The Spirit Newspaper

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THE SPIRIT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014

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BRIDESBURG FISHTOWN KENSINGTON NORTHERN LIBERTIES PORT RICHMOND

FEBRUARY 19, 2014 • Vol. 11 No. 7

1428 E. SUSQUEHANNA AVENUE, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19125 • 215-423-6246 • www.spiritnewspapers.com

Northern Liberties: From World’s Workshop to Hipster Mecca and the People in Between

NL History Exhibit Opening Feb. 20 at Community History Gallery by Max Pulcini

happening around her.   “I did the monoprints of the neighborhood for a few years then I went on to other things. But for some reason I was really struck again

by what was going on in this neighborhood, which was an insane amount of development and a lot of the old buildings disappearing. Places that

I would walk by for years were being torn down. A lot of the buildings look incongruous with what I was used to.”   Two years ago, Baker

curated an art exhibit featuring work by herself and a group of other Northern Liberties artists at Projects Gallery. That exhibit also featured readings by

people who had written about their experiences in the neighborhood. She then found The Com-

Jennifer Baker remembers the old Northern Liberties. A neighborsee NL EXHIBIT page 7 hood now known for bustling bars and hip boutiques was a desolate place, falling casualty to the postwar deindustrialization of the 50s.   “[When I first moved into Northern Liberties] the rest of my building was empty; the rest of the block was empty,” Baker said. There were certainly pockets of residential row houses occupied but not right here. It was all empty and sometimes scary because it was deserted.”   Baker, an artist and graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, moved into Northern Liberties in 1978 and has been calling it her home ever since, taking up a studio space atop a four-story building on the corner of Third and Green Streets. She has worked with a variety of media, including sculpting, drawing and painting. In 1991, Baker was living on American Street when one conflagration down the street ignited a fire within her.   “There was a fire at the American Street Tannery,” Baker remembered. “That was so dramatic, and along with all the buildings being demolished and fires going up everywhere in the neighborhood, it really made an impression on me and made me want to look at my immediate surroundings for my art work.”   So Baker began creating monoprints of Northern The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world Liberties and started to and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? document the changes ~ Quote by J. B. Priestley. See more photos on page 12. /Photo: Roman Blazic

Snow Falls in Penn Treaty Park

patricia m. dugan Multi-Legal Services for Mature Adults WILLS • ESTATES • ELDER LAW ISSUES

Port Richmond Resident AOH/LAOH Member

DuganLaw@Aol.com

215-634-2355

2662 EAST ALLEGHENY AVENUE


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