawn’ means.”

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THE

GIFT CREATION OF

Consider giving memberships or classes in lieu of grabbing something off of store shelves this holiday season story by samantha wittchen

my grandmother opened the lid to her sewing cabinet and flipped up the idle machine. She flicked the switch and a light turned on. In a flash, she threaded the needle and pulled the bottom thread through the needle plate. I sat down and fed a piece of fabric through. I pressed my thigh against the bar and the machine whirred to life. This is my first recollection of sewing. I was 8. Âś Sewing was especially P H OTO GRA PH COU RTESY PA R I KH A M E H TA

at the forefront of my life during the holiday season, as gifts from my grandmother often included something hand-sewn or embroidered, like a nightgown or a bathrobe. But the highlight was always the fancy Christmas dress that my grandmother made each year from fabric and a pattern I picked out. Âś Decades later, after my grandmother passed away, I realized that all the perfectly tailored clothes she made me D ECE M B E R 20 19

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T H E GIFT O F CREATION

were a thing of the past. That was, unless I dusted off my sewing machine and began to relearn those skills my grandmother had patiently taught me summer after summer during the week I spent at her house.

In 2013, I embarked on a yearlong endeavor to complete one sewing project per month and improve my skills. By the end of the year, I was hooked.

I found the process of sewing both challenging and satisfying. It involves making design choices, solving problems and learning new skills. The end result is that you have created something that serves one of your most basic needs while bypassing the wasteful and unsustainable consumerist treadmill that is the fashion industry.

Plus, there’s a psychic boost that comes with responding to a compliment on your attire with, “Thanks, I made it myself.”

The holidays have always been a time of making for me, and I’ve dabbled in ceramics, printmaking, embroidery, woodworking and digital fabrication to create gifts for others. Every year, I try to give at least one gift that I’ve made.

Over the last decade, I’ve made aprons, table runners, linoleum block-printed holiday cards, business card cases, a cork bath mat, a birdhouse and more ornaments than I can count. In fact, when the now-defunct Department of Making + Doing was still around, I mastered using the laser cutter and made personalized holiday ornaments that reflected the recipients’ unique interests. My succulent-loving husband received a prickly pear ornament; my cake-baking cousin, a stand mixer ornament.

Making gifts satisfies my need to give things that are more unique—and often more sustainable and well-made—than what you can typically buy. Plus, there’s nothing quite like watching someone’s reaction when you tell them the gift you gave them is handmade.

If you’ve been curious about the world of making, or had a DIY project in mind for ages that you can never seem to begin, now is the perfect time to scratch that maker itch to create one-of-a-kind gifts, or give the gift of making to your DIY friend for the holidays.

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Where to Go to Get Started

I

f you’re interested in sewing— whether it’s to make clothes, accessories or home goods—Butcher’s Sew Shop (800 S. 8th St., and 1912 South St.) offers a Sewing 101 class to help you get started. The four-week class begins with teaching the basics of how to use a sewing machine and culminates in a finished bag. According to Andrea Brown, studio director at Butcher’s, no prior experience is necessary. “A lot of people are brand new to it. They’ve never touched a machine,” says Brown.

Brown explains that Butcher’s opened in the summer of 2014 to fill a need they didn’t see being met in the city.

“If you wanted to sew for fun, there weren’t many options,” she says. “You could get an expensive fashion design degree or drive to the suburbs to a quilt shop.”

Butcher’s first opened to teach children how to sew as an after-school program, but now offers a full range of classes for adults, in addition to one-day workshops throughout the year on other fabric arts topics such as hand embroidery, fabric block printing and espadrille shoemaking. Got a fashionista friend who might like to learn how to make their own haute couture frocks?

Butcher’s offers gift cards that are good for any of their classes.

If woodworking, electronics or digital fabrication with tools like a laser cutter or 3D printer intrigue you, two organizations in Philadelphia have open project nights where you can get started. West Philly’s Tiny WPA (4017 Lancaster Ave.) opens their doors to the public for Stop By + Build on Wednesdays from 4 to 7 p.m.

They have a full wood shop, a laser cutter and a vinyl cutter on-site. All ages are welcome, and no experience is necessary.

