FOURTEENTH STREET
THE EDITOR
If our cover didn’t make it obvious enough, Fourteenth Street Magazine is celebrating its 40th birthday with this issue.
We’re looking back at a pop-culture-rich year when Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Footloose, and The Karate Kid were top-grossing films, Madonna made waves with her “scandalous” performance at the first ever Video Music Awards, Rolling Stone named it “Pop’s Greatest Year,” and of course, our magazine was born.
The premier issue of Philadelphia People — yes, that was Fourteenth Street’s original name — debuted in the Spring of 1984. (I’m holding it in the photo above.) It featured Philly success stories
reflecting the “pragmatic, energetic, goal-directed” mood of the ‘80s and carried on until its 2009 rebrand. Fourteenth Street, better known as Broad, runs from Cheltenham to the Navy Yard, North to South. It connects our neighborhoods with one direct route; our magazine shares the stories found along its path. We carry a new mood in 2024. The city’s vibe is adaptive, solutions-oriented, and maybe a bit dystopian. Fourteenth Street is reflecting on the past forty years of Philly with a modern lens: How have we changed since spinning records was the best way to blast music? How are we adapting to ever-changing trends and rapidly evolving technology? And, um, what are we smoking?
It can be hard for a group of
Temple students to accurately find and tell the city’s stories. Many of us pop in for four years and run far away after graduation, but Philly has always been my home. I grew up in the Northeast and left for some time spent in the suburbs during high school. While I’m back hopefully to stay, I want to explore and share stories of all of the city’s quirks, unique people, and unbothered yet passionate attitude, something Temple’s magazine students have been doing for four decades.
So Happy Birthday, Fourteenth Street. Cheers to 40 years.
PHOTO BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
CONTENTS
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Sarah Frasca
Creative Director
Brianna Boone
Art Directors
Garett Fadeley
Angilina Julia
Chief Copy Editor
Monica Constable
Senior Editors
Jeanne Burge
Sarah Collins
Amna Faheem
Hadiyah Muhammad
Photo Editor
Will Kirkpatrick
Samuel O’Neal
Executive
Julia Merola
Managing
Rosamelia Sanchez Lara
Make it like your birthday
40 places to celebrate the most special anniversary of all
Birthdays are a big deal. Some might even argue that they’re more important than any national holiday. This is the day dedicated to celebrating you and your wild and crazy existence. Making it through another year is an achievement worthy of celebration, so let’s make it one you won’t forget!
Whether you prefer hitting up the clubs, indulging in an expensive yet worthwhile meal, or experiencing a unique event, here are 40 places to elevate your birthday experience:
THE MAINS
1. Dive into a world of immersive music, lasers, fog, and bubbles—and whatever else they’ve dreamt up to enhance the ambiance. To make the most of this special occasion, secure a table reservation at NOTO for access to an open bar and a comfortable space to unwind with friends whenever you need a break from the dance floor.
2. SPACE Club/Lair KTV in Chinatown offers a variety of tasty Asian food, drinks, and karaoke. Celebrate your special day by uploading your favorite photos or videos of yourself as the birthday honoree, showcased on huge LED screens.
3. Check out Ray’s “Happy Birthday” Bar, where you can enjoy karaoke, drinks, and music. Have you ever tried a birthday
shot with a mini candle attached to the shot glass? I promise it won’t set you on fire.
4. For my non-drinkers, I’ve got you cov ered. Try Little Fish, a seafood restaurant in the Queen Village neighborhood. With only two dozen seats, you can tell the food is top-notch. Be sure to reserve a table in advance to secure your spot.
steak, sashimi, and gyoza, this restaurant excels in both taste and presentation. Its cozy, dimly-lit ambiance makes it the spot for the perfect birthday dinner.
5. Make your birthday unforgettable at Fabrika, Philadelphia’s premier performance art theater! Fabrika offers a Las Vegas-level interactive experience with top acts from around the world. From comedy to burlesque, aerials to acrobatics, drag to everything in between, its center stage has it all. Go for the cirque extravaganza, stay for the delicious food and drinks.
7. Calling all Italian cuisine aficionados! Vetri Cucina is a must-visit, renowned for its exceptional food and service. It’s no wonder, given that Chef Marc Vetri honed his craft in some of Italy and the U.S.’s finest kitchens before bringing his expertise to Philadelphia. Are you willing to splurge on a life-changing meal for your birthday?
BONUS WISHES
Want more? Here are 34 possibilities:
8. Kalaya offers a delightful culinary journey through the vibrant flavors of Thai cuisine.
9. At Talula’s Garden, enjoy farm-to-table cuisine in a chic farmhouse setting.
10. Experience Parc’s taste of Paris with classic French dishes. I like the lobster risotto and the Pasta Jardinière.
11. Savor innovative and flavorful vegetarian dishes at Vedge.
12. Dine on American comfort food in The Love’s cozy atmosphere.
13. Delight in exquisite Japanese cuisine by a TV Iron Chef at Morimoto.
14. Treat yourself to Barclay Prime’s luxurious steakhouse experience.
15. Feast on authentic Spanish tapas at Amada.
16. Dine with a view at R2L, an upscale restaurant on the 37th floor.
17. Indulge in delicious, freshly made donuts, and fried chicken at Federal Donuts.
18. Experience British-inspired cuisine in The Dandelion’s cozy pub setting.
19. Enjoy Ristorante Panorama’s Italian fare and an extensive wine list.
20. Dine on Volvér’s innovative, multicourse tasting menus.
21. Experience Continental Midtown’s retro-chic dining and cocktails.
22. Enjoy creative cocktails and elevated American cuisine at Friday Saturday Sunday
23. Dine on seafood and classic American dishes in The Olde Bar’s historic setting.
24. Enjoy live music and craft cocktails in Time’s vibrant atmosphere.
25. Have a fun time at Frankford Hall’s indoor beer garden.
26. Enjoy diner-style food and cocktails in Silk City Diner Bar & Lounge’s retro setting.
27. Dance to top DJs at The Roxxy, an energetic nightclub.
28. Have drinks with a view at the Stratus Rooftop Lounge.
29. Sing along to the live music shows at Howl at the Moon, a high-energy bar and nightclub. Go for the cheesy vibe.
30. Yakitori Boy offers private karaoke rooms and a full menu of Japanese cuisine and drinks.
31. Head to Tir na nOg Irish Bar & Grill in Center City for the Irish pub vibe.
32. Bar-Ly is a sports bar in Chinatown with karaoke rooms, Asian-inspired cocktails, and a variety of beers on tap.
33. Green Eggs Cafe is a popular brunch spot known for its creative breakfast dishes.
34. Sabrina’s Cafe offers hearty breakfast and brunch options in a cozy atmosphere, with several locations around the city.
35. Honey’s Sit ‘N Eat is known for its Southern-inspired breakfast and brunch dishes, with locations in Northern Liberties and South Philadelphia.
36. MeiMei Philadelphia offers a modern twist on traditional Chinese cuisine, with a focus on fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
37. Sing your heart out in one of Ken’s Seafood private karaoke rooms.
38. Alomodak’s pairs its Halal Mediterranean cuisine with hookah. How’s baba ghanoush with a side of green apple shisha?
39. Voix Karaoke is the place for karaoke lovers, offering a wide selection of songs and stylish karaoke rooms. Pair that with their Asian Fusion culinary and you’re in for the perfect birthday experience!
If you don’t want to be inside for your birthday, visit Fairmount Park, where you can enjoy a picnic, engage in outdoor activities, and take in the scenic views of the Schuylkill River.
PRESSING BUSINESS
Softwax Record Pressing is reviving independent record plants with a nostalgic spin.
BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
“ If you just want funky-looking records that sound awesome, that’s pretty much what we’re about,” says Frederico Casanova. “We’re a boutique shop. We’re here for the locals.”
Founded by Casanova and Michael Wodniki in 2018, Softwax is an independently owned record-pressing plant operating out of Northeast Philadelphia and catering to local and independent artists looking to press music in a now-vintage format. “We will help you from concept to creation,” Casanova says. “DIY does not mean doing it alone.”
Forty years ago, physical music media was split between vinyl records and cassette tapes. According to the Recording
Industry Association of America, vinyl records made up half of the market and the other half was cassette tapes. Forty years later, vinyl had dropped to less than 20% of the market, and total units sold dropped from 673.9 million units to 249 million
“Now we’re just a couple of cats in Philly, just doing the damn thing.”
But the physical media sphere is still active and small independent groups, like Softwax, keep the format afloat. In fact, vinyls are having a resurgence. Major labels
are reinvesting in cutting records, causing production delays. “We had to start dealing with major labels, and that was never really part of our business plan,” Casanova says. “I think now we’re finally able to pull back capacity from the majors and give it back to the independents that you know we set this thing out for.”
Casanova and Wodniki built their business to provide artists with high-quality records to spread their music and allow them to profit from their art, as a physical product legitimizes a musician and their work in the eyes of the public. Softwax’s mission is rooted in Casanova’s background as a small artist playing and hosting shows around Philadelphia.
