Grid Magazine May 2019 [#120]

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A bridge for pollinators brings nature to Southwest Philly dwellers

How your neighbors silently sell you on solar

Heartbreak and rebirth for an internationallyacclaimed local artist

p. 10

p. 6

p. 16

MAY 2019 / ISSUE 120 / 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

MEET YOUR MUSIC

MAKERS These tinkerers, techies and artists spend their days creating new—and rebuilding old—musical instruments p. 32

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Monthly Maker Mel Sage Philadelphia, PA sagewoodworks.org @sage_woodworks TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF I have a degree in architecture and recently moved to Philly from Brooklyn where I was working for an architecture firm in Manhattan. I’m now a practicing artist/artisan, using wood as my primary medium.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? I make wooden wall hangings based on nature and topographies that I find interesting. I mostly focus on the relationship between sea and land; you can see this in my color palette. Currently, I’m working on my biggest piece yet!

I’m making an 8’ x 3.5’ triptych that’s based on topographies from Barcelona, one of my favorite places in the world.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? My immediate goals are just to have fun and to start to see my pieces make their way into more people’s homes. I want more people to connect with my art. Additionally, I do think that as a long term goal I would like to have my own studio one day. I think having my own creative space would be a really special thing.

Discover more stories nextfab.com/grid #nextfabmade

NextFab is a network of collaborative makerspaces.

North Philly

South PhillyM AY 20 19

Wilmington1

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EDI TO R ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

You Better Believe It publisher Alex Mulcahy managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editors Vince Bellino Timothy Mulcahy copy editor Andrew Bonazelli art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Constance Garcia-Barrio Alexandra Jones Randy LoBasso Claire Marie Porter photographers Kriston Jae Bethel Margo Reed Albert Yee illustrators Abayomi Louard-Moore Sean Rynkewicz advertising Santino Blanco santino@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 112 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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A

week before easter, I found myself sitting with family in a Catholic school basement watching my twelve-year-old nephew in a production of “Elf The Musical.”

Prior to the show we laughed about the seasonal dissonance, and the incongruence of the play’s silliness with the solemnity of the imminent Holy Week, but at the story’s core is a message about the power of belief.

If you haven’t seen Elf, there is a scene where Santa Claus’ sleigh, which is powered by the level of belief people have in him, is no longer working. The Claus-o-meter, which measures that critical resource, was nearing zero.

A few months ago, my Claus-o-meter was at an all-time low. I confided in a few people that I was ready to walk away, that the burden of keeping this magazine going was too much. I could declare victory after over a decade of work.

But then I would see a great story, a Grid story, and it pained me to think that, in our absence, it might not get the attention it deserves. I also felt like our readers deserved to know the reality of the situation, because it seemed unfair to unilaterally decide to stop publishing these positive and inspiring stories. So I said that we needed 500 subscribers to keep going, not knowing what to expect.

If you will allow me to switch Christmas movies, the response has felt a bit like the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life, when everybody rushes in to help George Bailey keep the Building and Loan. My Claus-ometer with Grid has skyrocketed.

Now I begin most days with pen and paper, writing a handful of thank you notes to Grid subscribers. I plan to write to every one of them. I try to linger on the generosity of each subscriber for a minute. Grid has been a free magazine for over 10 years, and it still is free, but these people are paying for it.

From a business point of view, it’s heartening that readers believe in our product and

mission enough to support it. On a personal level, it’s been even more powerful. Studies have shown that expressing gratitude has all sorts of benefits to our minds and even our bodies, and I can tell you that it’s been a refreshing way to start my days. So thank you again!

Ultimately, we will need thousands of subscribers to make Grid stable for the long term.

That takes time. But we are halfway to our goal of 500. If we can get this base in place, I think there is a way to make Grid work.

So far I’ve been buying 10-packs of thank you notes from CVS, but I’m about to have 1,000 of them printed. Locally, and on recycled paper, of course. You gotta believe.

ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com RIBERS OWING LIST OF SUBSC JOIN OUR NEW AND GR

help save

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The magazine you love needs your help!

After 10 years of providing Grid free of charge to the Greater Philadelphia area, this model is no longer sustainable.

To continue, we need 500 subscribers by June 30th.

Add your name to the list to ensure the next decade of Grid!

CARINA AHREN G R E G O R Y A LO I A V I C TO R I A A Q U I LO N E C H R I S T I N A A R LT CHARA ARMON M A RY A R M ST RO N G ALLAN ASH AW B U R Y A R B O R E T U M K Y L E B A G E N S TO S E G R E TC H Y N B A I L E Y DYLAN BAIRD AMANDA BAKER SUZANNE BAKEWELL JEFFREY BALIFF N A N C Y B A R TO N E L I S A B AT T L E BRENT BEERLEY

J OS E P H B E R N ST E I N K AT H R Y N B I R S T E R M I C H E L L E B LO O D W E L L L I N D A B LY T H E JAMIE BOGERT NICOLE BOICE H E C TO R B O N E S ALEXA BOSSE CO L L E E N B OY D JA N E B OY D SUSAN BRETZ LINDSEY BRITT BERNARD BROWN RUTH BROWN WILLIAM BROWN

BENJAMIN BRUCKMAN COLE BRUNSON DANIELLE BUEHLER UGH MICHELLE BURNS-MCH PA U L B U T T N E R ANTHONY CAMP KYLE CARMONA K AT E C A S A N O I M A R Y LO U I S E C A S TA L D M A R I SSA CAST RO J O C ATA N Z A R O C H LO E C E R W I N K A HEDY CERWINKA ROSE CHIANGO J E R O M E C LO U D ANN COHEN KASSANDRA COMBS ANNE COOK CHERYL COOK MARY COOLEY

CAROL FERN CULHANE ELIZABETH CUNICELLI JOANNE DAHME PA U L D I F R A N C E S C O

GILDA DOGANIERO A M E L I A D U F F Y-T U M A S Z K R I ST I N A DUGA N HELEN ELKINS N I C E S P O S I TO M O R G A N E VA N S K AT E FA R Q U H A R

JULIA FERNANDEZ ALLISON FLANDERS SUSAN FLESHMAN E R I K A F LO R Y P H I L FO RSY T H DEANA FRANK SUSAN FRANK MICHAEL GALE ARRIO C O N S TA N C E G A R C I A - B LAURA GIBSON MARY GILMAN C H R I ST I N A G R I F F I N BRENT GROCE ROBERT GROVES KENNETH HAHN

CHARLENE HANBURY K E L LY H A N N I G A N BARBARA HANSEN J O H N H A RTZO G LEANNE HARVEY K AT I E H AW K E S CJ HAZELL ANNA HERMAN H E AT H E R H E R S H H E AT H E R H I L L JODY HILL M A R YA N N H O O K E R D A N I E L H O WA R D ANDI HUBBARD LY N D A H U B B E L L A M E Y H U TC H I N S K AT H R Y N I D E L L TYKEE JAMES LO R R A I N E J E W E T T BRETT JOHN BRAD JONES CAROLE JONES FREDERICK JONES MARTIN JONES IRA JOSEPHS S NANCY KASSAM-ADAM SOHEE KEMPF KALLIE KENDLE LAURA KENNEDY N A N C Y K L AVA N S

E VA N K L I N E F E LT E R E M I LY KO VA C H JENNY KRAFT VICKY KRESGE VA L E R I E L A N G L E VA N A L AY E N D E C K E R JAMIE LEARY DON LEEDY MINDY LEMOINE A M Y K AT E LO B E L K AT H L E E N LO P E Z FA C U N D O L U C C I AISHA MACKINS M E G A N M A L LO Y

JOHN MARGERUM FRED MARSHALL P W M J M A R S TO N L E E D A L I S A M AT H E W S O N N I C O L E M AT T H E S E N R YA N M C C O R M I C K K AT H L E E N M C C O U R T JEN MCCREERY M A R Y LY L E M C C U E ALLISON MCDONAGH

MICHAEL MCGETTIGAN THADDEUS MCGINESS DENNIS MCOWEN ST E P H E N M E A D PA I G E M E N TO N DANIELLE MERCURIO GAIL MERSHON ELIZABETH MILLER JENNINE MILLER NIESHA MILLER JOHN MOORE M I C H E L L E N I C O L E T TO ST E V E O L I V E R P E N N Y O R D WAY K AT E O S H E A A L E X PA L M A C H R I S TO P H E R PA P P O C A R O L I N E PA R K O G N I A N PAV LO V JANE PEPPER A ELISABETH PEREZ LUN ALLISON PIERSON

KIM RAZNOV TED REED JENNIFER REZELI JOHANNA RIORDAN MARK RIVINUS S C H R I S TO P H E R R O B E R T TERRY ROBERTS JON ROESSER JOHN ROMANO ANDY ROSEN LO R R A I N E R YA N JENNY SANDLER MARY SCHOBERT KEVIN SCOLES RACHEL SEMIGRAN DANIELLE SERVEDIO J I L L S H A S H AT Y L I S A S H U LO C K C SKEMA BETH SMITH MEGHAN SMITH

D AV I D S N E L B A K E R G A R Y S O B O LO W LO R Y S O D A PETER SODY R YA N S P I E S LAURA SPINA

ALLISON SPONIC PA U L S T E I N K E M A RGA R E T ST E P H E N S E R I C S TO W E R S S H AW N S U M M E R S D O R OTA S Z A R L E J N Y S S A TAY LO R MAS ANNE THOMFORDE THO EST E L L E T RACY SUSAN UNVER LAUREN VIDAS PAT R I C I A WA G N E R L I N D S E Y WA L A S K I

P H O E N I C I A WA L L A C E D E B B I E WA R D E N M A R S H A L L WA R F I E L D LAURA WEBB H A N N A H W E I N ST E I N K I RST E N W E R N E R RACHEL WISE ZACHARY WOLK ALBERT YEE

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H O L LY Q U I N O N E S

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© PECO Energy Company, 2019

3

B IK E TA LK

by

randy lobasso

Voting Cycles City Council makes decisions that affect every cyclist’s life—vote accordingly

L

et’s face it: Biking is political.

