West Philly-based writer Patrick Kerkstra has penned the most comprehensive article to date on the enrollment issue at the Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust), the school’s impact on the surrounding area and the possible reshuffling of enrollment patterns at other elementary schools in the neighborhood.

Published at Plan Philly and The Notebook, Kerkstra analyzed block-level census data in the article and concludes that there are actually fewer children in Penn Alexander’s catchment area now than in 2000, a year before Penn Alexander opened. This is possibly good news for parents hoping to get their children into the school because it suggests the overcrowding issue in Penn Alexander’s lower grades may ease without drastic measures such as a lottery or redrawing the catchment boundaries. (Kerkstra has graciously shared his data with us. Click here for a Google doc that has it arranged in very readable tables. Note the tabs at the top for each school.)

He also highlights a serious drawback to the school’s presence in the area. Census data clearly shows that the catchment area, and the school itself, is getting less diverse. As home prices have risen, the number of African Americans living in the catchment has decreased significantly.

Unfortunately, no one from the school or the District would go on the record with him to discuss plans to address overcrowding in the school’s lower grades or the long lines to enroll in limited kindergarten spots.

Kerkstra also goes through the implications of the possible closing of the under-enrolled Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.), which was suggested in recommendations to the School District of Philadelphia published earlier this year. The final word on that will likely be announced in the next few weeks.

His article also includes the work of groups addressing school issues, including the West Philly Coalition of Neighborhood Schools, which is working with Henry C. Lea Elementary (47th and Locust) and Advocates for Great Elementary Education, which has focused on shedding light on the enrollment issue at Penn Alexander.

Be sure to read the whole article at Plan Philly here or The Notebook here.

A program run out of Saint Joseph’s University is looking for non-profits and social entrepreneurs who want help in designing or bolstering their online presence.

Beautiful Social is a student-run social media consultancy designed to help non-profits and other entrepreneurs with everything from market research to website usability testing to developing a social media strategy. The idea is to help grow communities and civic engagement online.

The services are free of charge. Students put theory into practice and gain real experience while helping local organizations thrive. Two professors from St. Joe’s communication studies program, which incorporates social justice into its curriculum, oversee the students.

Beautiful Social has worked with a number of non-profits, including the Philly-based Power Up Gambia and InterAct Theater Company since it began last year.

Anyone interested in being part of the program should contact Mike Lyons at jlyons [at] sju.edu.

Full disclosure: One of the professors who oversees the projects is also a co-owner of this website.
 

The Philadelphia Film Festival opens Thursday and West Philly is right in the thick of the action.

The 20th annual festival opens at The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts‘ Zellerbach Theater (3680 Walnut St.) with a screening of Like Crazy, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (Best Picture) winner starring Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin. Tickets for the screening are $20 ($15 for members of the Philadelphia Film Society) and $50/$45 for the screening and an opening party.

The International House (3701 Chestnut St.) and The Rave movie theater (4012 Walnut St.) are two more key venues for this year’s festival. Films kick off at the International House at 5 p.m. on Friday and continue daily through Wednesday, Oct. 26. After a short break, films return on Sunday, Oct. 30. Films at The Rave also open on Friday and continue through Thursday, Oct. 27.

We have way too little space here to get into the dozens of films screening over the festival’s two weeks. You need to find yourself a handy film guide, which is available at various locations in the neighborhood (we got ours at Earth Cup near 45th and Pine). Here is the online schedule.

One feature film with West Philly connections that we would like to point out is The Destiny of Lesser Animals directed by Deron Albright and starring Yao B. Nunoo. You might recognize those two if you saw them because they spent many hours in West Philly establishments, including The Gold Standard or Dhalak, planning and discussing the film, which was shot in Ghana and West Philly.

Nunoo, a former Penn film student who also wrote the screenplay, stars as a police inspector in Ghana who is desperate to return to America after being deported. The film is modeled in part on Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog.

Geekadelphia posted its Top 8 films to check out here.

Tickets for regular individual screenings are $12 ($10 for Philadelphia Film Society members). Tickets for weekday matinees (before 5 p.m.) are $6/$5. All-access badges are also available. Go here for more information on tickets.

Several West Philly-based arts and culture organizations recently received some much-needed grants to help with everything from redesigning the hallways at Henry C. Lea Elementary School to keeping Shakespeare in Clark Park going.

The grants are from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Project Stream, an off-shoot of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts that makes grants of up to $3,000 available to individuals and organizations who work on arts projects. Information and applications for next year’s grants will be available in the spring.

Here’s a rundown of the West Philly winners thanks to the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance website (awards for the entire Philadelphia region are also available there):

• Yvette Almaguer and the Lea Visual Arts Program –  $1,999
“The Lea Visual Arts Program is a collaborative effort to improve school climate through innovative interior design and visual art interventions throughout hallways and stairwells of the Henry C. Lea School.” West Philly native and Penn Professor Justin McDaniel, a member of the West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools, helped with the grant application.

• Crossroads Music – $1,999
“Crossroads Music, the region’s only organization dedicated to presenting traditional and ethnic music from around the world, will present approximately 20 concerts, along with workshops and children’s events.”

• Intercultural Journeys – $1,666
“Intercultural Journeys is developing a series for the West Philadelphia communities called Sunday Evenings-Music for Contemplation. The musical performances represent a broad variety of musical and faith traditions.”

• Shakespeare in Clark Park – $2,969
“Shakespeare in Clark Park will present a professional outdoor theater production of a Shakespearean play at a free summertime cultural event that is accessible to the Clark Park neighborhood and the Greater Philadelphia area.”
 

A not-so-subtle reminder this morning in front of the CVS at 43rd and Locust. Here are some bike locking tips from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Most of the 5,000 prisoners incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, will die there. Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the United States. Prisoners there have long sentences, virtually life sentences. West Philly-based photographer Lori Waselchuk released a book this summer documenting the prison’s inmate-run hospice program, which provides dying prisoners some comfort and dignity in their last days. You can talk to her about it this Sunday.

Waselchuk will sign her book, Grace Before Dying, and talk about the project as part of an event hosted by the West Philly-based non-profit Books Through Bars on Sunday, Oct. 16. Running from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the A-Space (4722 Baltimore Ave.), the event will also feature quilts made by Angola inmates that are part of a traveling exhibit (now at Saint Joseph’s University) accompanying the Grace Before Dying project. Local quilters and textile artists will also be on hand to discuss their work.

The event ends with a screening of the documentary In the Land of the Free, which tells the story of Angola inmates Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King, also known as the Angola 3, who between them spent almost a century in solitary confinement. Wallace and Woodfox are still in solitary after more than 37 years.

Here is a schedule for the event:

3:30 p.m. – Quilter’s Roundtable. Local quilters and textile artists will present their work.

5 p.m. – Reception

6 p.m. – Lori Waselchuk talk and book signing

7 p.m. – Screening of the In the Land of the Free