Photo courtesy University City District.

The spring has officially begun today and the University City District has announced an exciting spring program for The Porch, a cool public space near 30th Street Station. The spring programming will begin April 1 and will include a variety of FREE events and activities, featuring music, food, fitness, and fun. Here are some more details on what to expect at The Porch next month.

FOOD

Gourmet Food Trucks – Mon, Wed, Fri (11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.); Tue & Thu  (7:30 a.m.-2 p.m.)

MUSIC

WXPN Local Wednesdays
Noon on the first Wednesday of the month
Live music from Philly’s rising stars.

Ginger Coyle: April 2

You hear Ginger Coyle’s vintage vocals grace your ears, you undoubtedly feel as if you’ve encountered an old soul. The South Jersey singer-songwriter-pianist-guitarist first caught XPN’s attention with the bluesy “Silver Lining” from her 2012 EP Homeward Bound and is currently working on her full length to be released in 2014.

Lunchtime Accordion Serenade

Tuesdays, Noon – 1 p.m.

Enjoy live accordion music while you relax and have lunch or take a break from the daily grind.

FITNESS 

Put your lunch break to work for you with fitness programming from BodyRock Boot Camp.

Thursdays, 6 p.m.

Zumba: April 3 & 24

Bokwa: April 10

Bootcamp: April 17  Continue Reading

West Philly artist Nile Livingston with some works from the “Baltimore Avenue Series” (Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

Nile Livingston’s presence is calming.

We’re seated at the back corner table in Green Line Café on Baltimore Avenue. Livingston is sitting across from me, every once in a while dodging the sunlight coming through the window. As she answers my questions about her art, she’s composed and soft-spoken—her responses brief, but with a relaxed kindness.

Which is completely opposite of her work. As West Philly Local wrote about nearly two years ago, Livingston is the visual artist behind the “Baltimore Avenue Series,” which chronicles life on the corridor through colorful line drawings. (The series was displayed in Gold Standard Café’s dining room in 2012.) For the series, Livingston took scenes of everyday Baltimore Avenue life and put them down on stark white paper, first creating contour lines and then adding vibrant dabs and streaks of color Sharpie paint markers to bring them to life.

The “Baltimore Avenue Series” was inspired by “the day-to-day pedestrian archetype” she’d often see after moving back to West Philly following her graduation from Kutztown University, where she earned a B.F.A in large metal fabrication and sculpture. As she notes on her website, the series “captures the fleeting moods” of the community as “it’s transformed by the influx of growing businesses, new residents, petty crimes, and trope characters.”

And all of the characters that compose the new West Philly are there: the jogger, the coffee shop writer, the dog walker, the artist, the neighborhood kids, and the parents with their children. Her favorite image from the series, titled “The Museum of Momma Art: Affordable Gifts for Mother,” is of a woman pushing a stroller down the street.

The final images, she said, are based both on observation and imagination.

“I tried to take these archetypes and leave it open to a story,” said Livingston, 26, who also designed the Cecil B. Moore playground mural at 22^nd Street and Lehigh Avenue. “I don’t know what their lives are about, so I draw people that are kind of similar to them. These aren’t people I know necessarily. These are all strangers.” Continue Reading

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Starting next Thursday, Philly Queer Media will host its month-long Media Activism Series, showcasing politically charged and profound works by queer media artists throughout the city, including West Philly.

Philly Queer Media’s annual spring series, which runs from March 20th to April 22nd, will feature pieces from local creatives that cross the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability and class. From inspired documentaries to dance performances and book readings, the public and mostly-free events aim to raise the profiles of transgender and queer artists—much of which is Philly Queer Media’s mission—while also fostering dialogue, building communities, and sparking social change.

West Philly’s all-female circus arts collective, Tangle Movement Arts, is among the artists to be featured during the month-long festival. They’ll perform their new show, “Timelines,” from Thursday, April 3rd to Saturday, April 5th at the Christ Church Neighborhood House (20 N. American Street). Performances start at 8 p.m. each day, with a 3 p.m. matinee added on Saturday.

The festival will also end in West Philly, with the closing event, “Queering the Digital Humanities,” taking place on Tuesday, April 22nd on the sixth floor of the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections (3420 Walnut Street). The three-person panel will discuss the crossroads of social justice activism, digital humanities, and queer media. The free, all ages event starts at 12 p.m.

For a list of other Media Activism Series performances, visit Philly Queer Media’s website.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the start day as Friday. It is Thursday. We regret the error.

– Annamarya Scaccia

“Gray Area” cards a meant to start a frank discussion about historic preservation.

The Mantua neighborhood is going to see a lot of change in the coming years. Community groups in the neighborhood – which is bounded by the 31st Street to the east, 40th Street to the west, the Powelton Village (and Drexel University) neighborhood to the south – are moving fast to make sure they have a voice in the change.

