In our first episode, we’ll learn about Indigenous People’s Day celebrations in our area, a series of clinics to help people clear their criminal records, and what happens when somebody steals your check from the mail… and cashes it.
Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s new LIVE community news radio program, featuring stories from Philadelphia’s neighborhoods as reported by PhillyCAM’s Radio News Fellows, a multigenerational cohort of burgeoning local journalists. Tune in for new episodes every other week, Wednesdays 5:30-6pm on WPPM 106.5 FM and phillycam.org/listen.
Block by Block is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Salina Singleton, Michelle Gilliard-Houston and Wayne Hunter. This episode is hosted by Michelle Gilliard-Houston and Wayne Hunter.
Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.
This episode featured music from Brujo de la Mancha.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.
Wayne Hunter This is Block by Block, a community news program from w p m l p one hundred and six point five FM, where we explore issues affecting the Philadelphia area, with interviews and news reports filed by members of the community. I’m Wayne Hunter.
Michelle Gilliard Houston And I’m Michelle Gillard, Houston. We’re part of a team of community news fellows who have been working on the show. We’ll be broadcasting new episodes of Block by Block every other Wednesday evening at five thirty p m on w p m. In this first episode, we’ll learn about Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations in our area, a series of clinics to help people clear their criminal records. And what happens when somebody steals your check from the mail and cashes it.
Wayne Hunter To start things off, we have a report on an Indigenous Peoples Day. Too often, children learn about indigenous people in history books as though native populations only existed in the past or on reservations. This is especially true in East Coast cities like Philadelphia, but we have an extremely active and rich community of indigenous people here. Several Indigenous People Day celebrations are scheduled for this weekend, and block by block reporter Bruno de La Mancha has spoken to one of these organizers to find out more about the twelfth annual celebration in the Philadelphia area.
Brujo de La Mancha This is Bruja de la Mancha, and we’re having a different cycle. Ideas of news. This is called Philly Indigenous People or who you are here in Philadelphia as indigenous peoples. We will interview one of those other persons that have been known for so long and doing a lot of different things in the community. So I always like to start introducing the people by themselves. I don’t do it. This is my own way. Uh, here, behind the scenes. I have an old friend. I’m just going to ask you this question. Who are you? How do you describe yourself to people?
Wanda Hilton Hi, Bruno, this is Wanda Hilton. I am the artistic director and founder of Native Nations Dance Theatre, which has been in existence since nineteen ninety one here in Philadelphia. As one of the American Indian dance companies. We’ve traveled all over the world. We’ve been to eight different countries sharing Native American history stories, songs, and dances with everyone. I personally am a powwow dancer. I dance three different styles women’s, traditional, women’s fancy, and women’s jingle. Members of my family as well. We travel all over the United States, going to various different powwows all over in different tribal areas, and we dance as many powwows as we can during the spring and summer months. So we do that as a family unit, and we also travel as a family unit with the dance company. So that’s just a little bit about what I do, what I’m doing today.
Brujo de La Mancha That’s wonderful. Well, as you know, uh, things in Philadelphia is changing a lot. Can you talk to us about the story, the development of the Philadelphia Indigenous People Day?
