This episode features a story about efforts preserve the character of Philadelphia's historic buildings and neighborhoods from unchecked development, and an interview with Philadelphia City Council Education Chair Isaiah Thomas and Children First Policy Director Symbol Lai about pre-school pushout and the impact of only some Philadelphia schools offering Algebra I classes to eight grade students.

Sophia Mattia and Jennifer Robnett hosted this episode, and Ahmed Hassouna was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Director.

Episode Transcript

Jennifer Robnett

Good afternoon. You're listening to Around the Block, a community news program from the Block by Block team at WPPM LP, Philadelphia 106.5 FM. On this show, we explore issues in the Philadelphia region with voices from the community, through original reports from our team of journalists and live interviews. I'm Jennifer Robnett,

Sophia Mattia

and I'm Sophia Matia. Coming up, we'll be joined by Philadelphia City Council Education Committee Chair Isaiah Thomas and Children First Policy Director Symbol Lai for a conversation about two issues facing Philadelphia students and their families as they navigate the school system.

Jennifer Robnett

But first, Philadelphia is a historic city filled with historic buildings, but Philadelphia City Council is considering legislation that could alter Philadelphia's ability to protect these buildings by changing the way historic preservation works in the city, a group of community members and organizations have been pushing back, and have formed a stop demolishing Philly coalition. Around the block reporter Winter Schneider brings us this story about what's at stake.

Winter Schneider

Bill 251030 was first introduced in November 2025 by Council Member Mark Squilla, who represents neighborhoods bordering the Delaware River from Port Richmond all the way to Packer Street in South Philly. Even with significant pushback and multiple delays, Squilla plans to reintroduce the bill to City Council potentially this fall. Digging into this issue exposes a deep and familiar pattern for Philadelphians: the neglect and demolition of historically and culturally significant buildings, even when people come together to fight for their preservation. One example of this pattern is the demolition of the historic Saint Laurent's Church in Fish Town in 2022, after years of advocacy on the part of its neighbors and preservation groups across the city,

Kevin Brett

it goes neglected, neglected, neglected until they're kind of out of options.

Winter Schneider

Kevin Brett is the president of the volunteer organization Repoint Philadelphia, and one of the organizers behind the coalition against Squilla's bill as it stands. And what's there now?

Kevin Brett

Oh, they're building probably eight luxury housing units. I think you know, so that's just what Fish Town needs. Yeah.

Winter Schneider

Philadelphia's historical commission was established in 1955, a time when cities across the country justified massive urban redevelopment projects at the expense of Black, Brown, poor, and working-class residents who were often displaced from their neighborhoods in the process, whose history was worth preserving, was and remains a deeply politicized issue, and the commission has wielded its power to different ends over time. But even with its flaws, current preservation law still fundamentally serves as a buffer against demolition.

Kevin Brett

Ultimately, the commission can pretty much approve anything with good reason, but it at least is sort of like a stopgap that makes us think about things before we just go ahead with a wrecking ball.

Winter Schneider

Let's break down the law a little bit. Currently, even a nomination for historic designation protects a property by placing it under the commission's jurisdiction, which means that a developer can't do anything to the building while the commission considers the nomination. One thing the new bill would do is create a 30-day loophole before this jurisdiction kicks in, which would allow developers to get out of historic designation by irrevocably altering or demolishing the building first. Another thing the bill would do would be to disqualify the building from historic designation altogether if the owner even files a zoning application on the property.

Kevin Brett

The table is clearly tilted in one direction on a number of fronts.

Winter Schneider

Councilmember Squilla initially said that he sponsored the bill to address complaints with preservation law, not only from developers but also from individual property owners who felt like historic designation restricted what they could do with their property. Kevin says that there is a widespread agreement among preservation advocates about the need for practical solutions, but that this bill does not address that. We

Kevin Brett

do want preservation to be easier for people, particularly people who are lower income and maybe have fewer resources. We are still very big on this concept of what we call flexible districts. Some people call it tiered districts. The idea is that if you were to have a historic district, you would have varying levels of significance that would make it easier. Like if your building is on a sort of lower significance tier, then we're not going to care about the paint. We're not going to care about the windows. We just don't want you to like knock the place down. Basically, that's the type of. Legislation that we wish we were talking about.

Winter Schneider

Philly has been in a historic preservation boom over the last 10 years. Community groups have pushed for historic designation on properties throughout the city as a way to hold on to neighborhood history and identity. Kevin says Bill 251030 would put even more power in developers' hands while taking agency away from the public.

Kevin Brett

You're really like pulling the rug out from under these community actors, and just empowering sort of like economic interests or what what have you that don't have as much skin in the game on a lived experience basis. Like they many times they don't even live in the city.

Winter Schneider

While this might all just sound like a legal fight over buildings. It's also fundamentally about who gets to live in and use them. Sierra Freeman and Paul Brown organize with the Brewery Town Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition, or BSNC, which is part of the coalition pushing back against Squilla's bill.

Cierra Freeman

Historic preservation, whether cultural or architectural is definitely more than just the buildings themselves, the stories themselves. It's the ability for folks to to continue to live here.

Paul Brown

Philadelphians will tell you we are losing our spaces, especially we see it for the kids. They don't have enough third spaces to go to.

Winter Schneider

BSNC is organizing with other groups in the area under the Dope Neighborhood Project, an initiative to get Charleswood recognized and protected as a culturally historic district. This would protect sites like the Checker Club, once known as the Checker Cafe, a historic venue from the heyday of jazz in North Philly in the mid 20th century. The building is the last one standing on what used to be a whole strip of theaters and jazz clubs along Ridge Avenue, and is now owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

Cierra Freeman

That's a place that maybe it could get a marker, maybe it could be updated for community use. But like so many other buildings across Philadelphia, it's just sitting here, and we'll sit here as long as the powers that be deem it necessary to sit before it is sold to someone else.

Winter Schneider

The side of the Checker Club features a mural of the trailblazing black singer, actress, and comedian Pearl Bailey, who called the neighborhood home. Paul and Sierra shared with me that Pearl Bailey's own house, which is already in the city's register of historic places, was recently put up for sale on Zillow.

Paul Brown

There's definitely people who would live there, but they don't have the money to invest to build up the space to make it livable. So then you have to rely on the developers or corporations to take a stake in it, and then unfortunately you lose some autonomy in how you want to build out this space.

Winter Schneider

This example highlights the reality: the historic designation still cannot guarantee preservation, which also depends on investment of money and other resources. And still, the recognition and preservation of historic buildings is one tool in tracing a clear story that connects the history of the neighborhood to all the people living in it today.

Cierra Freeman

For me, and how it comes up in the work, is making sure that the history is as clear as possible, and as full as possible, as detailed as possible, to share that information with folks who have just moved here, so that that helps them to deepen their relationship with the neighborhood itself, as they build relationship with other community members, but also for the folks who have been here for a very long time, who we call MBSNC generational neighbors, it helps to reinforce the pride that they have in their neighborhood, the pride in the history of the neighborhood, which then lends itself to the pride that they have in themselves and their self-esteem as it's connected to their surroundings and their relationship to each other.

Winter Schneider

Anyone interested in preserving Philly's neighborhood histories can find out more about the initiative to kill Bill 251030 at stopdemalishingphilly.org, and you can check out the Brewerytown Charleswood Neighborhood Coalition's work and get involved in the Dope Neighborhood Project by visiting BSNC Philly on Instagram. For Around the Block, I'm Winter Schneider.

Sophia Mattia

Philadelphia City Council is considering ways to make schools equitable for all Philadelphians. This month's council education meeting held hearings on two issues. One looked at students of color and students with disabilities being excluded and expelled from preschools. The other explored the fact that not every eighth grader in the city has access to an Algebra One course. Councilman Isaiah Thomas is chair of City Council's Education Committee, and he is joining us live in the studio. Thanks for being here.

Isaiah Thomas

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Sophia Mattia

We're also joined by Cymbal Lai, policy director for Children First, a statewide advocacy organization for young people in Pennsylvania. Thanks for joining us.

Symbol Lai

Thank you.

Sophia Mattia

So our first question is: Preschool isn't required by law in Pennsylvania. Some kids don't start school until they're five or six. But why is preschool so important for young students?

Isaiah Thomas

Well, I think that's a great question. I think for the seat that I sit in, as a father, as a former teacher myself, and as somebody who's the chair of the education committee on city council? Study after study has shown that pre-K puts young people in a position to be on a trajectory to be successful academically, and that's what we want to see. We also understand that with the affordability crisis that we're facing right now, a lot of parents are forced to work two, some even three jobs, and so we want young people to be able to have a quality academic experience while parents are putting themselves in a position and trying to earn a quality living for themselves and their families, so it's something that I highly recommend. We encourage, we push, and we want to see it funded in innovative ways, both on the city and state level. It'd be nice if the feds put a little more skin in the game, but definitely on the city and state level to assure that we are offering these opportunities to as many families and as many students as possible.

Jennifer Robnett

Great. So this hearing addressed this phenomenon known as preschool pushout. Can one of you tell me exactly what is preschool pushout?

Symbol Lai

So the easiest way to understand preschool pushout is when students, babies, because they're not even in K through 12, right? They're suspended and expelled from their programs, and it's something that we people don't know about. When we say that kids that young are getting suspended and expelled, people are usually shocked, right? Because they're they're babies, right? And it's something that parents, a lot of families that we've talked to and stuff, they don't even realize that it's happening until after the fact, like many years after the fact, and it's something that flies under the radar because it's very subtle. It's like you know, getting calls all the time to pick up your kid, right? Or being told that you have to sit outside the program while your kid is in the program. And there's little-I would say, they're microaggressions that make families feel unwelcome, and so it's a very silent, you know, silent under the radar type of suspension and expulsion. So we call it. Council member came up with the term preschool pushout, which is it rolls off the tongue a lot better than suspension expulsion.

Isaiah Thomas

And and I mean, for us on the on the council side, is this is this is our idea of expanding the work of the education committee, but it's also putting us in a position to understand what's actually going on. I think without the organizations and the advocates coming to city council saying this is a problem, we need you to explore it, we would have never known about the problem. And so we really wanted to have the conversation in the summertime because once you are informed about this issue, you recognize how important it is. It needs to stand alone. When school starts back up, you know it's going to be a lot of education dialog. We're still going to be in the midst of a facilities fight. We're not a fan of this facilities issue. You just heard some of the transition that's happening with young people going to Kensington High School and the impact that that's going to have on folks, and then you just have your issues as it relates to traveling to and from school, extracurricular activities. the The pot is pretty big, and so we wanted to have this conversation in the summertime so we could highlight this problem. Not necessarily saying that we know the solution, but giving it it's giving it an opportunity to have its own platform is really really important, and we're going to continue to explore what do we do because I think for this hearing we did a great job of highlighting the problem, but I think we were very honest about the fact that we're not sure how do we solve this, but we're not going to quit. We're going to continue to work with advocates, community-based leaders, and folks who brought this issue to try to collaborate to figure out how do we resolve it.

Sophia Mattia

Thank you. Can you explain why preschool pushout happens and how it affects the process for minority students to apply to preschool?

Symbol Lai

So I actually think Symbol will probably be better to explain the process just because they came to us, right? The organizations they've done the report, they've done the work, and they came to counsel and said, "This is the problem. Now, based on the content that I received in the hearing, you know, from what I, similar to what was said earlier, a lot of it is subtle. But then, when you listen to the providers, there are even cases where people don't realize that that's what they're doing, right? And so, from our perspective, how do we get more resources to those providers so they can be able to offer services to anybody that walks in the door? But the the experts are the folks who are who came to us and told us this is what needs to be done. So we're still gathering information. We're still similar to your audience. We're still learning about what's going on. And I think it's important for people to recognize that elected officials don't have all the answers. The best elected officials are the elected officials who will listen to the experts, and the experts are often people who have lived experiences. And so that's what we're trying to do right now: is listen to people who have lived experiences and try to figure out how do we navigate this uncharted area and what resources can be provided and who. Advises those resources, so I'll pass it

Symbol Lai

to you. Thank you. So part of the reason that it happens that we found is, you know, I would say if you a parent has a child that doesn't fit like quote unquote normal categories that we expect young children to have, like they tend to be affected by the preschool push out a lot more. So you're thinking about race and class, and in this case, disability, right? And what happens is, you know, providers they are already taxed and like strapped for resources. They might not necessarily like recognize some of the challenging behaviors or have like the tools or the resources to be able to handle it in the classroom. And so, you know, their default might be, and this is not just default. You know, just when you're stressed, right? You're like, how do I, you know, keep the rest of the students safe and keep the program going? So they might target, you know, and single out this one student and everything that is, you know, still a baby, still developing, right? And maybe needs more care resources, some reframe from the adults in the room about what's happening for the child and stuff in order to kind of acclimate them to this situation, and it's a problem because a lot of parents that we've talked to, they say that it's not the first time that they get pushed out. Like this is the first time that you know it might be the start of a long line of pushouts that extend even into their K to 12 years, right? So you think about like the first time a child enters into any sort of social education space in pre K, and if they're pushed out, right, that's harm, right? And they're not getting the resources that they need in order to kind of acclimate and get over the problem. So it's kind of like we're just you know absent any sort of like intervention from the adults in the room from the systems that are there to support the students. We're just kind of kicking the can down the road and expecting the problem to be fixed at some point. So that's why the problem happens. I can go on a little bit more into some of the systemic failures and the loopholes and everything. One of them, like I said, is the providers not having enough resources in the classroom, not having enough trainings, right, to identify problematic behaviors, and then to bring in the correct resources, the therapists, the specialists, the evaluations that are needed to kind of rectify the situation. And on the back end, you know when you when we looked at the systems that are in control, or you know in control of those resources at the state and the city level, and almost at the state level, it's too fractured, right? So you know you get maybe zero to three and everything. They can they can get early intervention services in the city, and then beyond that, they go into they you know the Elwin, which is a state entity, gets you know has control over those those resources, right? And so you think about the families; they have to navigate their child is the same, the problems are the same, right? But they end up having to navigate multiple systems at the same time, right, and it becomes very confusing. Providers are confused, parents are confused, and that's not even to layer on top of that. We have a whole, you know, you think about developmental delay. Elwin early intervention takes care of developmental delays. They don't take care of behavioral mental health issues, right? So if you have a kid who, you know, is neurodivergent, right? Like they're not going to be able to get like services. The services won't fit that need, right? And then they have to parents and providers have to navigate a whole other behavioral health system that is equally fractured and may or not may or may not be talking to you know pre K folks around how to bring those resources they have into the classroom for the kid.

Jennifer Robnett

Absolutely, one of the things I think the the sort of elephant in the room is this issue where a child will be behaving in such a way that's developmentally appropriate, but there's an implicit bias, perhaps, with the the teacher, with the provider. You know, it's it's like interpreting a behavior in such a way that it's you know it's problematic when like it's again it's developmentally appropriate. Actually, that was something I saw and seemed to be. I

Isaiah Thomas

see that a lot in traditional K through 12 atmospheres as well too. I actually remember being in third grade and switching from private school to public school, and the work was too easy for me. And I I vividly remember my teacher trying to diagnose me as like ADHD, and and and put me on put me on medication, and my mom was like, absolutely not, like not happening at all. So, and then as when I transitioned into the space of being a teacher myself, in different schools, I would see the same thing as well too. So, I do think that the behavior of of black children. Especially black boys tends to be stereotyped, and it's whether it's subconsciously or systemic. Right, there is this easy path to overdiagnose black boys because of behavior in the classroom. And you know, my experience personally was I wasn't being challenged academically, right? I had came from this one setting where math was here, and now I'm coming to this setting where it's like I've done this all already before. So I guess I'm just supposed to sit here all day and do nothing. And I think a lot of that stigma is comes from a cultural difference. And I think one of the things that you're seeing is a lot of intentionality around trying to find more black men and black people to be educators, but especially black men working in schools. The problem is, you get folks, especially in this economy, you know, the the pay for teachers is disrespectful, and so I think if we seen a lot more respect for the industry, we will see a change in demographic as it relates to who's in the classroom, which in turn can impact how people are diagnosed or in a lot of cases overdiagnosed. So I know I kind of went a little tangent, but you triggered me a little bit when you said that because it took me back to a personal experience that I went through when I was transitioning from private school to public school.

Sophia Mattia

Absolutely. So, speaking about student experiences and even your own personal experience, how does a student getting expelled from preschool or even excluded from a mission in the first place affect their educational journey?

Isaiah Thomas

It's traumatic, right? It's traumatizing. Look at how quick I was able to just go back, right? Like, so that was a it's a trigger. It try it's an traumatic experience that I went through, and and my experience wasn't. It didn't conclude with it actually happening. So imagine, I can only imagine young people who who do go through those traumatic experiences. It not only is it is it something that sticks with you, but it subconsciously tells the child that they are supposed to be like this is the role I have, right? So, like a lot of times when young people go into classrooms, it's like a play to them, right? And their subconscious is telling them this is my role and this is the character I am in the play. And when a young person is experiencing a lot of negative interactions early on, it subconsciously teaches them that I'm supposed to be the antagonist in the classroom, and that that's my biggest concern as it relates to this. It starts in pre-K with pushout, but it's a problem that exists consistently. I do a free camp every year, and we're in the middle right now. Last week was week one. Next week is week two, and this is like my time to be back in that space that I love so much because I consider this my purpose and my calling, and one of the things I love about the camp is that young people get a lot of chances. Right, had a very interesting situation happen on Friday, and we're still going to let that young person come back next week, despite some of the things that took place, because you know we recognize that we've been able to create a space where young people can make mistakes and not be demonized or criminalized for making mistakes. You know, and I said to the young man on Friday, you had a great four days, six hours, and 30 minutes, right? But a one one bad decision, right? A bad 30 minutes can ruin your life, and most people in jail didn't say I want to go to jail when I wake up, but they had a bad 30 minutes, and that's what we tried to teach the young people. Right, like you made a mistake, but this isn't who you are, and I think that's an important part of the work, and it's always an honor for me to be able to implement that myself instead of just sitting in City Hall talking about it.

Sophia Mattia

What solutions do you propose to lessen preschool push out and improve early education in Philadelphia? Either of you?

Symbol Lai

For me, okay.

Symbol Lai

So,

Symbol Lai

what would I do? Well, first of all, I think all the stakeholders need to be in the same room and talking together, right? So you need to get the folks that are in charge of services for developmental delays in the room with the you know mental health professionals and stuff to talk about how they can deliver services in a seamless way, right? And they need to be talking to the school district and also PHL PreK at the city level to see how that can be implemented, you know, for for the city and city council, we have purview over you know PHL PreK in the school district. So at least in that space, how can you bring a seamless experience for parents experiencing the push out and stuff, and parents and providers who are experiencing the push out, right? How can you bring the like? How can you give them a seamless experience, and how can you make these systems easier to access for both parents and providers? I would also say that there needs to be a lot more resources allocated to providers to get that sort of training, so they can recognize challenging behaviors for what it is, and not necessarily play into some of the. Stereotypes that might be informing their, you know, what Councilmember Thomas shared as like, you know, unspoken bias of how they view a specific kid when they're just having a bad day.

