West Philadelphia independent small press, Thread Makes Blanket has announced that its next project will be its first full-length book entitled Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda by local writer, performer, and organizer Ezra Berkley Nepon. Justice is a historical work that documents the history and legacy of New Jewish Agenda, a national grassroots democratic organization prominent from 1980 to 1992, that organized a progressive Jewish voice for the political issues of their time, including peace and justice in the Middle East and Central America, Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament, economic justice in the U.S., and a powerful Jewish Feminist Taskforce that included work on LGBT issues and the emergence of the AIDS pandemic. Furthermore, the movement that NJA created united activists from a wide range of religious and secular communities.

Nepon, who is also the author of the 2010 play Between Two Worlds: Who Loved You Before You Were Mine and who recently spent three years in NYC working for transgender rights with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, says of the book, “My passion for telling this story is informed by my own commitments to feminism, anti-racism, Palestinian solidarity, and queer liberation. I researched this history by digging through archive boxes at NYU’s Tamiment Archives, interviewing seven former members, reading every relevant book I could get my hands on, and asking every Jewish activist I met what they remembered about NJA. In 2006, I turned that research into a website to make the information publicly available. Now, I’m asking for your help to publish a book that can be passed from hand-to-hand to share this crucial people’s history of progressive Jewish activism.”

With just 11 days left in its IndieGogo campaign, Nepon and Thread Makes Blanket have just under $1,000 left to raise. If you’re interested in radical Jewish history, People’s History, or history of social movements, consider supporting the project. The book features original cover art by Abigail Miller, and backers may also choose to receive a Celebrate People’s History poster in collaboration with Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative.

For more information or to support the project, click here.

– Emma Eisenberg

Here’s another art show opening to add to your Second Friday Gallery Crawl list. Stop by the University City Arts League from 6 – 8 p.m. for Colette Fu’s exhibit opening reception. Photo Binge features Colette Fu’s photo collage work and some of her popup books. The photo collage components were photographed in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and Nebraska over two years with 35mm film and scanned into Photoshop. Here is a link to some images from the popup books included in the show: http://www.colettefu.com/personal-work2/my-first-pop-up-books/

Colette says that the title “mirrors [her] state of mind while photographing – an impulsive, out of control state that arises from similar rituals like binge eating, smoking, speeding, drinking, and shopping.” Colette chose sports related backgrounds as “a reference to bone, sweat, desire, spectatorship, competition, achievement and the repetition of continually judging, evaluating and comparing.”

Event’s Facebook page. Open through February 29, Monday thru Friday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday: by appointment.

This second Friday, Feb. 10 is jam packed with exciting art openings in West Philadelphia. Check out the listings below and make your very own second Friday gallery crawl. From textiles to video installation to art by your next door neighbor, these shows promise big excitement with some local flavor.

Banished: Marie Alarcon

The AIR Gallery, 4007 Chestnut Street, 6-9 p.m. (Through March 2)

Banished is a curation of short video and installation pieces by 40th Street Artist-In-Residence Marie Alarcon that deal with transformation. Banished explores cathartic expulsion and violent removal, sometimes initiated by the subject, at other times imposed by another. One of the pieces, MAGIcicada, a 5-minute video, follows a magical ritual of transformation created through live action, animation, and video collage.  “She Lost Her Wings Before She Could Fly,” is a video of devotion in dreams. http://mariedaphnie.com

Textile Art: A Lifelong Collection

Art on the Avenue Gallery, 3808 Lancaster Avenue, 5-8 p.m. (Through April 7)

This unique collection of textile, garments and ornaments from Mexico, South and Central America, Asia and Africa has grown over 45 years of traveling, living and working in these parts of the world. The artistic talent exhibited in weaving, embroidering and sewing these artifacts is exquisite and each object has a story to tell. http://lancasteravenuearts.com

Carlos Urenia & Cloris Lowe

Correction: Opening Saturday, Feb. 11. Gallery 13 W, 4504 Regent St, 7-10 p.m. (Through April 13)

