While Clark Park “B” (43rd & Chester) is hosting the annual May Fair tomorrow (May 12), there will also be a couple of happenings in the “A” section of the park (44th & Baltimore), in addition to the weekly Farmer’s Market.

Friends of Clark Park need help to keep the park beautiful and invite community members from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to participate in the park clean-up as Love Your Park Week kicks off tomorrow. Join your fellow Clark Park supporters and help them rake, mulch, water, weed, and generally tidy up the park. For more information and to RSVP, email: lisa@lisamcdonaldhanes.com

At 4 p.m. don’t miss a rare event – local Girl Scout troop #92373 will be releasing 18,000 ladybugs and 10 lbs of earthworms to benefit the ecological health of Clark Park and West Philly. Earthworms aerate soil, creating increased water absorption and air circulation, and ladybugs feed on aphids and other soft bodied insects that feed on plants. This is the Girl Scout troop’s main community service project for the spring.
 

Modeled on New York City’s Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, Backyard Writers is a selective West Philadelphia-based writing workshop for emerging and established fiction and prose writers. Founded in February of 2011 with support from UPenn’s Kelly Writer’s House, and consisting of 10 writers, group members’ work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Tin House,The Sun, Story Quarterly, Indiana Review, Plain China, Philadelphia Stories, and Apiary, and earned them current positions in the creative writing faculty at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and the Community College of Philadelphia.  

Members have also received such honors as the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, the Community College of Philadelphia’s Judith Stark fiction award, and numerous Best Short Story Awards. They have also published chapbooks with Popular Ink Press and Finishing Line Press, directed Thread Makes Blanket Press here in West Philadelphia, and been contributing writers to Philadelphia Weekly Paper.  Among them, they hold MFAs in Creative Writing from the University of Wyoming, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia (enrolled), and Rutgers-Newark (enrolled).

Backyard Writers invites the general public to an outdoor reading event, featuring beverages and light refreshments for any and all interested in supporting the West Philadelphia literary arts community, and listening to a taste of their newest work.

Eight members of Backyard Writers will each give a short reading from approximately 7:30-8:30 p.m., followed by merry making in the beautiful backyard of collective house, “Fancy House” in a kind of literary salon meets backyard barbecue.

Sunday May 13. 7 p.m. 4951 Catharine Street. RSVP to eisenberg.emma@gmail.com

The Backyard Writers (with relevant links to bios/stories):

Emma Eisenberg
Kathleen Furin
Ben Goldstein
Sara Graybeal
Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Nathan Long
Maxime McKenna
Patrick McNeil
David Poplar
Emily Zimbrick-Rogers
 

Don’t miss the annual Clark Park May Fair this Saturday, May 12, from 10am – 4pm. There will be lots of vendors, food trucks, games and activities for children, a raffle and a plant sale.

May Fair Raffle grand prizes this year are an iPad3, and a new Schwinn SID 3-speed City bike. University Pinball has donated the iPad, along with 10 vouchers for 100 tokens each at its Family Fun Center. The bike is being donated by Keswick Cycle. In addition to the grand prizes, many local merchants have donated prizes for drinks, dinners and services (see details here). Raffle tickets will be on sale at the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) booth: $5 for six chances. There will be a special drawing on the day of the fair for the Schwinn bike, with a value of $470 – one chance for $5.

As always, the fair will offer up tasty food from selected vendor trucks, music from groups that play the Green Line, and lots of arts and crafts by West Philadelphia artisans. There will be a bounce tent and obstacle course ($5) for kids, along with free games and face painting.

Finally, the University City Garden Club will be holding its plant sale at the fair. Their booth will be located on the south side of Chester Avenue near 43rd street. NOTE: You can also shop for their plants on Friday, May 11 at 517 Woodland Terrace from 10am to dark.

If you have questions, please call the May Fair Committee at 215-349-7825 or visit www.sprucehillca.org.
 

A huge multi-home porch sale is being held this Saturday, May 12, on Melville and Locust Streets beginning at 9 a.m. Check out the flyer below for more details.

Here’s a couple of interesting art openings for your gallery crawl this Friday.

disTURBIA @ Art on the Avenue Gallery

If you haven’t noticed, Lancaster Avenue between 38th and 40th streets has become Philly’s newest gallery row.  Opening Friday May 11, Art on the Avenue Gallery at 3808 Lancaster Ave brings us disTURBIA, a show of mixed media sculpture installation and drawings by Romanian artist Raluca Ungureanu. Ungureanu defines “disTURBIA” as, “a term derived from the words  ‘suburbia’ and ‘disturb’ meant to describe the dark side of urban living.” Her work aims to engage the viewer in a dialogue about rootlessness and alienation in the big cities of today’s rapidly changing world. Born and raised in the mythic land of Bucovina, surrounded by a deep ancestral forest at the foot of the divine monastery of Voronet, one of the oldest in Europe, Raluca has carried the imprint of her origins, and has brought them to bear on renditions of New York and Philadelphia.

Free admission.  Through June 2.  Art on the Avenue Gallery.  3808 Lancaster Avenue.  artonave.org.  215-662-1074.
Opening: Friday, May 11, from 6 – 9 pm.
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12 to 5 pm or by appointment.

Monsters Under the Bed @ 40th St Artist-in-Residence Program Gallery

The exhibition features a selection of puppets from Martina Plag’s puppetry atelier, “studium-praxis.” This installation specifically focuses on designs built at Martina’s 40th AIR Space studio over the past nine months. Each puppet or set displayed in the exhibition has been designed for a specific performance and to serve a very specific function.  The objects in Monsters Under the Bed are designed by Martina Plag, but most of them were made with the help of talented artists, each bringing their own unique approach to puppet making. Supporting artists include: Pam Raines, Stephen C. Layne. Bill Hanson, Deborah Glassberg, Laureen Griffin, Leah Walton, Lorna Howley, Leila Ghaznavi, and Cory Palmer.

Free admission. 40th St Artist-in-Residence Gallery, 4007 Chestnut Street.  40streetair.blogspot.com.
Opening: Friday, May 11, from 7-10 p.m.
Gallery Hours: May 18th & 25th, 3-7 p.m., or by appointment.

– Emma Eisenberg

Update (5/18): Andy is still missing. See the flyer below.

Neighbor Mary has lost her cat – one-eyed, large, black, with white chest and paws (tuxedo), no collar. His name is Andy. He jumped out the window at 46th and Chester last night.

If you’ve seen him, please contact Mary at 267.255.0709.