The first rumblings of what would become Softwax began in 2015 with Casanova and Wodniki entrenching themselves in the music scene in Philly. They saw a need for a locally run small musician-focused plant. “All of our friends pretty much told us the exact same stories: ‘I had to wait about like a whole year to get our records!’” says Casanova. “In 2018 we finally got an investor and from there we just got bitten by the vinyl bug, I suppose.”
And the bug is spreading. For me, collecting records started in middle school
after I was swept up in the wave of warm analog sound, expensive plastic circles, and thinking I may be cooler than you. My first record was Daft Club, a remix record of Daft Punk songs. The memories I associate with that first trip to the store trump the memories listening to the record. For collectors, each record is a story.
Families see their children getting into records and remember the box of old LPs in their parents’ house filling them with good memories. There is an obligation to continue this feeling, family heirlooms have now taken the form of records.
Casanova’s father had gifted him many of the records he collected while living in the Dominican Republic. “Those are my favorite records. The Beatles. I love The Beatles,” says Cassanova. “A lot of those sound like complete shit. But the ones that sound great, sound great and the ones that are in good condition, they’re still kicking ass and they sound awesome.”
I like to think the DIY ethos is the core of modern art and specifically Philadelphia’s art scene. Each day there is something to consume from the community; it could be an art gallery, concert, play, open mic, art mart, rave, clothing swap, or mutual aid fundraiser. This attitude was essential to the success of Softwax. “We wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for the support from everybody in the community,” Casanova recalls.
“When we first started a couple of months before the pandemic, we were planning on slow growth,” Casanova says. “We even had it planned out with our investors. We were going to have about five orders in the first month, six the next month, 8 the next, and slowly build up. By the first month, we had 15 or something like that and then it kept going up and up. Until March, when the pandemic happened and in the end most of those orders got canceled. It was tough.”
Through brokering deals with major labels, the infant record plant managed to stay afloat. But the road to opening a fullscale plant was a long journey that made the setback hurt more. “It took us about six to eight months to finally find the location that we got now. A lot of these factories in North Philly became residential places, gyms, or Trader Joes and Sprouts and whatnot,” says Casanova. They are currently located in the Bond Building in Lawncrest. The conversion of factories into residential living gutted most of the infrastructure that Casanova needed.
Since the late ‘80s and early ‘90s record shops and plants have been closing their doors due to the rise of CDs and the internet. Sony Music installed its first record-cutting lathe in early 2017, marking a shift back towards vinyl since ceasing its production in 1989. Other major players in the music industry, like Jack White of The White Stripes and his company Third Man Records, have been a major factor in the resurgence.
“Majors, they pretty much have a radar whenever any plant opens up, they’ll go and scope it out,” Casanova says. “But luckily, I did have a couple of friends that were part of that conglomerate and so it helped. For the most part, majors have their hands in all the cookie jars.”
There were only 32 record pressing plants worldwide in 2017, according to the Vinyl Record Manufactures Associate, of which Softwax is a member. Now there are over 200 plants in operation with the larger operations expanding their capacity. Through the work of small groups like Casanova or larger ones like White, records have seen a rebirth.
“We’re just a couple of cats in Philly,” Casanova says, “just doing the damn thing.”
PRESSING: THE PROCESS
PHOTO BY ALEX THOMPSON/@ALEXSCREATIVEPROCESS
MUSIC UNDERGROUND
BY GARETT FADELEY
Have you ever stopped to wonder why Cecil B. Moore is the only subway station that broadcasts local radio station music? Most commuters using the SEPTA Broad Street Line at Cecil B. Moore Station are not aware that the source of the platform’s classical and jazz selections— Philly loves its jazz—is just down the street at the WRTI (90.1 FM) headquarters. Maybe you are more curious than others and wondered: who implemented this ongoing tradition within Temple’s main transportation hub? When? Why?
WRTI’s general manager Bill Johnson explains that his predecessor, Dave Conant, credited the idea to a Temple faculty member by the name of Thomas F. Maxey. As it turns out, Maxey is the one who hired Conant when the station moved out of the Annenberg building’s basement. He brought on Conant, who progressed into
the GM until his retirement in 2016. Mr. Johnson took over shortly after in 2017. Thomas F. Maxey started his career at Temple University in 1996 and retired in 2006. His title as Vice President of enrollment management allowed him to cover matters in the admissions department, the scholarship department and even the financial department. Mr. Maxey recalls the idea of implementing WRTI in the subway (roughly) around the years 1998 or 1999. He shares the credit of the idea with the late and great George Ingram, a notable Temple alumni (he designed the “T” logo) and journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Tom says his inspiration for the idea did not come from research studies about crime and classical music, anti-homeless motivation, or better retention of information—as many Redditors theorized—but
rather from the notion that “people forget about Duke Ellington’s “Take the A-Train”.
Mr. Maxey just wanted to listen and enjoy some jazz /classical music and his position allowed him to share this luxury with the community of commuters to and from the subway station. He still remembers the shock from the community of jazz fans when he and Mr. Ingram implemented the switch from all-day jazz to daytime classical music and evening jazz. “Some people in the community thought that it was THEIR station, so when the switch came, we got some push back”.
Two decades later, you can still count on going down the subway stairs at Cecil B. Moore and Broad Street and hearing either some soothing jazz or peaceful classical music. That is, before the train cars come barrelling by and interrupt the momentary bliss.
PHOTO BY GARETT FADELEY
GM Bill Johnson continues the tradition of the subway soundtrack.
PHOTO BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
the
FA EOUT
years
Ever since MADD, it’s been a rite of passage to have your fake ID snatched by a bouncer.
BY SARAH FRASCA
“WHO THE FUCK KNOWS THE CAPITAL OF DELAWARE? I DON’T EVEN KNOW THE CAPITAL OF PENNSYLVANIA!”
Most of us could easily name Dover and Harrisburg, but the stumbling drunk 18-yearold version of myself who was posed the capital-of-Delaware-question by an inquisitive New York City club bouncer obviously could not.
I was trying to pass off as 23 with a shitty Delaware fake ID. No, I didn’t get let into the club. Yes, I ruined my friends’ night. Why did I bring up Pennsylvania?
Bouncers and bartenders have every reason to be suspicious of ID validity. Fakes have been around since government-issued IDs first circulated after World War I, but they hit a major surge in 1984 when Mothers Against Drunk Driving influenced the passing of the federal National Minimum Legal Drinking Act, raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 years old in every state. Sure, in Pennsylvania, the drinking age has been 21 since the Pro-
hibition era, but it was incredibly easy to pop over the bridge and enjoy a drink in Jersey or New York, where the drinking age didn’t change until the MLDA forced it to.
Imagine being 17, waiting patiently for your first legal drink, then finding out you’ll have to wait another three years…
Fakes were relatively easy to find in the ‘80s and ‘90s. You could basically commit identity theft by using someone else’s real ID, or you could just buy one at some corner store. And the identity theft method never went out of style. Two of my best friends used to share an older cousin’s ID just a few years ago. They don’t look alike. One is Korean and the other is Peruvian. I have no idea how that worked.
Throughout the past 40 years, underage high school and college students have racked up plenty of outrageous counterfeit ID stories. Simon is one of them. The 20-year-old who did not share his last name for privacy reasons has been using a real 23-year-old’s ID for the past six months and has gotten into bars without issue.
“He’s taller. He has a different eye color. He has brown hair. I have blonde hair,” Simon says. “And I don’t know anything from it, like if anyone asked me like a part of that— no clue.”
In the ‘80s, a true fake ID was created by the classic pre-photoshop method, which involved standing behind a cardboard cut-out of an of-age ID and snapping a Polaroid to send to the copy machine. It was the perfect time to initiate a new business, and the evolving technology has changed the game since then. Nowadays, companies like Old Ironsides Fakes and FakeYourDrank dominate the industry, and they have countless backup websites for when their main sites get taken down. Old Ironsides has seven standby websites linked to its home page. Most people
sends in their name, birthday, sex, height, and eye color, as well as a photo of themselves in front of a plain background mimicking a real driver’s ID photo. They’ll then electronically sign their name, and the seller will adjust the year to make each buyer 21 or older.
When ordering from a website, customers typically receive two copies of their fake. That’s if they don’t get scammed—an all too common fate.
“We sent them a bunch of money, and then they sent it back to us after they didn’t get [the fakes] to us,” says Quinn, 20, who did not share his last name for privacy reasons. “So, we ordered it again, and we were supposed to get it in two to three weeks, and it’s like week nine now or something like that, and I don’t think we’re getting them or our
place group orders on the websites through a friend or “some guy.” Fakes go for $50 to $100 each, usually landing in the $80 range, but prices depend on how many people join in a group order: the larger the group, the cheaper the price.
Each member of the order
money back.”
I won’t lie, I’ve fallen victim to the scam myself. I sent in $80 and was told six weeks later that the IDs were discovered in a mailing center and I was going to jail. My underage panic set in, but it turned out the seller was lying and the
worst of it was a major financial loss for a broke college sophomore.
If the IDs do come in, the best of them scan, meaning they trick ID verification technology into thinking they are authentic. While not all bouncers and bartenders scan IDs, most liquor stores employ the technology; systems for checking fakes have gotten stricter through the years.