So is Drexel University. Students are increasingly moving into the Mantua neighborhood because of the cheaper rents. The neighborhood is also part of the federal “Promise Zone.”  Mayor Michael Nutter recently promised to “bring back Mantua.”  Drexel officials recently announced that the university will build a “Penn Alexander style” K-8 education complex on the site of the shuttered University City High School. That will push up nearby real estate prices, much as the Penn Alexander School did in the Spruce Hill neighborhood.

The talk around Mantua and nearby neighborhoods is: What will the neighborhoods look and feel like in 5 or 10 years and how can current residents have a say? Here are a couple of upcoming events that will help focus that discussion:

• Creative Neighborhood Redevelopment, tonight (Thursday, March 13), 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Mantua Haverford Community Center (631 N. 39th Street).
A discussion about how artists can spearhead creative neighborhood redevelopment within their local communities. Guest speakers include Rick Lowe (Project Row Houses, Houston), Kyong Park (Los Angeles/Detroit), and Transformazium (Braddock, Penna). Temple Contemporary organized this event. Register here.

• Gray Area “Cards,” Wednesday, March 19, 6 p.m.at Monica’s/St. Andrew’s Church (3600 Baring Street).
The card game is a way to promote discussion and “provocative thinking” about old neighborhood buildings. This game is focused on the Gray Area focal point, Hawthorne Hall at 3849 Lancaster Avenue. More info is available here.

Attention actual/would-be/wannabe filmmakers: International House Philadelphia (3701 Chestnut) and the Sundance Institute are hosting a half-day seminar on making short films this Sunday, March 16.

The Sundance Short Lab Philadelphia includes Sundance-organized panels and discussions to offer first-hand insight into a bunch of different aspects of short filmmaking, including story development, production and working with a cast and crew.

The Short Lab is aimed at anyone involved in filmmaking – writers, directors, producers, actors and crew members. It runs from 10 a.m. to about 4 p.m. at the International House and it’s FREE. Info on tickets is available here.

Presenters include:

• Director/editor/producer Cherien Dabis
• Writer/filmmaker Madeleine Olnek
• Writer/director/photographer Carter Smith

If you’re looking for some filmmaking inspiration beforehand, you might want to get to the International House’s presentation of short films from the National Film Board of Canada, which starts at 2 p.m. Saturday. More info on that here.

From left to right:  Hunter Gatherer shop manager Dominick Caswell and tattoo artists Josh Anderson, Zack Traum and Mike Munter (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local).

In November, we reported that plans to bring a tattoo studio to 4510 Walnut Street were in the works, becoming the latest business to occupy the revolving storefront.

Well, readers, turns out those plans become a reality two weeks ago, when Hunter Gatherer Tattoo (Facebook page) open its doors. Co-owned by tattoo artist Josh Anderson and Falls Taproom owner Marvin Graaf, Hunter Gatherer Tattoo becomes the third tattoo shop to operate in West Philly.

Hunter Gatherer, which is open seven days a week, specializes in traditional and neo-traditional designs with an illustrative focus, said Anderson. Anderson, 33, serves as the shop’s main artist, working every day to get Hunter Gatherer “off the ground and going.” Tattoo artists Mike Munter and Zack Traum also work out of the studio on a rotating schedule, with Dominick Caswell acting as shop manager.

So far, business has been good and “super positive” for the tattoo studio, with the community showing “nothing but great support,” Anderson said. Once the weather breaks, the owners plan to host a grand opening party with an art show featuring local artists, a private DJ, and food and drinks.

Hunter Gatherer Tattoo (Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

With Hunter Gatherer, Anderson said he wants to set it apart from the studios typical of South Street or in Brooklyn — two “touristy” places he’s worked where customers are rarely repeat. Instead, he prefers a relaxed atmosphere where he can make “all the artists happy and all the clientele happy.”

Much of the woodwork in the shop—a space that has been many things over the years and most recently an art gallery—was made from reclaimed wood pallets that Anderson and others cut and fitted together. The repurposing of materials, as well as Graaf and Anderson’s childhoods in big hunting and fishing towns, are much of why the shop is named Hunter Gatherer, Anderson said.

“I was getting sick of just having that whole hustle, bustle, not really get to know anyone. My clientele there, you never really saw them again,” Anderson, who’s worked as a tattooist for over a decade, told West Philly Local. “I’d like to develop a relationship with my clientele.

“We’re just trying to create a nice space for everybody to come and see, and get tattooed, that has a good vibe and environment.”

Hunter Gatherer Tattoo is open Mondays to Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays & Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Walk-ins and appointments available. For more information, call 267-233-7015.

-Annamarya Scaccia

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Dominick Caswell is a tattoo artist. He is the shop manager. We regret the error.