Isaiah Thomas

I agree. I couldn't have said it any better. I would also just continue to think about like other dynamics that impact the household of the children as well, too, you know, we're a very poor city, and when we're talking about resources, right? Like the resources are definitely needed for the providers, 100% We we don't disagree there, but the we we we got to think about the entire gamut. And so, one of the other problems that I felt like was presented in the hearing is just governs governance in general, like who has oversight. So I agree about the pre-K seats and the things that we're responsible for, but I think that was like 350 seats out of 1000s of seats, and so the majority of the providers are moving in a way where it's not really regulated. It's not much oversight, and how do you address a systemic problem like this when the industry do you have no ability to regulate the industry in general? So, I've seen a number of different problems. Not necessarily sure how do you solve it. I can say we need more governance, but what does that look like? Who's responsible? What does that board consist of? I can say we need more resources, but who provides it? Is it the city? Is it the state? Where does the revenue come from? So, saying what needs to be done is, you know, we can communicate and articulate that. Actualizing it and executing it is a whole nother conversation.

Symbol Lai

I will also say another thing that we can start with, and this is outside of figuring out where this sits and everything. But like one of the reasons that pre-K pushout continues to be, you know, fly under the radar is that nobody's actually tracking it, right? There's no sort of place where parents can report like, hey, this weird thing happened to me, right? I don't know what's happening and everything. I just don't feel good about it. Where can I get resource? And there's nobody. There's no oversight, right? Part of the reason is because the system is fractured, right? But if you know, the first way to kind of start solving a problem is to put your arms around it and figure out how often it's happening, and like getting rid of the bad actors or supporting the bad actors and bringing people up to speed and stuff. And there's no right now. It's such a diffuse problem that you know it's it's like the council member says like where do we even start?

Jennifer Robnett

We start with naming the problem, which is what these hearings did. So, it's good,

Isaiah Thomas

and the advocates get all the credit for that, right? Had it not been, had it not been for community organizations coming to council, advocating for the hearing, advocating for this conversation, advocating for the children and the families who are suffering from these decisions, honestly, we wouldn't have known that it was a problem as bad as it is. So, all credit goes to the organizations.

Jennifer Robnett

I'd like to ask a question about alternative pre-K programs, and I know that there are programs like there's unschooling, and a lot of that. I have I have friends that have kids in unschooling programs, and a lot of that takes place outside, because like the recognition there is that sometimes like the classroom environment is the problem itself. As a kid can't, like particularly like a neurodivergent kid can't deal with such a structured sort of confined space. So, is there any role that, like, an alternative pre-K program or like an unschooling type curriculum could play as far as the solution to preschool push out?

Isaiah Thomas

Yeah, I think that's a great question. And just as a parent with lived experience, I find that those access to that is for more affluential people, right? Like that's not something that working people, poor people have access to. We do have some Montessori schools in in the city that can offer some of those alternatives, but they are extremely expensive. So I don't know how a working, you know, living check to check, trying to take care of my family. I don't know how they put them. It's like probably got to hit the lottery. I'm not saying that the school doesn't exist at all in city, but I would bet is no it nowhere near meets the need of the number of people who actually require that support or those resources. So I think that when you have money, you can you you definitely can do that. You'll find somewhere, and somebody will take your child. Unfortunately, we're the second poorest big city in the entire country, and most folks don't have the resources to be able to provide their child the services that you're discussing. So I don't I don't know how we expect people to do that for themselves. I definitely think government should be stepping up, stepping in, and subsidizing.

Jennifer Robnett

Okay, so the other hearing was that that took place earlier this month was on algebra, specifically the lack of access for eighth graders. Why do children need to take algebra one? Why is it so important?

Symbol Lai

So, I mean, algebra is foundational. It's foundational math, right? And it opens a lot of gateways to like good-paying, stable careers and jobs. If you want to think about Philadelphia, what a lot of our growing industries are centered around, you know, there's education with the universities. There's pharmaceuticals, you know, that are local. Like kids in Philly need algebra if they want to get any sort of STEM-based career, and if they want entry into local economies and industries that are right here on their doorstep. So it's really, you know, it's crucial that Philly students have access to algebra because it's an equity issue.

Isaiah Thomas

100% agree, and I mean, just as a parent, I went through this myself, and I said that in a hearing. I didn't realize how limited the access to algebra was, and I also didn't realize it was a part of the criteria for some of our special admission schools. So this issue is much simpler, right? Teach the kids algebra, take it out of all special admission schools requirement until everybody has access to it. Right, that's the main thing. It's not fear. And when we recognize that things aren't fair, let's just do something about it. Let's just fix it. And when you keep things in that we know and agree that they aren't fear, that's when people feel like systemically we're against them. And so after that hearing, I think one of the most interesting things throughout the course of the summer, as I've been walking around talking to people, the hearing actually caught more attention than I probably thought it did. And people are telling me their algebra stories, right? So you know, going to basketball event, y'all seen that algebra hearing you had, and then they'll tell me their story, either what they went through or what their children went through, and so I think for me is I didn't realize that it was as big of an issue as it is until I went through it as a parent, and then the hearing again. Appreciate the advocacy from the organizations asking and requesting for the hearing, but this one is way cleaner, much more cut and dry. You know, this is what we need to do. Every kid should have access to algebra. No school should have it as a requirement until everybody has an opportunity. And of course, like most issues, young people of color are the ones who are at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing algebra. And so it's unfortunate, but this is one that we actually know the solution, and we can do something about. And I appreciate the school district for already saying we recognize this problem, and these are some of the things that we're going to do to address it. They still have a little more work to do. We're not happy, but we do appreciate them acknowledging the problem and trying to begin to to to address the issue.

Sophia Mattia

Yeah, thank you. Can you talk a little bit about why it's not offered in schools originally?

Isaiah Thomas

I mean, I can, but no one wants to hear it. It's not. It's no. It's no credible reason. There's no, you know. They'll say that it's a lack of certified teachers. They'll talk about the importance of differentiating instruction and how they still offer parallel content, but none of that none of that justifies it. When you look at the fact that over 50% of the young people who have access to it are not people of color, right? Like these are systemic problems that, whether intentional or not, needs to be undone right away. So, it's no excuse. I mean, you probably have a better answer for that than I mean.

Symbol Lai

I will also say that our school district is criminally underfunded, right? So we're still short maybe a little less than $1 billion underfunded, and so that kind of trickles down into the resources that you do and don't see in the school district in each individual school. I will say that there's a lot of decision points in between where the money comes from and how it's implemented that may you know take attention away from algebra or other things that are in you know impact a student's education. But I don't, you know, the forest is we're a billion dollars short, you know. So that does take limit the types of opportunities that Philly students see.

Isaiah Thomas

I 100% agree about the funded issue, but the the one thing that we have to, I would be more, I would lean more on funding being a problem if the percentage of students who had access to algebra was reflective of the population of the city. Absolutely, right. So if the majority of the city was white and the majority of the students who had access to algebra was white, then I would lean more on it being a funding problem. It is a funding problem, but why is it that a large percentage of the students who have access to algebra doesn't reflect the percentage of the population? And I think that's when people begin to ask questions about intentionality.

Symbol Lai

Absolutely, I will say just to kind of echo Councilmember Thomas's point. One of the research findings that we found in you know through our report around algebra or early research, was that the map when you geographically map the schools that don't have access to algebra, it just graphs onto all the you know the race and poverty you know like maps that city council sees for affordable housing and anything else that has to do with socio economic. Race in the city.

Jennifer Robnett

Now, I heard during the hearing you mentioned symbol. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like schools and libraries. They offer tutoring services. They offer like something that reinforces like a an education. Yeah, that part of a solution

Symbol Lai

potentially. The so out of school time is basically after school and summer programming for you know that out of school time is like nonprofit government jargon. Most normal people understand it as like after school care or summer jobs or summer programs for kids. Yes, that can support you know I think I reference it in in the algebra hearing, so it can really, really put your arms in, you know, help students succeed and come up to speed, and you know, improve academically and their social, you know, in social skills and stuff through, you know, out of school programs and stuff. In the pre-K space, you know, they might be young for that, right? And there are certainly pre-K providers who are also out-of-school time providers and stuff, but you know the problem is that there's no resources. the The problem isn't being identified. The students' needs aren't getting met. You know, the problem's still there, right? You're still going to have to train out-of-school time providers to be able to navigate and recognize the problem.

Sophia Mattia

Thank you. There is one last question I'd like to ask. So we talked a lot about like prevention and what the solutions are to prevent this issue from happening. But what resources are there for kids who have been affected by pushout, like currently, like maybe not now because it's summertime, but in the fall when they go to preschool, if their pushout is happening to them, what resources are there for kids and parents right now?

Isaiah Thomas

I mean, I I didn't hear many resources available for people who are victims of push out, and I think that was why the issue was brought to us, right? And I think it was also interesting for people to not even realize they're they're being pushed out. So I'm not quite sure. So if they're a part of one of the 300 or so pre-K programs, then there are some type of consequences because it's under that umbrella. But again, the mass majority of our programs in the city are not under; they're not governed through that that that that umbrella. So I don't. We have to do better to provide resources for parents who who have been victims of their child being pushed out. But right now, we can honestly say there's no direct pipeline to my child was pushed out. These are resources and services that can help you get through that traumatic experience. We're not there yet, but I think part of naming the problem, like we said earlier, puts us in a position where we can begin to explore what needs to be done to address it. Yeah, there

Symbol Lai

are some you know early programs. I think PHL PreK has a family navigator program and stuff that where parents may be able to kind of get some headway into like where to go next and stuff, and that can definitely be bolstered and expanded so that they're focusing specifically. You know, they focus more specifically on like incidents of pre-K push out. I will also say, children first. We are continuing to examine the problem. I believe we'll be holding more focus groups and to talk to parents about their experiences. The tricky thing again about this problem is that like people don't realize that they're being pushed out until years after the fact. Like their kids might be grown and graduated and working, you know, before they go back, and they're like, "That was really, really weird. Why did it have to be so hard? You know, why did it start in pre-K and last until you know they graduated? You know, high school.

Sophia Mattia

Thank you so much, Councilman Thomas and Cymbal Live for being here.

Isaiah Thomas

Thank you for having us.

Symbol Lai

Thank you.

Jennifer Robnett

Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for WPPM, Peter Liu is radio operations manager, and Allison Durham is WPPM's radio program director. I'm Jennifer Robnett,

Sophia Mattia

and I'm Sophia Matia. And thanks to Ahmed Hisuna, who is our board operator for this episode.

Jennifer Robnett

Around the Block, we'll be back next month with another episode featuring more stories and conversation from our team of Philadelphia area community journalists, and you can find more episodes of Around the Block and Block by Block on PhillyCAM SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you find your podcasts. Thanks for listening.

This episode features a story about events that took place around the July 4th holiday to call attention to the ugly truths behind the some of the nation's foundational stories, and a live in-studio interview with Chloe Harris, director of Starr Garden Playground and Rec Center, which is known for its LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC inclusive programming.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson and Nikki Schaffer hosted this episode, and Allison Durham was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Director.

Episode Transcript

Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.

Nikki Schaffer Good afternoon. You're listening to Around the Block, a community news program from the Block by Block team at LP Philadelphia one hundred and six point five FM. On this show, we explore issues in the Philadelphia region with voices from the community through original reports from our team of journalists and live interviews. I'm Nikki Schaefer.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And I'm Sheila Emerson. Coming up, we'll have a live conversation with the director of an LGBTQ friendly park and rec center in Philadelphia that hosts an annual inclusive citywide pool party.

Nikki Schaffer But first, Philadelphia has been in the spotlight this month as the nation commemorates the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Of independents in the city that would become the nation's first capital. Extreme heat caused some events to be canceled and others to be delayed. But crowds of people still visited historic sites like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Center and the president's House around the block's winter. Schneider reports that social justice groups from Philly and beyond also held events at these sites to call attention to the ugly truths behind some of the nation's foundational stories, and to call on people to resist the rise of fascism in the United States today.

Winter Schneider On July third, the Trump administration got the green light to replace informational panels at the president's House on Sixth and Market Street that tell the story of the dehumanizing violence experienced by nine people that George Washington enslaved there centuries ago. The panels were replaced with others that whitewash this history and the early hours of July fifteenth, as reported by the Inquirer, activists, scholars and the city government have shown up on Independence Mall and spoken up online to denounce these changes. If the president's House has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's nationwide attempt to destroy historical facts that threaten its agenda, then this is due to over two decades of organizing by the avenging the ancestors coalition, or attack, who pushed for the panels to be put up in the first place as a way to do justice to the memory of those enslaved ancestors on July fourth. I went down to the mall where coalition members and allies gathered in one hundred and three degree heat for attacks. Twenty fourth annual Black Independence Day rally.

Unkown Sepaker Before libation to the men and women who fought and resisted enslavement to help free our people, men and women like Nana Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner. We say.

Michael Coard You might think, okay, we lost the battle. No we didn't. We still have options available.

Winter Schneider That's attack co-founder Michael Kord providing an update on the ongoing litigation of the panels.

Michael Coard The city can file for a reconsideration with that three judge panel. Let's say that three judge panel rules against us. Again, we can seek what they call an en banc hearing, which means instead of those three, the entire fourteen member panel, there's a third option. We can petition for what they call certiorari. That means you go up to the Supreme Court. And the final thing, there is a way, theoretically, to file a new and different and more expansive lawsuit that includes more stuff.

Winter Schneider A week earlier. Michael Kord also participated in a public forum on Independence Mall organized by the group Refuse Fascism, that drew a direct connection between erasure of the past and the rise of authoritarianism and fascism in the present.

Michael Coard You might ask yourself, why would this president want to erase the past? Why would any fascist want to erase the past? The answer comes from George Orwell and his response who controls the past, controls the future? Who controls the present, controls the past.

Winter Schneider Each panelist at the forum urgently called on attendees to learn from the historical memory of people and communities who have experienced and who experience injustice at the hands of the nation. Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Raab, who is running for Congress, spoke about the need to confront the violence woven into our political system.

Chris Rabb We cannot embrace liberation until we embrace the truth, no matter how ugly and complex it is. These systems of autocracy. Systems of harm are built into the very fabric of this nation. So whenever I hear people say, this is not America, you are not paying attention. I understand your fear, your frustration. But this is very much America. We have never been more America than right now. There is a genealogy of harm that has led us to this moment, and it's only because we have not had the moral courage to identify these harms, and to address them substantively is how we got to this point.

Winter Schneider New York based artist Dread Scott says that attempts to rewrite history are attempts to control the way people think.

Dread Scott The battle over culture and history is a central element of fascism. America was founded on genocide and slavery. That's just a fact. And whether you actually erase that, or whether you foreground that, it's really important to how you understand the present.

Winter Schneider Michael Cord and Masaru Nakawatase a long time Japanese American civil rights organizer, who himself was born in a US concentration camp in Arizona during World War Two, emphasized a need for solidarity across group lines as our only recourse in this time.

Michael Coard Many people thought that there were guardrails to fascism in America. There are no governmental guardrails. There's the people. And that's you. The only way that there's going to be change is through allies coming together. We don't have to have the same specific issues, but we do have to understand we have a common enemy.

Masaru Nakawatase When we talk about solidarity come November and beyond. I think we're going to need one of the broadest national coalitions politically that we've ever seen. It has to be absolutely Overwhelmed.

Samantha Rise To see the Liberty Bell. We don't have time to talk about the Constitution that was written by men. Three quarters of whom owned slaves at the time.

Winter Schneider That morning, the People's Parade brought that exact message to life by declaring independence from billionaires.

Samantha Rise Choose each other and fight for each other and organize with and for each other, for the world that we deserve. And that's why we're here. That's why we've shown up today. It's hotter than hell, but we're bringing heaven to Philadelphia because we know what liberation looks like. Show me what liberation looks like.

Winter Schneider The march was organized by a range of groups, including Asian Americans United, Juntos de One Movement, No Ice, Philly New Sanctuary Movement, Philly, DSA, Jewish Voice for peace, and the American Friends Service Committee, only to name a few.

Samantha Rise And when do we want it? If we don't get it. If we don't get it.

Winter Schneider The march also featured what is being reported as the largest mobilization of veterans, active duty soldiers and military families in a generation, including the group's About Face, Veterans Against Fascism, veterans for peace and fifty over fifty one veterans. Brian McGinnis, a marine veteran who is running as a write in candidate for the Second Congressional District of North Carolina, had this to say.

Brian McGinnis I am so against war. Nobody knows what it looks like. And veterans do. Veterans know war. Veterans say no war.

John Amidon I'm John Amidon from Albany, New York. I'm also a Marine Corps veteran. During the Vietnam era, I cannot abide supporting genocide. We are all complicit with our taxpayer dollar.

Samantha Rise From Philly to Palestine, Palestine. All our struggles intertwine.

Rally All our struggles intertwine.

Samantha Rise And from Philly to the Congo. Get ready.

Rally From Philly to the Congo.

Samantha Rise Got to go.

Rally Billionaires have got to go got to go.

Winter Schneider Collective liberation requires reckoning with our history and fighting just as hard for our future. And I am proud to have witnessed so many people who made that message reverberate within the historic sites of the nation's founding on the fort.

Samantha Rise And no racist ass police Come on. No justice, no peace. No racist ass police

Winter Schneider As we work to find justice for the historical and ongoing wrongs inflicted by this nation, the future that we want two hundred and fifty years from now depends on our presence in the fight for its existence today.

Samantha Rise Say no more rich man's war

Rally No more rich. man's war

Samantha Rise Not at home. Not abroad.

Winter Schneider A huge shout out to Samantha Rice on the mic and all the musicians we've been listening to this whole time.

Samantha Rise Not at home, not abroad.

Winter Schneider For the people. I'm winter Schneider.

Samantha Rise Not at home. Not abroad. Not at home. Not abroad.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson A few years ago, I saw someone post a question on Facebook asking about safe spaces for black trans women to go swimming. And that got me wondering about the city's parks and rec centers. They're supposed to be safe and inclusive spaces for everyone, but it doesn't always feel that way. There's one rec center that goes above and beyond to make sure everyone is welcome, though. Star Garden Playground at sixth and Lombard. Chloe Harris is the recreation leader of Star Garden, and she does everything she possibly can to make sure that it's a safe and inclusive space for the Lgbtqia+ community, as well as for black and brown people, and with special training for the staff and inclusive events and programming throughout the year. Chloe is joining us live in the studio to talk about how that works and why it matters. Chloe, thank you so much for joining us today.

Chloe Harris It's my pleasure. Hello. Welcome and hello, Philadelphia.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Awesome, awesome. So so before we get started talking about how you made Star Garden so inclusive, let's talk about the weather. What impact has this air quality been? And the temperature's been on your programming camp. Everything.