Wanda Hilton Absolutely. Um, indigenous day, uh, is a very special day for native people and indigenous people who hail from some type of indigenous community, whether it be in North America, Central or South America. Indigenous day is one of those days that we have been fighting for for many, many years, a very long time. We’ve been fighting to have just a day to recognize indigenous people and the accomplishments of indigenous people here from North America, the first people or the people of Turtle Island. It is a very special time. It’s a very special day. And today we have a lot. Indigenous day celebrations. We have one here in Philadelphia that has been going on for the past twelve years, and that is done in conjunction with and has been done for the twelve years previous. And it is the first and oldest indigenous day program that we have here in our area, in our region. So we also have this year, we have an indigenous day program on Saturday, October eighth in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, at the Community Arts Center from twelve to five. This is the first year for this Indigenous Day program. There’s going to be various things going on Native American songs, stories, dances, speakers. We’re going to have a Native American food tasting and an art exhibit at that particular Indigenous Day program. And then on October ninth, we have an Indigenous Day program that’s held in Bartram Gardens, which is the one that is done in conjunction with Native Nations Dance Theatre only, and some of the other organizations in the Philadelphia area, and we’re very happy to be doing that one again, which is going to be right by the water there on the Bartram Garden. And again, various activities. We’re going to have activities for dancers. We’re going to have drumming musicians, and there will also be food at this one as well. And all of these indigenous day programs have been growing in size from year to year. But again, the very first one that was held here, and also Pauline Songbird, my mother, and Pocahontas Allen are the ones that are responsible for starting the very first Indigenous Day committee here in Philadelphia, along with Lesley Cormack.
Brujo de La Mancha Thank you so much for to be with us here, but one that’s a pleasure to have you always in Philly and teaching to us. The current history of Philadelphia and other things that happened in around enabled people. One more question before we go. What does it mean to be a neighbor of indigenous people living in Philadelphia.
Wanda Hilton Um, what does it mean to be, first of all, native people that live here in Philadelphia where we’re urban Indians, we’re urban, urban native. We live in the city. However, we could have come from a rural area or an area otherwise known as the country area. We could have come from a tribal community and resettled into the Philadelphia area. So there are many different facets to what it means to be a Native American here living in the city. Also at the University of Pennsylvania, there is a native organization there, natives at Penn, which they are trying to recruit students from all over different tribal nations to come to Philadelphia to go to the University of Pennsylvania. So there’s a big recruitment program there for that. So their students that are coming from tribal areas and different countries like Canada, who are coming here to try to learn what it is to be a city native, so to speak. We have a lot of challenges here in the city of Philadelphia, being that we are native people living in a city type of environment. And one of the things that that I have come to know from being an urban native for so long is that we desperately need a place to be. We need a Native American community house or Native American center where we can all be involved with one another and continue our educational programs, our performances, and our speakers bureaus all need to try to operate out of a facility where we can all commune together. So we have a lot of challenges here. So we’re, you know, working on these challenges, and hopefully we will be able to come together and bring ourselves together and start to produce in our community. Our economic way needs to be uplifted, and we need to really try to come together as people, even though we come from many different tribes and many different tribal areas in the city, we all have to find some type of common ground where we can operate from to do all of these fantastic things that we have to do and that we would like to do in the city.
Brujo de La Mancha Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure for us to hear all this great information here in Philly. Uh, Cam and Philly news, thank you so much to be here today.
Wanda Hilton Thank you. I really appreciate it. Hope to talk to you soon.
Brujo de La Mancha Thank you.
Wayne Hunter The first ever Indigenous Peoples Day event in Wallingford takes place from noon to five on Saturday afternoon at the Wallingford Community Arts Center. The twelfth annual Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in Philadelphia will be at Bartram Gardens from one to five on Sunday afternoon.
Michelle Gilliard Houston A new type of crime is sweeping through Philly and it’s called check washing. People who place checks in a mailbox to pay their bills are finding those checks have been stolen and then cashed by a thief who changes the name and dollar amount on the check. Wayne, you’ve been following this troubling trend. What can you tell us about it?
Wayne Hunter Michele, as you know, I’m the owner operator of a technical solutions company. One of my primary duties is to help businesses and individuals stay safe in this rapidly changing world. In that role, I’ve met several people who have experienced a crime called check washing. I filed the story of some of those people and asked them to share them here. What follows are interviews from Tom Swift and Linda Baker, respectively.