Two-dimensional/installation artist Ramon Carlos Urenia will present work along with woodworker and 3d artist Cloris Lowe, who will show sculpture from his One a Day Series (pictured left). Lowe explores construction and ownership through small found object sculptures made from household objects (superglue caps, playing cards, clothespins and more). Urenia layers paint on wood to address de-construction and abandonment, saying “My current work is a direct reflection of my environment, specifically the abandoned urban spaces and neglected commercial lots of Philadelphia and Brooklyn.” http://www.gallery13w.com

7th Annual Fun-A-Day

Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Avenue, 7-11 p.m. (Through February 11)

Organized by the Artclash Collective, a Philadelphia-based group of artists who organize free non-juried art projects and shows that aim to be fun, inclusive and participatory, the Fun-A-Day show features Philadelphia residents who created a work of art every day for the month of January. Come out to support your friends and neighbors as they display visual art, sculpture, installation, musical performance, and literary work.

The show opens on Friday, Feb. 10 from 7-11 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 11 there will be an open mic style reading for written work from 5-7 p.m., followed by the main show from 7-11 p.m.

http://www.studio34yoga.com/2011/01/art-7th-annual-fun-a-day-art-show-211-12/

– Emma Eisenberg

A new West Philly-based film project is in the works thanks to local writer and director Dan Papa. ‘Maya’ is an independent feature film that will be shot in the area and will tell a story about the changes love goes through over time (see promo video below). The film is planning to shoot in April, 2012, but Dan and his team need some help with it.

An online fundraising page has been set up on Kickstarter (link). The goal is to raise $7,000, which is the minimum of what it takes to produce a movie. You can pledge as little as $1. The project will only be funded if the full amount is pledged by March 1, 2012.

Besides fundraising, Dan is currently casting the male lead role. If you are age 24-30 and have some experience in theater and film please email danieljamespapa [at] gmail.com. Don’t forget to include a video of your recent performance. Dan also wants to hear from anyone interested in being on the crew or who would like to contribute equipment.

For updates, camera tests, and other videos, visit the film’s Facebook page.

Curio Theatre (4740 Baltimore Ave) has had a great season so far, hitting it off with both the public and critics with their first two shows – Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist. This week the theater presents the Philadelphia premiere of a work based on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

The show is directed by Jared Reed and features seven Curio actors (most of them from West Philly) playing some 40 characters. No one in this show remains the same for long, except the time traveling main character Billy Pilgrim. The dynamic sets (built by Curio’s Artistic Director Paul Kuhn) and cast will often change, adding to the confusion Billy experiences during his travels.

The show preview begins Thursday, Feb.2, and the official opening is February 10. All shows begin at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. For more information and to buy tickets ($10-$20) visit this page.

Despite the cold, the intimate gallery space at 4007 Chestnut was filled to the gills Friday night to see new work by West Philadelphia visual artists. The invitational format of the show, in which the artists currently in residence at the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program invited other artists whose work they admire, made for a diverse and full bodied show. Althea Baird’s tracing paper and india ink print (pictured left) was a highlight, bearing resemblance to a sepia toned photograph, and spoke to, in her words, “our body’s ability to remember.”

Other favorites were Corina Dross’ detailed portraits of graphic artist Lynda Barry and writer Zora Neale Hurston, designed to look like oversized playing cards, and Celestine Wilson Hughes’ bold glass sculptures “Black Madonna” and “Women of the Universe Do Not Drown in Three Feet of Water” (pictured below) which were shaped like cabinets containing human hearts and were reminiscent of Mexican folk art’s raw renditions of love and death. “They have to do with women, and with fear,” said Hughes during the brief artist talk.

But it was born and raised West Philadelphian Brian Bazemore’s work that perhaps best summarized the exuberance, delicate hope, and community pride that was palpable in all the works Friday night and in the crowd itself – his approximately 10 ft by 4 ft wooden “testimonial” board made with plywood and spray paint bore the inscription “Use each setback, disappointment and success as a cue to push forward/ahead with more determination than before.”

The show is running until January 27.

– Emma Eisenberg