Chloe Harris Well, right now I'm in the middle of summer camp, so we were very careful on Thursday and Friday to have the kids, uh, stay indoors as much as possible. And this is it was a little tricky with the summer camp and, and a whole bunch of kids in a, in a few small rooms. Friday we were lucky enough that we had a karaoke DJ coming in scheduled, so the kids were able to stay inside and stay busy and have a really good time without having to worry about the weather.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson So the the kids. What's the age range for the kids?

Chloe Harris Kids are six to twelve at our summer camp.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And they had to stay inside for two days.

Chloe Harris For the most part. Yeah.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson How just how, how were you able to quickly like pivot given the air quality in Philadelphia?

Chloe Harris Well, I think that's kind of what we do at Parks and Rec is, is, is we play the hand that we're dealt. And this, this, this week was a little bit tricky, but we, we figured it out. We have a lot of stuff indoors for the kids to do. We have a lot of games. We have art projects. We have really wonderful, talented staff that could work with the kids and keep them busy.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Awesome.

Nikki Schaffer Yeah. So Star Garden is a playground and rec center. You don't have your own swimming pool, but you do have an annual LGBTQ plus inclusive pool party every year, which you host at other park and rec centers. Can you tell us about that party and why it's important to have one.

Chloe Harris So I would love to. The first one was in twenty twenty two. This is the the fifth annual one that we're doing. And this all started with a conversation that I was having with friends and people that I knew. I realized that some people in my community weren't familiar with our pool system, or they were uneasy about going swimming. I wanted to create an event where everyone felt welcome and affirmed. Sometimes people can feel uneasy about going to a swimming pool because it's crowded, or the bathrooms, or changing into their swimwear. Um, maybe their identity. You know, people are afraid of being harassed. And I wanted to create, um, a pool party where people didn't really have to worry about all that. I've never gotten positive feedback like I have after our pool party. Uh, I'm there at the, at the front gate when we open. I'm there when people are leaving and I just talk to people and it's a, it's a really wonderful experience. Um, everybody has a good time and relationships are formed. I think that's really important. I met Sheila at one of our pool parties. I've met a lot of my current friends at our pool parties as well. Our DJ is Robert Drake, the great Robert Drake on the ones and twos. He's a he's our annual DJ. The pool party this year is August first from one to five p m at O'Connor pool at twenty sixth and South. There is a flyer that we're working on as we speak, and that should get dropped tomorrow on both Philadelphia Parks and Recreation social medias, as well as Star Garden playground, social media.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And this pool party is inclusive to trans lesbian gay. Yes, black, brown, just like everybody. It's like the United Nations there when I went there. Yeah. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing, folks. It's such a good time. Um, what other programming Do you have inclusive program that do you have at Start garden? Like for the kids, for the adults, for the teenagers, you know, throughout the year.

Chloe Harris Right? So we have what's known as our queer clay program, which is probably our most popular program. It began in January of twenty twenty three. It is the third Monday of every month except for summer camp season. We take a quick break. When I first came to star, one of the things that I that I did was I had met at our first swim party in twenty twenty two. Erica Mandell, who was my son's art teacher, and his grade school, which is two blocks away from McCall. And then I asked them, you know, like what? What kinds of stuff can we do together? You know, how can we plan to do some work? And so we kept in touch after I saw them at the pool party. And, you know, I got to give Erica the credit for coming up with the the concept for queer Clay to follow that program. You want to follow them at queer Clay A p on Instagram, and the tickets are sold through eventbrite. And the link to eventbrite is on the Instagram handle.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And then you also do like you love horror movies.

Chloe Harris I love horror.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Movies. All right. So let's talk about what you do with horror movies at Star Garden.

Chloe Harris That's good. I could talk about horror movies all day. Um, my, my childhood was, uh, was a little rough around the edges. And one of the ways that I got through it was horror movies. And there used to be this, this, uh, this TV show that used to come on after Saturday Night Live called Saturday Night Dead. And it was everything for me when I was growing up in, uh, in the, the late eighties. And I believe up until nineteen ninety. And it had a host named Stella. She was like the Philly Elvira. And I absolutely adored it. And it helped me get through what was a challenging childhood. Um, so we do that, uh, on every Thursday except for again, except for summer camp season. This program also started in twenty twenty three. So when I first got to star, I was introduced to my friend Nelson, and the two of us came up with a concept for the queering. Our. Nelson had been doing a horror movie program that they worked with Gay at the time, and they wanted to continue doing that, and I thought Star Garden would be like a wonderful host for that kind of a program. So we started doing it at Star Garden. We noticed that there was an unusual amount of horror fans in the queer community, and we thought, why not have a group that meets up to enjoy our favorite horror films? Each program features a short introduction, then we watch the film, and then we discuss the film over pizza. The movies are announced every Monday on our social media, so that's on Facebook and Instagram. Again, that's Star Garden Playground star with two Rs.

Nikki Schaffer Awesome. Um, what other programming and support do you offer specifically for LGBTQ plus kids and teens?

Chloe Harris Well, we did a Halloween themed queer clay program for kids, and I look forward to replicating that in the future. Uh, again, we did it with the great Erika Mandel leading the way. Uh, we just started a dinner and a movie program where kids can come in on a Friday night and watch a movie over pizza. And let me tell you, the parents absolutely love that because it gives them a chance to go out and go to dinner and be adults while we watch their kids on Friday night. It's probably our most popular program as far as parents are concerned.

Nikki Schaffer Sounds like a dream.

Chloe Harris Um, we have an outdoor movie night coming up Friday, July twenty fourth at eight thirty p m we're going to watch SpongeBob The Search for SquarePants. There's a little spooky angle to that, which goes like plays right into Into My Hand. Um, we have a spectacular after school program and summer camp, and they both allow all kinds of kids to be their most authentic selves. We have a bunch of teenagers who work with our summer camp, and some even work with our after school as well. So our camp is for six to twelve year olds, but they can be a counselor in training when they're thirteen, and then when they're fourteen to eighteen, they're a full fledged counselor. Um, this keeps the kids connected to Star Garden. It keeps them connected to a positive place that they know, um, where they're getting positive feedback and they're being, they feel safe and affirmed. So as far as support, um, I don't have the answer to any question. Every question, but I do know who to ask. And I'm a good person to, to reach out to for, for questions.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson How did you get involved with Star Garden? What's your history with Star Garden?

Chloe Harris Um, so to go all the way back and I used to hang out at Star Garden when I was a kid in the, in the early nineties. So Star Garden is right off South Street where at six in Lombard, right off of, uh, right behind the fire station at sixth and South. And that's where I went when I was a kid. I used to hang out at South Street. I grew up in East Falls, but all the cool stuff was happening downtown. So I like going into Center City a lot. And I used to go down to South Street when I was a kid. You know, I was certainly two too young to go to a lot of places as far as the nightlife in Center City. And I used to hang out at Star Gardens. So it's it's a very special place for me. Um, if I could go back, uh, and go back about twelve years, I was working and doing home remodeling and I was absolutely miserable. I did not like what I was doing. I was not happy. And, uh, I, I was working on a home in Fishtown and a home in West Powelton and everything was going wrong. And I literally went to the Temple University website because I'm a Philadelphian. I wasn't looking to move anywhere, but I wanted to get back into school and get my bachelor's degree. And this is when I'm in my late thirties and I went to the temple website and I went down the list of majors, and I got all the way to sport and recreation management. And I thought to myself, uh, I don't know what that is or what that entails, but it certainly sounds better than what I'm doing. And so I went back to school. Um, I went for my degree for sport and recreation management at temple. Um, I transitioned as a student and I had a really wonderful, supportive, um, number of peers and a professors that really made my journey, um, really great. And then it came time for me to pick a junior internship. So when I was a junior in school in twenty seventeen, I needed to do an internship. Um, so I, I was already at Star Garden all the time because my son went to school like two blocks away from there. And so I would pick my son up from school every day and take him to Star Garden and run him into the ground because he had a lot of energy. Um, so I was there all the time and I figured, why not do my junior internship there? And so I did my junior junior internship, volunteering for the summer camp at Star Garden in twenty seventeen, and I just fell in love with the work. It was working with kids. It was sports, it was recreation, it was a community work, and I just fell in love with it. I found my calling a year later. I did my senior internship with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. Uh, after I graduated, they kept me in the loop. I was working in after school programs and summer camps. Um, and I worked all over South and Southwest Philly. I was really enjoying myself. And then in twenty twenty two, I got the call to, to go to Star Garden, which was, you know, like my dream job. And that's, that's where I'm working right now.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Can you share with us a story about the impact your inclusive programming has had on anyone who's participated, whether it's a child, whether it's an adult? Can you share a story with us?

Chloe Harris Sure. So I would highlight the trans kids watching trans kids have a blast and be their own authentic selves. Brings me so much joy. I'm going to be honest, it's my favorite part of the job. I've seen kids come out as trans during summer camp and it's, it's it's absolutely magical. And the kids come in and you could see that they're shy and hesitant, but when they're, they're being called their name and their pronouns and they use the bathrooms that they want to use, they, they just light up with so much joy. And I just seeing that process has affirmed, you know, what I believe as far as letting kids be themselves and, and be who they really are.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And so when you were growing up, you mentioned that it was kind of rough. Can you want to talk about that a little bit?

Chloe Harris Sure. Like I was a little rough around the edges. Um. If there were any programs like this when I was a kid, I certainly didn't know about them. I played sports. Uh, I was a jock. That that whole world can sometimes be homophobic. And I remember there was times when I was playing sports when I was a kid where I heard things said that made me very uncomfortable, and it made me not want to participate. Um, part of this is what guides me to do the work that I do. I want to create the kinds of programs I would have liked as a kid. Um, let me tell you, I would have done anything to have a queer horror movie program when I was a kid or even a young adult.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson The other question like that actually ties into how we kind of met. We met when, um, Stephanie Haynes, who was the former executive director of Philadelphia Family Pride, um, retired. And I just remember your in your speech, you shared how Philadelphia family pride and Stephanie really helped you when you were going through your transition? Mhm. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Chloe Harris Yeah. I mean, I was a transparent and I didn't know what I was doing. Uh, you know, it was, it was my, my first and only kid. And I was really anxious and I didn't really have any connection to community. And I really needed that. And I needed peer support. And, and Stephanie got me involved in Philly family pride and doing events there and being a part of things. And it was really wonderful. I got to meet other parents, other queer parents, other trans parents. And, you know, it just made my whole life so much easier having that kind of support.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And so for folks who have not heard of Philadelphia family prior, what is that?

Chloe Harris It's, it's a, it's a family organization to connect LGBTQ plus families all over the area. Um, they do a fantastic job. They, it's a great source of information. It's a great way to connect with fellow members of the community, and it's a great, great way to find programs and things to do with with your kids. When you're a queer, queer person with a family.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson That's awesome.

Nikki Schaffer What what should parents know and be looking for when seeking safe spaces for their trans and gender? Um, trans kids and teens to play.

Chloe Harris I think word of mouth is the best source. Um, talking to other people, talking to other parents. Um, again, organizations like Philly Family Pride serve well to connect LGBTQ and queer families throughout the area. Uh, I would tell the staff of a possible organization, you know, I would sit down with them and say, hey, my, my kid is queer, trans, etc.. Is this a safe space for them? Other answer is going to tell you a lot. Do they look uncomfortable? Do they give you any other answer than yes, absolutely. That's going to tell you everything that you need to know. But but yeah, definitely talk to the, the staff of any facility that you're planning on sending your kids to.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And speaking of staff, how did you get your staff trained so that folks, when they come there, the staff actually know how to respond to Lgbtqia folks who come there and any issues that might be unique that might arise as a result.

Chloe Harris Well, we have an amazing and diverse staff at Star Garden. We have a very diverse group of kids. Um, I make sure the staff understands that we prioritize inclusion and we're here to bring people joy. That means making sure that every one of our, every single one of our patrons can come and have the time of their life. Uh, we have zero tolerance for any kind of behavior that would make any patron of Star Garden feel uncomfortable. Uh, I would say that kids are a lot better at at seeing other kids as just kids. I feel like adults have a little bit more hang ups when it comes to that. As far as our differences. Uh, Every so often we have to pause for a learning moment. But overall, the kids are all right. As they say, a training is great. A lot of the learning is on the job learning. I have to make sure I'm available and present in order to walk staff through the process of what we do. I'm very hands on.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson How do you make sure that the staff and everyone that's working with your counselors and trainings? How do you keep them up to up to date with policy? One fifty two if you can talk about what is policy? One fifty two and why it's so important?

Chloe Harris Well, policy one fifty two is the city's trans inclusive inclusion guidelines. And I'll tell you, I was one of the people that was called on to consult for that law back in twenty seventeen. And I think it went on the books in twenty nineteen. And, you know, it's it's all about kids and keeping kids safe and affirming their identity. So kids can use the, the name that they want kids. Kids can use the pronoun that they want. Kids can use the bathroom that they want. Kids can wear the uniforms that they want. Um, it's not on us as child care professionals to go and run back and talk to the kid's parents about every little single thing they do. You know, there's kids out there who might identify differently in in camp or after school than they do at home. And we're there to kind of affirm them in that experience for them.

Nikki Schaffer Yeah. And why is it important to be doing work with this focus at this moment in time.

Chloe Harris Right now? Trans and queer kids are are under attack, you know, plain and simple. It's turned into this political football. And, you know, it's concerning. It's it's our obligation as child care providers to give them a space where they don't have to worry about all that. Uh, I read the news and sometimes I need a break from all that. And what I want kids to do is to be able to come into our rec center and experience the programs and, and go through their day without having to worry about that. I just want kids to be able to be kids and do kid stuff and have a good time.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson It's great that there's at least one rec center that puts an emphasis on being inclusive for Bipoc plus folks in our community, but what would it take to make sure that every rec center, playground, and swimming pool in the city of Philadelphia is just as welcoming?

Chloe Harris Training. I think training is the is the name of the game. Um, you know, we've, we've had so we have great training at Parks and Rec. Um, they really stay on top of us. We consistently train over and over and over so that even if you forget stuff, it's, uh, it's, it's fresh in our heads.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Thank you again, Chloe, for being here on around the block.

Chloe Harris Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. I appreciate this.

Nikki Schaffer Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for WPM. Peter Lu is radio operations manager, and Allison Durham is WPM radio program director. I'm Nikki Schaefer.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson And I'm Sheila Lorette Emerson. And thanks to Allison Durham, who is our board operator for this episode.

Nikki Schaffer Around the block will be back next month with another episode featuring more stories and conversations from our team of Philadelphia area community journalists. And you can find more episodes of Around the Block and Block by Block on Philly, cam, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you find your podcasts.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson Thanks for listening.

This episode features reports from our community journalists about a program bringing soccer to kids in Southwest Philly, an effort to keep AI data centers out of the region, and an interview with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Executive Vice President Kate McNamara about development at the Navy Yard in South Philly.

Alisha Miranda and Autumn McCann hosted this episode, and K. Michelle Watson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Director.

Episode Transcript

Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.

Autumn McCann Good afternoon. You're listening to Around the Block, a community news program from the Block by Block team at LP Philadelphia, one hundred and six point five FM. On this show, we will explore issues in the Philadelphia region, from voices from the community, through original reports from our team of journalists and live interviews. I'm Autumn McCann.

Alisha Miranda And I'm Alisha Miranda. Coming up, we'll hear about an effort to keep AI data centers out of Southwest Philly. And we'll speak with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Executive Vice President Kate McNamara about development at the Navy Yard in South Philly.

Autumn McCann But first, Philadelphia is welcoming people from across the globe for the World Cup, but many communities across our city have been building a soccer culture long before the global spotlight arrived around the block, reporter Pok stopped by a youth soccer practice session in Finnigan Playground in Southwest Philly to find out more.

P.O.C. In Southwest Philadelphia, the Donna Marie Foundation has partnered with Street Soccer USA to use the game as a tool for community building, helping immigrant and refugee families connect, adapt and find belonging. I first spoke with founder Aisha Campbell about how this personal family experience grew into a program that's changing lives through soccer.

Aisha Campbell The foundation initially started from my sisters, Donna Marie. She was deported back to Jamaica, and we started that foundation to help women and families re-assimilate themselves when they got deported. What we initially found that is like, for instance, my sister Donna, a lot of them, they get deported. They still have family, children. That's back here. My family personally, my husband, my son, my kids, other kids. They play soccer and it's a part of family, brings cultural together. It brings people together. And that was a way for different children's, different immigrant backgrounds and for them to actually coexist and get to learn about each other's culture. So we help the families, the mothers, the fathers, but also when we notice that with the children, it's a different world. You coming to the U.S., it's a big thing. It's hard to adapt. And this way they can meet new children. It is a very worldwide sport. So that was a commonality. So that was one of the things that brought them together. And we started. My husband became a coach and we decided that we're going to actually push this program through. We saw what it did for our kids, so we wanted to extend it to other kids between West Philly and Southwest Philly. We started the program in West, and then we branched out to southwest because we actually started practicing and doing some training sessions here at Finnegan. And once we started here, kids would walk past. Families would walk back. They liked the program. They like the concept of it. And so we just started recruiting kids. So we have literally a melting pot.

P.O.C. For the Donna Marie Foundation. Soccer is about much more than what happens on the field. It's about creating opportunities, building confidence, and helping young people feel connected to their communities. That vision comes to life through the coaches who work with these young athletes every day.

Tsega McDermott I'm Tsega McDermott, aka Coach Taz. I'm with Street Soccer USA program director. So Street Soccer USA is a non-profit organization who use soccer as a tool to kind of engage with youth. It's geared towards underserved communities. We're trying to break down the barriers between pay to play and just giving kids access to the beautiful game. For the most part, whether you're a novice or a beginner, we have all different levels for that as well. We never really turn anybody away. These are more Recreational. And as you see, these are the more talented group. What we end up doing is building these travel teams. We give them a little bit more opportunity to do more things, and then we keep the beginners coming up that rank as well. Our aim is just to make sure that when every time you show up, you feel belonged, you feel like the opportunities for you as well and your skill set shouldn't really matter. It's just like give you opportunity to grow within this space. I'm from the island of Jamaica. I'm very passionate about the game, and my journey started with somebody giving me an opportunity, meaning showing up in a vacant space where we create moments and memories.

P.O.C. While coaches and community leaders help create these opportunities, the real impact can be heard and the voices of young people themselves. From making new friends to dreaming about playing professionally. One day, these athletes are showing us what soccer means to the next generation. I asked several players. What do they love most about the game, and what do they hope to see for the future of soccer, specifically here in the city of Philadelphia?

Farhan My name is Farhan. I'm twelve and I live in West Philadelphia. By playing soccer, like I can meet new people like at parks and stuff.

Briana My name is Briana. I'm ten, I'm from Pennsylvania, so there's a lot of things I love about soccer, but I really love beating my opponent. I think that the future soccer would look like that. All of the contestants could get along with each other. No fighting, no arguing, no cussing, no whatsoever.