Most bartenders know an ID is fake if it is extra flimsy, doesn’t have the proper blue pigmentation, or is from a state that is known to be printed on fakes, like Connecticut. “If it looks like somebody tried to fuck with it beforehand, that’s a dead giveaway,” says Donovan, a bartender at Pubb Webb, a North Philadelphia dive bar.
Norris Mitchell, 31, a security guard at popular clubs like Voyeur and Woody’s, looks at watermarks, reflective aspects, placement of words, and the quality of the photos to determine the validity of IDs. “Nowadays it gets harder because they have better technology,” Mitchell says. “So, besides the watermarks, sometimes it’s more so how they act that lets you know that they might be a younger age, and then you’ll have to put their ID through an actual super scanner,” a bigger machine behind the bar.
Mitchell uses an IDVisor Smart V2, one model of an ID scanner, when he works at Pubb Webb. It scans the bar code on the back of an ID and immediately gives an “OK” if it is real and a crossed-out cir cle if it is fake. While it doesn’t work 100%
of the time, it provides a pretty strong gauge for those checking.
About 20% of patrons try to use fake IDs at a typical club, but 80% try it on college campuses, Mitchell says. Maxi’s Pizza, Subs and Bar is the only bar on Temple University’s campus and a major hotspot for fake IDs. Maxi’s security uses an AgeVisor Touch scanner, which stores information about previous fakes to make rejections easier in the future.
“There is this feature when we have a fake ID, we can tag it,” says Aiden Kuhn, a bouncer at Maxi’s. “You just put their information in there, so if they keep coming back, and they scan that ID again, it will show up as fake. If someone has a dupe and they scan it, it will show up as a dupe.”
People with fake IDs often memorize their fake birth years, addresses, and other inaccurate details on the cards so they can prove their false identities if security questions them (something I should’ve done with my Delaware ID). But they can’t always be prepared for what questions will come up. When 20-year-old Ali, who also did not share his last name, had his fake ID taken from him at Maxi’s he was left speechless, even with the help of his friend Jenk. “The bouncer’s asking, like, what high school did he go to?” Jenk says. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t fucking know,’ and he’s ask-
sitting there trying to look up a high school from where his ID’s from— Maryland—and the bouncer’s just not going.”
Ali got his fake back eventually, but different places have different rules on how to handle fakes, like giving them back or keeping them to display on a wall of underage shame.
Wneeds explicit action to be considered fraud.
hen I went to a club in Center City right before my 21st birthday, I was met with a crooked bouncer. “Venmo me $50 or I’m calling the cops,” he said, holding that old Delaware ID out of my reach. Don’t ask why I kept using it. I begged and pleaded for the ID back and tried to jump for it and run, but ultimately caved to his extortion. I doubt he would’ve called the cops, and he likely would’ve simply discarded the fake, but when police get involved, there can be serious legal consequences.
Since 1988, the punishment for the use of false identification to purchase alcohol carries a minimum fine of $500—10 times the fee I paid. In Pennsylvania, possessing a fake ID is not illegal, but using it to commit fraud makes it a crime. While the act of creating or owning a fraudulent ID shows an intention to defraud in states like Connecticut and can be cause for legal action, which includes a punishment of up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000, Pennsylvania law
Bartenders can get in trouble for serving underage drinkers, too, which can lead to some overly cautious decision-making. Sometimes they even reject real IDs.
Anna had been using a fake ID for two and a half years, and they never had a problem getting into clubs or purchasing alcohol despite being underage.
Then, Anna turned 21— and their birthday bash was crashed by an overly cautious bouncer at Tavern on Camac. “The first time I have ever gotten my ID turned down was on my 21st birthday when I handed the bouncer my real ID for the first time, and it was a vertical Illinois ID with the birthday that day,” says Anna. (Illinois, like Pennsylvania, issues vertical IDs to drivers under 21.) “And they said, ‘This is fake,’ and I said, ‘Why would I hand you a vertical Illinois ID with the birthday that day if it was fake?’” That logic went nowhere.
Two weeks later, they went back to Tavern on Camac—and got in.
Will Kirkpatrick contributed reporting.
DISPO
Now that dispensary weed is available,
BY AMNA FAHEEM
We are nearing the retirement age of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act. Forty years after its passage, which increased the penalties for marijuana possession and trafficking, dealers are laughing in the face of the legislation, as they meet customers at their apartments and drop off blunts. Smoking has defiantly prevailed, regardless of the potential consequences, legal and otherwise. The Reagan-era War on Drugs is over. As of 2016, medical marijuana became legal in Pennsylvania, with New Jersey following in its footsteps and legalizing recreational marijuana in 2021.
Nevertheless, street weed is still going strong. Black-market sales of marijuana have yet to fumble, proving to be an economically sound alternative to the legal dispensaries selling what’s known as “dispo weed.”
Street weed and dispo weed have very different vibes. Smoking dispensary weed
gives you a stronger, more concentrated high, whereas street weed can be flimsy. The high you feel when smoking dispen-
“Every time I smoke street weed, it’s always a hit or miss. I’ll be so faded one moment then I’ll take three bowls and feel nothing...People can name things differently but you’re really just gonna get the same thing.”
sary weed is cleaner, more potent; you just feel more. Street weed is foggy, like swimming in a murky pool that you’re not really sure when it was cleaned last. But it’s hot outside and you need to cool off so anything will do. Nonetheless, they’ll both get you high. It just
varies on how much. Buying weed from a dispensary ensures you’re getting your money’s worth, and you don’t have to worry if someone snuck in a little something extra that you wouldn’t wake up from; you’re in charge.
The two have three major differences: accessibility, quality, and price. The third difference is almost always what turns people away from dispo weed, but the second is what pulls them in the first place.
Typical dispensary products have a higher THC potency when compared to street weed. There are strains with high CBD and THC rates
sold exclusively to medical cardholders. The quality is superior,
and the product is regulated better. Dispensary weed is also more reliable. Because it is grown legally, it abides by the state law guidelines and quality assurance standards. Customers know all the details of what they’re buying, like the CBD and THC levels which are almost always a mystery in street weed. There is a plethora of strains for both indica and sativa. Options such as ‘Circus Animals,’ ‘Purple Punch,’
MEEHAFANMAYBOTOHP
INFERNO
is street weed going away? Nope!
‘Lime Slurps,’ and ‘Kastlekush,’ entice customers and open doors to whole towns where street weed doesn’t even have a house.
Street versus dispo is not necessarily a massive divide among the people. Street weed gives you a lazy high, a feeling of smog in your mind, and a lethargic mindset the rest of the night. It’s dirty and leaves you muddled in the head sometimes. Dispo weed is vibrant and tickles your mind in the right places. It elevates you and puts you at ease. It actually looks like weed, while street weed can be grubby and sticky.
Zach, an avid smoker who chose not to share his last name, makes a distinction between the two: “With dispo weed, the quality is much better. When you go to the dispo, you can select what kind of feeling you’re gonna get; every time I smoke it, it’s very specific. Every time I smoke street weed, it’s always a hit or miss. I’ll be so faded one moment, then I’ll take three bowls and
feel nothing. It’s like putting your hand in a raffle pot and picking out a specific feeling. People can name things differently but you’re really just gonna get the same thing.”
Quality Over Quantity
Quality is arguably the most important part of smoking, and dispensaries offer a much more powerful high. Steve appreciates the dispensary weed taste and how secure it is, “Dispo weed tastes more natural and I know it’s not laced or a bad strain. I can have a more pleasant high and not stress if the weed is going to have adverse effects on me. You’re not really 100 percent sure what’s in it [street weed] so there is a level of uncertainty off the bat.”
The reassurance given to smokers makes dispo weed all the more attractive. Smoking weed became much easier and safer; it changed the game. Because of the rigorous tests and regulations dispo weed goes through, the quality
PHOTO BY AMNA FAHEEM
is guaranteed to be top-notch. The plant is green and has an overwhelmingly natural odor. You don’t feel polluted as you smoke.
As a loyal dispensary smoker, Steve notes the recognizable differences: “With street weed, a nug could be so crusty and bad,” he says. “Dispensary weed always seems to be fresh and fluffy.” All you need is a magic card and you’re home free.
Having been normalized with the rise of the recreational ruling, marijuana has become commonplace. Back when the War on Drugs demonized the plant, smoking and possession were very taboo. People were being charged with federal convictions for half a gram of weed. Now, all it takes is a quick drive over the bridge to New Jersey and the proper
qualifications to buy legal and regulated weed. Forty years after the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, it’s interesting to see just how different things have become. In Pennsylvania, It’s relatively easy to cheat the system and obtain a medical card. All you need is a doctor’s note claiming you have one of the symptoms listed to make you eligible for the medicinal resource. Most people get diagnosed with anxiety, automatically qualifying them for the card and making them one step closer to the high-end products. In some states, just being over 65 makes you eligible. Websites like THCdesign also ease access to acquiring dispensary marijuana. A simple ‘yes’ to the screen asking if you’re 21—regardless of the truth—and you’re able to pe-
ruse over 15 different varieties of marijuana. Some websites even deliver right to your door for free or at a cheap rate.
“[With] your local weed dealer, I mean, the quality is not there, but it’ll be better next week. You’ll still pay the 50 bucks and you’ll feel good about it.”