If you ride a bicycle on Philly’s streets, your ideal political candidate is one who has your safety in mind.

Regardless of whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, as a cyclist at the polls, you may be choosing between a candidate who campaigns for safe streets and a candidate who simply doesn’t care.

Since Philadelphia will see both parties’ primaries later this month, it’s as good a time as ever to understand why your local elections are so important for your safety and health; and why, even after the primaries and general elections are over, all cyclists need to stay engaged and radicalize around street safety.

Because Philadelphia, unlike most cities in the country, requires city council members, who represent districts where bike lanes will be installed, to introduce a law— yes, a law—to reengineer city streets and install protected bike lanes.

Authority over cycling In 2012, amidst a period of “bike-lash,” Philadelphia City Council gave themselves authority over all new bike lanes that remove a lane of traffic or parking. It was a rehashing of a similar law that had been proposed— and killed—just a few years earlier. Initially, the council wanted authority over every single bike lane (including 5-foot standard lanes on the outside of parked cars), but, after negotiations, agreed to a less extreme version of the law.

This meant that elected officials, not engineers, now had the ability to make life-anddeath street trafficking changes.

Today, in order to install most protected bike lanes, the councilperson who represents the district where the bike lane will exist needs to introduce an actual law that makes the lane permanent.

And since no single district councilperson 4

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has championed bike infrastructure (though there have been instances of hope here and there), councilpeople often defer to their “communities” when making such decisions.

A painful (but necessary) process Philadelphia city government officials hold public meetings to introduce new bike lanes to their communities.

Usually presented by the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability, numerous options depicted on posters describe how the street will be engineered when the bike lane is installed. This is common practice in most cities around the country.

After those meetings, the registered

community organization needs to decide, sort of independently, how many people are for and against the protected bike lane project in their neighborhood. Usually, if a majority are for, the organization sends a letter of support to the councilperson. If not, they send a letter of opposition. Only then does the councilperson even think about introducing a law making the bike lane permanent.

However, even if the city’s engineers, neighborhood residents and registered community organizations approve the project, the councilperson is not required to introduce a law making the bike lane permanent.

At this point, a decision (usually) is still not made. The councilperson needs to hear IL LUSTRATIO N BY S EAN RY NKEWI CZ

from their constituents and people who use the street on a regular basis. Organizations like the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, where I work, and 5th Square, as well as smaller unofficial groups like the “I Bike I Vote” Facebook group, often begin emailing and calling campaigns, letting the councilperson know how the groups feel about a particular project.

Get involved now Since the fall of 2018, there have been proposals like those described above for 11 new protected bike lane projects. Those projects could be installed on streets around the city, including 2nd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 13th and 22nd Streets, as well as Germantown Avenue.

Many people who read this column showed up at the meetings for these new bike lanes. Some of those lanes are moving forward; some of them are stuck in limbo because a community or business organization has come out against them, preventing the communities from sending a

MEDICAL BILLS

letter of support.

Organizations, Facebook groups and regular people who get around by bicycle (and, therefore, have to get political) have been mobilizing and contacting their councilpeople, noting the advantages that safe bicycle infrastructure has on communities.

If you’re someone who’s already gone out to community meetings, written letters, lobbied your councilpeople and advocated for more funds—awesome. If not, there’s still time to get involved. Go online, check out where new protected bike lanes have been proposed and call the councilperson who represents that area. It’s an election season, after all, and you should know who has your safety in mind when you head to the voting booth.

Because this stuff doesn’t just happen The Schuylkill River Trail, the JFK and Market bike lanes in Center City, the

upcoming American Street protected bike lane project, West Chestnut Street, Ryan Avenue, South Street and 27th Street—all of those projects took years of advocacy and work on behalf of hundreds of people.

It would be great if safe infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians just happened, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. That’s why advocacy is a necessity, and why this column and this magazine exist.

The people who make this stuff happen, they stand out in the cold before work to form human-protected bike lanes. They miss dinner with their families to give their opinions on potential bike lane projects. They skip lunch to make meetings with their councilpeople.

They’re the kind of people who don’t just vote for bike advocates, but get out and advocate themselves to remind the world that bicycles are here, and they’re not going away.

randy lobasso is the policy manager at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

BIKE DAMAGE

LOST WAGES

YOUR INJURIES

PA Motor Vehicle Code § 3705

No person shall open any door on a motor vehicle unless and until it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of other traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open on a side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.

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5

urban naturalist

Left: John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge manager Lamar Gore describes how the urban refuse program connects habitat islands using native plants.

Below: Creeping Phlox is known to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators.

The Missing Link Refuge works to build a bridge for pollinators—and peace by bernard brown for city dwellers

I

magine you’re a pipevine swallowtail butterfly flying around the rowhouses of southwest Philadelphia.

You look like a swatch of velvet. On top, your wings are black toward the front and an iridescent electric blue towards the back; underneath, they flash an array of bright orange spots as a warning to predators. You hatched at Bartram’s Garden, grew as a caterpillar on a Dutchman’s pipe vine and retained the plant’s toxins in your flesh after you ate its deep green leaves.

As you flit around Philadelphia, you might find some flowers to drink from (and, in the process, pollinate) in a garden or vacant lot, but if you’re a female looking to lay eggs, you’re going to have a hard time doing so outside the park where you were born.

Finding plants like Virginia snakeroot and Dutchman’s pipe is a tough task. Your human neighbors grow many plants but most are exotic—nothing you evolved to 6

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eat. Your host plants grow at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, three-and-a-half miles from Bartram’s Garden, but that’s a marathon journey for a butterfly.

It’d certainly be helpful if, instead, they were just a few flutters away.

Many insects depend on specific plant species. This is true for the monarch butterfly, whose larvae eat milkweed, and for a myriad of less-famous critters, such as the dogbane leaf beetle, which depends on dogbane. If you want to support native bugs, you need to support native plants.

Our pipevine swallowtail roleplay illustrates one of the challenges that native species face as a result of urbanization.

Good habitats, which in pre-Columbian days would have been easy to find, are often few and far between today. Hidden islands in a sea of streets, lawns and buildings, this habitat isolation limits the prospects of creatures looking to spread out and leaves seclud-

ed insect populations living on those islands vulnerable to local extinction. If a storm in one area hits a Dutchman’s pipe vine plant, wiping out that year’s caterpillars, even if the vine regrows next year, there may not be enough butterflies to lay eggs.

What these habitat islands, and the species in them, could use is some kind of bridge that connects them to the other islands.

Cue the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The refuge is located in the southwest corner of Philadelphia, and although the people who live around the area are racially diverse, the site’s visitors are mostly white.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is a conservation-based agency that historically P HOTO BY AL BERT YEE

2019_Grid_Ecotistical (Green) 041519.pdf 1 4/15/2019 1:57:01 PM

has kind of left people out,” explains refuge manager Lamar Gore.

In 2011, Gore took part in overhauling the service’s approach to urban communities.

“One of the things that was birthed out of that process was the urban refuge program: reaching out to people in urban spaces, to people with black and brown faces,” Gore says. “We hadn’t reached out to people in those groups. We were assigned to develop a plan how to ‘do urban’ in Philadelphia.”

Part of how the refuge is ‘doing urban’ is extending nature out into the community as it invites the community in. Working with Kim Douglas, director of the landscape architecture program at Jefferson University, the John Heinz staff has developed a strategy of listening to what community members want and coming up with restoration projects that meet the needs of both human and pollinator neighbors.

“Our goal is for everyone in Philadelphia to have nature at their back door,” says C Douglas, pointing to a planned restoration project in a lot at the corner of Cecil Street M Y and Kingsessing Avenue.

Community members have been growing CM vegetables there, but the project, designed MY

by Jefferson students in collaboration with neighbors, will add space for events and CY for play—and will also incorporate native CMY plantings paid for by the refuge.

K Ramona Rousseau-Reid, vice president of Eastwick Friends and Neighbors Coalition, has been scouting additional spaces that could be beautified with native plantings, starting with a grassy, undeveloped space behind a row of houses in her neighborhood.

“It could be more practical for people to enjoy,” Rousseau-Reid says. “More than just a place to walk your dog.”

The backbone of this extension of nature into the community is a pollinator corridor, a strip of land planted with native plants that will stretch from John Heinz to the Philadelphia Zoo. The first section will connect Bartram’s Garden and the refuge, piggybacking off the development of a protected bike lane. Gore says that the leg of the project along Lindbergh Boulevard up to to Bartram’s Garden will commence first.

“We’re helping a community recreate green spaces that disappeared a long time ago,” says Gore.

He says these spaces bring peace to people. It’s a piece of feedback he hears almost every single day.

ECOTISTICAL.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION MOVES MORE PEOPLE IN MUCH LESS SPACE THAN INDIVIDUAL CARS, WHICH HELPS TO KEEP TRAFFIC CONGESTION LOWER, WHICH REDUCES AIR POLLUTION FROM IDLING VEHICLES.