Tom Swift The way we found out is we got a call from someone who sounded very credible from a bank, and they had our check number and the amount that the check was made out for. And they said they wanted to verify some information about the check. And so my wife called that number back and she told me immediately she knew it was a scam. Immediately it was a scam. And I don’t remember why and that she knew it was, but that she knew it was a scam. And so we, uh, we called our bank. Um, we pulled down our checks and found out that those checks had been altered. You could see, and they were cashed by someone else. Um, and that’s how we found out.
Wayne Hunter What steps did you take after you found out about that?
Tom Swift So we contacted the bank. Uh, we were delighted to hear that the bank would cover the loss. Um, these checks were for what we considered to be significant amounts of money, and the bank immediately assured us that they could cover the loss. I don’t know how they did that, but I was grateful for that. And we then, um, contacted both of the companies to which we were sending those checks to let them know what had happened and that we would be sending them new payments. And thankfully, neither of those payments were late.
Wayne Hunter Is there any advice you have for our listening public? What what kinds of words of wisdom can we leave with them?
Tom Swift Well, I’m certainly not an expert, but I think that the conventional wisdom is, when possible, use electronic payment, which is quite commonly available these days. And we do pay almost all of our bills. Probably all of our bills are paid online. But we had two unique circumstances in that month that required us to mail physical checks. There were just two odd situations where we had to mail physical checks. And wouldn’t you know, those were the two checks that got stolen. Um, so first pay electronically when you can, which is pretty easy to do these days. And secondly, when you do have to mail something that’s important, walk it right into the post office, put it inside the post office, because that apparently is much safer mode of transport. Apparently, most of these thefts are occurring in the standalone boxes that are out on the street corner.
Wayne Hunter Thank you, Mr. Swift, for agreeing to share this with us. You have done us all a great public service. I heard another story of someone who fallen victim and asked her to share that story here as well.
Lisa BakerWhat happened was a check that I had written, paying a standing bill for Wills Eye, where I had a cataract surgery and it was a fifty dollars check, and it was washed and presented and paid for four hundred and sixty dollars instead of fifty dollars.
Wayne Hunter Wow. So how did you become aware that this had happened to you?
Lisa BakerThe Friday that my statement was delivered through the mail. I immediately got dressed because it was not six o’clock. I had looked at my statement. I had not written a check for four hundred and sixty dollars, and I immediately went to the bank. They were a little perturbed with me because I got there before six, and I insisted that they waited on me and I did not want to make a call myself. That that was what the bank representative was there for was to help me.
Wayne Hunter What? Were they helpful?
Lisa Baker Well, as best they could, but I wanted it on record. I didn’t want it to go another day. And, um, they, I was there before six, so they had to wait on me as opposed to being online or trying to, uh, call that phone number that they had given me.
Wayne Hunter Has this ever happened to you before?
LIsa BakerUh. Almost. It wasn’t, um, a check, but a check that someone else had made up with. All my information was presented to the bank for, like, thousands of dollars, and my bank caught it because I had never written a check for that amount, and probably because the amount of the check that was written was not in that account. So they called me and I called them back and they had flagged that they didn’t cash it or anything like that. So that’s why I say almost.
Wayne Hunter Is there any words or advice you have for someone listening?
Lisa BakerWell, the only advice I have is the bank representative did tell me that. Try to use a gel pen, I guess gel pens, they’re kind of like, um, messy, like you can smear it and stuff like that. But then I guess it’s hard to wash than a regular ink pen. But I guess when you can pay by other means, like online or by phone, it’s probably best to do that because in our area it has really become a problem Of people washing checks.
Wayne Hunter Both of the people who shared today agreed that maybe their words would help someone in our listening audience, and I hope it did. This is Wayne Hunter wishing you all a farewell.
Michelle Gilliard Houston Expungement clinics are events where people can find help clearing and completely erasing their criminal records. Block by block reporter and community organizer Maleka Fruean spoke with members of two organizations that have held clinics in the region to find out how expungement clinics work and why they’re needed.