“We give [attendees] a tour of the space if they’re new, and then we ask about whether the person has a project in mind,” explains Tiny WPA co-founder Renee Schacht.

Staff and volunteers help guide attend-

Sewing 101 students at Butcher’s Sew Shop cut and assemble pieces of fabric to make purses and laptop cases.

If you wanted to sew for fun, there weren’t many options. You could get an expensive fashion design degree or drive to the suburbs to a quilt shop.”

—andrea brown, studio director at Butcher’s Sew Shop

P H OTO GRA P H Y COU RTESY PA R I KH A M E H TA

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T H E GIFT O F CREATION

ees with a project idea to bring their ideas to life. If they don’t have a project in mind, they’ll be paired up with someone to learn how to use the tools and help with a project already in progress. The scene on any Wednesday night might include an energetic 8-year-old building a wooden scooter, a grandmother finishing up a bedside table or a teenage skater working on new vinyl stickers for his board.

Tiny WPA does not offer classes or memberships, but anyone is allowed to come as often as they’d like to Stop By + Build.

Hive76 (1821 E. Hagert St., Ste. 100C), a Kensington makerspace, also hosts a weekly open house on Wednesdays from 8 to 11 p.m., and they welcome anyone who is interested in beginning their maker journey.

Their space boasts a small wood shop, a soldering and electronics bench, a 3D printer, a laser cutter and a vinyl cutter.

If you have a project and supplies, you can show up to the open house and get guidance from Hive76’s members, but you must be a member to use their tools. To serve people who are just getting started, they offer a “lite” membership at $15/month.

“We wanted to start a place that people who wanted to learn a new skill could do it without a huge expense,” says Chris Terrell, Hive76’s president.

Treasurer Daniel Provenzano adds, “Keeping the barriers to entry low is a big part of the ethos here.”

That “lite” membership also makes a great gift for your apartment-dwelling friend who doesn’t have space to set up their own wood shop or digital fabrication studio.

For a full-service outfit that offers memberships at varying levels and a wide array of professional-grade digital fabrication (3D printing, laser cutting, vinyl cutting), electronics, woodworking, metalworking, jewelry-making and textile equipment, there’s NextFab, a makerspace network with three locations in the Philadelphia region (2025 Washington Ave., and 1227 N. 4th St., both in Philadelphia; and 503 N. Tatnall St. in Wilmington, Del.).

NextFab welcomes all skill levels and offers access to tools, classes, events and entrepreneur services. “Our culture is built 32

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towards learning, networking and teaching for all skill sets,” says Rebecca Ledbetter, digital marketing coordinator at NextFab. “We offer free Getting Started [opportunities] at NextFab consultations for new members, where a NextFab consultant will work with you to develop a personalized plan to help you achieve the goals you’ve set.”

New members are required to go through orientation and safety training before they are allowed to use tools. “Our classes and workshops are meant to certify a maker on a skill or machine, and then have them start building for themselves,” Ledbetter adds.

Memberships start at $55/month for access to NextFab’s equipment, but you can become a member for $25/month to access NextFab’s members-only classes. NextFab also offers gift cards that can be used for any service they offer, including classes and memberships.

If you dream of producing your own stationery, creating jewelry or making one-of-a-kind pottery, Fleisher Art Memorial (719 Catharine St.) offers a wide range of printmaking, screenprinting, ceramics and jewelry-making classes perfect for beginners. Their JumpstART series of classes

At Fleisher Art Memorial, students can learn how to make various forms of art in drawing, painting and ceramics classes. The center offers classes in other mediums as well.

We wanted to start a place that people who wanted to learn a new skill could do it without a huge expense.”

—chris terrell , president of Hive76 are inexpensive single-session workshops designed to get you started, and they also offer multi-week, beginner-friendly classes for those who want to go a little more in-depth.

Fleisher members receive a discount on classes, and memberships and classes are perfect gifts for those friends who want to try out several different types of making.

For those who want to try out a little bit of everything, the Tacony LAB Community Arts Center (6918 Torresdale Ave.) offers an P HOTO GRA P H Y COU RT ESY D O M I N I C M E RCI E R

eclectic range of free classes largely driven by community requests. Programming has included mosaic-making, kite-making, weaving, needle felting and bookmaking.