ISEPTAPHILLY.COM M AY 20 19

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7

black history

A Life Well Sung With Eleanor Roosevelt at her side, and a young MLK in the audience, singer Marian Anderson by constance garcia-barrio inspired change with an historic concert

S

outh philly homegirl Marian Anderson (1897–1993) put on a concert at Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial that called the world’s attention to black talent and domestic racism. That 1939 performance led some historians to call Anderson the mother of the civil rights movement.

Anderson made a long leap from her folks’ South Philadelphia home. John Anderson, her father, 6’2”, worked in the refrigeration room at the Reading Terminal Market, and had a small business selling coal and ice. Her mother, Anna Anderson, a former schoolteacher from Virginia who stood 4’9”, married John after a three-anda-half-week courtship.

“We were poor,” Anderson wrote of her childhood in her 1956 autobiography, “My Lord, What a Morning,” “but [had] a wealth of music and love…”

When her father died after an accident at Reading Terminal, 12-year-old Anderson, her mother and two younger sisters moved in with her paternal grandparents.

Her mother began scrubbing floors at Wanamaker’s department store to make ends meet.

Anderson’s velvet contralto voice became well-known in choirs at Union Baptist Church, at the intersection of 19th and Fitzwater street, which her mother attended.

“Singing in the presence of other people seemed … a normal activity,” said Anderson, who as a schoolgirl sang at other churches and organizations, accompanying herself on the piano. “[Sometimes] I was paid as much as a dollar.”

When Anderson sought singing lessons at a local music school, a receptionist turned her away because she was black.

More shocks laid ahead.

Invited to sing at a concert in Savannah, Anderson traveled south by train with her mother.

“When the conductor called out, 8

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‘Coming into Washington,’ [we] black passengers went to the Jim Crow car … behind the engine,” Anderson wrote. The car’s filth and stuffiness stunned her. “If you raised a window… you would get, along with your fresh air, smoke and soot from the train’s engine.”

The African-American community encouraged her. At 18 years old, Anderson caught the attention of the Fishers, a distinguished black Delaware family. Invited to

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Marian Anderson.

The two first crossed paths in 1935, when Anderson performed at the White House.

their home to give a short performance, she met Orpheus “King” Fisher. King, a future architect, became her boyfriend, nudging out his older brother, who also fancied the young singer.

Eager for guidance, Anderson landed an audition with renowned Philadelphia vocal teacher Giuseppe Boghetti. Boghetti, who already had many students, only heard her grudgingly. But she “… poured out ‘Deep River,’” he later said, “and made me cry.”

Concert singer Marian Anderson used her voice to further the civil rights movement and fight racism.

Boghetti’s acceptance raised another hurdle. Anderson lacked his $50 monthly fee for lessons, but Union Baptist stepped up. In May, 1920, the church held a gala concert that netted $600 for her to put toward classes.

A taskmaster, Boghetti assigned Anderson vocal exercises, helped her work on her pianissimo and tutored her in Italian for operatic arias. It paid off, as Anderson’s performance fees rose.

When a house at 762 S. Martin St. went on the market, Anderson bought it with her savings. That building, now the site of the National Marian Anderson Museum and the home of the Marian Anderson Scholar Artist Program to develop singers, gave Anderson, as well as her mother and two sisters, a place of their own.

Emboldened by success, Anderson spread her wings too far. A concert she gave in New York City’s Town Hall in 1924 drew a sparse audience. Critics also noted that words in lieder, a kind of German song, tripped her up.

“I was embarrassed … lost and defeated,” Anderson wrote. She refused to sing for a year, and even considered pursuing her second career choice: medicine.

In time, Anderson not only returned to Boghetti’s classes, but studied and performed in Europe in the 1930s, becoming an expert singer of lieder. In Moscow, she met black actor, lawyer, activist and bass baritone Paul Robeson (1898-1976), who avoided American racism by sometimes living in Soviet bloc countries.

In 1939, after returning from Europe, Anderson found herself in a political maelstrom. Her manager, Sol Hurok, tried to reserve Washington D.C.’s Constitution Hall for a performance. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), owners of the hall, refused because of Anderson’s race. Eleanor Roosevelt, then first lady, resigned from the DAR in protest, igniting

“I had become ... a symbol representing my people ...

I had to appear.”

—Marian Anderson national headlines. Hurok welcomed the DAR’s stance. It “… presented Marian’s friends with an issue big enough to bring [years of racist treatment] … into the open,” he said.

Roosevelt pushed Harold Ickes, then secretary of the interior, to arrange for a public Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson became a reluctant warrior.

“I had become … a symbol representing my people,” she wrote. “I had to appear.”

On April 9, 1939, flanked by Supreme Court justices, congressmen, FBI agents, Roosevelt and Ickes, Anderson stepped up to the microphones amassed so that radio audiences—including folks on Martin St., said to have their doors open to let Anderson’s voice fill the block—could hear her. At the Lincoln Memorial, a crowd of 75,000 gazed up at the vocalist.

“For a desperate second, I thought the words [of ’The Star-Spangled Banner’] would not come,” Anderson said. “I sang; I don’t know how.”

That audience included then-10-year-old Martin Luther King Jr., who remained inspired by Anderson’s performance throughout his life. Her open-air concert beside VIPs launched a new kind of anti-racist demonstration, a tactic that King would borrow.

More developments followed. Anderson’s boyfriend, Fisher, had asked her annually for some 20 years to marry him. Finally, in 1943, at age 46, she said yes.

“King and I have had some lovely times together,” she wrote, though a cross was once burned at their Connecticut home. In 1955, Anderson became the first black to sing—despite death threats—in a role in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera Company.

Anderson retired from concert singing in 1965, but visitors can experience her life at the Martin St. museum, a location on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum, founded by Anderson’s late protégée, concert pianist Blanche Burton-Lyles, welcomes individual and group tours. Visitors can see a good documentary, vivid photographs, some of Anderson’s elegant gowns and other memorabilia.

“We offer a living history experience that immerses you in Marian Anderson’s struggles and ultimate victory,” says Jillian Patricia Pirtle, 31, concert singer and executive director of the museum.

Pirtle, who runs the museum alone, noted that the site depends solely on entrance fees, donations and special events. “Marian and Orpheus: A Love Story,” is slated for this summer, and George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” will run in November. For more information, visit the Marian Anderson Museum and Historical Society’s website or call (215) 779-4219.

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9

THE SOLAR NETWORK

The number one factor that influences whether people adopt solar? If their neighbors install panels first. story by alexandra w. jones • illustration by abayomi louard-moore

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isible from the sidewalk, 12 shiny black solar panels accessorize the roof of Marion Storey Biddle’s purple home in Mount Airy. She smiles at the sight—her own independent power source.

There are more panels in the back, she says. She speaks excitedly about how much power the panels generate and the little changes her household has subsequently made, like switching over to an electric water heater and purchasing an electric car, all in the name of energy efficiency.

Biddle was one of a dozen homeowners that participated in the first round of the Northwest Philly Solar Co-op. The organization negotiated with solar providers to get a reduced rate.

Prior to committing, Biddle says that she—and most of people in her co-op—talk-

IL LUSTRATIO N BY ABAYO M I LOUARD-MOORE

ed to others who had taken the plunge.

“Making sure that it works, it’s reliable, that kind of thing,” she explains.

She says that one neighbor who had a solar array installed a year before received so many phone calls, he joked he was a celebrity.

Since the panels on her home were installed in August 2017, Biddle has been impressed. She has since become a board member of the solar co-op, and strives to provide insight and advice to curious neighbors.

She tells them that, while it might take her a decade or so to pay her system off, she feels much happier subsisting on the power that her house generates, rather than energy from the electric company.

Biddle says she also shows these neighbors the monitoring system she uses to

study her energy usage. She pulls up a program called SolarEdge and begins to discuss peaks in a bar graph that show her energy use throughout the day.

“This is turning the electric kettle on,” she says, pointing to an early morning blip.

Another jump marks her turning on the space heater. When the graph shows steady electric use overnight, that means she was charging her electric car.

Neighbors often wonder if solar panels will cover all their electric costs, and for Biddle, they have. Biddle’s household produces just slightly more power than it uses each month.

“Our electric bill right now is zero,” she says.

Where there’s one, there’s many According to Micah Gold-Markel, founder

of local installation company Solar States, customers often seek advice from solar-powered neighbors before installing systems of their own.

“Nobody wants to be the first, but everybody’s heard about it,” he says. “When their neighbor does it, it lets people know: This is real.”

Dara Bortman, co-founder of Exact Solar, cites the importance of referrals, which often come from neighbors.

According to Bortman, people who install solar arrays feel like it’s such a no-brainer that everyone should do it. It’s something good for the environment, she says, and participants enjoy not only being able to monitor their personal power production from their phones, but making a little cash by selling their excess power back to energy companies.

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“It’s really just the excitement about this new part of their life—not having an electric bill anymore and having this solar power plant on their roofs,” Bortman explains.

A map of Solar States’ installments around Philadelphia shows clusters of nearby installations, with many on the same street or block. The biggest aggregates are in neighborhoods like Spruce Hill, Bella Vista and Northern Liberties, where more than 30 installations have popped up just a few blocks apart. Smaller groups of 11 and 12, respectively, appear in Center City and Kensington.

These data points represent a trend that researchers commonly find with solar, wherein installations spread through neighborhoods in a wave-like pattern.

“There is the so-called ‘Keeping Up With the Joneses’ effect,” professor Marcello Graziano explains.

While working on his doctorate at the University of Connecticut, Graziano, who now works at Central Michigan University,

“It’s really just the excitement about this new part of their life—not having an electric bill anymore and having this solar power plant on their roofs.”