But nothing tops the accessibility and cheap price of street weed, the arguably more popular bud of choice. It populates the streets of North Philly with its ‘loud’ smell and incessant appearance. Going in and out of house parties, laughing with your friends at the function, the smell—and its source—are almost always with you, like a bird on your shoulder you just can’t shake off. And because it’s everywhere, it’s relatively easy to acquire.
Street weed is easy. It’s a Snapchat message away, takes Venmo, and it doesn’t ID. It’s more personable. It’s your friend, you treasure them, you laugh with them. You can chitchat as you stand in their doorway counting out 5s or pulling up CashApp. Street weed can slide you an extra nug or two,
or give you a special price. Street weed isn’t cold and unfriendly. It knows your name and daps you up. Dispensaries are like a factory, everything in airtight bags, some even without people but rather an iPad for you to put your order in. You go in, press a button, swipe your card, and leave with your product. No chitchat. No daps. Just business.
Chris Goldstein, a cannabis consumer advocate, talks about the relationship between dealer and smoker: “The relationship between consumers and suppliers is pretty interesting. Your weed dealer is somebody that you know, somebody that you kind of care about in your neighborhood. But you don’t really care about big corporations, you just care if the price is good, and the quality is there. With your local weed dealer, I mean, the quality is not there, but it’ll be better next week. You’ll still pay the fifty bucks and you’ll feel good about it.” Goldstein stresses the benefits of dispensary weed, “Consistency! Your dealer always has different kinds of weed; the dispensary is always consistent. You’re going to know what you’re getting.”
Most have heard of the corner store dealer at the end of the block. They’re the small-time distributor fulfilling simple orders for the units down the
alleyways or the middleman between the big-time supplier and the frat house across the street. They are local celebrities seen as superheroes to many, coming in at the eleventh hour and saving the day. Without them, the well-oiled machine that is packing bowls and ripping bongs would not proceed.
Dealers can make a pretty penny selling weed. While it’s important to find a trusted person to buy your product from, it’s a relatively easy business to get into. It’s up to the dealers to make sure their clients are comfortable with them, and that they have a good relationship with each other.
One local dealer says it’s very important to have a trustworthy relationship with their customers: “It’s what keeps them coming back and giving more customers to me. It’s important to be friendly and answer your phone timely to keep them coming back. Trust is a big factor to make them feel safe because can be dangerous buying off of just anyone.”
Dealing is a dangerous game. There’s always the chance of legal problems or getting on the bad side of the wrong person. Dealers always need to watch their backs and have people watch out for them, as said by a local dealer. Conflict comes up with clients, missed
payments, and a bad shipment causing you to lose money. It’s inconsistent and unreliable. But the money is good. Boy, is it good.
Say a dealer buys a pound of weed for $1,200. There are 128 8ths in a pound of weed. The average 8th goes from 15 to 25 dollars on the street. Multiply that by 128 and you’re making anywhere between $1,920 and $3,200. Your profit is greatly outweighing the cost. That’s enough to keep people in the business. That much money is enough for people to ignore the potential consequences, like receiving fines or, worse, getting charged.
Avid smokers are familiar with the ins and outs of smoking. To be a smoker is to be familiar with the tricks and tactics that make up the lifestyle, like crumpling papers to get a tighter grip as you roll, or putting ice in the bong to ease the smoke on your throat. Typically, smokers will smoke whatever they have in front of them, but preferences lie, among an overwhelming majority, with dispensaries. Unfortunately for dispos, it’s their fees that are watering the grounds for their competition’s growth.
Medical cards cost $50 in state fees and an annual renewal cost of $100. To most people, the end does not jus-
tify the means. Fifty bucks is enough for weed for at least two weeks; paying that much just to get your foot in the door is absurd. Companies are getting increasingly greedy with their prices. Laws don’t control the price points for the dispensaries; the corporations that own them do, and they enjoy price gouging very much. Dispensary weed has become industrialized, making it harder to obtain high-quality weed.
Goldstein recalls a conversation he had with a friend on the issues with high cost at dispensaries, complaining that “people don’t even know what good weed is anymore cause they can’t afford to buy the good weed. They don’t even see it. They just can afford the cheap shake in a jar.” Unfortunately, that is more common than not these days.
PHOTO BY AMNA FAHEEM
Dispensary weed is better than that of the street and is worth seeking out a card or befriending someone with one. There’s no debate on that front. Lola, another avid smoker, concurs, maintaining that street weed is seldom as good, and dispensary carts will take the cake time and time again. The only thing keeping them in the street business is the cheap prices.
“I primarily smoke street stuff,” says Lola. “I get actual bud off the street. It’s cheaper than at the dispo. Dispo weed is better than most street weed, but it’s more expensive. I don’t have a med card, but I’m trying to get one. It’s expensive, but it’ll definitely be helpful in the future. I feel like in the long run it’ll be good for me.”
Zach joins Lola in this proclamation, and ex-
presses his disdain for dispensary prices, regardless of how good the product is: “When I got to Temple, I started buying from dispensaries. It was super-duper expensive. I’m talking a 75-dollar 8th; it was god-awful. You have to find deals. They have different
“A way to connect with people in skating was weed. I found my friends through smoking, hitting the bong, and rolling a joint.”
types—‘shake’ and ‘trim’—to try to divide it from the premium stuff. It’s all the same stuff, just different words.” Don’t fall for the fancy stuff; it’s all weed.
In the skating scene, weed is a chief facet of the culture. The community at the Cecil Skatepark is notoriously tight-knit and regarded as a very elite group of skaters; even fellow skaters are intimidated by their level of skill. When
the sun comes out behind the clouds and thermostats creep up, life returns to the concrete park, and with it, nature. Smoking not only unites people in the smoking realm but also creates partnerships and spreads love and passion.
Zach, who is also a member of the skatepark, speaks on what it’s like: “A way to connect with people in skating was weed. I found my friends through smoking, hitting the bong, and rolling a joint. It was always there to connect. I think it just goes hand in hand: kush and skateboarding. Sharing a passion makes a friend.”
Street weed fuels the community; many skaters are dealers themselves. Living a frugal lifestyle with their financial priorities going to skating equipment, shoes, and the best cheesesteaks, dispensary weed is not in their budget.
Street weed will always be a thing. It will always have customers and there will always be business. No one person gets all their product just from the dispensary, no matter how affluent they are. Sure, legal products are better on paper. But for some, nothing will beat the rush of texting your designated gardener every two weeks and going home with a Ziploc bag in your pocket, ready to turn to dust; your wallet feels good, and you feel even better.
OUR MODERN DYSTOPIA
Orwell was spot on in his warnings about mass surveillance, repression of individuality, and oppressive governments, but he miscalculated on some serious points.
BY SARAH FRASCA
u Driverless Ubers, Temu Superbowl advertisements, VR headsets worn on the street, Tesla Cybertrucks, criminalization of reproductive healthcare, radical book bans, Ozempic weight loss, buccal fat removal, BBLs, veneers, senile men ruling the country, ChatGPT, pornographic deepfakes, grocery store robots, TikTok-ification of music, reality television.
Whether our societal, governmental, economic, and technological progressions and regressions are entertaining or terrifying or both, it is undeniable that we are living in a modern dystopia.
Our world is both everything and nothing George Orwell predicted it would be in “Nineteen EightyFour.”
ART BY QUINN DOWD/@QUINNCODEMAYO
“Maybe his timing was a bit off. No matter: many of his warnings have manifested themselves in the United States.”
Seventy-five years ago, he wrote a cautionary tale warning us of the potential for mass surveillance, repressive regimentation of people and behaviors, and a totalitarian state to exist in a dystopian 1984 … a future that passed 40 years ago. Maybe his timing was a bit off. No matter: many of his warnings have manifested themselves in the United States.
Mass surveillance? Check!
Reminders of the oppressive leader of the totalitarian state Oceania permeated throughout all of Orwell’s bleak fictional society. We never truly
meet Big Brother as a character as he is more so a symbol of the ruling party Ingsoc, but the government having eyes on every single citizen at all times is a serious threat. Everyone in Oceania was required to keep on their “telescreens,” twoway televisions that allowed the Party to surveil its citizens.
While we don’t have telescreens, constant mass surveillance is fully accepted into our society. There is nearly nowhere in public — especially in a city like Philadelphia — except some blind spots in alleyways where there isn’t a security camera feeding back to the state government, a business or someone’s home.
Last year, Mayor Jim Ken-
ney planted more than 100 360-degree cameras near parks; pretty much every business keeps security cameras in and out of their stores, and now more and more homeowners are putting up Ring or Blink video doorbell cameras.
I’m not necessarily saying the cameras are inherently bad things; they’re all reactive measures. Kenney installed cameras after many incidents of gun violence occurred near parks. Philly businesses face vandalism and robbery and hope the cameras can deter it. Home doorbell cameras make people feel safer.
But footage can result in discriminatory targeting, misuse and abuse, and pushes
the boundaries of invasion of privacy. The lack of privacy is further perpetuated by a new form of surveillance: social media.
In public, anyone is in the background of a TikTok dance or interviewed in a prank video, regardless of whether you want to or not. Every time we venture into a community space, there is no doubt we’ll end up on camera one way or another. I live in fear of becoming TikTok’s next bullied background character.