“We are really geared towards people who have never taken art classes,” explains Barbara Baur, studio coordinator at LAB. “We try to introduce fine arts techniques while keeping it accessible.”

Because they are free, classes fill up very quickly, says Baur. Registration opens three weeks prior to the class, and although class-

es are posted on their Facebook page, students must register in-person.

If you’re looking for a place to find sustainable supplies and inspiration for your maker pursuits, try the Resource Exchange (1800 N. American St.) in Kensington. Under one roof, you can find a wide variety of supplies, such as fabric, printmaking tools, lumber, stained glass and even the odd sewing machine—all diverted from landfills and provided at low cost.

Stop in on any Saturday, and you might rub elbows with other makers, artists, teachers, craftspeople, builders or DIYers looking to source sustainable materials for their next project. The creative and helpful staff is ready to help you imagine what you might need for your own project. The shop also offers gift cards that are good for all of their reclaimed materials.

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hiladelphia also b oasts numerous other maker-focused organizations located throughout the city that offer beginner-friendly classes and workshops perfect for getting your feet wet.

Philadelphia Woodworks (4901 Umbria St.) offers a variety of woodworking classes for beginners that run the gamut from one-day crash workshops on topics like woodturning to multi-day classes on tablemaking. They even offer an introductory woodshop class just for women. Upcoming woodturning classes culminate in great gifts like wooden bowls and pen sets, and they also offer gift cards and memberships.

Second State Press (1400 N. American St., Studio B103) holds a variety of beginner-friendly classes on an array of printmaking techniques and paper arts, including screenprinting, etching, printing on fabric and bookmaking. Located in South Kensington’s Crane Arts Building, it also offers memberships and studio rentals by the hour, month or year, in addition to regular monthly events where you can meet other artists and makers.

For ceramics- and pottery-focused making, Philadelphians have two great options.

The Clay Studio (137-139 N. 2nd St.) offers introductory multi-day classes and one-day workshops. Its Clay Studio Sampler introduces a variety of techniques, such as handbuilding and wheel-throwing and -glazing.

Its Intro to the Wheel afternoon workshop allows participants to explore all the basics of throwing bowls on the wheel in a few hours.

Members receive discounts on classes.

Yay Clay! (3237 Amber St.) offers a sixweek class designed for beginners to learn how to throw pottery on the wheel, in addition to “Clay Dates” where two or more people receive one-on-one instruction to craft a handmade ceramic piece that participants return to glaze two weeks later. The finished piece is then ready for pickup (and gift-giving) two weeks later. Yay Clay! offers studio memberships that start at $75/month and provides access to all of their tools.

East Falls Glassworks (3510 Scotts Ln.) provides a unique opportunity to start creating objects with glass. One-day beginner 34

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Philadelphia Woodworks member sands a live-edge table.

workshops on blowing glass ornaments are perfect for making one-of-a-kind holiday gifts, and their multi-week Intro to Glassblowing and Fun With Glass classes are perfect for those who want to dive a little deeper into the art of working with glass.

Looking for a more eclectic set of options?

The University City Arts League (4226 Spruce

St.) offers beginner-friendly eight-week classes in a variety of maker disciplines, including sewing, ceramics and printmaking. Classes in its fully equipped pottery studio focus on both handbuilding and wheel-throwing techniques, and its sewing classes give you the option of using one of the League’s machines or bringing your own.

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HILLEL ZAREMBA

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CURTIS ZIMMERMANN

CHARLES D WRIGHT

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35

EV EN TS

december 2019

D ecember 5

D ecember 14

D ecember 20

Make + Take: Tinctures & Tonics

Fishtown Flea Holiday Market

NextFab Maker Happy Hour

Interested in creating your own home apothecary? This workshop will discuss the beneficial properties and uses of nettle and dandelion. Attendees will learn maceration techniques to create safe grain alcohol-based preparations with vodka and brandy. bartramsgarden.org

Hosted by La Colombe, this market is the perfect chance to snag both your caffeine fix and gifts for your loved ones. Here, you’ll see the work of select local artists, designers, makers and small business owners. Find anything from clothing and plant holders to pottery, prints and jewelry. fishtownflea.us

Meet up with NextFab’s group of makers and doers in its South Philly studio to get a feel for this tinkering community and the space it works in. While you’re taking in the scene, you can enjoy beverages from Yards Brewing as well as conversation with NextFab members. nextfab.com

WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. COST: $20, $15 members, $2 Southwest Philly residents WHERE: 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.