—dara b ortman, co-founder, exact solar teamed up with Yale professor Ken Gillingham. Together, in a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, they researched the spread of solar power across the state of Connecticut, seeking to find the most likely predictor of installations.

What they found was that one adoption in an area could lead to many, spreading out from the original as far as four miles. Solar took hold in a few neighborhoods in 2005 when the state began incentivizing it with subsidies, and in a “wave-like centrifugal

pattern,” the installations spread from there.

In this study, Gillingham says they saw very clear patterns of solar adoptions throughout Connecticut, explained only partially by neighborhoods’ income levels and housing densities.

“Those are smaller factors,” Gillingham says, “but one of the more dominant forces is whether there are other solar adoptions already in that area.”

Similar conclusions have been drawn studying Austin, Texas, and various areas in California.

Philadelphia resident Mo Lareef decided to put panels on his own home in January 2016 after seeing a solar installation on his neighbor Dennis McOwen’s house across the street.

“Sometimes you need to see something to do something,” he says.

It was eye-opening for Lareef to see solar up close. He and McOwen talked about how it was a good investment, as well as the differences between leasing panels and buying them. Ultimately, Lareef had 40 panels installed on his home.

Each panel cost him roughly $1,200. But installers get a 30 percent federal tax credit for money they put toward installations, an incentive that reduced his overhead cost from $48,000 to $33,600. This tax credit expires at the end of 2019.

McOwen likewise installed solar after talking to someone else who had.

“I really got bit by the solar bug when I visited my brother, who has a farm,” he says.

His brother’s panels were on the ground, waist-high.

“I never thought about it until he started talking about it,” McOwen continues. He did his homework, and ultimately decided he would rather own panels than lease

Left: Marion Storey Biddle’s solar-powered home in Mount Airy.

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P HOTO BY AL EXAN D RA W. JONES

Summary of Solar Install Permits as of January 2019 COU NCI L D ISTR I CT

TOTA L

%

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them. He put 47 315-watt panels on his home, and his garage, too.

“Both sides,” McOwen says. “I wanted to catch the sun coming up as much as possible, and then setting.”

The panels were installed in just over a week. He paid $47,000 up front. At a minimum, McOwen estimates he’s probably saving $4,000 of usage every year.

“It’s been three, going on four years,” he says. “I have never had to pay a single cent to PECO.” People talk to McOwen about it all the time. He’s in a housing development that has 89 homes.

“There’s probably about 15 or 20 of them that have become solarized,” he guesses.

On the rise Bortman speculates that there may be a few factors that have contributed to the spread of solar: yard signs, calls from signs, solar company employees knocking on doors in neighborhoods with good roofs. And, perhaps, simple observation.

“All the time, people say they saw their neighbor went solar and that they started doing research themselves,” Bortman says.

Another study Gillingham conducted found that if panels are visible to neighbors from the street, rather than hidden on the top or on the backside of a neighbor’s roof, the spreadability of solar is enhanced because neighbors are more likely to talk to each other.

Solar Install Permits Issued byYear in Philadelphia

427 377

272

47 4

4

2 0 07

2 008

2009

71

2010

53

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83 42

2012

In Philadelphia, the number of solar permits has increased drastically over the last few years. Within the state’s Licenses and Inspection data, there’s a notable jump in people applying for solar permits: from just 12 applications in 2014 to 447 in 2018.

This increase may be in large part due to Solarize Philly, a program that began in 2017, which offers Philadelphia residents group rates on solar installations through the Philadelphia Energy Authority.

“We’re able to leverage the group buying power by getting people to go solar at the same time the installers are willing to offer lower prices,” says Laura Rigell, the authority’s solar manager. “People typically [pay] around $2,000 below market rate.”

In 2017, Philadelphia was ranked the fourth fastest-growing solar energy market in the United States.

“It’s been booming,” Rigell says.

Campaigns like Solarize that get one household to install can have a spillover effect and lead to other household installations in the same area.

“We do know that people who hear about it by word of mouth are more likely to sign,” Rigell says.

The Solarize program, which began looking for 2019 installation candidates in April, is trying to figure out how it can utilize word-of-mouth referrals this summer, she continues.

They want to scale up the program.

Obstacles to overcome Solar is not the only new technology that spreads out in waves, Gillingham confirms.

Expansion could be the case for any new technology—in fact, similar results have

27 2013

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been found in studies observing the spread of electric cars.

However, there are reasons why clusters might not pop up in every neighborhood for solar. For instance, in neighborhoods with higher housing density, like those in which rowhomes are common, there are typically fewer clusters because the houses are older and refurbishments must be done to ensure buildings are up to code for installations.

Finances may also play a role.

“Typically low-income houses have not been able to go solar in Philadelphia,” Rigell says. “Most people who participate in installing solar in Philly are definitely higher-income.”

While in Connecticut, where Gillingham and Graziano conducted their study, income was not a primary factor, Rigell is skeptical that this is also the case in Philadelphia, where comparable research has yet to be done on solar spreading. According to Rigell’s observations, most installers are making more than $41,500, the city’s median income.

And, of course, in areas where there are more renters, solar clusters appear fewer and farther between. This is because renters may not have the ability to put solar panels on the roof—the owner has to do so, creating a split incentive. The renter is paying for the electricity, so the owner would not directly benefit from the investment.

However, Rigell has spoken to a few landlords who have come up with a solution.

“There is a scenario where you can make it work,” she says. Some have increased their rent to compensate for the installation costs.

Others still charge tenants for electricity, buying it now directly from their landlords.

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PHILLY FOODWORKS is changing our local f ood ec onomy!

We are an online market and farm share program that is dedicated to creating a sustainable local food system for the Greater Philadelphia region.

Here is how we are changing the local food system: FAIR PRICES AND EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION ROUTES

Unlike many traditional distributors that demand exclusivity and leverage competition to get the lowest-possible prices, we keep farmers’ well-being at the center of our business model.

We allow our growers and producers to sell to whomever they want and encourage them to do what is best for their businesses.

We also have established a network of aggregation hubs where multiple farmers in certain areas can deliver products to be transported in consolidated deliveries to our warehouse in Philadelphia.

And we cover the cost of trucking! This not only reduces the carbon footprint and allows smaller farmers to access the city market, but it also allows farmers to keep more of their profits to invest back in their business… or hey, maybe even go on vacation!

INVESTMENTS IN PRODUCER OPERATIONS

Another way we support farmers and producers is by helping them make investments in their dayto-day operations. In the past, we have provided financing for seed, greenhouses, coolers, and even a truck for various farms. In 2019, we are in talks to help finance another greenhouse for one of our farmers, which will help us guarantee a steady crop of greens throughout the winter.

CROP PLANNING AND COLLABORATION WITH FARMERS

In 2018, we launched a project aimed at increasing the diversity of our products and locking in seasonal orders far in advance. The result was a giant spreadsheet detailing the specific crops each of our farmers grow, roughly how much they will be planting for upcoming seasons, and the approximate time they plan to harvest.

When he noted overlapping crops among different farms, our produce buyer, Loren, collaborated with the farmers to choose different varieties or later planting times so Philly Foodworks won’t have to turn away any of our farmers’ crops due to excess supply, and so excess crops don’t go to waste in the fields due to lack of demand.

As a bonus, this also means that we’ll have an even wider range of produce in the coming seasons, as well as longer availability of items due to staggered plantings among different farms. For the farmers, it means that they have a guaranteed market for their products and the support (both financial and strategic) to try new varieties—like Black Nebula carrots and Sichuan Red Beauty radishes, for instance.

When you shop Philly Foodworks, you too are helping change our food system! phillyfoodworks.com | 215-221-6245 | info@phillyfoodworks.com M AY 20 19

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RECLAMATION ACT A grieving widow transforms discarded objects into arresting works of art in her new life as an internationally-acclaimed artist story by alexandra jones • photographs by kriston jae bethel

I

f things had gone the way she wanted, Carla J. Fisher probably wouldn’t have become an artist.

Instead of working away in her bright, colorful studio on Cherry Street Pier, starting new pieces in between boxing up art destined for buyers in South Korea and exhibitions in Luxembourg, the 60-something woman might still be traveling around in a 40-foot RV with her late husband Ed—camping, seeing the sights and visiting their children .

That was the plan when Fisher left a 25year career as a high-achieving financial services manager. Before that, she’d traveled the world and raised a family with Ed, her sweetheart since college, during his career as an army officer.

He convinced her to retire early so they could spend their golden years together — but 15 months in, Ed suffered a series of heart attacks and was later diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He passed on October 12, 2013.

Fisher’s life was blown apart.

“When you’ve lost your spouse of 40 years, you feel pretty useless, wasted, empty, discarded—all those ugly words,” Fisher says.

After her husband passed, she had to figure out who she was and what she wanted to do on her own. She enrolled in an MFA program in fibers and mixed media at University of the Arts and graduated in May of 2016.

Fisher had wanted to be an artist since 16

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she was a child, but she’d been discouraged. She’d always loved to sew and make patterns. And at UArts, she’d hit on a singular technique that would allow her to make thread itself her medium.

“I take old, trashy things and give them new life as something beautiful, much as the art did for me,” she explains.

Rather than sewing onto fabric, Fisher stitches designs onto thin, textured sheets of plasticky surgical film, using a specially modified industrial sewing machine; the film gives her stitches something to hold onto. Next, she uses a cotton swab dipped in hot water to dissolve the film, which is designed to biodegrade in the body, around the shapes and crosshatches she’s stitched.