And then we all know social media knows literally everything about you.
Repression of individuality? Check!
Any sort of human individuality or artistic expression is entirely barred from Oceania because the Ingsoc party sees it as a threat to its oppressive regime. Thought Police, the secret police of Oceania, control the masses by watching the security and vaporizing (or murdering and erasing all evidence of the existence of) anyone who dares to rebel against Big Brother.
America’s repression of individuality is a bit of a stretch from this, and it’s enforced differently, too. Social media is constantly changing aesthetics — “mob wife aesthetic” to “clean girl aesthetic” — and micro-trends — “blueberry milk nails” to “leggings legs” —
dominate the culture.
Just yesterday, I was scrolling through my TikTok “For You Page” and came across videos exclaiming “Tankinis are in this summer? But I want to wear a bikini!” It has become ridiculous how closely people adhere to social media trends to determine what they’ll be doing and wearing.
It is nearing the point where everyone who can afford surgery has the same face. With BBLs, veneers, and buccal fat removal on top of now commonplace facelifts and botox, unique faces are on their way out. My generation has been calling it “smartphone face.”
There might be repression of individuality similar to Orwell’s reality, too… How many times have we heard about the
mysterious deaths of activists or journalists about to uncover something the government may not want us to know? But I’m not one for conspiracy theories.
Totalitarianism? Um, maybe?
Although “Nineteen EightyFour” is set in London, I’ve been focusing on the Philadelphia experience. The totalitarian regime in Oceania can be seen in some spots around the globe, but very small pieces of it are starting to show up in America.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking the right to abortion two years ago, voter suppression laws exist across the country, nationalism is at an all-time high for some Americans, we live in a militarized police state, and censorship is thriving with the implementation of radical book bans on L.G.B.T.Q. content, even right outside Philadelphia in Bucks County. We may not have a dictator and still have some sort of democracy in place, but the future of our government hasn’t
been looking so hot. Think of Project 2025’s Presidential Transition Project, which wants to flood all roles with conservatives, expand presidential powers, gut the Environmental Protection Agency, rescind protections against L.G.B.T.Q. discrimination, further restrict reproductive healthcare, and instill Christian nationalism, among some other horrifying points in the case of a 2024 Republican win. We’re not currently in a totalitarian state, but it’s looming in the distance.
What Orwell didn’t see coming
But “Nineteen Eighty-Four” couldn’t even imagine some of the dystopian aspects of our world today.
Beyond public mass surveillance, there are secret cameras in hotel rooms and bathrooms, generating sexual abuse concerns. Beyond repression of individuality, people are killed for their race, gender, sexuality, and religion.
Pornographic artificial intelligence is targeting girls and women and ruining lives. The evolution of AI is also blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
We’ve also discovered the ability to connect with anyone around the world at any point, giving us a mirror of horrific acts of violence, wars, and genocides in places like Palestine and Congo. Social media allows us to organize, and we’re starting to see young people do just that. What will we do with our inability to be ignorant? Will there be an uprising in this dystopian world?
ART BY QUINN DOWD/@QUINNCODEMAYO
FINALLY,
SOBRIETY
After four decades of drinking, recovery never felt so good.
BY ANGILINA JULIA
It’s only April, but Richie Major is looking forward to August. The 27th, to be exact. On that date he will be nine years sober. “I never imagined life could be so splendid,” he says. “I still pinch myself on occasion and say, ’Oh, this is what life is supposed to be like.’” Now 71, Richie has retired from his career as an investment lawyer. He lives in South
Philly with his wife Carlye; he spends his days reading Victorian novels, working out at Fitness Works, and studying Buddhism, an interest he picked up during a six-month business trip in Beijing. He sees his two children and five grandchildren almost every weekend.
And on many afternoons he has lunch at the Broad Street Diner with my father,
also a recovering alcoholic. In some ways, they’re very different people. On paper, Richie had more conventional success. But their shared sobriety brought them together, and that’s what’s important now.
“Being sober is really my proudest accomplishment,” Richie says. “And it was the hardest to get to.”
PHOTOBYANGILINAJULIA
Richard Robinson Major II grew up in a quiet town outside of Boston in an equally quiet family. His parents were unaffectionate and uninterested in him, and his relationship with his two younger brothers felt just as distant. “I always had the sense that my family knew who I was, but they couldn’t quite place me,” he says.
Richie’s life followed an ideal American trajectory. He did very well in high school, went to Amherst College, then Georgetown Law. He became a globe-trotting investment lawyer, married his high school sweetheart, and had two children. But soon after graduating from college, Richie developed a bad relationship with alcohol. He found himself drinking more and more until he couldn’t get through a day without a drink.
Alcoholism took a serious toll on Richie’s mental health. For most of his adult life, Richie struggled with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He oscillated between bouts of severe depression and periods of relative normalcy. He had grown to believe that his depressive episodes were just part of life. “I just thought that emotional chaos and pain was what life was,” he says. Richie’s depressive episodes exacerbated his drinking, and the drinking exacerbated his depressive episodes. He was caught in a destructive cycle.
This cycle lasted until Richie was 60, when his alcoholism began to affect his brain. He was exhibiting symptoms that his doctors couldn’t understand: forgetting his belongings, falling down, getting lost. Fearing the worst, Carlye and Richie decided to move to Philadelphia to be closer to their children, who had moved there years prior. There, Richie met with neurologists and psychiatrists from hospitals all across the city. During these visits, no doctor could determine the cause of Richie’s declining brain function. That is, until a neurologist at Drexel asked Richie about his drinking habits. He answered the question honestly, and she determined that Richie was experiencing alcoholic cerebellar deterioration, or “wet brain.”
The neurologist gave Richie an ultimatum: he could stop drinking immediately
and restore his brain function, or he could keep drinking and damage it beyond repair. “That finally scared me enough to do something about it,” Richie says. “At about the same time, I found a doctor who was treating me for bipolar disorder.” Because Richie never displayed signs of mania or impulsivity, he was misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder. He was prescribed antidepressants for decades, which did nothing to treat him. During one of his hospital visits, a psychiatrist noticed the mistake and got him started on the right meds. “Things lined up that made it possible for me to become sober,” Richie says. In the days following Richie’s diagnosis, he worried that he wouldn’t be able to do
“Maybe people have an innate urge to be healthy and happy if they can find a way to do that. And maybe that was there in me just waiting to be freed up.”
it. Richie had spent nearly four decades trying to get sober on his own, to no avail. And the time had gone by so quickly. “One minute, I was 22, trying to decide what to do with myself. Next thing I knew, I was 62, and the decisions were all behind me.” He feared that he was too old, too far gone, that he had spent so much time as an alcoholic, he was doomed to stay one forever. Nonetheless, he soon joined a twelvestep program for men, where he built a support network of other people in recovery. That was hard: as an extremely quiet and introverted person, one of the hardest parts of recovery was putting himself out there. And the men in his program, located in the heart of South Philly, didn’t exactly make it easy. They were entirely different from the ones Richie had known. They were abrasive, hardened by their experiences with addiction. Richie recalls hearing traumatic stories of overdoses, jail
time, and families torn apart by addiction. The men who told those stories were open and honest about their faults, about their guilt, and they were unashamed. “They weren’t interested in sounding refined,” Richie remembers. “I heard a kind of blunt message, a life or death story that I hadn’t encountered before.”
But these stories were also full of hope. These men had overcome their struggles. They were sober, and their lives were better for it. Richie realized he could learn a thing or two from them. “I decided after having tried and failed to get sober for so long, this was my chance,” he says. “This was different. I thought somehow, I could get someplace with these guys. Maybe people have an innate urge to be healthy and happy if they can find a way to do that. And that was there in me waiting to be freed up.”
About six months into his recovery, Richie became friends with my father and his cousin Angelo, who were members of the same twelve-step program. They helped Richie build a solid foundation for his sobriety, and the trio became inseparable. In the three years since Angelo’s passing, Richie and my father have only grown closer. “Angelo saved my life and your father helped me change my life,” he says. “And I’ll always be grateful for that.”
The biggest struggle for Richie was finding forgiveness for himself. More than anything, Richie wanted to do right by his children. “I remember thinking ‘I’m gonna be a sober father and they’re gonna be proud of me,’” he recalls. Year after year, Richie tried. “The guilt and remorse for how I treated my family was almost more than I could bear.” But he did manage to repair his relationship with his children after becoming sober. Around the time he stopped drinking, Richie’s first grandson Jasper was born. Today, Richie has five grandchildren, and he spends as much time with them as possible. His ability to be present for them has given Richie a completely different view of himself.
This August, when Richie reaches nine years of sobriety, Jasper will be nine years old. Jasper has never seen him take a drink.
THE NEW SATANIC PANIC
Four decades ago, Americans were convinced that preschool teachers were molesting their children in the name of Satan. Now there’s a new bogeyman: drag queens and their story hours.