WHEN: 5 to 8 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: 1335 Frankford Ave.

WHEN: Tour at 5:30, happy hour from 6 to 8 p.m.

COST: Free WHERE: 2025 Washington Ave.

D ecember 7

D ecember 14

D ecember 25

Feminist Flea Market and Craft Fair

Cloth Diaper Workshop

Being ___ at Christmas

Shop for a good cause at this holiday event that features more than 100 local vendors whose gender identities include womxn, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming. It’s a great spot to find a science-inspired photography series, art made from dead flowers and other niche creations. housecatpresents.com

Cloth diapers can be an environmentally savvy, cost-effective option for families with little ones. This free workshop will introduce attendees to a range of cloth diaper products and samples, and explain how the cloth diaper process works. It is intended to demystify and simplify cloth diapering for parents. thenestinghouse.net

This event is designed to recognize those who don’t celebrate Christmas and educate those who do. It features games, film showings, children’s comedy, arts and crafts, and educational activities. nmajh.org

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: $5 WHERE: 1901 S. 9th St.

WHEN: 2 to 4 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: 530 Carpenter Ln.

D ecember 7 & 8

D ecember 18

New Year’s Eve Fireworks on the Waterfront

Wreath Making at Greensgrow

2019 Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network Symposium

The biggest fireworks event in the city draws thousands to the Delaware River waterfront each year. Find a good spot to watch and settle in. Take your pick between shows at 6 p.m. and the stroke of midnight.

Want to put your own touch on holiday decorating? This workshop will teach you how to build and decorate a holiday wreath from scratch. Attendees get a 12-inch reusable metal frame as well as various greens and decorations like pine cones, ornaments and natural dried flowers. greensgrow.org WHEN: 12 to 2 p.m. COST: $45 WHERE: 2501 E. Cumberland St.

The annual Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network symposium features sessions on seed keeping, growing traditions and more. Keynote speakers are Audra Mulkern, the creator of the Female Farmer Project, and Leah Penniman, co-director of Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black. pasafarming.org WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: $25 general admission WHERE: Temple University

36

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WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: 101 S. Independence Mall E.

D ecember 31

delawareriverwaterfront.org WHEN: 6 p.m. and 12 a.m. COST: Free WHERE: Penn’s Landing

phillywaldorf.com

Education isn’t about storing facts.

It’s about thinking for yourself.

Mainstream education is failing your child. Replace it.

With a re-imagined, reinvigorated, more inspired curriculum that mixes artistic thinking with scientific thinking, yielding original thinkers. Prepared for life.

Sustainability in style A Penn alumna researches environmentally conscious practices in the apparel industry VIRTUAL CAFÉ Join the MES program director from 12-1 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for an online chat about your interests and goals.

Log in with us.

www.facebook.com/UPennEES @Penn_MES_MSAG

“Sustainability is the future of fashion,” says Octavia Sun (Master of Environmental Studies ’18). “My work aims to prove that it is possible to curb excessive consumption in the industry.” A longtime fashion aficionado and recent graduate of the Master of Environmental Studies (MES) program at Penn, Octavia envisions a career working toward sustainability within the apparel industry. In the meantime, she takes an active role in the ongoing conversation about sustainable fashion design. This fall, Octavia spoke at a DesignPhiladelphia panel focusing on the ecological and social impact of clothing, as well as a Fair Trade Philadelphia event discussing the role of fair trade in empowering women. “I gained a lot of communications and leadership skills in the MES program,” she adds.

“Sustainability should be attainable to everybody,” reflects Octavia, who says that her courses and student government service prepared her for an environmental career. “The MES program is accessible in the way it can accommodate working schedules, and flexible in the way that you can take the classes that best fit your interests.”

To learn more about Octavia’s environmental studies and research on sustainability practices in the fashion industry, visit:

WWW.UPENN.EDU/GRID