The Uhuru Solidarity Movement Earth Day Fest and Flea Market scheduled for today in Clark Park has been postponed to 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Sunday (April 17) because of the weather. The “Earth Uprising” fest will feature a number of vendors, music, speakers and yoga in the “B” section of Clark Park – south of Chester Avenue.

Here are two fine stories on two important entities in West Philly.

• Newsworks, WHYY’s community news service, takes us inside HMS School on Baltimore Avenue bordering Clark Park. Fifty six students attend HMS, a pretty fantastic place that has been educating kids with Cerebral Palsy for generations. The story reports on an art festival at the school and includes an inspiring slideshow. Eiko Fan, the school’s art teacher, said that students use special brushes, some paint with markers attached to headbands, others with their feet: “Everything is abstract, but it is powerful,” she told Maiken Scott.

• Philadelphia City Paper takes us inside NextFab Studio at 3711 Market St., which calls itself a “gym for innovators.” This is a place where you pay a membership to get access to all sorts of high-tech gadgetry. The idea is to use the space and the stuff to build things.  For example, one dude is working on a computer powered by a steam engine. NextFab founder Evan Malone told City Paper’s Theresa Everline: “My vision for this place was for inventors to be able to go from a concept to an aesthetically pleasing product that they could show people.”

Every couple of weeks a small room in the Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library at 52nd and Sansom is converted into a shrine to the Japanese comic art genre of manga. Teens and ‘tweens (10-12 year-olds) stop by to talk manga, draw manga, read manga and even listen to music about manga.

Manga, which in Japan is read by all segments of society, has swept through this generation of American kids in Harry Potter-like fashion.

“It appeals to a wide range of what you’re looking for,” said Shaunda, a Philadelphia High School for Girls student. “If you’re looking for fantasy, they have fantasy. They’re got action and lots of romance.”

Librarians have welcomed the interest in manga and have dedicated more money to bolster library collections.

“Some of the stories are kind of fantastic,” said Blackwell librarian Jeanne Hamann.

She added that kids who grew up with Pokemon were sort of “primed” for manga.

Hamann also said interest in manga has opened a window into Japanese culture for many.

That was certainly evident at this week’s Manga Cafe. As fans sat at table drawing, reading and talking manga, Japanese music played in the background. Kids leafed through Japanese magazines and Japanese food was served.

See the slideshow below for a better look at the Manga Cafe.

The Curio Theatre Company is gearing up for another performance. This time West Philly’s own theater will tackle Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, an absurd, tragicomedic twist on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

We see Hamlet’s story unfold through the eyes of the courtiers and spies Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from the original work. But in this story Rosencrantz invents the hamburger and discovers gravity.

Liz Carlson directs the play, which features Eric Scotolati, CJ Keller and Brian McCann.

A recent post on the Curio Theatre blog describes the preparations for the run, which begins this week with a series of previews:

“It’s been an absolute inspiration to see Eric Scotolati, CJ Keller and Brian McCann work tirelessly to achieve the seeming effortlessness of Tom Stoppard’s rapier sharp wit; they’re at work when the rest of the cast comes in at the assigned time, and they remain at work when the rest of the cast leaves at the end of the night, perfecting every nuance and giving each movement the specificity it needs.”

Previews will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. Performances begin at 8 p.m. each night.

The show opens on Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m.

For a complete schedule of the run, check the Curio website here.

For those who couldn’t make it out to the Go West! Fest on Saturday, VIX Emporium (5009 Baltimore Ave.) has provided a Flickr set. Thanks VIX.

Organizers of the Henry C. Lea Elementary School mural arts program are looking for volunteers to help with the installation of murals in the school from April 18-22, the week of spring break for the school district.

A planning meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the school (47th and Locust), where volunteers and community members can learn more about the project. A wide range of talents are needed to prepare the areas in the school for the murals.

The program recruited artist Jeremiah Johnson last month to design the murals that will be installed next week.

Interested volunteers should contact Yvette Almaguer at yarecess – at – gmail.com.