BY SARAH COLLINS
In the early 1980s in Manhattan Beach, California, a preschool founded by Virginia McMartin became the epicenter of allegations of child abuse, including claims of satanic rituals and molestation. Some of these allegations were bizarre in nature, and included claims that students had witnessed teachers flying and that there were secret tunnels under the preschool used to transport children. In 1984, hundreds of charges of child abuse were brought against six members of the school’s staff and the founder. By the time the trial began in 1987, charges had been dropped against all but two defendants: the founder of the school and her son. Despite the prosecution’s efforts, the case resulted in no convictions by the time of its
conclusion in 1990. It remains the longest and costliest trial in American history. Satanic ritual abuse taking place against children at the school was never proven, but the seed had been planted. The idea of widespread Satanic abuse took root in Americans’ collective consciousness and blossomed into claims that child abuse, purportedly Satanic in nature, was happening in schools all over America.
Undeterred by the lack of concrete evidence in the McMartin case, the sensationalized media coverage and public hysteria surrounding the allegations helped cement the belief in the existence of secret Satanic cults perpetrating unspeakable acts against children. Parents, educators, and law enforcement officials be-
gan to view seemingly innocuous events through a lens of suspicion. As a result, numerous other daycare centers and preschools became targets of investigations, and countless individuals found themselves accused of heinous crimes based on flimsy evidence and unfounded allegations.
Despite the lost court cases, paranoia continued to snowball over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, and the fear of Satanism permeated popular culture. Pop artist Madonna released the music video to her song ‘Like a Prayer’ in 1989 and was met with swift backlash. Critics claimed that the video, which featured provocative religious iconography, was blasphemous, with even the Vatican Church condemning the video and calling for a
boycott of the popstar. Other artists who pushed the boundary with their music faced similar criticisms, and the Satanic Panic was prominent in multiple facets of American culture.
“While we may
look back at the Satanic Panic of the 1980s
and recognize the absurdity of the claims made at the time, our current political landscape is just as ludicrous.”
While
we may look back at the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and
recognize the absurdity of the claims made at the time, our current political landscape is just as ludicrous. The rhetoric used by such groups as Moms for Liberty has burst into political discourse, rearing its head fully again in modern politics.
Today, certain conservative politicians are campaigning against the social progress that has been made in America and are determined to bring the country back to a time when traditional values reigned supreme and when they had more control over America’s political landscape.
“What motivates many on the religious right is the fear that they’re losing influence, that they haven’t been influencing American politics anymore,” says Michael Hagen, a political science professor at Temple University. “And the fact is, they’re absolutely wrong. They have a great deal of influence in American politics. They may not have as much as they’d like, but who does?”
In our current political moment, we are in the midst of an alarming moral panic that utilizes similar rhetoric to that of the Satanic Panic. The religious right has shifted its focus to attack another target that it claims is a threat to the wellness of our nation and our children: the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
The shift to target this group did not come out of nowhere.
Jennifer Pollitt, who has a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality and is an Assistant Professor and the Assistant Director of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Temple University, says that the targeting of the L.G.B.T.Q. community is the result of decades of effort.
PHOTO BY PAMELA COLMAN SMITH
ART BY TONY VRICELLA/@DEVIL.GUY.TATTOO
“Starting in the 1970s, we see a concerted effort by the religious right,” she says. “You start to see organization and solidification of the religious right. And so now 40-plus years later, we’re seeing the fruits of all that labor, of all of those conservative talking points, of all of the fear, panic, all of the pieces of policy and legislation. Now we’ve got a new generation that is using some of the old tactics to create just the same exact storm.”
Conservatives have implemented a series of talking points to raise alarm. The most divisive talking point is the perpetuation of the “groomer” theory, a harmful and baseless stereotype against the
L.G.B.T.Q. community that has origins in the early 20th century. Members of the right have used it to imply that individuals actively seek out and recruit children to adopt non-heteronormative identities and that they do so to indoctrinate children and normalize pedophilia.
“We’re seeing the reemergence of all this language,” says Pollitt. “Everything that is old is new again. It’s really harmful because it makes people afraid. And most people are going to stay afraid or anxious, and maybe nothing awful will happen. But for some people, they’ll think, ‘Oh my gosh, L.G.B.T.Q. folks are out to hurt my kid,’” Pollitt says, “And this
is where we see homophobia and transphobia turn into violence. It’s dangerous when you intentionally try to make people afraid of others, where they don’t have to be afraid at all.”
Similar to the era of the Satanic Panic, the religious right is using the reasoning of protecting the wellbeing of the nation’s children to rally support from the public for bringing the country back to traditional values. As a result, lawmakers have drafted numerous bills calling for the censorship of curriculum in American schools. Infamously, legislation targeting the education system in the United States first gained substantial traction with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill. Better known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill,’ the policy was signed into law in 2022 with the purpose of “prohibiting discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom in certain grade levels.” The bill alleged that instruction regarding topics like identity and sexuality is inappropriate for young children and that they should not be exposed to these discussions. Since the passage of the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill,’ several other states have followed suit in crafting similar legislation, with censorship in schools being a hot-button issue across the country.
The targeting of the education system in particular is a calculated move. Pollitt says that policy focusing on education provides lawmakers with
more social control. “Education is so powerful. The more knowledge that you give people, the more access you give folks to their bodily autonomy, to agency, to critical thinking and decision making,” Pollitt says, “The more that you can do to chip away at education, the more you are able to make people conform, the more you are able to have social control. And so that is why we’re seeing all of these censorship things, all of these book bans, all of these ‘Don’t Say Gay’ things.” Members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community are not just facing threats at the legislative level, but also in the court of public opinion. In the age of technology where social media allows for the widespread dissemination of misinformation, we are arguably more susceptible to a moral panic now than ever. The instantaneous and borderless nature of social media enables sensationalized narratives to spread like wildfire, often without involving the necessary skepticism or fact-checking. Algorithms designed to maximize user engagement can amplify controversial and emotionally-charged content, further exacerbating the propagation of panic-inducing information. Libs of TikTok is a popular account on X, formerly known as Twitter. Run by Chaya Raichik, the account posts videos of members and supporters of the L.G.B.T.Q. community to mock them and spread anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiment. Many of their posts feature teachers
and other school faculty members. The replies in response to Libs of TikTok’s posts are filled with individuals calling staff members and others groomers and predators and include other disparaging homophobic remarks. Schools with staff members featured on the page have received threats.
Across America in the 1980s, teachers and childcare workers faced damaging accusations that they were involved in Satanic abuse and that they were abusing children. Today, teachers face threats online for being a part of, and even just supporting, the L.G.B.T.Q. community. “It’s incredibly parallel,” says Pollitt. “It’s just a different medium, but the message, the outcome, is the same. And when we keep pushing this narrative that people in the L.G.B.T.Q. community are grooming our children, that our children are unsafe, it’s actually taking time, energy and resources away from focusing on how to actually make kids safer.”
Brittany Lynn is a drag queen who has been active in the Philadelphia drag scene since 1996, when she was called on stage by the hostess of a drag show and was later encouraged to enter a drag competition. Lynn entered a competition at the Gayborhood bar 12th Air Command, now called Tabu, and won on her first try. She has been performing ever since.
Today, Lynn is the Don of Philly’s Drag Mafia, the ar-
ea’s most award-winning drag troupe. She runs the Philadelphia chapter of Drag Queen Story Time, where local drag queens read story books to children while in drag. She has also written two children’s books of her own that feature lessons of acceptance and the importance of being one’s self.
Rhetoric targeting the L.G.B.T.Q. community has thrust events like Drag Queen Story Time into the national debate. Critics have opposed the concept of children attending drag performances and accuse them of being age-inappropriate. Lynn has faced harassment online from those who oppose the concept of Drag Queen Story Time and other drag events geared toward youth.
School to dance provocatively, which is a big joke, if you ever see me try to dance,” Lynn says, “And they said that I will be performing sex acts in front of children while their parents were unaware and the school was allowing this.”
“I think that with each push we make towards progress we always have a little bit of a backslide or a big backslide and right now, the pendulum is swinging back hard.”
Lynn has been featured on Libs of TikTok’s page multiple times. In March, Lynn performed at Northeast High School. Libs of TikTok posted the flier to the show along with an unrelated photo of Lynn from a drag history book in which she poses ‘sitting like a man’ while wearing a babydoll dress as a play on gender. The post alleged that the content of the show would be inappropriate. “They said that I would be coming to Northeast High
The harassment Lynn has faced has not just been limited to online. Groups have come in person to protest scheduled Drag Queen Story Time events. Lynn does not let the criticism get to her. Protestors attempted to disrupt a story time that Lynn was putting on at the National Liberty Museum, but originally showed up to the wrong museum at the wrong time. They showed up to the correct location as Lynn was leaving the event, and she rolled down the window of her Uber to speak with the protestors. “I said, ‘Maybe you guys should come to Drag Queen Story Time because you were unable to read the time, date and location. If you’re going to come protest me, then make sure you’re on time and at the right place,’” Lynn told them. “This is why literacy is so important.”
Despite the protests of Drag Queen Story Time, Lynn finds that the support for the initiative outweighs the negativi-
ty. “People want this. I would say maybe 30% of the families that come are L.G.B.T.Q. 70% of them are heteronormative and they’re so supportive, and they just want their kids to see drag queens and see and hear stories about other cultures and stuff. The parents are so thankful because some of them have kids that are questioning and they’re very thankful when they come to the program. And sometimes we get really emotional at these events because you see the parents are all teary-eyed or you see the kids that you can kind of tell are questioning youth and they just look so relieved to see that there’s others out there.”