The melted film provides structure to the thread so that it can be shaped, painted, and embellished with additional fibers and discarded objects.

“The thread is a metaphor for me,” she says. “I make thread do things that nobody believes it can do.”

“Unbelievable” is an apt descriptor for

Fisher’s works—her pieces catch the eye first with sprawling forms, vivid colors, dynamic textures and tricky shadows.

Drawing closer, their surfaces teem with activity and drama. “ Nature’s Ball” evokes a lush bed of moss, with shaggy green strands constructed from thread spreading beneath crumpled and painted plastic bags and fuzzy swaths of dryer lint. “ Phoenix” bursts in shades of deep red and yellow ochre, with webs of thread and shreds of Tyvek shipping envelopes painted in watercolor flickering out like tongues of fire.

Others use flows of hot, pigmented wax to trap forms sculpted from fiber, as well as repurposed objects like shredded cardboard, wood shavings and ruffles of paper rescued from the insides of coffee pods. Such materials capture the chaos behind Fisher’s process and give her work a frozen-in-time feel.

For one such piece, “Burnout,” Fisher used this encaustic painting technique to evoke the aftermath of the recent wildfires in California, capturing black bits of debris

“The thread is a metaphor for me.

I make thread do things that nobody believes it can do.”

—carla fisher,

Philadelphia-based fiber sculpture artist

Above: Fisher works in her Cherry Street Pier studio.

Below:”Burnout” pays tribute to those impacted by the California wildfires. It is made of California avocado shells, pistachio nut shells, charcoal, beeswax, damar resin, pigment, Keurig coffee filters and thread.

made with the shells from pistachios and avocados in swirls of hardened wax in mottled ash gray.

“I want you to feel the beauty more than anything. I want to stir something inside you,” she says. “Then, I want your surprise— I live for that visceral response when I tell you that’s Tyvek or a Keurig filter or a bike tire.”

Stop by her studio and Fisher will show you the lychee and avocado shells that she uses to make natural dyes for fabrics or affixes to her work to add texture. She’ll point out the swath of Shout Color Catchers she’s patching together, each square stained with batik-esque pastels picked up from errant dyes in the wash, which she’s planning to use as a backdrop for a future piece. She’ll even tell you how she had Ed’s wool army uniform pulped into “combat paper,” a technique devised to help veterans cope with their experiences at war, and stitched it with an image of his shiny black boots.

Turns out, it can be therapeutic for their widows, too.

Fisher moved into her studio at Cherry Street Pier on October 12, 2018—five years to the day since Ed passed. (“That’s my kiss from above,” she says.) Her residency extends through the end of 2019, so you can meet her and see her art for yourself.

Though Fisher has been an artist for only a few years, her work made an almost immediate impression on the art world, thanks in no small part to the same strategic approach and rigorous work ethic that made her a million-dollar producer in her finance days.

In the three years since she graduated from UArts, she’s signed with an agent and receives commissions from collectors all over the world. Fisher’s works usually sell for prices in the thousands.

Her pieces appeared at Artexpo New York this past April. In August, she’ll be back in New York City for gallery shows.

And in December, she’ll head to Miami Beach for Art Basel.

“My husband and I had a philosophy that life is meant to be lived,” Fisher says.

“Nobody gets a second chance in life. And to have it like this? Wow.” M AY 20 19

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C.J. Sapong sketches out early garden plans for Sacred Seeds

PLANTING FOR KICKS Major League soccer player has a lot to give, on and off the field story by claire marie porter

W

hile former philadelphia Union forward C.J. Sapong was recovering from a herniated disc and cervical nerve injuries sustained in a 2014 game, he began researching alternative forms of healing.

Typically, treatment for sports-related injuries are intended to get the player back in the game as soon as possible, and aren’t necessarily concerned with long-term effects.

But Sapong, wanting to heal himself from the inside, began researching the health food movement.

“My injuries showed me that soccer isn’t something I can do forever,” he says.

“It allowed me to start looking at my body and health.”

Sapong soon found that when he changed his eating habits, he felt better all over.

Motivated by his discovery, he says, “I 18

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started thinking: ‘Okay, there’s something to all this.’”

Sapong’s food research led him to poverty statistics, as well as a better understanding of food insecurity, waste and climate change. In 2017, he founded Sacred Seeds, a nonprofit organization that’s aimed to nourish, educate and generate income for underserved urban populations through a hands-on teaching curriculum.

“Once you see it, it’s hard to turn a blind eye to it,” he says.

Sapong wanted to start tackling food insecurity in Philadelphia. He envisioned creating gardening spaces for children, teaching them to grow their own vegetables and microgreens, and empowering them with the knowledge to sustain themselves.

“I was always looking for a channel for authentic, genuine connection with people

in the world,” Sapong adds.

After looking up “how to start a nonprofit,” Sapong was able to manifest that channel. He created a board, mostly of friends, and eventually brought on a team of volunteers.

“I wanted to give back in a way that would have a lasting effect,” he says, adding that as an athlete, he signs autographs and poses for photos, but is often left wondering what he actually gives back to kids.

Those lasting effects include two community gardens and a Seed Lab that Gregory Newman, Sacred Seeds’ director of growth, describes as “between a classroom and a greenhouse.”

Construction of the Ruth Street garden, a 9,000 square-foot lot in Kensington next to the Frances E. Willard elementary school, is underway. Sapong wants to use the Seed Lab on this location as an outside classroom for students. He envisions the perimeter of the garden to be therapeutic, with running water and aesthetically pleasing flora.

“The kids say they can’t wait,” says Samuel Snyderman, the project’s communication and outreach director. “We have a feeling that we belong here.”

A pilot garden at the Union’s stadium in Chester will be unveiled on May 18.

Sapong was traded to the Chicago Fire earlier this year, but has planted his seeds, which he hopes will grow as quickly as the microgreens on his windowsill.

“It really evolved into what I envisioned it to be—not just a garden or greenhouse, but a place for healing, connection and empowerment,” says Sapong.

And a place that can sustain itself, he adds.

“It’s about developing a foundation. You finally see that little sprout,” he says, laughing at the inescapable plant pun, “and then things pick up. It’s easy when you feel it.”

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THE FUTURE of SUSTAINABILITY At Jefferson, we’re reimagining graduate education to create a new model for humanity under the banner of sustainability. The time for action is now–sign up for one of our new graduate certificates and be the change maker the world needs!

NOW OFFERING GRADUATE CERTIFICATES IN • Sustainability Leadership • Passive House Design • Living Building Design • Resilient Communities • Green Building Operations Learn more and apply today at

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COLLEGE of ARCHITECTURE and the BUILT ENVIRONMENT

I am so excited to celebrate my 25th year of sustainability work.

It has been deeply rewarding to know that every day I get to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives, and in the well-being of the planet and society.

My journey started in graduate school where I found my true calling and sense of purpose. Today, I have the opportunity to work with emerging leaders who will go on to start their own companies, develop nonprofits or assume leadership positions at some of the best and most interesting companies.

Now I want to work with you. What is your passion? How will you serve society? How can you bring meaning to your work?

Education is the key to unlocking your future potential. Developed by a group of top sustainable designers and experienced sustainability professionals, Jefferson’s Sustainable Design program is an awardwinning transdisciplinary, collaborative learning experience. We develop committed leaders who are changing the world through innovative market-driven solutions.

Time is short, the world is changing. Our window for meaningful action is rapidly closing. The world needs your creativity, energy, enthusiasm and talent. Join us in finding the solutions for the challenges we face today.

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ROB FLEMING, AIA, LEED AP, LFA Salaman Family Chair in Sustainable Design Professor and Director, Jefferson Sustainable Design Programs Director of Education, AIA Philadelphia Chapter

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STEP 4: Change the World!

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SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP The Sustainability Leadership certificate at Jefferson prepares forward-thinking professionals to design and deliver sustainability initiatives in their current or future organizations. With our curriculum’s projectbased approach, you will build vital skills in problem scoping, systems modeling, solution framing and change management, and immediately apply them to the sustainability challenges facing your own organization or an assigned client.

As you progress through the program, your project advances with you, moving through stages from identifying and prioritizing key environmental challenges to developing and pitching an implementation plan for addressing them. Our faculty are prominent sustainability professionals ready to share their conceptual knowledge and practical experience as you master the strategies and tools needed to produce positive change in your field.

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DESIGN OF RESILIENT COMMUNITIES Resilient Design practices are at the forefront of design thinking because they acknowledge that our efforts to stem the tide of climate change have not been enough. The harsh reality is that design in the 21st century will be focused on adaption to climate change.

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Sunday, May 19th from 10am–4pm

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Farm-to-Table Fresh Organic and Local Outdoor Seating by the River 1 Boathouse Row • 215-978-0900 Corporate & Private Events Wednesday–Friday: 8 AM to 3 PM Saturday: 8 AM to 5 PM Sunday: 8 AM to 4 PM

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THE MUSIC 32

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AKERSPHERE

Some local musicians take instrument making into their own hands story by

claire marie porter photograph by

albert yee

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inkering away in community workspaces throughout the city, a renaissance of artists are making both music and the instruments that create it.

At NextFab, a makerspace that offers high-quality tools and materials, as well as training sessions, members are free to create and invent what they please. Some come to design the next big thing, while others function on a much smaller scale.

Seeking a stronger connection to their craft, these musicians wanted to get intimate with their instruments—to take them apart and examine their insides, and then, make them better.

There’s an old German folk song that goes: “All things shall perish from under the sky. Music alone shall live, never to die.”

The lyric rings true in spaces like these, which remind us that music is the recurring motif of humankind.