Prince Um, my name is Prince. I'm fourteen years old and I'm from Southwest Philadelphia. Uh, soccer is a really cool sport. And in my country, Liberia, like the original sport over there is soccer. And everybody wants to be the best. Everybody wants to make it pro. You got to push yourself to become the best player. You got to push yourself to get the best out of your teammate. That's what I love about soccer.

P.O.C. The players aren't the only ones who see impact. Coaches who spend time with these young athletes every week say that soccer provides structure, mentorship and a positive outlet that extends far beyond the game itself. Hear from Coach Alton, the glue for connecting the Donna Marie Foundation and Street Soccer USA.

Coach Alton So with soccer being an option, it kind of keep them focused. And what better investment than invest in the youth, which are the future?

P.O.C. While FIFA may be bringing spotlight to the City of Philadelphia, organizations working in neighborhoods across the city remind us that soccer's impact goes far beyond the stadium. For families in Southwest Philadelphia, the game continues to serve as a bridge between culture, community, and opportunities for the next generation. Block by block. Extra. Girl plc.

Alisha Miranda After years of fighting to shut down an oil refinery in Southwest Philly that residents said was a threat to public health, a group of organizers want to make sure the next business to move into the neighborhood doesn't pose similar problems around the block. Reporter Nikki Schaffer brings us this story.

Nikki Schaffer The South Philly oil refinery was built during the Civil War, and neighbors say it had a lasting impact on the neighborhood polluting the area for one hundred and fifty years. Shawmar Pitts is co-managing director of a South Philly environmental justice organization called Philly Thrive. Shemar was born and raised in Grays Ferry, and he says the oil refinery was a silent killer.

Shawmar Pitts A torture, forever burning torch that just always burned bright. I remember specifically having a conversation with my dad when my mom had gotten sick with breast cancer, and it was like, What is it? Everybody keep getting sick. What is it? It got to be something in the environment.

Nikki Schaffer Health studies conducted by Drexel University researchers have found severe public health impacts for residents living near the former oil refinery and disproportionate rates of asthma, cancer and heart disease. In twenty nineteen, an explosion and chemical leak destroyed the refinery and the owner declared bankruptcy following the explosions. Philly Thrive launched a campaign to shut down the oil refinery and call for remediation of the land and reinvestment in the community. Rebecca Valentine is a volunteer for Philly Thrive. She has a background in environmental, health and environmental justice. She says the land at the former oil refinery site is being cleaned up, but only to an industrial standard, not a residential one.

Rebecca Valentine If you think about having a huge empty space, I think your thought immediately goes to let's have parks there, let's have housing there. But in this case, that land is so contaminated that it's not really safe for that. We want something that will benefit the community in some way. And so that might be good jobs that go not just to people in Philadelphia, but specifically to the people who live around the area. Something that's not going to contribute to more air pollution.

Nikki Schaffer After the oil refinery closed, air pollution improved in the city, especially in southwest Philadelphia. The thirteen hundred acres of land was sold to a company called Hilco Redevelopment Partners, also known as HRP. HRP is planning to redevelop the site into an industrial and innovation campus. Philly Thrive says they will continue to advocate for redevelopment plan With a binding agreement that is community centered and prevents a new kind of harmful company from moving on to the site, like AI data centers. Although HRP hasn't yet announced plans to bring an AI data center to South Philly, groups like Philly Thrive are leveraging what they learn from their fight against the refinery to organize resistance to any efforts to bring data centers to the site, now or in the future. Philly? Thrive in People's Tech Project recently held a workshop where participants could learn more about data centers and how to respond. Philly Thrive volunteer Campbell Simmons led a crafting Your narrative exercise.

Campbell Simmons The point of the exercise is understanding that, um, your story is important. And when you can bring your story and articulate it clearly and bring in data and education and facts. You can really touch people. You can move people. So we want to talk about.

Campbell Simmons What we believe we deserve as a community, but we all deserve and what we envision for Grace ferry. It's helpful when you have a specific focus. So some of the impacts that we talked about were energy affordability, air pollution, water access, noise pollution, and surveillance. Choose one of those topics and think about how it's impacted your life. Have you ever struggled to pay your bill? Have you known anybody who's been impacted by air pollution? Have you been impacted yourself.

Nikki Schaffer During the exercise? Community members brought up concerns about health, pollution and coming up with the money to pay for the data center.

Multiple speakers A lot of my family members got cancer in me, but I'm a cancer free person. I just watched a lot go by. A lot of people passing away on me that lived in our community. And it would say.

Unknown Speaker 1 Right now, I can't even afford to send my child to daycare except one day a week. We can't afford a lot of stuff. And like, I just can't imagine things getting more expensive.

Nikki Schaffer Organizers at the workshop shared that data centers produce a constant hum for cooling systems and diesel engines run by fossil fuels. Data centers are responsible for light and air pollution, and a large one can use up to five million gallons of water a day to cool their heating systems. Philly Thrive co-director Shawmar Pitts says something else happens when data centers come to town.

Shawmar Pitts When you put a data center in place, you have to build infrastructure into the electric grid. Who does that price fall on? It falls on us. They want to raise our electric bills on.

Nikki Schaffer As communities around the country fight against the proliferation of AI data centers. Philly Thrive is building on the movement that arose out of efforts to shut down the oil refinery to make sure their South Philly neighborhood stays data center free, and that any new development in the area meets the needs of residents and not just business owners.

Campbell Simmons We're going to be spending a lot of time getting folks together, organizing people, and figuring out how we're going to get in touch with our elected officials and telling them exactly what's going to happen. And it's not just about data centers. It's about housing. It's about air quality, and it is about environmental justice.

Nikki Schaffer For Around the Block. I'm Nikki Schaefer.

Multiple speakers When we fight, we win.

Multiple Speakers We win. Hey.

Alisha Miranda Many Philadelphians don't realize that one of the city's largest and most dynamic public spaces is tucked along the waterfront at the bottom of South Philly. I was just at the Navy Yard yesterday with my dog and my husband, and I'm always surprised to discover something new to see or do when I'm there. I wanted to have this conversation today to learn more about the Navy Yard's urban development progress, how to get more Philadelphians, to use the Navy Yard in everyday life, and what the next chapter looks like in transforming historic sites into modern hubs. Kate McNamara, thanks so much for joining us on Around the Block.

Kate McNamara Thanks so much for having me.

Alisha Miranda So let's start off, for those who don't know that the Navy Yard was the birthplace of the US Navy. Can you tell us a little bit more about the site's history?

Kate McNamara Sure. So the Navy Yard operated as the US Navy's first dedicated shipyard in the United States. So a long history of innovation, job creation, national security that still continues to this day. Um, the Navy is still our biggest employer down at the Navy Yard. They have eight tenant commands and almost four thousand employees. Um, and they're still doing some of the most innovative things dealing with ship systems and production and energy. Um, it's really cool. So we're really happy to be partnered up with them. Um, and in terms of the history, there's still a lot that you can see there. I mean, in addition to building, you know, almost a warship a month during World War Two, it was also the site of the first naval aviation facility. So, you know, Top Gun, all those cool scenes that all started right here in Philadelphia at the Navy Yard.

Alisha Miranda That's awesome. I didn't know that. Um, I think I like to think about the Navy Yard as like an interesting multi-purpose use case study. So converting a former industrial site into a residential or commercial neighborhood with recreational spaces, hotels, and more. Um. I'm curious. What are the some. Excuse me. What were some of the biggest challenges involved in that transformation? Um, and to now what we see is a mixed use district or any highlights or achievements over the past twenty five years since Pidc got involved.

Kate McNamara Sure. So the biggest challenge is the size. It's one thousand two hundred acres, which is basically the size of Center City, Philadelphia. So it is a big area. And when Pidc took ownership of the site, you know, it was infrastructure that hadn't been upgraded in years, a utility grid that was kind of, um, weak at best. Um, there's a bridge there that goes up and down to let the ships in and out. Uh, that had a lot of problems. So really just kind of figuring out what was the most important, how we could kind of break it into pieces and start with the town center, the historic core, build it out to the corporate center and just keep adding and adding and adding Incrementally, but also keeping in mind a couple of really important principles. Um, public access, because it had never had that making it a place where the public could come. Job creation was paramount, um, really, you know, contributing to Philadelphia and what it needed. And then also viewing it as one of the only opportunities you will ever get in urban planning. To start from scratch and take a really strong position on everything has to be sustainable, resilient. Leed certified. Um, and really see if we could kind of turn the tide on the market by setting a good standard.

Autumn McCann Nice, nice, nice. So what are some of the biggest developments currently underway?

Kate McNamara Oh my gosh. There is a lot of exciting stuff.

Autumn McCann Oh I'm excited.

Kate McNamara Um, so this year we are super excited. We've been working to make it, you know, Philadelphia's next great community and really tie it back into South Philadelphia and the city. So we opened our first two residential buildings. It's super exciting. It's the first residential since the base closed. That's AB Normandie and Ave Constitution and they are, um, really great projects by Ensemble and Korman communities. And you know, you can actually go look at the units and lease them up right now. Um, the other thing that is happening is west of Broad Street. We have Urban Outfitters just had the governor down last week to announce a big expansion. Um, the shipyard is investing five billion dollars and adding five thousand jobs. Um, and then on the east side of Broad Street, really working to keep building out, um, residential retail, but bring that in job creating uses like production, commercial, industrial, everything like that.

Autumn McCann Nice. That's interesting.

Alisha Miranda So then on the job creation side, I know urban, I think probably a lot of people know that urban is down there, but who else is down there? What other employers are down there? And how can people find out about the jobs.

Kate McNamara Great question. So urban, their headquarters is there, which means all eight of their brands are headquartered in Philadelphia at the Navy Yard, which is super cool. So Anthropologie, newly free people, they're all down there at the Navy Yard. Tasty cake, Philadelphia favorite. They are down at the Navy Yard as well on twenty sixth Street. And then we have, of course, the Navy. They have eight tenant commands down there, and we have a number of really cool advanced life sciences, cell and gene therapy companies, um, including two that have FDA certified therapies. For example, one has a single dose treatment for advanced melanoma that's being manufactured. And those patients are being treated right here out of the Navy Yard.

Autumn McCann Interesting. Nice.

Alisha Miranda And then you talked about, um, kind of balancing what was there before and then bringing all this modern stuff. Now, I think, you know, Philadelphia is a city that notoriously is trying to always preserve as best as possible the historic buildings or historic sites, while also building new. So how are you kind of balancing that? And you mentioned sustainability, so how are you keeping that environmental impact at mind when you guys are building out new projects?

Kate McNamara It's a really good question. Um, that was something that was important to us taking ownership of this facility because it is really, really important not just for Philly, but for the country. Like it is where a lot of firsts happened. Um, and we still to this day get people every week, like I worked here, my grandfather worked here. Um, you know, they have family pictures taken down there. It's really, it's a really special place for Philadelphia. So um, idk when we first started this project, we decided that we were going to try to preserve the buildings that were able to be preserved. So you'll see a number of adaptive reuse projects. IBEW has a really, really cool historic building down there. There's a number of other buildings. Urban has done a wonderful job. All of their buildings are adaptive reuse. Um, and then we also have work to, um, require all the new buildings to be Leed certified. So they are energy efficient, um, in varying degrees. And then last year we had the entire east side of Broad Street is the country's largest Leed certified neighborhood, meaning that we're making commitments around building materials, transit, energy efficiency, things like that. And that's really important because, you know, every every time we can move the needle with a new building or an entire neighborhood that is really helping, um, you know, further our sustainability goals and our resilience goals.

Alisha Miranda Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite things is just, um, how much green space there is. Like I said, we were talking before, like, I take my dog and he's just running free and sometimes I do the free yoga outside at League Island Park. Um, but for people who don't know anything about what else there is to do at the Navy Yard, what are some of the other experiences or activities available?

Kate McNamara Well, the best thing you could do is come down on June twenty eighth, twelve to five. We have our family festival, which is a great way to be introduced to the Navy Yard. It's free. Um, there's tons of activities. There's vendors, food trucks, music. It's going to be a lot of fun. Um, we also do yoga and Pilates on Wednesdays. That's free to the public. It's, um, it's a really great community activity. Uh, third Thursdays in the summer. We have live music. Um, and it's a lot of fun. That's over in Chapel Plaza, which is a new public space. And then we have things like, um, half mad honey is one of our really tiny, um, businesses, but they do, uh, beehive tours and you can learn a whole bunch of really cool things about how bees work. Um, and then we also have things like the Navy Yard Run Club, a birding club. There is one of the best fishing scenes in Philadelphia, um, on the Delaware side. And you'll always see people biking down there, dog walkers, you know, whatever, whatever people want to do. You know, we try to encourage it and embrace it.

Alisha Miranda Um, well, speaking of. So I do walk and bike there often, and I know there's a shuttle, but I think people are still confused of how to get to and from the Navy Yard. So can you tell us about what those options look like? And then I know that the Septa, the forty five bus route, has just been announced to do service there. As someone who rides the forty five every day, please tell me how I can get in on that.

Kate McNamara I'm so excited about the forty five. It's going to be great. Um, yeah, so we've been working with Septa for a couple of years to figure out how we can do better public transit to the Navy Yard. And they have been great partners. So the forty five is going to start service in August. And we're really excited because it connects to South Philly. It connects to Center City. We also with our businesses, we run the Navy Yard Transit service, which is two bus routes. One takes folks to NRG station so they can link into the Broad Street line. And then the other is the express service that runs daily during the week from the Navy Yard to Center City, Jefferson Station, and then back again. And the goal is just to make it easier for our workers and visitors to get down to the Navy Yard.

Alisha Miranda So will the forty five operate in that same express way or no, it'll have other stops.

Kate McNamara It'll have other stops. They're going to be, you know, just extending that normal forty five service down to the Navy Yard.

Alisha Miranda Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm on it. Um. All right, Autumn, you're up.

Autumn McCann Does the new cruise port affect how the Navy Yard operates?

Kate McNamara It doesn't. We we had the first cruise terminal, and I was the first director of the cruise terminal at the Navy Yard. It's a it's a really cool thing. We still have one of the signs down there, but the new cruise terminal, they are operating out of Hog Island over by the airport. And Phillip Port has done a great job getting it up and running very quickly. Um, and it's really exciting. I've talked to so many people in Philly who are just thrilled that they're, they're able to cruise right out of here instead of going somewhere else.

Autumn McCann Nice. Yeah. So, um, even with like, we were talking about the bus routes and stuff like that, is traffic ever a problem coming and parking? Is that ever a problem?

Kate McNamara So I think one of the, one of the signs of success is when you have, you know, you have rush hour. When I first was down there for the cruise terminal, we never had rush hour. There was there was no rush. Like there just weren't any, um, there just wasn't that kind of demand. But because we're now up to sixteen zero zero zero employees and we have another seventeen zero zero zero on the way. Over the next fifteen years, we really are working closely with the city and PennDOT to expand the main gate to expand twenty sixth Street, to add a different hotel or a different highway entrance ramp just to handle the traffic, but do it in a responsible way. At the same time, we're really working to increase transit and bike amenities and other ways that people can get down there because ideally we we don't want everyone driving. We want to have a better system that's a little bit more sustainable.

Autumn McCann Nice. Thank you very much.

Alisha Miranda I think, I mean, clearly we're having a huge sports week. So how does like the proximity to the stadiums and the sports activities that are going on, uh, kind of engage with the Navy Yard? I had someone ask me yesterday if they booked a hotel at the Navy Yard. Would they be, you know, priced out? Because if there's an Eagles game, everyone wants to stay there. So I'm curious. The synergy between the sports and the Navy Yard.

Kate McNamara It's it's great. I mean, a lot of people will come in for games and just book a room at the Marriott. It's really easy and you can walk there. Um, it's a lot of fun. And you know, we're actually working to finalize plans for the next hotel, which is going to be a really beautiful historic adaptive reuse project in the old Navy barracks building.

Alisha Miranda Awesome. Um, I'm curious, so what are some lessons that other cities can learn from the Navy Yard's approach to all this adaptive reuse, the urban design and sustainable development? I mean, are there any tips about how you guys approach the site that maybe we can consider to apply to other historic sites or underutilized spaces?

Kate McNamara The biggest thing we had going for us and continue to have going for us is a really robust partnership at all levels. So we have local, state, federal through multiple administrations, multiple governors, multiple mayors. Everybody really wanted the Navy Yard to succeed. So the Department of Environmental Protection works really closely with us to make sure everything is in the right condition to support safe development. We work closely with the water department, with streets Department, with virtually everybody, and also nonprofits and advocacy groups, too, so that we're making sure that it's responding to the challenges in Philly that we're adding. You know, an example of this is workforce housing. We made a fifteen percent workforce housing commitment because there's a shortage of that in the city. So where we can help, we try to and to do that, we just bring in a lot of partners. And that's been a great experience and I think would be a good blueprint for other places.

Alisha Miranda Nice. Um, and last, what's looking ahead? What is the ultimate goal?

Kate McNamara The ultimate goal is as many jobs as we can for from Philadelphia and making it into a great neighborhood that connects back to the city. So the more we can support these companies and building out a really robust employment center that also has, you know, housing for every level, job opportunities, job training programs, all of those things, opportunities for small businesses that you know, could benefit from the retail space or anything else. That's what we're here for and we really want to make it succeed.

Alisha Miranda I love that. Well, thanks for talking with us today, Kate.

Speaker 20 Thanks for having me.

Autumn McCann Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for p m. Peter Liu is radio operations manager, and Allison Durham is PM's radio program director. I'm Audie McCann.

Alisha Miranda And I'm Alicia Miranda. And thanks to Kay Michelle Watson, who is our board operator for this episode.

Autumn McCann Around the block will be back next month, with another episode featuring more stories and conversations from our team of Philadelphia area community journalists. And you can find more on more episodes of Block by Block on Philly, cam, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts.

Alisha Miranda Thanks for listening.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Amadee Braxton and Koren Martin hosted this episode, and Anaiah Davis was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Episode Transcript

Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.

Amadee Braxton

This is Block by Block, a community news program where we explore issues affecting the Philadelphia area with news reports from members of the community. I'm Amadee Braxton,

Koren Martin

And I'm Koren Martin. In the next half hour, we'll hear stories from our community news reporters about what it takes for students to succeed when learning English as a second language, a Germantown group that brings gardeners together to share knowledge and seeds, a cafe and art gallery in Center City, and a group of elementary school students who took an environmental justice message to City Hall,

Amadee Braxton

But first, a New Jersey-based political activist with ties to Philadelphia is back in the United States after being detained by the Israeli military. He'd been part of the largest flotilla of civilian ships to date that is trying to challenge the Israeli naval blockade that prevents humanitarian aid from being delivered to residents of Gaza. Block by Block reporter Dounya Ramadan traveled to New York on May 24th with other Philadelphians to welcome him home, and brings us this story.