With the upcoming 2024 presidential election, the stage is set for the morality of social issues like L.G.B.T.Q. rights to be called into question. Their uncertain future will be determined by the political party that wins the election.
Despite the negative discourse and the targeting of the L.G.B.T.Q. community today, Pollitt thinks that in the long term, moral panic of today won’t hold. “I think that with each push we make towards progress we always have a little bit of a backslide or a big backslide and right now, the pendulum is swinging back hard,” Pollitt says, “But I think when the pendulum swings again, it’s gonna swing back even harder, and it’s gonna break through all of that panic.”
and the PAM VAN
When Philabundance was one woman in a Subaru.
BY JEANNE BURGE
Equipped with a blue Subaru station wagon and a desire to help food insecurity in Philadelphia, Pamela Rainy Lawler established Philabundance on Mother’s Day Weekend in 1984. Since then, Philabundance has grown to become one of Philadelphia’s most be-
“We had a small refrigerated truck, and we had a couple of vans. We were growing, but we needed more and our reputation was growing.”
loved nonprofit organizations. The food bank—which serves hundreds of communities in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey—came about when Lawler realized just how much food was wasted in the city. “Food was a very big part of my life,” she recalls. “I was a foodie.”
The year 1984 was a pivotal moment both personally and culturally. Ronald Regan was president; poverty in America was on the rise; and there was a famine in Ethiopia. Lawler was a mom working at the Hay Group, a consult-
PHOTO BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
Pam Lawler started Philabundance over 40 years ago from her trunk. Now they have a fleet of vans to deliver and pick up food.
“It’s so important that people feel connected to
ing firm, and spent time renovating her Roxborough home when she read Starving in the Shadow of Plenty by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel.
“And because she was Philadelphia-based, she focused on Philadelphia,” says Lawler, “and I read that book and it really opened my eyes… I remember being in a Salad Alley on Sansom Street, and looking at all of the vegetables and the greens and wondering what was going to happen to it at the end of the day.”
Seeing food production piqued Lawler’s curiosity about the production cycle of food. These thoughts and questions, combined with her background in writing and researching and position at the Hay Group, inspired Lawler to embark on a research project about food production. What she mainly found was a concern with perishable foods. “And what I found over a period of time was that this food was not being collected,” says Lawler. “And very clearly, people felt that you could not collect and distribute perishable foods, that there were safety issues, food safety issues.”
So she devised a business plan to make use of perishable food. In the process of establishing her plan, Lawler realized that she needed a catchy name and logo. The name Philabundance was created at a family dinner when Lawler asked her hus-
band and children to help brainstorm company names, and Lawler’s late husband, Dennis, popped the suggestion. From that moment on, Lawler was able to go all-in to support Philadelphians facing food insecurities.
The year 1989 was another “pivotal moment” for Philabundance, as Lawler puts it. A collaboration with UPS, combined with a growing staff, showed Lawler that some changes needed to be made. In order for the business to grow, she had to hire leadership. “So that was a turning point for me, to bring someone else on at that point,” she says. “We had a small refrigerated truck, and we had a couple of vans. We were growing, but we needed more and our reputation was growing.”
The next major change in Phila-
Shataiah Holland stands inside the walk-in at PCK’s learning kitchen.
PHOTO BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
the work and to the people who we’re serving.”
bundance’s history was the establishment of the Philabundance Community Kitchen (PCK). PCK was started by a former Chief Impact Officer at Philabundance, Melanie Cataldi. Cataldi got her start in food after transitioning from corporate life back to education, receiving an undergraduate degree in food and nutrition science and a master’s in public health. Her master’s project focused on the intersection of food and workforce development. Using a $25,000 grant, Cataldi was asked to help start the Philabundance Community Kitchen. In the kitchen, fresh food is turned into prepared meals, which are then shipped out to schools, senior centers, and other community settings.
As Philabundance approaches 40 years after Mother’s Day Weekend, the organization is an $80 million operation with 154 employees.
The current Chief
Executive Officer, Loree D. Jones-Brown, says that Philabundance plans to kick off celebrations starting in May this year and lasting until May 2025. “We’re going to spend these 12 months really amplifying the work that we’re already doing, talking about the impact of our community partners, and then attaching the fortieth to a number of other existing events,” says JonesBrown.
After Jones-Brown became CEO in 2020, Philabundance has pushed to provide nutritional, healthy foods to communities and continues to do so. Philabundance has hosted President Joe Biden three times in four years and revealed their new fortieth-anniversary logo at his recent visit this past Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Since Pamela Rainey Lawler founded Philabundance in 1984, both she and the organization continue to dedicate themselves to supporting the health and well-being of Philadelphians.
Her feeling of connection to the people she helped, and the people who helped her, is what has sustained her in her mission all these years. “It’s so important that people feel connected to the work and to the people who we’re serving,” says Lawler, “because things aren’t going to change unless those relationships are there.”
Industrial mixer inside PCK’s professional production kitchen.
PHOTO BY WILL KIRKPATRICK
Girl Talk: What college girls think of “girlhood” trends.
BY FALLON ROTH
“ I’m just a girl!!!” I think as I fling myself into a torn seat on the SEPTA regional rail or try to fold a fitted sheet or get cut off while driving by a Ford F-150. “I’m just a girl, why must I bother myself with the stressful intricacies of the day-to-day when I could be reading my silly little thriller novels and listening to Taylor Swift?”
“I’m just a girl” is admittedly a brand new phrase that has been entered into my vocabulary after seeing hundreds of TikToks and Instagram reels using the same terminology. From the girlies who brought you “girl dinner,” we now have “I’m just a girl,” “girl math,” and “tomato girl summer.” These girlhood trends are providing young women everywhere the ability to classify their interests, food habits,
and fashion aesthetics; we can now seek comfort in the nostalgia of wearing bows in our hair, Mary Janes on our feet, and watching the Barbie movie on repeat.
Girl dinner is a smattering of snacks for dinner. Girl math is a roundabout way of calculating numbers so the item you’re about to buy is actually free (in your mind). Tomato girl summer is an aesthetic where you dress like you’re about to go to the Amalfi Coast or other famous-tomato-dish-places and eat tomatoes. “Rat girls” aren’t afraid to “scurry” around the city while not looking or acting their best. The list doesn’t stop there, a quick search on Google, TikTok or Instagram will display the vast array of girl typologies.
But are these trends empowering or infantilizing to college-aged women? Some students believe the trends can be harmful to eating habits and patronizing to women who have fought so hard to be taken seriously by male colleagues and peers. Others believe that girlhood trends foster a sense of community among other young women, regardless if these trends are taken seriously or ironically. Is there something freeing about tapping into girliness and femininity? Or are women belittling themselves into girls who are not equipped to make adult decisions?
“A lot of people want to feel like they belong in a certain place and not everyone can really find that.”
Shannon Roth (no relation), an ed-
like they belong in a certain place and not everyone can really find that,” Roth says. “And I feel like with girlhood trends and just like, all of those things as a whole especially with the Barbie movie and everything coming out and how that sparked a lot of things, I feel like it helped women feel like they have a place to share their thoughts and feel better about themselves.”
2023 was the year of girl power media. America Ferrara’s feminist speech from the Barbie movie was plastered across social media, Taylor Swift, who has battled the patriarchy since the beginning of her career, started her revolutionary The Eras Tour and Beyoncé (“Who run the world? Girls”) launched her iconic RENAISSANCE world tour. These events and more coined summer 2023 as the “Summer of the Girl.”
However, context is important, says Temple University international business freshman Brooke Anderson. There are some fun aspects to playing into girlhood trends, especially the notion that girls are free to do whatever they want, but other trends, namely girl dinner, can be
that women should be eating smaller portions, Her Campus Media reported. It’s important for girl dinners to have protein, healthy fats and fiber-based carbohydrates to effectively replace a meal.
The trends may be trying too hard to fit girls into boxes, Roth adds.
“I feel like everyone feels the need to specifically fit into what kind of girl someone else is telling them to be. Like, I remember, there was this one trend called the tomato girl and everyone was like, ‘Oh, I wish I could be like a tomato girl,’” Roth says. “Like, what are we even talking about?”
There is a lot of pressure to fit into a certain aesthetic and while the whimsicality of the girlhood trends—wearing bows, dressing super feminine or coquette—is exciting to see and participate in, any trend taken to an extreme can be harmful, says Matera Nefferdorf.
“I think some of it is really great, but at the same time, it can be like infantilizing, especially with some of the bows and pigtails and stuff like that,” Nefferdorf says. “Like not everyone, but I think it’s really if you just take it to an extreme that there’s always going to be some negative repercussions.”
“Some of that’s kind of harmful because it’s not healthy in a way,” Anderson says. “In a sense, it’s not nutrition, it’d be like a small, little portion of something which is not substantial, enough for like a female, like for us, to eat so it really just depends on what someone is calling girl dinner.”
Girl dinner does not always exemplify the healthiest form of eating because it can promote diet culture and the idea
Some of those repercussions could include not being taken seriously by male colleagues or peers based on how women dress. Women have historically felt the need to contort themselves in the workplace or school to be less feminine.