From the earliest flutes, made 40,000 years ago from mammoth ivory and bird bones, to the pair of silver and bronze trumpets found in the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb, the connection between humans and musical instruments has proved ancient and profound.

Historically, the ability to own or make an instrument was a privilege, and the object itself sacred. But today, musical instruments have been commodified to a point where no one knows their maker, and everyone has a guitar lying around.

We’re in the midst of a new maker movement—an era where innovative technology and artisanship coalesce in collaborative makerspaces. It’s a culture that’s turning consumers into creators, allowing DIYers to shape a block of wood into an electric guitar. Or, in some cases, transform a dead tree into a didgeridoo.

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Just didgeridoo it With the help of termites, Scott Keeley carves out one of the world’s most ancient instruments

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cott keeley began playing didgeridoos to treat his sleep apnea.

“Didgeridoo players don’t snore,” he was told by his doctor.

The didgeridoo is one of the world’s oldest instruments. It’s in the wooden brass family and was invented by indigenous Australians. An experienced “didge” player can make a myriad of sounds, from animal imitations to explosive pops, along with the omnipresent droning hum that sounds like an alien abduction.

The name of the instrument is considered to be an onomatopoeic Western attempt to describe its sound: “didjerry, didjerry.”

Traditionally, it’s made from termite-eaten eucalyptus or agave tree trunks, says Keeley. One myth suggests the instrument is best made by burying a log underground and allowing termites to hollow it out.

Termites are still an important part of the process, though they don’t do the work alone. The best trees are those that are dead and termite-eaten, but still standing, says Keeley. Subterranean termites, or white termites, prefer darker, more humid areas, so they do most of their munching towards the center of the tree.

There’s little margin for error. If the tree has been dead too long, it will fall apart—if it’s too green, the instrument will split within a year. The rest is a mystery, says Keeley.

“Only one in 100 is an excellent didge, and we don’t know what makes it that way,” he says.

Keeley has gotten very good at finding the perfect dead standing tree.

You want the bark flaky, he explains, not completely sloughed off. Traditionally, the root of the tree would form the bell of the instrument, creating a natural flare.

The best didge-making trees are those that have had a hard life, he says. The best instrument he’s made to date was from an PH OTO G RA PH BY M ARG O RE E D

80-foot-tall, dead black birch.

When he began to cut at the roots, he noticed that they had fought to get their nutrition, growing around a rock. This made it so the base of the tree already had a natural bend, and when Keeley knocked it over, an enormous puddle of termites poured out.

“I really ruined their day,” he says. But it made the perfect didge.

The process is straightforward: Keeley preps the outside, then sands the trunk with a belt sander, tapering the wood to the top. He uses tools and materials from NextFab South Philadelphia, where he works as a patent agent.

After treating the outside of the trunk and cleaning up its roots, Keeley slices the whole thing lengthwise and carves it like a dugout canoe. He shapes the mouthpiece and glues the two halves back together, then sands, polishes and plays.

The whole process takes about four days.

There’s a final mystery in the making—a maker can’t know what key the didge will be in until it’s complete. It depends on the growth of the tree and the hollowing work of the termites. The majority of Keeley’s end up being in the keys of E or F major.

Keeley’s didgeridoo is about as tall as he is, around 5 feet and 8 inches.

He plays it on a still, sunlit day in the NextFab courtyard space, placing one foot on top of the other—eyes focused, lips pursed— as he creates a low drone that mingles with the sounds of construction next door.

It took him about six months to learn circular breathing.

“My technique was to just make some kind of hooty-tooty noise while breathing,” Keeley says.

“I’ve only found three other didge-makers on the East Coast. So, I guess that makes me the third-best didgeridoo maker here,” he says, laughing.

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In The Key Of Meditation Samurai-style swordsmithing meets music in Michele Judge’s handiwork

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ichele judge, a percussionist and jewelry-maker, began making her own drums after playing a friend’s steel tongue drum in southern Mexico. To her, the sound and feel of the instrument was intoxicating.

“I had to have one of these,” she says.

The steel tongue drum is a mix between two idiophonic instruments that are played on the lap: the handpan and Hang.

The Hang was invented in 2000 by two Swiss men as a meditative tool. The process for making the dome-shaped instrument was kept a mystery in order to avoid commercialism; to purchase one, an interested buyer had to write an essay to prove their worthiness, says Judge. It’s a large instrument, 52 centimeters in diameter and 24 high, and looks like a flying saucer.

The handpan is a relatively new instrument. It was created in 2007 by an American steelpan maker as an alternative and successor to the highly elusive Hang, and became popular quickly. While smaller than the Hang, it retains its swollen, domed shape.

Judge’s instrument, the steel tongue drum, is smaller yet, and was invented around the same time as the handpan by another steel drum maker, using the bottoms of 20-gallon propane tanks.

The idea of combining her artist’s eye and desire for a transportable meditative instrument led her to the seven-pound, saucer-shaped dome, with eight notes.

Judge partnered with a glass and leather artist, Carly Freedman, and together they founded Mayuca Drums. The company’s early models were made from old propane tanks, like the initial invention.

Now, 25 models later, Judge’s drums, made from sheets of mild steel, are so intricately beautiful that some customers buy them solely as decorations. The design is made with 36

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a white clay heat treatment process used in traditional Japanese swordsmithing, allowing for color variation. The designs and notes are mostly made with a water jet, a large machine

that can cut through a foot of steel, which Judge has access to through her makerspace membership.

“It’s a meditative tool,” she says of the

drum. “You’re focused on what you’re doing, but your mind is clear. Your hands get used to making the sounds … and the instrument becomes a voice.”

Judge plays one of her drums in the stairwell of NextFab. Her hands tenderly find a pattern on the symmetrical grid of the instrument, and the sounds grow, cocooning the space with long, drawn-out chimes. The tones are reflective.

PHOTO GRA P H S BY M A RGO R E E D

The drum she plays on is tuned in A-minor pentatonic, her favorite key.

When Beethoven or Schubert composed in the key of A-flat, they considered it the “key of the grave.” It was common prior to the 20th century to associate different keys with certain emotions. A-minor is considered a very womanly key, invoking tenderness of character.

When Judge was first learning her craft,

a drummer instructed her to play with her eyes closed.

“You can really feel and hear it when your eyes are closed,” she says.

Later, she grew more in sync with how her hands moved.

“Now it just takes you on this journey, and it can be emotional,” she says. “It’s the essence of who you are, coming through this instrument.”

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Piano man Piano technician Tom Rudnitsky doesn’t just fix old pianos, he reclaims their souls

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hile tom rudnitsky doesn’t make instruments from scratch, he restores them—or as he might describe it, he saves their souls.

“New pianos can be very green behind the ears,” he says. “Older pianos, they’ve been through a lot. You get this sense of history in the object.”

Rudnitsky is a composer and pianist who became a mostly self-taught piano technician after a music-career proved to be financially unsustainable.

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“Piano restoration has been both an incredibly fun journey in its own right, and a means of creating financial stability as an artist,” he says, though pursuing music is still a long-term goal.

He was always drawn to the inner workings of the piano.

“In music school, you’d sometimes see the piano technician on staff, pulling the action [the mechanical assembly of parts inside the body of the piano] out of the piano,” he says. “It looked so cool.”

Rudnitsky was always a tinkerer, he says, always taking things apart. So, when a customer would ask him to fix a loose key on a tuning job, he would figure out how to do it.

He gathered tools and knowledge until, finally, customers were asking him if he could restore their pianos for them.

Rudnitsky started working on piano actions out of his apartment.

“I think everyone who starts has a cardboard box they keep all their tools in,” he says.

The process gets very messy very quickly.

Sometimes, Rudnitsky would have to give up his living room for a week, sacrificing it to house piano parts.

The process of restoring piano keys alone can take up to 35 hours.

“This involves precisely milling the keys, trimming the new plastic keytops to size,

Creating Community Spaces

Tom Rudnitsky uses a sandblaster at NextFab to clean up worn out piano keys

and then leveling and aligning all of the keys back in the piano,” he says.

If he’s rebuilding an entire piano the whole process could take up to 300 hours.

The goal is to make as consistent-sounding an instrument as possible.

“When you play the piano, every key should feel the same,” he says.

He rolls out several different tool bags, a spread that looks something like if Bob Ross and a surgeon combined their wares.

“It takes about ten times as many tools to make something as you’d think,” he says.

The woodworking culture is dominated by white males in the suburbs working alone in the basement, says Rudnitsky. So, a collaboPHOTO GRA P H S BY M A RGO R E E D

rative space like NextFab allows people from all walks of life to jump into that world without having to have a garage or surplus cash.

“I get excited when people other than the typical woodworker wearing the flannel shirt is working,” he says. “Everyone should be able to do this.”

Rudnitsky works on sandblasting keys from a 1920s upright piano in NextFab. The ivory natural keys and black sharps are in bundles of seven or eight notes. When removed from the piano, they look a bit like hermit crabs out of their shells.

He takes the bundle of keys to the sandblaster, a machine that uses an abrasive mixture of sand and air to literally “blast” rust and dirt off a surface. In about five seconds, the wood on the piano lever arms changes from a dull brown to a bright, fresh-looking wood.

“It’s deeply satisfying,” he says.

Pianos don’t always have significant financial value, says Rudnitsky, but the personal value can be high, and a bond with an instrument is difficult for a musician to find.

“You can get a brand new piano,” he says.

“It just doesn’t have the soul you’re looking for.”

