This episode features stories on the 2022 election, a group opening a new meeting center 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 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.