“I think just because that it’s always been a stereotype of like, girls are just, you know, into clothes and stuff like that, that I think it’s better to just right off the bat just be who you want to be and dress how you want and it can definitely be intimidating with people and guys like that,” Nefferdorf adds.
Regardless, it’s important to normalize femininity in society, says Aisha Khalid, a junior legal studies major.
“There are a lot of people, a lot of females, a lot of women out here who want to empower and want to keep pushing, especially in these male industries,” Khalid says, “and I feel like we have to all come together and realize that and put our differences and our annoyingness aside.”
ART BY SARAH FRASCA
From China, With Love
SStanding 40 feet tall over the intersection of Tenth and Arch streets, the Chinatown Friendship Gate is an anchor for Philadelphia’s historic Chinatown community and serves as a symbolic entrance to the neighborhood.
In 1979, Philadelphia and Tianjin became sister cities after the United States established diplomatic ties with China. The tiles on the gate were provided by Tianjin and the construction of the arch was crafted by Chinese artisans, making the gate the first authentic Chinese gate built in America. The Friendship Gate was dedicated in 1984 to honor the new friendship between the two cities. It also paid tribute to the cultural significance of Chinatown. Chinatown was established in 1871 when the first business, a laundry, began there. Kaya Chau is a co-founder of Students for the Preservation of Chinatown and says that Chinatown was created in response to the racism and discrimination that Chinese immigrants faced in the United States. Having nowhere else to go, Chinese
immigrants built their own community where they could be accepted.
“It’s really important to think about why Chinatowns exist in the first place, especially on the East Coast,” Chau says. “Chinatowns exist because when Chinese laborers came here in the 1800s, they were not welcome anywhere else. They were created by Chinese laborers who were escaping persecution from when they lived on the West Coast, they were escaping racial violence. And so Chinatowns have really been born out of segregation.”
Kenny Chiu grew up in Chinatown and says that the neighborhood provided his family with an important sense of belonging and community. “My mom and dad are immigrants,” Chiu says. “They settled in Chinatown because it was a place where they could find housing, they could find a job where they didn’t really need English, they could find their community, and at least some semblance of where they came from.”
In 2004, tiles on the gate were replaced along with the structure being stabilized
BY SARAH COLLINS
following two decades of wear and tear due to being exposed to the elements. In 2008, the gate was repainted to restore it to its original glory. Artisans from Tianjin returned to Philadelphia to repaint the gate, and once again made sure to follow traditional methods and use traditional materials in the renovation. The city worked to find materials like pigs’ blood to use as part of the paint mixture and heavy rice paper for pattern transfer.
Sixteen years have passed since the gate was repainted, and it has been worn down again. In 2026, Philadelphia will see an influx of visitors due to major events coming to the city.
A new renovation is in store, as the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation wants to get ahead of the foot traffic coming for the World Cup, MLB All Star Game, and America’s 250th Celebration.
“It definitely needs some work and definitely needs some repair,” says Haoyi Shang, a commercial corridor manager at PCDC. “So we want to renovate our Chinatown gate for 2026.”
PHOTO BY GARETT FADELEY
Like a
Donning a white wedding dress covered in frills, ruffles, and tulle all tied together with a belt reading “BOY TOY,” legendary pop star Madonna christened MTV’s first Video Music Awards with a risqué performance of her hit song “Like a Virgin”; she arched her back, opened her legs, and thrust her hips into the floor, even baring her undergarments to an unsuspecting audience. While the performance might be tame for the typical desensitized Gen Z’er of today, viewers in 1984 gasped at the provocative movements.
Madonna’s performance generated controversy from viewers for its “sinful” nature and basically birthed the VMAs—and award show culture in general. Forty years later, the VMAs continue to gift us iconic pop culture moments forever cemented
IRGIN!
in time: Lady Gaga’s meat dress, Britney Spear’s performance featuring a live snake, and Kanye interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, just to name a few. Musicians love generating controversy as
“Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder.”
a form of self-promotion. Even West Philadelphia’s Will Smith dabbled in award show controversy when he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. They’ve been doing it since the dawn of celebrity, but the VMAs provided the perfect platform for the provocative. Celebrities were gathered together and televised for all to see, and
BY JEANNE BURGE
they had the opportunity to make a scene. Controversy can develop individualism, something musicians highly value, says Jack Klotz, the vice chair of media studies and production at Temple University. “If you want to gain a foothold in the marketplace, you need to differentiate yourself.”
As a marketing strategy, award shows can garner a lot of attention for artists, especially when they pull some ploy to make headlines. Provocative, overtly sexual performances typically spark conversations about their place in televised shows. “Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder,” Klotz notes. Now, these moments are consistently replayed and meme-d across the internet. Social media allow artists to repost their performances and make their own at home, enabling viewers to further interact with them when conversations about it happen in the news.
However, Stephen Vanyo, an entertainment lawyer and adjunct instructor at Temple University, says that obscenity without purpose does not help or promote artists. Musicians have extensive teams in the background to help advise and design their image. A good team will guide artists to make decisions that boost their careers while maintaining their reputations. They certainly don’t want a bad move to lead to cancellation.
The long-lasting legacy of the VMAs has continuously provided a space for musicians and artists to experiment with shock—whether they have a good team or not. As we shift into a world revolving around virality, award show shenanigans are a clever way for artists to crossover from the broadcast sector into social media. Since Madonna’s first performance at the VMAs, the show continues to seal its place in music history as a hub for clever, controversial attention-grabbing.
Every Forty Years
BY JOHN MARCHESE
The last time I wrote for Philadelphia People – the premier issue, Spring 1984 – I did it on a knockoff IBM Selectric typewriter, slid the typed pages into a manilla envelope and drove my 1977 Volkswagen to campus to deliver the story in person. We didn’t do digital in those days.
My piece, which ended up being titled “An Energetic Person’s Guide to Laziness,” was an attempt at humor. And even after all these years it does make me laugh…at the thought that someone would publish the thing. I was trying to poke fun at the emerging Yuppie culture of overachievement and conspicuous consumption, using my unique perspective as an unadulterated underachiever. Temple was my third university on a nine-year crooked trek toward an undergraduate degree. I was scratching out a living as a trumpet player (I’ll wager that I’m the only journalism major whose tuition was subsidized with music scholarships) and planned to keep doing that even after being anointed with a B.A. in Communications. Having bounced back and forth between music schools and journalism programs at a few other universities, I was impressed
by the topography of Temple Journalism. There were peaks in the instruction, certainly, but also deep valleys. In a journalism history class, I sat through hours of lectures on newspapers in island nations, because that was the professor’s research specialty. Don’t remember ever hearing a word about Ida Tarbell, or The Amsterdam News, or even Joseph Pulitzer. There was one survey class whose title I can’t recall, but I’ll never forget that the professor regularly fell asleep during class, sometimes in mid-sentence. His snoring was more interesting than his lectures.
A welcome exception to all this tedium was a class in copy editing taught by adjunct professor J. Wyatt Mondesire. Jerry would come up to Temple from his job at the Inquirer and he was close enough to the front lines that he knew there was no way he could lecture us about how to edit copy. Instead, on Fridays we would all skip out of Annenberg Hall and cross Broad Street to the apartment of a class member, where we would drink beer and listen to Jerry gossip about the Inquirer and Daily News, Philadelphia politics, race relations (he would later head the local NAACP) and some sports. In all, one of
my best academic experiences.
While I have many memories of my years at Temple, I’ve retained just two tangible keepsakes. My diploma is in a box somewhere in a basement storage unit. And I saved my last grade report. It shows an A for jazz instrumental arranging, another A for symphonic wind ensemble, another A in psychology – and a D for advanced magazine writing.
I’m not sure even now what advanced magazine writing is. The professor was a nice enough fellow who yearned to write for Reader’s Digest, but never really wrote much of anything, basic or advanced, for that or any other magazine. Still, he somehow got the notion that magazines were sticklers about deadlines and that he should be, too. I handed in my final paper a day or two late and that meant a D, no excuses accepted.
Still, I graduated, and even managed to get paid to attend the graduation ceremony by playing in the band. Not long after getting that final low grade I started getting paid to write magazine articles. Nearly forty years on I have written scores of articles (no doubt a few could be considered “advanced”) for dozens of magazines, though I never tried Reader’s Digest. Luckily, not one editor ever asked how I’d done in magazine writing in college. Along the way, I even missed a few deadlines and was never penalized. Not to brag, but no matter what that professor thought, and despite my early advocacy for underachievement in this magazine, I believe that any objective scorer would grade my magazine career a solid C minus.
Of course, I typed this story on a computer and pushed a key to deliver it digitally to the professor who oversees the production of the successor to Philadelphia People. I sent it early on the morning of the day it was due. For some reason, despite my conscientious alacrity, he gave me a D.
John Marchese, ‘84, went on to write for Philadelphia Magazine, The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, Men’s Health, Discover and Pakn Treger, the journal of the National Yiddish Book Center. He has authored two books, “Renovations” and “The Violin Maker.”
Marchese as an undergrad: mad, bad, and dangerous to know