Maleka Fruean Starting with a clean slate is powerful. It can bring opportunities like employment and housing mobility. People with criminal records as far back as decades have a chance to get them completely erased or expunged from their record at expungement clinics. Two local organizations. Every murder is real or a mirror, and the Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity or Pulse partnered to host an expungement clinic on the last Saturday in September, and they plan to hold more. It’s one step to helping community members live their best lives and possibly prevent future violent crime. What happens at an expungement clinic? Andrea Lindsey, director of strategic initiatives from pulse, explains.
Andrea Lindsey At these clinics, you can come and complete an intake and all of our services are totally free. So you’ll complete the intake with somebody from pulse, which should take you about ten minutes. And through doing that intake process, you can learn more about the record clearing process, as well as have an opportunity to actually review your public record. So we’ll teach you how to do that. It’s not going to necessarily show everything, but it’s a really great way to get a sense of what’s out there about your record, and then have an opportunity then to connect that with our services moving forward, to take some steps to actually clear that record.
Maleka Fruean Not every record can be cleared. In Pennsylvania, most felonies, violent crimes, and other specific crimes are not up for expungement. And after the initial clinic, the entire process of getting a judge to sign the order and the police department to confirm it can take up to two years or more. But the process is worth it for so many folks whose records have been holding them back from basics like getting new housing, employment and volunteering. Asia King, the programming coordinator at Amir, talks about how powerful the record clearing process is for many people.
Asia King It’s liberating. Like they not only feel free, they only. They feel positive. They can go ahead and deal with the rest of what they want to do with their lives and don’t have this thing hindering them over their heads. For years I had met one lady. She had this record since nineteen eighty nine nineteen eighty nine, and she was so happy to have this opportunity because it was holding her back from getting her apartment.
Maleka Fruean Lindsay says there’s also evidence showing that clearing records can help prevent violent crime in the future.
Andrea Lindsey There have been studies that show that recidivism is connected to the ability of somebody to get a job, that if they are denied an opportunity for employment, that they’re going to find other ways to meet their needs. So clearing your record is not going to be an overnight solution, but it is part of a long term and holistic picture for what needs to happen to improve the health of our communities. And it allows people to have hope. There’s a real sense of despair that can come from being denied opportunity after opportunity. And it’s, again, just because of your criminal record. And I think being able to allow people to be their fullest selves is part of this big picture of what a vibrant and healthy community really looks like.
Maleka Fruean King and Amir’s team agree the clinics are free, and King says they know poverty and lack of opportunities is a big part of what adds to gun violence.
Asia King If you have a clear record and you’re able to provide for your family, you’re able to move to different areas. You are opening so many opportunities for that one family. So it’s going to naturally reduce gun violence. And Amir, we are holistic approach and we service the whole family. So we have families say they need to be relocated, but they don’t qualify or they don’t can’t go here because of this record. So we need to help them. That can’t be a barrier. If we trying to reduce violence in our city and eliminate or reduce some of this poverty that is so contributing to the violence, it goes hand in hand. So this, um, we jumped at the opportunity last time we had the expungement clinic was in June. We had thirty people signed up lined up in thirty minutes.
Maleka Fruean King says if Amir gets the opportunity, they will host more clinics before the end of the year to provide expungement services for as many people as they possibly can. Lindsey agrees that expungement clinics can be one part of the solution.
Andrea Lindsey So if you have a conviction on your record, it’s most likely that you will also need to apply for a pardon. And a pardon is something that gets decided by the governor. And that pardon is, along with expungement, a way to get that fully clear record. And what’s exciting about the clemency process is that there’s an opportunity to really tell your story, to be able to say, here are all of the ways that my record has affected me. Here’s what I’ve learned through going through this experience. But here are also my dreams, and it’s an opportunity to put that together in a way that will allow you to really move forward in a more empowering way that says, this is who I am. And that’s something that we really want to support people with, that we encourage people to apply for pardons, and we support people in that pardon process. In addition to the Expungements for.