Dounya

At JFK International Arrivals Hall, I waited alongside hundreds of people, including Philadelphia friends and New Jersey family members of political activist and former Philadelphia resident of seven years, Amed Ibrahim, to greet him and 14 other U.S. citizen flotilla participants arriving back home after being deported by Israel. Amed's organizing experience, which centers Palestinian political prisoners and resistance, started in Philadelphia, where he spent his 20s and became an important part of the Philadelphia organizing community, Ramar decided to embark on this maritime flotilla with people from over 40 other countries to challenge the Israeli naval blockade and siege imposed on Gaza since 2007, which has been condemned as illegal by the UN and rights groups since its imposition. Israel intercepted their ships, abducted them in international waters, tortured them in their prison ships, and at Ketsiot prison camp in the Negev Desert. While we waited for Amr to be released from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, I spoke with Amed's friend, Philadelphia organizer Noor.

Noor

What's been really horrible knowing that your friend is detained and being held in these Israeli prisons with like hundreds of other like activists and flotilla like participants, Israel has even killed at least 10 flotilla participants since 2008, when the flotilla missions began. You know what we've seen happen to these flotilla participants pales in comparison to what Israel does to Palestinians in Israeli prisons constantly,

Dounya

According to Palestinian political prisoner advocacy organizations and the UN, over 9,000 Palestinians are in Israeli captivity, 1000s being held without charges, some of them being women and children and health workers from Gaza. And Amed's mother says part of the reason her son was on the flotilla was to highlight these abuses Palestinians have endured in Israeli captivity for decades.

Amed's mother

We're not only like advocating for my son; we're advocating for everyone else's in the Israelis prison. 9000 like prisoners, they've been like tortured, like raped, everything that you can imagine happening to them. So if we focus now on our children coming back home. We also have to highlight what's happening in Palestine.

Amed

Thanks for coming.

Dounya

That was Amed. He just got released from CVP custody at JFK Airport. While in Israel's Ketsyot prison camp, Israeli guards subjected Amr to multiple blows to the head. At their hands, he also sustained injuries such as a possible broken nose, nerve damage, and muscle tissue and rib damage. But even though Israel subjected him to torture and abuse, he wants to keep shining a light on the abuses happening to Palestinians every day. A week after Ahmed's arrival at JFK, he sat down with me to discuss his experience and how the perception of flotilla participants and what they've experienced in Israeli prisons is directly connected to how Israel views Palestinians.

Amed

Based on how they treated us and how they talked about Palestinians, they didn't see Palestinians as humans, they saw them as animals that they needed to exterminate. They even like threatened to bring us to Gaza, which was like ironic because that's where we were trying to go. But the way they kept threatening to do that is like suffer there with them and potentially die there with them.

Dounya

Ahmed explains how the conditions in the Israel Quetzyot prison camp he was held in resembled that of a concentration camp.

Amed

At one point, we were held in a small cage, where like 100 of us were like stacked on top of each other. We stayed in that cage for hours well into the night. International outrage and diplomatic pressure led to. Our release within days, but Palestinians stay for years and even decades, and Palestinians endure these systems largely in isolation and without media attention or any intervention or any kind of protection.

Dounya

Ahmed still recognizes that many might be skeptical about the several missions since 2008 that have failed to actually break the Israeli blockade on Gaza, but Ahmed explains there is more to this international mission that folks are missing here.

Amed

It's important to talk about how much this means to the people in Gaza. I've had friends of mine who live in Gaza call me to tell me like how much it means to them to see they weren't forgotten. The people in Gaza is they can't believe the whole world is watching, and no one's really doing anything. It may feel like it's symbolic, but it does mean a lot to them that people haven't forgotten about them.

Dounya

From Philly political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal to Palestinian Gazan healthcare worker Dr. Hassem Abu Sofia, who's now in solitary in Israel? Amed says, "Hear them and advocate for them. If you want to hear more from Amr, a longer filmed interview will be published on the YouTube channel Hate Five Six in the coming weeks. For PhillyCAM's Block by Block, I'm Dounya Ramadan.

Koren Martin

More than 15% of Philadelphia residents were born outside the United States, and many come from countries where English is not the primary language. As block by block reporter Ahmed Hassouna reports, that poses challenges for students who are learning English as a second language.

Ahmed Hassouna

For students learning English, success in school involves much more than mastering a new language, it can also mean adjusting to a new environment, building confidence, and finding a sense of belonging. At McKinley Elementary School in Philadelphia, educators work with English language learners both inside and outside the classroom to help them navigate those challenges.

April Marinell

What continent have we been learning about, or what country?

Students

Simba,

April Marinell

Zimbabwe. Where is in Africa?

Ahmed Hassouna

As a substitute teacher at McKinley School, and as someone who learned English as a second language myself, I've often wondered what it's like for students learning a new language while adapting to a new school environment. To better understand that experience, I spoke with ESL teacher April Marinell.

April Marinell

Since we're a K to eight school, I work with all of the grades. We have this year about 28 students who are identified as English learners, and so depending on their level, they either come to my classroom in small groups, or I push into their homeroom and support them there. Or students who are more advanced, the teacher and I use planning time to discuss strategies that we can use to help them.

Ahmed Hassouna

April says teaching English to students who are learning a new language isn't just about having them memorize words and grammar rules.

April Marinell

We have speakers of other languages who might be learning a different alphabet or a totally different sound system-that's one challenge. Sometimes feeling as though they belong, making friends, or feeling self-conscious. If they feel like they prefer to share in a smaller group or one-on-one, I think that can sometimes be hard to feel comfortable in a large group setting.

Ahmed Hassouna

Helping students feel comfortable and confident is a major part of the work.

April Marinell

When they come here in a smaller group, it seems more like a safe space where they can try things out in a smaller setting. I think that helps them feel more confident about their skills. And then I think the activities that the school plans, as a whole, that give students a chance to feel successful-not always in an academic way, but could be in an artistic way or in a music way. So they feel like there are many ways that they can contribute and feel as though they belong to the school community.

Ahmed Hassouna

Sometimes that support can lead to remarkable success.

April Marinell

One year, not too long ago, our eighth graders we had two ESL students. One was the valedictorian, and another one was the salutatorian. At their ceremony, they mentioned how they felt they. Were supported by the school and by their peers, and when they initially came, not speaking, in one case, any English, and then to be able to learn enough to be valedictorian and salutatorian.

Ahmed Hassouna

For Marinell, success is not only about language; it is also about helping students recognize the value of their own voices, cultures, and experiences. For example, there is a student she works with who is the only speaker of her native language at the school.

April Marinell

What I've found that she really takes pride in is when we specifically ask her, "Well, how would you say that in in your language? and get the other students interested in in her traditions and her culture and her family. When she sees that we want to learn her perspective, I think she feels as though she really has something to offer. And I have seen over time, then students will ask her, "Well, what do you do? Or is that true in your family, they need space and time to feel comfortable.

Ahmed Hassouna

Marinell says there are still misconceptions about what it means to learn a second language.

April Marinell

I think sometimes there's a misunderstanding about the process of learning a second language, and that it's not instant or it's not something that you can turn on and off. I feel like something that the U.S. is lacking as a whole compared to other countries is recognizing the value of multilingualism. Many times when we meet people from Europe or Africa, it's typical to know two or three languages, and I feel like that's something that I wish the U.S. did a better job at teaching from a young age.

Ahmed Hassouna

For block by block, I'm Ahmed Hassouna.

Amadee Braxton

A group of young students are learning about environmental justice and advocacy. Block by block, reporter Anaiah Davis brings us this story about a South Philly teacher who helped her second graders take their message to City Hall.

Anaiah Davis

Angela Chan teaches second grade at Fanny Jackson Copeland Public School in South Philly, where I work as a media instructor. Part of her work involves teaching students about science and nature, which is something she wishes she had learned to appreciate when she was their age. Angela is a first-generation American who was born in Philadelphia and was very involved in her Chinatown community when she was growing up, doing things like tutoring neighbors who were learning English. But it wasn't until she moved to Arizona to complete her student teaching that she came to see the beauty in protecting nature.

Angela Chan

Growing up in the city, I did not appreciate wildlife and nature until I was a young adult. It was probably in Arizona when I noticed the red rocks and the canyons that I started to notice the natural world around me.

Anaiah Davis

Angela doesn't want her students to realize the beauty of nature in Philadelphia late in life as she did.

Angela Chan

My belief is that we are all connected. We're connected to the smallest creatures in the world, and I really want students to feel that connection, since they're growing up in the city, they might not notice the nature that's around us. But I believe that if we learn to connect with nature, and if we learn to take care of even the smallest living beings in our world, it will help us to become better human beings. My own love of nature and my belief that everyone and every living being is connected helped me to want to introduce environmental science, environmental justice, to my students. Sh

Anaiah Davis

She wanted her students to learn how to use the equipment to interview Philadelphia Council member Jamie Gaudier about her proposed Stop trashing our air act. This act would stop Philadelphia's trash being sent to the Reworld Trash Incinerator in Chester, Pennsylvania. The students would also create posters in collaboration with ArtWell, a Philadelphia art nonprofit, to bring with them to City Hall, where they would speak in favor of the bill. Using these partnerships, Angela helps bring to life what the students want to voice-not only to each other, but to their wider community. The video called "Save Our Air" was completed in March and shared to the school community. Soon after, the students took to City Hall to voice their concerns. Cyrus, one of the children in Angela's class, was a little nervous about going up to the council.

Cyrus

So when we like walked in, I I was really nervous. But when I saw other people do it, I was like, oh, it doesn't seem that bad. When I did it, I started to like not feel that nervous because all I was doing was. Talking and most of the people that were there were sitting behind me, only like the council members were in front of me, so that made it less stressful.

Anaiah Davis

Poppy, his classmate, felt almost like the experience was dreamlike.

Poppy

My experience speaking at City Hall is kind of surreal. It felt so cool to be in front of an entire crowd and in front of such important people.

Anaiah Davis

Itwas this maturity and motivation the students showed that made Angela want to bring the children to City Hall in the first place.

Angela Chan

It was a little bit nerve-wracking in the beginning because City Hall is just not a kid-friendly place, but it was very powerful to see students say, "Hey, we can't just let this stand. That really touched me and gave me hope that we have young people who know so clearly what's right or wrong. So really, I just made the process possible for them to do.

Anaiah Davis

With this event and with Angela's teaching, students like Juno feel like they have a voice in how their city is run.

Juno

I might not like go to City Hall and public testify again, but I might email council members, tell them that like this isn't right, or I might send letters to the government, stuff like that. Yeah.

Anaiah Davis

What does Angela want her students to take from learning advocacy? That not only should kids be included in the conversation, but that every battle may not result in a win. Something that's important for children to learn.

Angela Chan

The fact that as a community we made this decision to put our strength together and our voices together to make a difference. What we've learned in the process is as important as whether or not City Council voted to shut down the trash incinerator. So that was something that the kids took with them. That if a vote doesn't work out for us this time. The work continues.

Anaiah Davis

For block by block, I'm Anaiah Davis.

Koren Martin

At a time when food costs are rising and many people feel disconnected from their neighbors and from nature, one group in Germantown is bringing small groups of people together to share tips on growing your own food. My co-host Amati Braxton explains that participants also get their hands dirty helping out in one another's gardens.

Amadee Braxton

A little over a year ago, I bought a house in Germantown in Northwest Philadelphia. It has a large yard brimming with possibility, but where to begin? Where should I put raised beds to grow food? How should I deal with the black raspberry bushes that were out of control? Were those vines with the white flowers invasive? I had so many ideas, so much to do, and so many unanswered questions. Then I came across a group that runs a gardening learning circle in Germantown, and I joined to get answers to some of those questions. I met up with the founder of the Learning Circle in her garden.

Celeste Preston

I was always a child that loved to be outside, so you could find me playing with worms, playing with insects, picking up birds, and just studying the land. My name is Celesete Preston, and I am a organizer for Great, which stands for the Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together.

Amadee Braxton

Great's gardening learning circle meets once a month at different group members' yards to share knowledge and build skills by doing hands-on garden projects together.

Celeste Preston

So the great gardening learning series I created this year because I saw a need for a space for us to learn gardening techniques, and I wanted to just give folks an opportunity to come together once a month for two hours and whatever questions they have. If I can't answer, there may be another experienced gardener that could share information.

Amadee Braxton

And Celeste does know a lot about gardening. She studied ornamental horticulture and environmental design from Delaware Valley University. In our first few gatherings, we've learned about starting plants from seed, how to propagate plants through cuttings and how to build raised beds. She hosted the first session in the expansive yard of her apartment building. It's full of edible plants in their early stages, and lots of gardening tools are off to the side.

Celeste Preston

During our first session, I showed everyone how to use recyclables as greenhouses, and right now I have a gallon crystal geyser water bottle that I cut in half, but not completely, so that there is an opening for air, and there's also holes at the bottom.

Amadee Braxton

So now we're inside the garden. Let us know what you have growing here.

Celeste Preston

I have so many plants. Growing right now, I have chives growing, purple sage, oregano. I have strawberries that are flowering right now. They have a white flower. I have some cilantro popping up.

Amadee Braxton

At a recent gardening circle gathering, a few of us worked to help clear out a garden bed to prepare for planting, and we put together a small greenhouse kit. I brought some black raspberry cuttings from my yard to share. Next month, we'll build raised bed frames for another group member. Participants like Elaine say there are a bunch of reasons they enjoy gardening together in small groups like this.

Elaine

Touching the soil, being in the sun, it makes me feel alive and grounded and healthy, like I'm in my body. Yeah, it feels good and it makes me happy to talk to other people.

Amadee Braxton

Group members work to weed an area for planting and fill up a wheelbarrow with the weeds for a nearby compost pile.

Danielle

My name is Danielle. This is my first gardening circle meeting. Actually, growing up, my grandparents had a really awesome garden in the yard, and it was just really a huge part of my childhood, and just kind of became part of my identity. Just being outside and just kind of foraging in the yard, eating whatever you know-the mint, the raspberries, the pears-and I've just been dreaming of having that again, and I finally I think I'm able to because we just moved into a house that has like a yard and I can do what I want with it. So I was really excited to see this gardening circle pop up and a place that I could you know learn from some other gardeners and share kind of just in community and support each other.

Amadee Braxton

If you were to get this circle to come to your house to help you, what would you want help with?

Danielle

I'm literally just beginning, so even just identifying what's already in the yard would be helpful. And ideas of like where to put new things. I just got some raspberry stalks from another neighbor, so I shoved them in the ground in a corner where I think it's sunny. So I hope, fingers crossed, they do well. But I'm really such a beginner right now, so I'm like just trying to absorb all of the like knowledge I can really.

Amadee Braxton

Well, you can take some of my black raspberries, so you'll have black raspberries and red raspberries.

Danielle

Thank you. That's literally recreating my grandma's yard. That makes my heart so happy. Thank you.

Amadee Braxton

Oh, that's so great. Okay, cool. This is Amadee Braxton with Block by Block.

Amadee Braxton

There are hundreds of coffee shops in Philadelphia, and while many are part of big chains like Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, there are dozens of smaller independent cafes that stand out by offering more personal and local experiences. Block by block, reporters Abby Cruz and Ahmed Hassouna stopped by Time and Peace Cafe and Gallery at Seventh and Ramstead recently, and spoke with owner Justine Cruz about what makes a cafe feel like part of a community.

Abby Cruz

Were you always a coffee aficionado? Like, did you always make like good coffee, or are you self-taught? How did you become like such a barista? Is it by trade, TikTok? Like,

Justine Cruz

it's a little bit of both. So before we bought the cafe itself, I really just made drip coffee at home. It wasn't anything special that I did, but for a year I shadowed the previous owner. So I came in, I ran shifts, I learned everything from him, I did a lot of back research on my own end, and really tried to make sure that coming into the business, I wasn't as much of a novice. I wanted to be able to really curate a space and curate the craft, so that when people did have our coffees, it felt like somebody was really trying and really cared and really thought about each individual cup. It's really easy in a city with so many cafes for it to feel like they're just trying to give you your coffee and get out, but everything that we do is hand done and handcrafted and slowly. So we tell people like, when you come in, you are gonna take a little bit more time. It's meant to be peaceful. It's meant to be intentional. So like when you're younger and you watch your family members make coffee, or you watch at least when I grew up with Latina heritage, coffee is a big deal. It becomes a part of a ritual. So keeping that kind of feeling within every single cup is what we try to do here, which I think is what makes people really feel like they're in a time portal and feel like when they come in, everything kind of slows down because you know me, we take our time with everything.

Ahmed Hassouna

While cafe is an important part of the cafe, it is not the only thing that brings people to Time and Peace. Time and Peace also hosts events for all different communities in the city, from comedy shows, run and sip clubs, to hosting weddings. This cafe offers an event. Space for everyone. The cafe is also an art gallery. Justine curates pieces from local artists around the city. One

Abby Cruz

thing I noticed: you have games here people could play. Someone saying the comments is like a little miniature art museum.

Justine Cruz

Yes. Right now we're hosting 14 different artists on our walls. We try to rotate our artists as much as often, or try to fill the space with as much Philadelphia artists as possible because each piece is a piece of someone from Philly, and I think that that's important for us because we are a cafe and we are a gallery. But making art accessible is very different than being in a place where like the art is there, but you can't take it, or they're not supporting the artists in a way that is conducive of them actually being able to sell the art. So really trying to boost the art profile as well as much as the coffee. So having photographers and painters and drawers and graphic designers, it all like blends into this beautiful melting pot.

Abby Cruz

Customers seem to appreciate what Time and Peace has to offer. Jeff, who was a regular at Time and Peace, brought his two friends along with him for the first time, but found it to be the perfect place to conduct their writing workshop together. What made you keep coming back? The

Jeff

quietness, the hominess, the handmade element to everything, the like amount of care that's been placed into everything, the friendliness of the folks behind the desk, the kind of tucked away nature of it. I think it's it's really wonderful.

Abby Cruz

You're a lot like me. If I find a spot that I really like, I get my friends and I hold them hostage. Yeah, yeah. Tell them, yo, I got this spot in the city. You got to come with me.

Jeff

Yeah.

Abby Cruz

And you brought your friends to do. One of your friends said it was her first time here. Friend, what's your name?

Edan

Edan.

Abby Cruz

Edan, what do you feel? How do you feel about this place?

Edan

I love it. I mean, it was such a treat to hear a little bit of just like the owner's intentions in creating a space that is very much for the community and for the creative community. Like we're here because of a writing workshop that we all took, so we were doing some writing together, and we're all various types of artists. So it's really great to have a space like this for the community.

Justine Cruz

I think that sometimes people look for when they start a business or when they acquire a business, they look for the monetary parts of it. But like the money comes, but the money goes too. Like you can't keep everything forever. But if you can have a memory in somebody's mind, they don't lose that. Like having a picture that they could be like, oh, I remember when I modeled here for one of the sketch and sips, or played my guitar or my piano or whatever instrument here, or I had a special event here. Those things will last forever. So even when time and peace isn't here anymore, nobody can take that away from those people. Nobody can take that away from me or from my family.