Collaborative makerspaces have both practical and ontological benefits. Along with reducing the overhead cost by sharing tools, materials and spaces, they also undercut the need to consume by providing areas for teaching and building. Skills like woodworking and metalsmithing are made accessible to all, not just those with a garage and a stash of power tools.

These spaces are part of a movement toward inclusivity. The maker movement is about working alongside people on variations of the same journey—building, learning, failing and trying again.

You can find many makerspaces in Philadelphia, including the following: NextFab in South Philadelphia combines digital technology and traditional tools, as well as memberships and classes. It encourages members to build, invent and tinker in any way imaginable.

Hive76 is a hackerspace in Kensington.

It’s owned and operated by members and offers tools, materials and skill-sharing workshops.

NextFab in North Philadelphia is a smaller space geared towards artisans and craftspersons, who are pursuing industrial arts like jewelry- and textile-making.

Philly Makerhouse is a woodworking space in Kensington. It offers a spectrum of experiences, including classes for making cheese boards, wall art and dreidels.

Philadelphia Woodworks is a woodworking club and co-working space in Manayunk. It offers memberships and classes and provides building materials.

West Philadelphia Tool Library is a tool-lending and educational space that gives community members the freedom to build and fix items without purchasing power tools.

I get excited when people other than the typical woodworker wearing the flannel shirt is working. Everyone should be able to do this.” —Tom Rudnitsky M AY 20 19

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As soon as I got into instruments and making music, I also got into taking things apart and seeing how I could make them better.”

—Ryan Hyde

Pulling the strings Ryan Hyde turns a block of wood into a guitar with excellent woodworking skills and a musician’s eye

R

yan hyde makes guitars and basses from scratch at NextFab. Over the course of six months, blocks of raw wood become customized, high-quality instruments.

He is a luthier, a word derived from the French word “luth,” meaning lyre, that has evolved to describe someone who builds stringed instruments comprised of a neck and sound box.

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“What you can make by hand can transcend what you can get in a store,” says Hyde.

Hyde has been playing music since high school.

“Being a player helps inform what I do,” he says. It also allows him to understand what someone is looking for when they come to him with a request.

And he has always been a maker.

“As soon as I got into instruments and making music, I also got into taking things apart and seeing how I could make them better,” he says.

Fifteen years ago, when his friends were picking colleges, Hyde was looking for places he could make his own instruments.

In order to get an apprenticeship with an instrument-maker, you have to be a decent woodworker, he says.

His guitar-making pursuits lead him to study industrial design at the University of the Arts, and while enrolled, he took a tour of NextFab and knew it would be the best way to afford his endeavors. Now, he has a day job at NextFab in member services, and works on his craft at night.

“I always gravitated towards the craftsmanship that went into a customized instrument,” Hyde says.

The process to make a guitar or bass requires a few select woods, usually mahogany, walnut, maple or poplar.

“I like to use poplar,” says Hyde. “It’s easy to paint, it doesn’t weigh a lot and it has good characteristics.”

The neck and body start out as blocks of wood from a lumber mill. The body is simple: a slab with some pockets, routed out for the pickups and electronics, with holes drilled in the neck for a bridge.

All of Hyde’s guitars end up being unique.

“You could get into ergonomics,” he says, “but in general, it’s a block of wood cut into a cool shape that you like.”

P HOTO G RAP H BY AL BERT YEE

It’s electric Matt Garfield transforms instruments into kaleidoscopic light displays

F

or some, making and customizing instruments is the practical solution to unsustainable artistic ventures.

For Matt Garfield, modifying instruments is a marriage between art and technology.

Garfield, frontman of electropunk band Mose Giganticus, was a professional musician for seven years, five of which he spent touring full-time. He got a master’s degree in electrical engineering while continuing to perform.

Coming out of the touring life, Garfield

PHOTO GRA P H BY M A RGO R E E D

got a job in IT and became the senior electrical engineer at NextFab four-and-a-half years ago, in what he describes as fortuitous circumstances.

Now, he’s found a synthesis of his two passions—embedding electronics in existing instruments, which he describes as a “collaboration” between his artistry and engineering skills.

On his computer in his NextFab office space, Garfield brings up pictures of a MIDI controller keyboard he bought off the shelf, documenting his processes through images.

He took apart the keyboard and embedded electronics and custom lighting in it, resulting in a highly-customized look you can’t find anywhere else, he says.

“I put a lot of effort into the whole visual aesthetics of the instrument, the interplay between controlled lighting … and the music itself,” he says.

Garfield offers to do some quick live programming, and after ten minutes of clicking and coding, the keyboard attached to his computer becomes a multi-colored light show.

He still plays drums and keyboard and sings for Mose Giganticus, and his most recent instrument-modding project was for a music video he produced himself.

In the video, the drums, guitars and keyboard swirl with colors and move with the sound on a stage. The result is psychedelic and haunting.

Garfield creates what he can’t buy.

“Either because I can’t afford it,” he says, “or because it doesn’t exist at all.”

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Drumming up business Ethan Feinstein handcrafts drums because every musician deserves a unique bond with their instrument

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than feinstein, a drummer of 17 years, wanted a very specific size and sound from his drums—something he couldn’t find in stores. He collaborated with a friend on his first project, a single drum, using resources from NextFab’s North Philadelphia location.

After that, a friend asked him to build a full drum set.

Feinstein realized then that there weren’t any custom drum makers in Philly. Feeling it was important to have local, high-quali42

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ty, handcrafted instruments, he started the Philadelphia Drum Company six months ago.

“Being able to build it with my hands brings me that much closer to the instrument,” he says. “Musicians have a very close bond to their instrument. It’s the tool you use to make your music.”

Feinstein wants to be able to provide that intimate connection for all drummers.

“We make all the shells by hand, using raw lumber,” he says.

Making the shell is similar to making a barrel for aging wine. Usually, a drum shell is made by taking thin veneers and bending them into shape, which puts a lot of tension on the wood, Feinstein says.

He instead uses solid pieces of wood called staves, and glues them together into a 20-sided circle to create the drum shell, then using a jig and router to round out the outside and inside of the drum. It’s a unique process for drum-making “Then the drum is more officially a drum,” he says.

Feinstein puts on the bearing edges using a table router, and from there, begins the finishing process, which involves sealing and finishing the wood, laser-engraving the badges, punching them out of bronze and setting them into the drum. Lastly, all the holes for the hardware are drilled and filled.

The hardware currently consists of industry-standard parts, but the company is hoping to manufacture its own by next year.

P HOTO G RAP HS BY ZAVE SMI TH

The Philadelphia Drum Company’s primary service is building customized snare drums and sets. All the shells are built by hand using local wood.

Feinstein says the great community of artists and craftspeople at NextFab are integral to his work.

“I’ve met so many people that are becoming part of the company,” he says.

One of the first full drum sets Feinstein built is also one of his favorites. It’s made of black walnut. But, ultimately, each drum he’s made holds a special place in his heart.

“They’re all my children,” he says.

Ethan Feinstein uses local lumber to handcraft each individual drum shell

Being able to build it with my hands brings me that much closer to the instrument. Musicians have a very close bond to their instrument. It’s the tool you use to make your music.”

—Ethan Feinstein

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Clean Laundry Clean Planet Clean Slates

We clean with eco-friendly products that we make by hand using only nautral non-toxic ingredients (plant and mineral derivatives) and essential oils.

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FRIENDS CENTER

The Quaker Hub for Peace and Justice in Philadelphia

Choose Friends Center for Your Eco-Friendly Office!

Friends Center is seeking a select few nonprofits to join our community of nearly 40 nonprofits working for good. Since 1856, Friends Center has been a gathering place for the community. With our LEED Platinum green renovation, modern open or closed-door offices, updated wired and wifi networks, and other amenities, we are historic as well as up to date—and ready for your nonprofit to move in.

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Shared meeting and event rooms available to tenants One- to three-year leases only Centrally located and easily accessible Bike, transit and pedestrian friendly Member of the Sustainable Business Network For more information: Chris Mohr 215-241-7191 • cmohr@friendscentercorp.org 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

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MOTHER’S DAY SALE

50% O F F

Wed, May 1 - Sun, May 12

j e welry & s c arves

Center City | Chestnut Hill | Media | Souderton | Wilmington New Store in Bryn Mawr, opening May 8!

Artisans have been paid in full. Discount applied to item of equal or lesser value. Offer valid at participating stores and online from 5/1/19-5/12/19 at 11:59 pm ET..

Not valid with other offers or discounts, or purchase of clearance merchandise, gift cards, Bunyaad rugs, or consumables.

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EV EN TS

may 2019

M ay 10-12

M ay 18

M ay 24-27

Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Craft Fair

Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival

Philly Tango Fest

This crowded gathering (attendance numbers are around 50,000) is the only time when Walnut Street is closed to vehicle traffic. It features more than 100 booths with vendors, culinary demonstrations, cocktail samplings and other forms of entertainment.

Learn to dance the tango at the 9th installation of Philly Tango Fest. Workshops and private lessons will be available for those interested and performances will be led by a variety of experienced dancers. Music is provided by the Tipica Messiez.

The bi-annual fine art craft fair presents a variety of art mediums. It is co-presented by the PennsylvaniaGuild of Craftsmen and the Friends of Rittenhouse Square and features 140 artists from within the Guild. friendsofrittenhouse.org WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Rittenhouse Square

WHEN: 12 to 5 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Walnut Street between Broad and 19th streets

M ay 18-19

M ay 11 Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby and Arts Festival This is one of the most unique events in the city. Entrants design hand-powered floats that range from creative to downright wacky. The derby finishes in a mudpit where participants and spectators can check out local handmade art and food trucks. kensingtonkineticarts.org

South Street Italian Market Festival The Italian Market celebrates over 100 years of existence at this annual street festival.