Maleka Fruean Block by block. I’m Malika Fruin.
Wayne Hunter To learn more about upcoming expungement clinics, you can check in with Emira on Facebook at Amara Healing Center. That’s spelled E m I r Healing Center.
Michelle Gilliard Houston Over the past few years, a collective of artists in Philadelphia have been collaborating, connecting, and growing their presence in the region. Shania Whyche interviewed one of the co-founders of the group, which is called Art album. She brings us this piece, which originally aired on the TV news show Philly Cam Voices.
Shania Wyche And the boroughs of Philly. Diversity and creativity. Paint the streets with graffiti markings on abandoned train stops, murals on residential buildings, and anonymous graphic stickers in alleyways. Philly is a city of influence and is also no stranger to art collectives. Over the past few years, art collectors have begun to spring up in numbers in the City of Brotherly Love and in every sense of the word, they are bringing in a new age of artistic expression. One collective by the name of Art album has been steadily growing. A presence in Philadelphia started in twenty eighteen. Art album has been a local organization that’s like a second family to most artists who join. It’s a place where artists can connect, create and grow. I got the chance to sit down with one of the co-founders and owners, Eric Wright, to learn more about the collective and how they seek to build community through creativity.
Eric Wright So my name is Eric Wright. I am co-founder, owner of Art album. I kind of talked about the idea of art album. And, you know, we need something that kind of focuses in on the artist and, you know, help them just achieve different stuff within the scene. So we went from there. We just started busting out ideas. We got the paperwork necessary that we needed to get done to do official business, you know? From there, we just went from there, started doing little shows out of houses really for about two or three years. And then we got the studio space out back in like January. So it’s been good. So we’re very much big on the artists just connecting with each other on a human level and actually not not trying to just always just work, work, work, and, you know, just be business minded, but actually just connect with each other and build human relationships that you don’t really get and just try to give artists opportunities.
Shania Wyche Our album curates events that only allow individuals to showcase their artistry, but provides a space for valuing a movement over money, valuing community connection. This is a mission they want to foster in Philadelphia and beyond.
Eric Wright With the city. We definitely want to be like eventually just grow, get a bigger building so that we can be able to do more stuff with the artists, give them more opportunities. We’re working on doing stuff that’s like outside of the city that can potentially like give artists more opportunities and just connect with different art scenes and different cities. So like we’re working on like different tours that artists can be a part of that can get their work outside of Philly. So definitely the long term goal of ours is definitely doing more outside work outside of Philly and, you know, working with different like art collectives. Also, while still working on stuff in the city and still doing art shows and creating opportunities here also.
Shania Wyche So arts and culture is the backbone of Philly’s character and is an economic driver for the city. Art collectors that are predominantly led by the people who make up the city should have the same opportunities at growing as other large institutions. With the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture Creative Economy budget already being low. It leaves smaller initiatives with little options for financial and practical resources. Just this past budget cycle, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund saw a proposal cut for one million dollars.
Eric Wright I think it would be a cool thing if the city could set up a space where a lot of the smaller art collectors art businesses could set up shop at. I think that would be maybe if it’s like a community center or something where artists can. Or small businesses, art, small businesses can set up shop and do business out of.
Shania Wyche There’s so much funding that should and needs to be allocated to all cultural organizations, parks and rec, education, and more that supports positive community development. Until then, collectives like Art album will continue their mission of community building through art.
Wayne Hunter That report was brought to us by Philly Cams Voices Reporter Shania wants to learn more about art. Album. You can check them out on Instagram at underscore art underscore album.
Michelle Gilliard Houston Block by block is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de La Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean , Selena Singleton and us.
Michelle Gilliard, Houston and Wayne Hunter. Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for w p p m and Alison Durham is WPPM’s radio production and programming coordinator. This episode featured music from Bruja de la Mancha. We’ll be back in two weeks with a new episode of Block by Block, featuring more stories about issues affecting life in the Philly region.