Abby Cruz

For block by block, I'm Abby Cruz,

Ahmed Hassouna

And I am Ahmed Hassouna.

Koren Martin

Block by block is produced by Abby Cruz, Anaya Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Sheryl Jones, Charlie Klein, Sofia Matia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, Tafari Robertson, and us.

Amadee Braxton

Amadi Braxton

Koren Martin

And Koren Martin. Anaya Davis is our board operator tonight.

Amadee Braxton

Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is radio operations manager, and Allison Durham is WPPM's radio program manager.

Koren Martin

This is the final episode of the spring season of Block by Block, but tune in June 21st for the next episode of Around the Block, featuring live interviews and more stories about life in the Philly area. And you can find the past episodes of the show on PhillyCAM SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you find your podcasts.

Amadee Braxton

Thanks for listening.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Abby Cruz and Sophia Mattia hosted this episode, and Charlie Kline was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features reports from our community journalists about a mutual aid group providing free food to over 350 households in West Philly, a dinner party series that brings Philly creatives together, a new Yemeni-style coffee shop in West Philly, and a North Philly barber shop... on wheels.

Milan Parker and P.O.C. hosted this episode, and K. Michelle Watson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Ahmed Hassouna and Tafari Robertson hosted this episode, and Koren Martin was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Milan Parker and Anaiah Davis hosted this episode, and Dounya Ramadan was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a report on Philadelphia City Council's hearing on ICE OUT legislation that would place some limits on federal immigration enforcement in the city, and a conversation with Erme Maula about the city of Philadelphia's budget process, why it matters, and how people can get involved. Erme is a South Philly resident with over 25 years of experience in public and community health. She’s a passionate advocate for public spaces in her community and across the city. Erme has been a part of the Philly Revenue Project, The People's Budget Office, Alliance for a Just Philadelphia, and the Tax Advisory Committee to City Council

Winter Schneider and Sherri Pennington hosted this episode, and Campbell Simmons was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Dounya Ramadan and Sophia Mattia hosted this episode, and Cheryl Jones was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 8 is produced by Amadee Braxton, Abby Cruz, Anaiah Davis, Ahmed Hassouna, Cheryl Jones, Charlie Kline, Koren Martin, Sophia Mattia, Milan Parker, Dounya Ramadan, and Tafari Robertson.

Cheryl Jones and Koren Martin hosted this episode, and Anaiah Davis was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features an interview with Kabila Events founder and CEO Sonia "Sunny" Blount about creating events that celebrate Black culture, and a story from reporter Alisha Miranda about an unusual culinary experience in Philly - a restaurant where Emilia D'Albero, the World's Best cheesemonger, pushes a cart to offer visitors a curated cheese plate experience.

Shanayah Wyche and K. Michelle Watson hosted this episode, and Amanda Johnson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a story from reporter Nikki Schaffer with an update on the status of the Slavery Memorial at the President's House in Philadelphia, and an interview with Community Legal Services Staff Attorney Lauren Davis and with Pennsylvania Health Access Network Statewide Organizer Robin Stelly about the impact of federal funding cuts on programs that help people pay for food and health care services and what resources may be available to those impacted.

Sheila Lorrett Emerson and Yonique Myrie hosted this episode, and Crystal Herrera was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

***Note: During the section beginning at 17:38 in the episode, our panelists discuss work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries. One point that we wanted to clarify is that these work requirements are only in place for adults age 18-64, and we are starting to see terminations due to work requirements for the first time beginning this March.

This episode features stories about grad student workers who could go on strike this week in an effort to secure a first contract with the University of Pennsylvania and a look back at a bicentennial protest when tens of thousands of people took to Philadelphia’s streets 50 years ago, as well as a conversation with Efi, an organizer with Socialist Alternative about how that group and many others in the region are fighting to keep ICE out of Philadelphia.

Campbell Simmons and Amanda Johnson hosted this episode, and Winter Schneider was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features stories about a bill that would stop Philadelphia from sending trash to be burned at incinerators, a visit to a Michelin-recognized restaurant that uses its drinks menu to honor Black history and culture and a conversation about the impact of Trump administration policies on the LGBTQIA+ community in the region with ACLU of PA senior organizer Naiymah Sanchez and Dena Stanley, executive director of Trans YOUniting and co-founder of the Pittsburgh Pride Group

Sheila Lorrett Emerson and Crystal Herrera hosted this episode, and Campbell Simmons was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Vanessa Lowe and Samantha Roehl hosted this episode, and Kennedie Scurry was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode includes a roundup of some recent news headlines, a report on whether there's a better way to select judges in Pennsylvania, and an interview with Pennsylvania State Representative Chriss Rabb, who is running for Congress in 2026.

Sultan Smalley and Crystal Herrera hosted this episode, and Allison Durham Emerson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Kennedie Scurry and Vanessa Lowe hosted this episode, and Helen Horstmann-Allen was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Angie Bacha and Winter Schneider hosted this episode, and Campbell Simmons was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

In this episode, we have stories about the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, an organization that provides support for people diagnosed with hoarding disorder, and the current state of organized labor in the Philly region.

K. Michelle Watson and Jennifer Robnett hosted this episode, and Sheila Lorrett Emerson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Helen Horstmann-Allen and Samantha Roehl hosted this episode, and Campbell Simmons was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Amanda Johnson and Campbell Simmons hosted this episode, and Winter Schneider was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

In this episode, we have three segments highlighting topics affecting Hispanic and Latino immigrants in our region... including a look at the impact of the federal government's policies on non-profits that work with immigrant communities, a story about how the crackdown on immigration is affecting the health of Latinos in the region, and a live conversation with Welcoming Center CEO Anuj Gupta and business immigration attorney Jonathon Grode about what local hospitality businesses can do to protect people under threat from targeted ICE raids.

Alisha Miranda and Meesh Cosares hosted this episode, and Jennifer Robnett was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block season 7 is produced by Angie Bacha, Ivan Felder III, Khalisah Hameed, Helen Horstmann-Allen, Amanda Johnson, Vanessa Lowe, Samantha Roehl, Winter Schneider, Kennedie Scurry, and Campbell Simmons.

Angie Bacha and Amanda Johnson hosted this episode, and Khalisah Hameed was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

On this episode, we’ll hear about the ongoing fight to secure funding for SEPTA and other public transit agencies in Pennsylvania, a local artist whose work is inspired by experiences of immigrants, and the 3rd annual Philly Halal Food Festival.

K. Michelle Watson and Autumn McCann hosted this episode, and Sheila Lorrett Emerson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

In this episode we’ll hear about efforts to preserve the Slavery Memorial at the Presidents House in Philadelphia from erasure by the Trump administration, the latest news about SEPTA's financial crisis, and a group that’s pushing Philadelphia officials to increase affordable housing opportunities, while also addressing the city’s many vacant lots and properties.

Nikki Schaffer and Jeniffer Robnett hosted this episode, and Sheila Lorrett Emerson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a story about how to have effective conversations about vaccine safety, a conversation about the recent trash strike and recent ICE raids in Philadelphia, and an in-studio interview about state and city budget issues with Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval and Children First's Philadelphia Mobilization and Policy Director Symbol Lai.

Alisha Miranda and David Heayn-Menendez hosted this episode, and Sheila Lorett Emerson was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a story about a state program that provides grants to schools across Pennsylvania to install solar panels, and an in-studio conversation about protests in Philadelphia and around the country over the Trump administration and its actions.

Jennifer Robnett and Maurice Waters hosted this episode, and Crystal Herrera was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Raihanah Siddiq and Nikki Schaffer hosted this episode, and Sheila Lorrett Emerson was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Amy Ouattara and David Heayn-Menendez hosted this episode, and Maurice Waters was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a story about the annual Queen of the Park skateboarding competition for women and LGBTQ skaters at FDR Park in South Philly, and a live interview with Julie Platt of Better Civics about the May 20th primary election in Philadelphia.

Better Civics aims to help increase civic engagement and voter participation by helping ensure that people understand how government and elections work. She’s also a political strategist who has worked on campaigns for politicians, unions, and non-profits in the region and Julie teaches classes on public health policy and advocacy at Thomas Jefferson University.

On this episode, she helps break down what voters need to know about races for District Attorney and City Controller as well as the importance of judicial elections and ballot questions.

K. Michelle Watson and Crystal Herrera hosted this episode, and Thomas Hagen was board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Maurice Waters and Kejsi Ruka hosted this episode, and Crystal Herrera was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Nikki Schaffer and Autumn McCann hosted this episode, and Raihanah Siddiq was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features a story about SEPTA’s plan to reduce service and raise fares in response to a major budget shortfall and a conversation about the May 20th primary election, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker's H.O.M.E. Plan, and what immigrants should know about their rights at a time when the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to deport people. And we have a live interview with Jess Joseph about a push to get the city to dedicate more money for Mobile Crisis Response Teams, which send trained mental health professionals instead of armed police officers when people have a mental health emergency. Jess is a psychologist and organizer with Treatment Not Trauma.

Yonique Myrie and Shanayah Wyche hosted this episode, and Marion Nicvert was board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Alisha Miranda and Crystal Herrera hosted this episode, and David Heayn-Menendez was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at http://wppm.phillycam.org/.

Block by Block season 6 is produced by Sheila Lorrett Emerson, David Heayn-Menendez, Crystal Herrera, Autumn McCann, Alisha Miranda, Amy Ouattara, Kejsi Ruka, Nikki Schaffer, Raihanah Siddiq, Maurice Waters

Sheila Lorrett Emerson and Autumn McCann hosted this episode, and Nikki Schaffer was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

This episode features stories about a symposium commemorating the 100th anniversary of a US court case concerning the teaching of evolution in public schools, how resistance to a Center City arena led a group of young people to create a space in Chinatown focused on arts and activism, information about a measles case reported in Philadelphia, and a conversation with the leader of a local organization that serves LGBTQ+ youth about the impact of anti-trans policies at the federal level, and how to help young people feel supported.

K. Michelle Watson and Meesh Cosares hosted this episode, and Brad Linder was board operator. Special thanks to  K. Michelle Watson who helped with planning for the show. 

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

On this program we’ll continue to explore issues in the Philadelphia region with voices from the community - but on THIS SHOW, we’ll bring you live in-studio interviews and discuss some of the most recent headlines. 

This episode features a discussions about the city's celebrations following the Eagles' Super Bowl victory, local protests against Trump administration policies, and a story about how everyday Philadelphians can get involved in city planning decisions, followed by a conversation with a local botanist about the role plants can play in urban design and development.

Jennifer Robnett and Sultan Smalley hosted this episode, and Marion Nicvert was board operator. Special thanks to  K. Michelle Watson who helped with planning for the show. 

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Sherri Pennington and Marion Nicvert hosted this episode, and Julia Lowe was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Lisa Barnes, Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Julia Lowe and Natalie Thomas hosted this episode, and Lisa Barnes was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Lisa Barnes, Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Sultan Smalley and Jennifer Robnett hosted this episode, and Lisa Barnes was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Lisa Barnes, Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Julia Lowe and K. Michelle Watson hosted this episode, and Sultan Smalley was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Lisa Barnes, Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Natalie Thomas and Sultan Smalley hosted this episode, and Julia Lowe was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 5 is produced by Lisa Barnes, NuYen Emanuel, Julia Lowe, Marion Nicvert, Sherri Pennington, Jennifer Robnett, Sultan Smalley, Natalie Thomas, and K. Michelle Watson.

Jennifer Robnett and K. Michelle Watson hosted this episode, and Lisa Barnes was board operator for the show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

Sunny Morgan and Jen Devor hosted this episode, and Meesh Cosares was board operator for this show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peta Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

Barbara Martin Ellis and Meesh Cosares hosted this episode, and Jen Devor was board operator for this show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

Thomas Hagen and Sherri Pennington hosted this episode, and P.O.C. was board operator for this show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

David Chaney Jr. and Jen Devor hosted this episode, and Shanaya Wyche was board operator for this show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

Khysir Carter and P.O.C. hosted this episode, and David Chaney Jr. was board operator for this show.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 4 is produced by Khysir Carter, Oskar Castro, David Chaney Junior, Meesh Cosares, Jen Devor, Barbara Martin Ellis, Thomas Hagen, P.O.C., Sunny Morgan, Sherri Pennington, and Shanayah Wyche.

Oskar Castro and Shanayah Wyche hosted this episode, and Thomas Hagen was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams.

Brett Roman Williams and Kiersten Adams hosted this episode, and Rasheed Ajamu was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams.

Cathy Brown and Rasheed Ajamu hosted this episode, and Connie Komm was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams.

Barbara Martin Ellis hosted this episode, and E. Marie Lambert was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM’s 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams

Connie Komm and E. Marie Lambert hosted this episode, and Rasheed Ajamu was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams

Rasheed Ajamu and Kiersten Adams hosted this episode, and Connie Komm was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 3 is produced by Rasheed Ajamu, Kiersten Adams, Cathy Brown, Barbara Martin Ellis, Connie Komm, E. Marie Lambert, and Brett Roman Williams

E. Marie Lambert and Barbara Martin Ellis hosted this episode, and Cathy Brown was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 2 is produced by Cathy Brown, Felecia Casher, E. Marie Lambert, Roxanne Logan, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, and Lara Rosenbach.

E. Marie Lambert and Cathy Brown hosted this episode, and Yonique Myrie was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 2 is produced by Cathy Brown, E. Marie Lambert, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, Lara Rosenbach, Felicia Casher, and Roxanne Logan.

Roxanne Logan and Robin Markle hosted this episode, and Yonique Myrie was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 2 is produced by Cathy Brown, E. Marie Lambert, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, Lara Rosenbach, Felicia Casher, and Roxanne Logan.

Yonique Myrie and Lara Rosenbach hosted this episode, and Cathy Brown was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Season 2 of Block by Block is produced by Cathy Brown, E. Marie Lambert, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, Lara Rosenbach, Felicia Casher, and Roxanne Logan.

Cathy Brown and E. Marie Lambert hosted this episode, and Felicia Casher was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 2 is produced by Cathy Brown, E. Marie Lambert, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, Lara Rosenbach, Felicia Casher, and Roxanne Logan.

Lara Rosenbach and Robin Markle hosted this episode, and Cathy Brown was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM. Peter Liu is Radio Operations Manager. And Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 5:30-6:00 PM on WPPM 106.5 FM and online at phillycam.org/listen.

Block by Block season 2 is produced by Cathy Brown, E. Marie Lambert, Robin Markle, Yonique Myrie, Lara Rosenbach, Felicia Casher, and Roxanne Logan.

Felecia Casher, and Roxanne Logan hosted this episode, and Yonique Myrie was our board operator tonight.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 - Season 1 is produced by Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Michelle Gilliard-Houston, Salina Singleton and Wayne Hunter

Maleka hosted this episode, and Wayne was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 - Season 1 is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Michelle Gilliard-Houston, Salina Singleton and Wayne Hunter

Maleka hosted this episode, and Wayne was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 - Season 1 is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Michelle Gilliard-Houston, Salina Singleton, and Wayne Hunter.

Michelle hosted this episode, and Wayne was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 - Season 1 is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Salina Singleton and us: Michelle Gilliard-Houston, and Wayne Hunter.

Brujo and Michelle co-hosted this episode, and Wayne was our board operator.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.

Brujo de la Mancha 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 fielded by members of the community. I am Brujo de la Mancha.

Michelle Gilliard Houston And I'm Michel Gillard, Houston. Tonight, we'll hear stories from our community news reporters about a group opening a new meeting center for women in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, an organization working to end gun violence in Pennsylvania, and a day of the dead exhibit honoring those who have lost their lives to the Covid nineteen pandemic.

Brujo de la Mancha First, Election Day is less than a week away. To get a sense of what is at stake, block by Block reported, Maleka Fruen spoke with Reverend Mark Kelly Tyler. He's a pastor of Mother Bethlehem and also works with power, an interfaith organization promoting social justice causes in the region. Right now, Tyler has also another job.

Mark Kelly Tyler I am serving currently in the role as the interim Director of Civic Engagement, which really tries to manage and oversee powers electoral work. Get out the vote, voter registration, canvassing, phone banks, souls to the polls, trying to make sure that people are able to exercise their rights in a democracy as best as they can. It's an exciting time. And yet at the same time, for a lot of people in our state and in our city, it's also filled with a great deal of anxiety about the uncertainty of what will happen on Election Day.

Maleka Fruean Tell us what is at stake for voters in this election.

Mark Kelly Tyler Every election you have kind of the I'd say like the staples of what's at stake. And in our community, those things don't change overnight. Gun violence is always a problem. It's even more so now than it was in the twenty twenty election, where we're witnessing record homicides, record shootings in Philadelphia. And so we need common sense gun laws in addition to other things. And so guns, you know, are going to be on the ballot and how we legislate guns, how we tackle illegal guns. I should want to make that clarification. Schools are still on the ballot. Public schools continue to be a problem in places like Philadelphia, and continue to need the kind of support that we as a community should give them. You shouldn't be punished as a child based on the zip code you were born into, or the zip code that your family can afford to go to. Every school should be a Masterman or a central. And so that's what we're always fighting for, you know, better jobs, better wages, business opportunities for black owned businesses and brown owned businesses, women owned businesses in our community. These things are on the ballot every time. They look different this time because of Covid and the wake of Covid. But I want to add one other thing that up until now, we really have never had to worry about. The threat to democracy is absolutely on the ballot. I mean, there have been times where we've questioned the outcome of an election. I lived through the two thousand election. I remember, you know, the hanging chads and all of that. But where we are in twenty twenty two is very different because we are at a place now where people are questioning, I mean, mainstream candidates, not fringe candidates, but how many gubernatorial candidates around the country, how many candidates for the U.S. Senate and for the House are literally saying that you cannot trust the system? That is a real threat, because oftentimes what those people say is they are people in Philadelphia, which is coded dog whistle language for black people. They're stealing votes in Detroit, in Philadelphia, in Atlanta, in Oakland. I mean, you may as well just say black people are still in the votes because that's what you are trying to hint at when there's no shred of evidence. And so we really have to be concerned that, one, the results of the election will be respected by everyone, winners and losers, and that we all abide by that, and then we move on to the next election. And number two, we also have to make sure that there are no threats to the process of voting, that people should not be intimidated, they should not be filmed as they're dropping their ballots off for early voting, as they're doing in some places. People should not feel as though you may be put out of the country for exercising a right that you legally have in that moment, if you qualify. And so I am deeply concerned, as others within power are, and our allies, that people's right to vote is under assault.

Maleka Fruean I want to ask you if you could tell us a little bit about how white Christian nationalism comes into play in this election.