Around 70,000 attendees are expected for this festival, which features vendors and entertainment at the South Philly staple location. italianmarketfestival.com WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Italian Market

WHEN: 12 to 6 p.m. COST: Free to spectate WHERE: Trenton Avenue & Norris Street

M ay 23 M ay 11-12 Art Star Craft Bazaar More than 120 artists will gather Mother’s Day weekend to sell handmade items, clothing, jewelry, houseware and other goods. The bazaar also features make-andtakes, live music, food vendors and more. artstarcraftbazaar.com WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing, 101 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd.

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2019 Excellence in GSI Awards Ceremony People and organizations who have made innovations in green stormwater infrastructure, paying specific attention to nature-based solutions, will be honored at this event. Recipients include West Laurel Hill Cemetery, SALT Design and Drexel University. sbnphiladelphia.org WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. COST: $110 WHERE: FringeArts, 140 North Christopher Columbus Blvd.

philadelphiatangofestival.com WHEN: Schedule varies by event COST: $14-647 WHERE: Lithuanian Music Hall, 2715 E. Allegheny Ave.

M ay 30 - J une 2 Philadelphia Latino Film Festival The Philadelphia Latino Film Festival continues its mission of representing Latin American and Latino filmmakers in various categories. The weekend also includes workshops and panels. phlaff.org WHEN: Varies by screening COST: $10-85 WHERE: Caplan Center for the Performing Arts, 211 South Broad St.

EDUCATION THAT MATTERS

Interested in finding out if you are eligible for one of our HIV prevention research studies?

Who We Need

The Univeristy of Pennsylvania is seeking: • Healthy people • HIV negative • 18 and older • People with an interest in joining a research study to help find ways to prevent HIV infection.

Participation Includes: • Free and confidential HIV counseling and testing • Physical exams • Compensation for your time and travel • The vaccine CANNOT cause HIV infection, but it may not protect you from infection

1-866-HIV-PENN (1-866-448-7366) www.phillyvax.org/outreach facebook.com/phillyvax • @phillyvax

KIMBERTON WALDORF high school students engage within the community for real world learning and improved social responsibility and citizenship skills.

Kimberton.org

SCHEDULE A TOUR!

4 1 0 W S E V E N S TA R S R D | P H O E N I X V I L L E , PA | 6 1 0 . 9 3 3 . 3 6 3 5

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DANIELLE SERVEDIO

JEFFREY BALIFF

K AT H R Y N I D E L L

J I L L S H A S H AT Y

N A N C Y B A R TO N

TYKEE JAMES

L I S A S H U LO C K

E L I S A B AT T L E

LO R R A I N E J E W E T T

C SKEMA

BRENT BEERLEY

BRETT JOHN

BETH SMITH

J OS E P H B E R N ST E I N

BRAD JONES

MEGHAN SMITH

K AT H R Y N B I R S T E R

CAROLE JONES

D AV I D S N E L B A K E R

M I C H E L L E B LO O D W E L L

FREDERICK JONES

G A R Y S O B O LO W

L I N D A B LY T H E

MARTIN JONES

LO R Y S O D A

JAMIE BOGERT

IRA JOSEPHS

PETER SODY

NICOLE BOICE

NANCY KASSAM-ADAMS

R YA N S P I E S

H E C TO R B O N E S

SOHEE KEMPF

LAURA SPINA

ALEXA BOSSE

KALLIE KENDLE

ALLISON SPONIC

CO L L E E N B OY D

LAURA KENNEDY

PA U L S T E I N K E

JA N E B OY D

N A N C Y K L AVA N S

M A RGA R E T ST E P H E N S

SUSAN BRETZ

E VA N K L I N E F E LT E R

E R I C S TO W E R S

LINDSEY BRITT

E M I LY K O VA C H

S H AW N S U M M E R S

BERNARD BROWN

JENNY KRAFT

D O R OTA S Z A R L E J

RUTH BROWN

VICKY KRESGE

N Y S S A TAY LO R

WILLIAM BROWN

VA L E R I E L A N G

ANNE THOMFORDE THOMAS

BENJAMIN BRUCKMAN

L E VA N A L AY E N D E C K E R

EST E L L E T RAC Y

COLE BRUNSON

JAMIE LEARY

SUSAN UNVER

DANIELLE BUEHLER

DON LEEDY

LAUREN VIDAS

MICHELLE BURNS-MCHUGH

MINDY LEMOINE

PAT R I C I A WA G N E R

PA U L B U T T N E R

A M Y K AT E LO B E L

L I N D S E Y WA L A S K I

ANTHONY CAMP

K AT H L E E N LO P E Z

P H O E N I C I A WA L L A C E

KYLE CARMONA

FA C U N D O L U C C I

D E B B I E WA R D E N

K AT E C A S A N O

AISHA MACKINS

M A R S H A L L WA R F I E L D

M A R Y LO U I S E C A S TA L D I

M E G A N M A L LO Y

LAURA WEBB

M A R I SSA CAST RO

JOHN MARGERUM

H A N N A H W E I N ST E I N

J O C ATA N Z A R O

FRED MARSHALL

K I RST E N W E R N E R

C H LO E C E R W I N K A

W M J M A R S TO N L E E D A P

RACHEL WISE

HEDY CERWINKA

L I S A M AT H E W S O N

ZACHARY WOLK

ROSE CHIANGO

N I C O L E M AT T H E S E N

ALBERT YEE

J E R O M E C LO U D

R YA N M C C O R M I C K

ANN COHEN

K AT H L E E N M C C O U R T

KASSANDRA COMBS

JEN MCCREERY

ANNE COOK

M A R Y LY L E M C C U E

CHERYL COOK

ALLISON MCDONAGH

MARY COOLEY

MICHAEL MCGETTIGAN

CAROL FERN CULHANE

THADDEUS MCGINESS

ELIZABETH CUNICELLI

DENNIS MCOWEN

JOANNE DAHME

ST E P H E N M E A D

PA U L D I F R A N C E S C O

PA I G E M E N TO N

GILDA DOGANIERO

DANIELLE MERCURIO

A M E L I A D U F F Y-T U M A S Z

GAIL MERSHON

K R I ST I N A DUGA N

ELIZABETH MILLER

HELEN ELKINS

JENNINE MILLER

N I C E S P O S I TO

NIESHA MILLER

M O R G A N E VA N S

JOHN MOORE

K AT E FA R Q U H A R

M I C H E L L E N I C O L E T TO

JULIA FERNANDEZ

ST E V E O L I V E R

ALLISON FLANDERS

P E N N Y O R D WAY

SUSAN FLESHMAN

K AT E O S H E A

E R I K A F LO R Y

A L E X PA L M A

P H I L FO RSY T H

C H R I S TO P H E R PA P P O

DEANA FRANK

C A R O L I N E PA R K

SUSAN FRANK

O G N I A N PAV LO V

MICHAEL GALE

JANE PEPPER

C O N S TA N C E G A R C I A - B A R R I O

ELISABETH PEREZ LUNA

LAURA GIBSON

ALLISON PIERSON

MARY GILMAN

SARA PILLING

C H R I ST I N A G R I F F I N

S TA N P O K R A S

BRENT GROCE

LISA POWLEY

ROBERT GROVES

CONNOR PRITZ

KENNETH HAHN

H O L LY Q U I N O N E S

your

name here —

Thanks to contributions from readers like you, The Sacred Seeds has achieved our Spring 2019 goal of two new physical locations to deliver our programming.

Find us at every Philadelphia Union home game at Talen Energy Stadium starting May 18th with Sacred Seeds Day at the park! Meet our team and take a walk through the Therapy Garden to see what your nose can smell.

Also, this summer will see The Sacred Seeds conducting workshops at 3049 Ruth Street in Philadelphia.

Keep an eye on our social media and website for a full listing of what we’ll be teaching.

Thank you for all your support! We rely on a community funded, community focused, and community flourishing model—please read our article in this month’s Grid for ways you can help.

THESACREDSEEDS.ORG • PLANTASEED@THESACREDSEEDS.ORG

2019 Dates

Camp Common Ground Family Camp

July 20-26 July 27-August 2 August 3-9 August 10-16

m

on

G r ou n d

C

en ter

Co m

in Vermont

GooD • GReen • Fun Starksboro, Vermont Starksboro, Vermont

www.cgcvt.org

Balance of power A Penn alum researches sustainable strategies for electric vehicles and municipal energy use 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

Within a month of starting the Master of Environmental Studies program at Penn, Frederik Wouda Kuipers (Master of Environmental Science ’18) declared a concentration in environmental sustainability.

“There is a huge range of things you can learn about in the program, and the intersection of environmental, social and economic aspects lines up with my ideals,” he reflects. “Environmental change won’t necessarily come from the government—it’s likely that businesses and municipal governments will start the change from the ground up.”

With access to Penn partnerships and resources, Frederik was able to experience sustainable change in action through transformative internships such as his role with Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability. As energy project coordinator, Frederik researched a strategic plan for procuring and managing the city’s electric fleet vehicles, from distributing charging stations efficiently to linking vehicles on an internet network to track usage.

“Environmental consciousness does not have to be difficult or create huge overhead costs,” says Frederik. “In a lot of ways, sustainability is the smartest and most logical way of going about things. Increased efficiency can lead to lower costs for everyone.”

To learn more about Frederik’s hands-on experiences helping local organizations comply with environmental regulations, visit:

WWW.UPENN.EDU/GRID