Mark Kelly Tyler You know, look, I am a Christian pastor. And so when we speak of the threat of white Christian nationalism, this is not an attack against Christianity. You know, we work in an interfaith setting, so we work alongside Muslims and Jewish folk and people of multiple faith traditions, and we all respect one another. But what we are looking at with white nationalism that often finds a way of infiltrating the white evangelical Christian church, is not a new phenomenon. If you go back a hundred years during the period of lynching, what you will see are pastors there, people who would announce in churches that there will be a lynching after church, and people would go down to the lynchings as a congregation and a community that if it were not for the white evangelical Protestant Church. Jim Crow in America would have never lasted, but it was propped up and held up by churches that remained silent and would not step out on faith and be bold, but instead cowered in the face of bullies within their pews and their pulpits. This is the same threat that we're facing today. People who use the imagery and the language of God in the church in ways that are anything but holy. We're talking about people who masquerade. I mean, look, the KKK does not burn a tree. It burns a cross. And so that is the ultimate expression of what white Christian nationalism is. And so anyone who wants to understand it use that as their starting point. And it gets worse from that point forward. The right to vote is one of the most fundamental values that as Americans, we share, we can disagree on everything from abortion to marriage equality to the size of government and priorities and spending. But I think we should all agree on the fact that one vote, one person, that it is a way for us to exercise our right even if we don't win. I can be that one vote to say no and to let my vote be heard, and that everyone should be concerned about voting. So I want to say to folk, make sure that on November the eighth that you don't let anything get in your way. In the case of black folk in particular, that people died and bled, that we might have this right. The very least that we can do is to get out and exercise it.

Michelle Gilliard Houston In Pennsylvania, the Senate and governor's races have been getting a lot of attention this year, but voters in Philadelphia will also see some other things on their ballots block by block. Brad Linder spoke with someone who could tell us a little bit more about what voters should expect, whether they're voting in person on Tuesday or casting ballots by mail.

Pat Christmas My name is Pat Christmas, policy director for the Committee of seventy. The Committee of seventy is a nearly one hundred and twenty year old organization that focuses on good government here in Philadelphia and across the state of Pennsylvania. Polls will be open at seven o'clock in the morning on November eighth. They'll close at eight o'clock. Any voter who was in line by eight o'clock should be able to use the voting system. And for anyone who's going to a voting precinct for the very first time, you will have to show a form of I.D.. But there's a long list of acceptable IDs with or without a picture. Vote dot dot gov is a city's election website. Always double check your voting place. Always check your voter registration status, but otherwise it should be pretty similar to any other election year. For folks who have requested a mail in ballot, hopefully you've received it already, you've filled it out. Or if you haven't yet, fill it out tonight and get it back. The hard deadline for these mail in ballots is eight o'clock on Election Day, Tuesday, November eighth. If you stick it in the mail on Election Day or the day before. It will not get there in time. So I guess Thursday or Friday of this week. I would definitely return that ballot in person if you can. And fortunately in Philadelphia, there are twenty four over seven drop off options across the city. Again, vote dot phila dot gov lists all those options. In even numbered election year, we're usually not having municipal offices on our ballots. There are four Philadelphia City Council special elections happening on November eighth. Two of them are at large and two of them are district specific. And the reason we have these special elections is because vacancies were created when sitting City Council members resigned to run for mayor. The two at large seats cover all of the city of Philadelphia, so every Philadelphia voter will see these two seats open and candidates running for those two seats. Two of the special elections for city council are district specific. District seven, which is in North Philly, a large swath of North Philly, east abroad, and district nine, which is parts of the lower northeast and parts of North Philly as well. Logan Ogontz and those will be only voters in those parts of the city that see those particular seats on their ballot. But yeah, don't be caught off guard by these special election City Council seats that will also be on your ballots here in Philly. If you see names on there that you may not recognize, that's okay. When special elections are called in Pennsylvania, there is a very short time frame from the time that special election is called. And when that special election has to be had, usually, and the parties get to choose their nominees with a process that's largely up to them. And so these folks generally don't have to campaign all too much. These special election winners will serve out the remainder of this particular city council term, which goes through the end of twenty twenty three. We have, of course, next year, in May of twenty twenty three, big primaries here in the city of Philadelphia for all of City Council. And the mayor will have the general election, of course, in November of twenty twenty three as well. And so what's interesting and what may be a little bit confusing, is that if some of these folks want to run for a full term themselves beginning in twenty twenty four, they may also run in those primaries, which a couple of these folks may do. a couple of these folks probably will not do. There are two questions on the ballot here in Philadelphia this fall. Both of them are proposed amendments to the city's Home Rule Charter, which is basically like our Constitution that describes how Philadelphia city government is set up. And one question would give essentially bonus points to folks who are applying for civil service jobs in city government straight out of the school district's CTE program. This is career and technical education program. Those students, when applying for a city job, they have to take an exam of some sort. We'll get a little bit of a leg up and getting that city job. The other question asks whether we should take our two airports p h l the big international airport in South Philly and Northeast Philadelphia airport that are currently housed in the Commerce Department for operational and leadership purposes, to move the airports out of the Commerce Department and into their own Department of Aviation. City departments are the building blocks of city government, and there are numerous reasons why it's kind of more efficient and logical to have big pieces of city government in their own department. So this is really an efficiency of government question. And the two city airports have a combined budget of four hundred million dollars or so. So that's a big slug of Philadelphia's overall budget. It makes sense to do this. And there's no opposition. In fact, the mayor, the airport leadership all agree this is a sensible change on that front. There are all sorts of really compelling reasons to go out there and cast a ballot, paying homage to the fight and the sacrifice of past generations to expand the franchise for everybody. Like this is one of them. But on a practical level, some elections are really, really close. Some local elections come down to just a handful of votes. Some statewide elections sometimes come down to a very, very small number of votes. And if you're talking about just such a small number of people making that decision to stay home or not return that mail in ballot, that's ultimately where a result comes from. Don't worry about the polls. They may suggest a close race, they may suggest a more distant race, but you need to get out there and exercise your franchise because you just don't know how close it's going to be, and you don't want to be sitting on the sidelines.

Michelle Gilliard Houston Voters who requested a mail in ballot, but either haven't received it yet or have changed their minds and want to vote in person, can still do that. If you have your mail in ballot, you can bring it to your polling place along with the return envelope that came with it. Then you can turn them both over to a poll worker in order to vote in person. If you don't have a ballot or run into any other problems on Election Day, you can request a provisional ballot.

Brujo de la Mancha For more election coverage, you can tune into film and TV on election night for a live broadcast of Democracy Now! From ten to midnight. It will provide in-depth analysis of real time results from congressional and government races across the country. You can find out how to watch by visiting silicon dot org slash watch.

Michelle Gilliard Houston A grassroots collective called the Crossroads Women's Center is opening a new facility in Germantown. Reporter and community organizer Malika Fruin spoke with the group's organizers to learn more. The new space on Wayne Avenue is still under renovation, but Crossroads Women's Center will be holding an open house on Friday afternoon.

Maleka Fruean The sounds of polishing floors and echoed conversation is regular background noise at the new Crossroads Women's Center, located in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The space is huge compared to their last location. The multigenerational and multiracial organization has been saving money for years and bought the space in Germantown on Wayne Avenue, knowing it would need a lot of work to make it usable. But the work is almost done and the organizers are ready for everything that can happen in the new space. One of the organizers, Carolyn Hill, explores the new possibilities.

Carolyn Hill They're just different departments for different things that's going on out here. People with housing. People with medical D-h-s. People in prison. The students that go to school and stuff keep them out of trouble. Open up a center for them to come to interact. Day care. It's a. I'm looking for a lot. That's how big that center is. And, um, I'm looking for all that to go on in there and helping people with all their problems. You know, we so we sit down, we don't do the work for them. They gotta do it themselves, but we there to help them.

Maleka Fruean Crossroads is a grassroots collective, and its advocacy and social work has been around for decades, centering women and families and caregivers of every gender. Their model of lived experience and self-help isn't the most traditional of nonprofits. An organizer, Tre Muldrow, talks about what that could look like in the new center.

Tre Muldrow We're not held by government agencies or CEOs or, you know, we are a self-help group. Um, most of us that have joined came in with an issue and we learn from each other, we educate each other, we support each other, we help find resources for our members. And that's an education. And then what we learn, we pass on to other people. So it feels like more like a safe place. We can easily discuss problems that we might not going to a public agency. We might not be able to discuss.

Maleka Fruean The collective want to continue the work they're doing, and hopefully expand services and events within the new centre. Organiser Phoebe Jones was at the space, explaining how providing healthy lunches for everyone who works in the centre is just part of their plan for sustainable action.

Phoebe Jones We're not lawyers, we are grassroots people who many of us have been through it ourselves, some haven't, but some have been, you know, experienced. And we pool our resources and we pool our experiences and use it for collective good. So. So when I say that the people, the people who run the centre are also the people who use the centre, and we have a commitment to healthy lunch. We're not feeding the masses here. That's not what our purpose is. Our purpose is if you are taking action or you are volunteering here and you're helping with the work that goes on here, then we have a commitment to having a healthy lunch so we can all keep going and deal with our health issues.

Maleka Fruean Work on the center continues to happen, and on November fourth, they will have an open house to connect with community on their journey. Muldrow sums up what the space feels like.

Tre Muldrow Personally, I just feel that it's a really good, safe place, and so many issues that we face are caused by poverty and racism or whatever. And, you know, we we trust each other. We build trust among each other. So we want to bring this out to the community because every issue that affects one of us not only affects us individually, it affects our family, it affects our neighborhood, it affects our general community, and it affects our environment. So I think that that's just to me personally, that's just a beautiful thing and that's what I really am excited about.

Michelle Gilliard Houston You can find more information about Crossroads Women's Center and their Friday's Open House on their website and Facebook page.

Brujo de la Mancha Block by block reporter Salina Singleton has been reporting on gun violence in Philadelphia and how residents and community members are working to fight. This week, Salina speaks with the head of ceasefire PA to find out more about how the organization works, with community close to the issue, closest to the issues, and to hold those in power accountable.

Adam Garber My name is Adam Garber and I'm the executive director at Ceasefire PA. I have probably known about ceasefire PA for a number of years. I've lived in Philly since two thousand and seven. I've spent most of that time working on environmental issues like ensuring we have clean water to drink and that the air is safe to breathe and to ending climate change. And, you know, it was really watching as the pandemic started and even beforehand, how gun violence was really changing Philadelphia in the state. I mean, I think that we pay a lot of attention when there's a horrific mass shooting, which makes a lot of sense, like Uvalde. But also I live in South Philly. We see shootings fairly regularly in my community. I've lost friends to firearms, suicide. And so when the opportunity arose really to I think, you know, if we can't be safe, I kind of think everything else becomes secondary. And we just reached that point where this issue, because of the prevalence of guns, means we're not safe anymore.

Salina Singleton How does your organization work within the community? What does your work actually look like in the field?

Adam Garber Ceasefire PA is the state's gun violence prevention advocacy organization. So our mission is really to ensure that everyone can live a life free from gun violence by building the kind of public support here in Philadelphia and well beyond it to shift policy. Look, we found out that the bullets used to kill Nick at Roxborough High School should never have been allowed to be purchased, that that individual was not allowed to buy bullets. But because there's no background check and there's no legal system requiring a check, he was able to. And now we've lost a young man's life and three others are irrevocably changed, not to mention the whole community. So our role is lifting up partners, survivors, individuals who are facing this crisis in a very direct way or who are deeply concerned about it because they are watching the damage it's causing and helping them advocate for the kind of solutions that will end it. Some of that is about working here in Philadelphia to push the city to do more, to invest in violence intervention programs. Some of that is our legal work to sue state to empower communities like Philadelphia. But the most of it is focused on the General Assembly. And I think that's really critical on this issue, because, unfortunately, the General Assembly has tied the hands of us in Philadelphia in many ways from saving the lives of our neighbors.

Salina Singleton How do you advise people who are just concerned citizens that want to be a part of the change?

Adam Garber First off, I start by saying like, look, anyone, if you are concerned, you have a voice in this process and nothing should stop you from using it. And you should not be worried about not knowing the policies, not knowing the intricacies of how legislation moves. You should make sure that you are working with your neighbors, with community groups, and with organizations like us to really advocate for those solutions that you're seeing are necessary. I believe deeply that every voice in this will help us move forward solutions, and that we never want it to feel hard to engage in this process. It feels scary, but elected officials are in many ways just like us, their parents, their brothers, their sisters. They've lost people to this crisis. They know people who've lost it to the crisis. They're business leaders and their lawyers and their doctors. Less doctors than we'd like. Recognizing and making the connections on that really human level can have a huge impact. The other piece is we run a leadership institute, which is designed to give everyone the tools to advocate for the solutions we need. So we walk through what does gun violence look like, not only in Philadelphia, but across the Commonwealth, because I think it's really important to recognize that the highest gun death rates from gun violence is actually in rural communities, from firearm suicide, not to undermine what's happening here, but rather to recognize that everyone is losing someone to this crisis. And through that loss, we should bound together for solutions. And so those trainings are intended to give you the knowledge and the tools to advocate. And then we'll take you to Harrisburg. We'll meet with your legislators. We'll get you engaged in our work. You'll come do things. So those are part of the core work that our organizers are doing on an everyday basis. We got to vote this fall. You got to vote November and gun safety, your safety is on the ballot. And I, in this moment, not going to say we've endorsed a set of candidates. You can go look, but like go vote because if you don't show up, then we can't do the work it's going to take to make you safer long term. We've lost three thousand people during the current legislative session, and not a single gun safety bill has popped up for real vote. That can't happen next session. The only way it's going to not happen is if we make it clear that that's no longer acceptable. And so that's what we're going to start working on in November, is to put this at the top of the list of whoever wins.

Salina Singleton How can people find out more about your organization.

Adam Garber That's the way it's ceasefire dot org. You can sign up in the top right and there's a volunteer option. We'll get back in touch with you. You can also reach out to us phone numbers up there, two one five nine two three three one five one. And one of our organizers here in Philadelphia, if you're listening elsewhere in the state, we'll get back in touch and let you know how you can get involved in the coming weeks.

Brujo de la Mancha If you know an organization, a community member who is making an impact on gun violence, you can contact Selena on Instagram at Spicy Pecan Podcast and let her know about it.

Michelle Gilliard Houston People in our region are celebrating the Mexican Day of the dead. For the second year, Brujo set up a community exhibit outside of the rotunda at fortieth and Walnut Streets in West Philadelphia. People can share gifts and other items to honor those in our region who lost their lives during the Covid nineteen pandemic. block by blocks. Brad Linder visited Brujo yesterday while he was setting up an altar. Also called an ofrenda. Kitty Hight was the first person to stop by with an offering to remember her lost loved one. She brought one of his favorite fruits.

Kitty Hite I have an orange and some calendula flowers and a picture of Anthony. Anthony passed away during Covid, so I just I like being able to remember him and this was he loved falls. It was like his favorite time of year. So I like having an opportunity to come and like, put him out there and remind the world that he existed.

Brujo de la Mancha My name is Brujo de la Mancha, and we are here setting up a Mexican altar the day of the dead for the people who died on the Covid nineteen with the virus or not, here outside of the rotunda day of the dead. It comes from the Aztec people and some other Native American cultures. They believe the energy goes away and it returns around this time to remember your ancestors, your family, other important people. Possible. The idea of the neighborhoods of Mexico is that you don't really die. You cannot fall asleep. And that energy when you return is here with us. So basically, it's to honor your ancestors, but also comes with the harvest. Basically, you know, it's around this time too, because the way how the planet rotates and it's more pointing to the North Pole now, and we celebrate now on November first, second or something like that. Ofrendas in Spanish. It comes from the way of Latin, of offerings. It's something that you give an ofrenda, like an altar, means that you put something to offering for the spirits the energy to return on. This time it's like a party. So they return. They know where to come, and they take the energy from something. Or even, you know, if you believe on this, on spirits or something, they come over and they say, oh, that's cool. You know, like that was for me. This is for me. Cool. I can take it, you know? So that's the idea. So everything that you see represents some type of feeling or attachment to that concept, to that idea. So yeah, so the idols here, their heads, they have the classic skull on all European plates, bunch of lies. The we have skull heads and the baby items, plastic flowers. I should buy some real ones too. But these ones, you know, last longer outside. So we have flowers, more paper flowers to put around a cross with flowers, candles. We have the classic skull too. We will put it there. Here is the radio. Radio music is important because, you know, like you don't want to be all sad out. So you want to have some music for them. We have everything we can manage. Little ceramic flute, I think so. Still works. For the kids when they come. This is an outdoor exhibition or ofrenda. Sometimes you have in a museum or something like that, but when it's on your house, everything should be more like real. You really have food, you have water, you have coffee, you have tea, things that people used to like at that time, and they want come over and enjoy it again, you know? So on. This ofrenda is open to the public. They can put anything they want, but it is important, you know, because people come over and they maybe don't even know about it and they don't even don't even have the time. And they maybe come with the idea and they put something on their house, you know, as a simple a glass of water, a candle, some salt, a picture of somebody you may remember, put some fruit. That's simple, you know, but the idea is to offer from the heart. That's the most important. On Friday, we will have another activity. It will be a workshop of paper flowers. There will be some Aztec dance around seven p m. We are here from six to eight and it's open to the public. Anyone can come and. Yeah, bring your family. Bring your kids for the street and walnut here at the rotunda. Block by block is produced by Alice Hall, Chris Hill, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Salina Singleton, Wayne Hunter and Brujo de La Mancha.

Michelle Gilliard Houston And Michel Gillard. Houston. Brad Linder is radio news managing editor for p m, and Allison Durham is Wpns radio production and program coordinator. Wayne Hunter was our board operator for this episode.

Block by Block is PhillyCAM's 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 - Season 1 is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de la Mancha, Kris Hill, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Salina Singleton and us: Michelle Gilliard-Houston, and Wayne Hunter.

Brad Linder is Radio News Managing Editor for WPPM and Allison Durham is WPPM’s Radio Program Manager.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.

Kris Hill This is Block by Block, a community news program from w p m LP 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 Kris Hill.

Salina Singlton And I'm Selena Singleton. We're part of a team of community news fellows who have been working on the show. You can hear new episodes of Block by Block every other Wednesday evening at five thirty on p m.

Kris Hill Tonight, we'll hear about mental health in Philadelphia, learn about a group working with young people to make their voices heard on issues like gun violence, and hear conversations about how indigenous people are perceived in the region and what it means to identify as afro-latinx.

Salina Singlton There have been four hundred and thirty homicides in Philadelphia so far this year, and more than one thousand five hundred nonfatal shootings as part of a series for block by block. I've been speaking with people at organizations working to address gun violence.

Kris Hill Tonight, we'll hear your interview with P a Youth Vote Executive Director Angelique Hinton. Gun violence disproportionately affects young people, and Hinton talks about how the young people she works with feel about that and how they can and what they can do to make a difference.

Salina Singleton What is PA youth vote and how did you come to this organization?

Angelique Hinton PA field is an organization. It's a collaboration ultimately of educators, grassroots organizers, teachers, students really working to ensure that young people are civically engaged and educated on the importance of voting, but also how to use their voices to advocate for changes they want to see in the world.

Salina Singleton I want to read two stats to you just because you know this is the population you are working with. Youth. Um, firearms are now the leading cause of death for Americans ages one to seventeen. That's according to the Center of American Progress Action Fund. The other stat is thirty five percent of child and teen gun deaths are suicide. It's about twelve hundred a year, according to Everytown Research. Now, this is the population that you are working with. How has gun violence influenced your civic engagement work?

Angelique Hinton So we very much do our work by leading with listening. And so what that means is we try to understand the issues that are impacting the young people we work with, and then helping to connect that to, again, elections and civic engagement and holding leaders accountable. And so over the summer, we did programming primarily with students from Philadelphia. And so of course, that was a huge issue for all of them. And so it ended up being that a good portion of our work was centered around youth and that issue in particular. And so what we did was really many young people, many people in general feel very helpless in this moment. So it's really about helping them understand that they do have a lot of power and a lot of ability to influence leaders to take some sort of an action, right. And so over the summer, we did things such as write letters to elected leaders to let them know how gun violence was impacting students. The students wrote letters. We did a press conference in Harrisburg where the students, you know, went into the rotunda and they shared their stories and it was covered by the press. And then we ultimately did a listening session where we invited elected leaders to come in again, listen to how this issue was impacting young people. And then we did a breakout strategy session with those elected leaders to try to strategize around different things that can be done to make a difference on this issue in communities like the ones they come from. So it's really about, again, tapping into actions that you can take, right? I always say elected leaders are only going to be as good as we demand they be. And if we're not demanding anything of them, that lets them off the hook. So it's really teaching young people how to constructively use their voices to start to do that, pushing that is going to create the action and ultimately the change they want to see.

Salina Singleton What do you see your parent? So you've raised kids through the school system. You work with youth, you're always in the school systems. What do you see as being one of the biggest factors that are aiding in the rise in violence, specifically with youth?

Angelique Hinton So primarily, we work with schools that are in communities of color, lower income communities, underfunded school districts. And so the underfunding of school districts is the primary problem, right? There are programs that are cut. There are access to counselors and mental health support that is cut. And so all of that plays a big part in that hopelessness. Right. And kids not really feeling like there are other things to do. And so really, I think, you know, when you talk about solutions, we understand that community investment is a big key to addressing this issue, right? Whether or not we have elected leaders that want to actually make that investment, either by directly investing in programming in the community or making sure our schools are adequately and equitably funded is a policy decision. And so really, a lot of the work we've done is trying to advocate for equitable and adequate school funding. We did a huge amount of work around that issue, in particular, because that directly impacts these kids every single day.

Salina Singleton How can people.

Salina Singleton Find out more about your organization?

Angelique Hinton So we are p a u on all social media channels so they can go to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. All of them were at P a UFO and our website is p a u dot org. And if people want to reach out by email, it's info at ufo dot org.

Salina Singleton Next, we have a story about mental health for people living in Philadelphia and other cities where people are dealing with crime, poverty, the opioid crisis, and other traumatic circumstances. Chris spoke with Irisha Picot who.

Kris Hill Uses social media to spread positive messages about mental health and advocate for self care, particularly for black women.

Kris Hill The world is a strange place to live in as we gain deeper knowledge of each other, worldly. To me, it seems like people everywhere are struggling in one way or another, but I think people in Philadelphia are definitely experiencing some of the worst parts of struggle lately. More and more people are talking about mental health, but we are still in a state of emergency as a city. Philly needs attention right now. Philadelphia is the poorest major city in the country. We are actively living in an opioid crisis, gentrification, all time high gun violence, domestic violence epidemic, housing crisis, and sadly, more. And with the poorly handled Covid nineteen pandemic, things are even worse for Philadelphia. With all that is happening around us, publicly and personally, mental health isn't even on a lot of Philadelphians radar. We need to focus on our mental health and make it a priority. Mental health care and basic necessities shouldn't be this hard to obtain, but people are here to help as much as they can. People like Aisha Pichet, the hood therapist.

Irisha Picot I'm a mental health professional. I've been working in mental health and behavioral health for thirteen years. Um, for some, some reason, you know, I have become this like self care, like guru person. I don't even know how that happened, but I do a lot of things around like self care and mental health and like digital spaces, but as I've like, you know, became more, um, in depth with like the practition piece of like the work that I do. I'm like, you know, what therapy should be accessible to everybody, whether it's your hood, whether it's on your porch, whether it's in your mosque. So I like to thank the hood portion of our reach. The hood therapy is that I'm just trying to bring this work and make it more accessible to to people who are living everyday lives and going through everyday struggles.

Kris Hill Iris and I discussed how people in Philadelphia have a greater risk of having poor mental health and have little to no positive mental health hygiene practices.

Irisha Picot I think we do have really poor mental health hygiene, but I also feel like we are very under-resourced place too. So I think those things go hand in hand. You can't say we're going to not give people what they need and then they're going to be okay. Like there's only so much that we can be resilient without having it's.

Kris Hill Bad out here. And then like seeing it happen in front of your eyes every day.

Irisha Picot That is a lie. That's PTSD. Like PTSD is no longer like, you know, we start talking about wars and vets coming home. Our neighborhoods, our blocks are these sites of violence. And I can't imagine like growing up and seeing so much violence. And then we just think people are okay. Or we could send children to school after they didn't see, you know, police come six o'clock in the morning, ambush the neighbor's house. That's a lot like people sitting on their porch and getting killed at like eight a m I was like, that's a hopelessness. Like the person who is just going up and killing people, you don't care about your life, so you can't care about other people's lives. So yeah, I think Philly need to if the spotlight is not shown on Philly, then we need, you know, a better mental health hygiene. It definitely needs to be.

Kris Hill Later on. We talked about people leaving Philly, how that affects the city and how we need more people and resources in the city so we can help one another grow and flourish.

Irisha Picot And I remember I was plotting to leave, and I reached out to a professor that I had at VCU, which is where I went to undergrad. And she said something that I always give this advice to other people. She was like, if you can't find what you're looking for, you gotta create it.

Kris Hill And it's like, I don't want to move away and go live in Beverly Hills And we need you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I feel like I want to speak on this. I want to talk about mental health. I want to make people, like, uncomfortable, but like, in a good way to, to show you something new, to bring you to, to bring you to peace.

Irisha Picot I wrote an article like two years ago about how I grew up with a lot of black folks who had anxiety, but they would always say, um, like, my nerves are bad. Like they was. It wasn't able to label what it was, but they, it was, it was anxiety or it was like panic attacks. But now we can like label these things and we can get like the, the help and support we need. So I do think we're on the rise.

Kris Hill We also touched base on self-care and change, taking care of your mental health and the little things that go into nurturing your mind, body and soul.

Irisha Picot You know, it just takes some willingness and some intention. Yeah, self-care should not cost. Self-Care is really about like those little things you put in place to help you on a day to day basis. Like when it doesn't feel good, when it's harming me, just let it go. You got to set your environment up so you can be successful. Yeah. But like change happened in like small increments. So do a little something different. You know, once a week than that a couple times a week, then it may lead to, to something every day. You build habit as you go. I think overall, I want to see people, my people, community wise, I just want to see us like healthier mentally and getting all those things like address.

Kris Hill Inner city living is a rough experience that many of us have had to endure, especially black and brown folks, safe spaces, taking care of our mental health and each other needs to be talked about more and implemented into our culture and way of life. Thankfully, Orisha gave us some organizations that are here to help hike and heal. Girltrek. Le pido l a p I'd o and Sankofa Healing Studio, all led by black and brown people of the community. This is Chris Hill signing off of Block by Block radio news show.

Kris Hill Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September fifteenth to October fifteenth. During this year's celebration, Block by Block reporter Michelle Gilliard Houston spoke with the director of La Casa Latina, the Center for Hispanic Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michelle Gilliard Houston For this story. I wanted to look at the layered and often complex identity of those in the Latinx community, specifically those who embrace an Afro Latinx identity. I was able to speak to Doctor Krista Cortez, a scholar in academia and director of La Casa Latina, a cultural resource center at the University of Pennsylvania, Doctor Cortez shared their personal story, embracing their afro-latinx identity, as well as sharing their research on the subject as a scholar in academia.

Krista Cortes More black folks were taken from Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean than ever made it to the United States. And so blackness is a part of the fabric of these countries. Um, and the number of people who have some connection to a black ancestor, right. Is, is, is, is enormous. You look back a couple generations and a lot of people will find that they have, you know, ancestors who, who are descendants of, of Africans from the slave trade. So it doesn't matter how we look. We all are Cuban. We all are Nicaraguan. We all are Panamanian, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, etc.. I grew up in New York. My parents were born in Puerto Rico. Um, and they came over relatively young, like, you know, elementary school age six, seven years old. Um, but my father is black presenting and my mother is not, she's very fair skinned. And even though they both identify as Puerto Rican, both having been born on the island, um, obviously how they racially present has impacted kind of how they've moved through the world. And so my father, black presenting, was raised by a fair skinned Puerto Rican. His blackness wasn't emphasized. It was his Puerto Rican ness. And my mother, not being black presenting, um, also leaned into her Puerto Rican ness. And that's, you know, again, culturally and the types of food we ate and the way we celebrated holidays and kind of the way we understood family all comes from our Puerto Rican ness and our culture, our ethnicity, not necessarily our race, but all of that to say that blackness wasn't emphasized in my life, but there wasn't really anybody to do that for me. My father, I didn't grow up with my father around, but I was always the darkest person in my family, all of my black presenting family from my father's father's side. They had left New York in the seventies and 80s, but they weren't around, so it wasn't like at family gatherings I was going and I was seeing people that looked like me. I told you I was the darkest person, but I also have curly hair and nobody else had hair like me. And for my mother, she didn't know what to do with it, like she didn't know how to take care of my hair. She took me to the local beauty shop and they didn't know how to do with my hair. So what did they cut it? So most of my childhood I had, like, this small afro. Then I remember being maybe ten, eleven, twelve ish and my grandmother saying, oh, I found a hair shop there and it was a Dominican salon, but I was leaving with straight hair. Right. So you're, you're in the beauty salon all day to get this thing done to your hair. And then like, oh, you have to be careful with your hair. You have to wrap your hair. You can't sweat, you can't play, you can't do this. It was later that I began to realize how those kinds of things socialized me into not liking my curls. like maybe twenty twelve. I stopped putting heat in my hair. I stopped any kind of straightening. It's part of my rejection of right and made me not like a part of myself. That is beautiful and it's natural. And it's, you know, it's me. It's how I was created. Specifically, once I left home and I went to undergrad was when I really began to explore my blackness and kind of come into myself as an Afro Puerto Rican person because it was important to me. It was being in college, having that freedom to do the reading, to explore, to have new experiences, to be around a majority of black folks for the first time in those ways and really kind of live our shared experience. Um, for me was important in my becoming an Afro Puerto Rican, as a scholar, as someone who has devoted my academic life to thinking about these things and writing about these things, a common narrative is that the Latinx community is inherently anti-Black, right? That Latinx people are anti-Black. That's not true. I want to say it in that kind of definitive way. It's it's not true. But there's these troubled histories and pasts that folks continue to contend with in the present day. To be clear, it's complicated, but what I really wanted to emphasize is how blackness is not phenotype, how blackness is imbued in our practices. So all of these things to me tie back into what blackness is, right because there's a scholar, Nicole Fleetwood, who writes about blackness in the visual. And talks about how we can't define blackness, that we can only define what is not blackness. And blackness is literally everything else.

Kris Hill Block by blocks, Brujo de La Mancha is producing a series of reports on native people in the Philadelphia area as part of that series, Brujo. Wanted to know what young African American people learn about indigenous people in the region, and he spoke with Chris about that.

Brujo de la Mancha I know there's a simple question and maybe everybody asks you, but for the audience out there, who are you? How you described yourself. So people that cannot see you, they may hear about you.

Kris Hill My name is Kris Hill. I'm very chill. I'm laid back. I like seeing people Flourish in their own state. I like giving people the space to be themselves, and I love seeing people be the best versions of themselves and being nice humans. I'm very artsy. I feel like I try to make a creative project out of almost everything. I like going against the state of kind of the world. You could say America, but kind of the world. I like being the pushback because somebody has to be, you know, everybody can't be quiet or there will be no change. So I like shaking things up. I like making people think differently and think about, well, what do I want life to look like? Instead of this is how people are telling me to live my life. I like showing people that there's more to life than just living in capitalism.

Brujo de la Mancha That's amazing. That made me understand. That's the reason I'm interviewing you for this thing, because I was looking for outsiders too. And you know, we live in a new era globalization, people from different cultures and places living together and as well, you know, even between the same cultures, also different understandings and different points of view, you know, and a lot of African descendants, African Americans now also have some roots with themselves, you know, uh, because colonial times and the history about, you know, the creation of this continent and so on. But, uh, you know, I got to meet you through this new program. And, um, we were talking about indigenous people. You know, this is the heritage of indigenous Native American Heritage Month. So my question for you is what it means, uh, indigenous peoples celebration for you.

Kris Hill For me, recognition and giving somebody their props. But yes, I like that we're changing what was taught in school. I like that the truth is now being implemented because Christopher Columbus did not discover America. Not only that, but it's one of the most horrible things that has happened in history because he came and just violated a bunch of indigenous people and Native Americans, and I'm just glad that they are being recognized. And his name is no longer the quote unquote, founder or found America. I'm glad that it's now being put back into the hands and to the people who actually were here.

Brujo de la Mancha Yeah, that's the idea. That's a big understanding. And, uh, you know, as you a new generations of the city of Philadelphia as well and United States and this be the first capital, you know, where they are settlers or, or the American people create their, their country. Right? So this is very important for people to know. As you said, it's a change out there. So, uh, what do you know about indigenous people from this continent or maybe people what did you learn or how you heard about them?

Kris Hill Overall, I would say not much. I would like to learn more. And that's another reason why I was excited about your podcast, because I personally would like to learn more and just be educated on the right things instead of what I learned in school, because all these things I learned in school, I'm now learning that was lies. And it's like, how did lies make it into the educational system? And now I can't even really trust what schools are teaching us history wise, because it's now coming out. Oh, that's a lie. That's a lie, that's a lie. So it's like, what do I know? You know?

Brujo de la Mancha Yeah, that's very important. A very strong comment and very related. Also, as you being a Philadelphian and knowing about your roots and the history, not just the city where you grew up, but where your family come from and all that too. You know, you get to learn new things. And that's important about this type of celebration of the Philadelphia Indigenous People Day or the Heritage Month for people to get to know and to see their neighbors are still alive and they are here around, you know, and it's not something that is only on books or even that lights the, you know, there were no more here. So they're still around. But just one more question. Name something about neighborhoods in Philadelphia, like, what do you know about neighborhoods from Philadelphia?

Kris Hill You know, I actually don't know much about natives from Philadelphia. I will be transparent and honest because I don't want to come on here and start saying things that aren't true, because I'm just contributing to lies, being a part of like our quote unquote history. I did want to just talk about Indigenous Peoples Day and what I've observed when it switched to Indigenous Peoples Day, I was in high school and I kept asking my teachers. I was like, why are we in school? If when it was Columbus Day, we had no school? But when it's Indigenous Peoples Day, we're in school basically saying now that now that we're not celebrating a white man, we no longer need a day off. I felt like that was disrespectful. And then even looking on the calendar, Indigenous Peoples Day is first, but it still has Columbus Day right next to it. Is it really this deep that y'all can't let Columbus go? He didn't discover it. Let it go. It's not his day anymore. So I just feel like that right there shows you what America, who they hold as importance. Because we had a whole day off to celebrate Columbus Day. But when it got switched to Indigenous Peoples Day, it wasn't a big hoopla anymore. That just really showed you in real time that America just continues to only give props to white men and only care about white people, even when they don't deserve it in any aspect.

Brujo de la Mancha Wow. Thank you. Very well done. I was going to say at the end, anything else would you like to add? But you did it. You nailed it.

Kris Hill A Philadelphia nonprofit called Sharing Excess is giving away free avocados at FDR Park in South Philly today through Friday. The group's mission is to keep food from going to waste by collecting extra food from farms, restaurants and grocery stores and distributing it to food banks and other community organizations. But Operations Director Victoria Wilson says they ended up with so many avocados this month, they wanted to do something special.

Victoria Wilson This is Armageddon, so we are giving out free avocados to everybody in Philadelphia down here in FDR Park, because there's a massive surplus of avocados right now in the food industry, specifically in Pennsylvania. We've had some suppliers who are not able to sell them before they go bad. So they've given us literally truckloads of avocados, and we're just going to give them all out. It's for a few different reasons. So inflation is one of them. People are buying less avocados because they are just massively expensive right now. I also think a lot of growers did not expect that to happen. So they were producing as much as normal, if not more. And it just ended up with a ton of surplus.

Shawnee Brinkley Oh my gosh, I love avocados. This is like Christmas in October. This is like my delight for today.

Kris Hill Shawnee Brinkley drove from South Jersey to pick up boxes of avocados. She says she'll be sharing some of hers with her nephew, who is also a fan and using some to make guacamole.

Shawnee Brinkley Oh, and I love making chocolate avocado pudding. That's really, really good. And also, you can do it for smoothies. So if you cut it and you freeze it, then when it's time to make your smoothie, you can just pop it in there. So.

Kris Hill Word of the avocado giveaway has been spreading fast on social media. Victoria Wilson with Sharing Access says when the giveaway began at noon today, some people had to wait in line for forty five minutes before they could pick up cases.

Victoria Wilson We were not expecting the turnout that we got today. We're really, really happy that we did. It just kind of forced us to bring more avocados into the space and get more out. But we're really happy with the way that Philly kind of just spread this message all around. It really goes to show you that people care about their neighbors and sharing with their neighbors. A lot of people have come here today, and they've filled up their trucks saying that they're going to bring it over the water to Camden. They're going to bring it up in the Northeast Philadelphia, and they're going to set up their own stands and give out to their neighbors and communities.

Kris Hill And continues tomorrow from noon until six at FDR Park and again Friday from noon until three. Because of strong demand, Wilson says tomorrow people will be limited to one case of free avocados, but with forty eight avocados in a box, that will still go a long way.

On a final note, there are less than three weeks till Election Day. The deadline for registering to vote in Pennsylvania is Monday, October twenty fourth. You can visit a voter services dot pa dot gov to check your vote, to check your registration status, register to vote or find your polling place for the November eighth election.

Salina Singleton Block by block is produced by Alice Hall, Brujo de La Mancha, Jeff Jones, John Morrison, Maleka Fruean, Michel Gilliard, Houston, Wayne Hunter and us

Kris Hill Kris Hill

Salina Singleton and Selina Singleton.

Kris Hill Brad Linder is our radio news managing editor for p m. Allison Durham is Wfmz radio production and programming coordinator, and Brujo de la Marca is our board operator. 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.

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.