Kùlú Mèlé African Dance and Drum Ensemble / Photo credit: Canary Promotion.

From November 6 to 9, West Philly’s Community Education Center in partnership with Drexel University will present the first-ever DanceAfrica Philadelphia, a four-day celebration of traditional and contemporary African dance, music, art and community.

Philadelphia is the sixth major city to present this spectacular event promoting the preservation of African dance and culture. Created by Charles “Baba Chuck” Davis in 1977 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, DanceAfrica has evolved into a weeklong annual celebration of African culture in New York with additional presentations held in cities around the country.

Local performing groups include Kùlú Mèlé African Dance and Drum Ensemble, Kariamu and Company: Traditions and Illstyle & Peace Productions, plus special D.C-based guests Farafina Kan. The Philly festival will also include the Afro Beauty, Health and Wellness Marketplace, the Philadelphia Folklore Project exhibition “Honoring Ancestors of Rhythm, Movement and Place,” family workshops and a lecture on African dance in America.

The festival events will take place at the Community Education Center, Drexel University (3141 Chestnut St) and Philadelphia Folklore Project (735 S. 50th St). Tickets range from $5-$25 and can be purchased online at brownpapertickets.com/event/428884. For more information, call the Community Education Center (3500 Lancaster Ave.) at 215 387-1911 or visit: http://www.cecarts.org/wp/danceafrica/.

The votes are in, the judges have made up their minds and we’re happy to announce the winners of West Philly Local’s 2013 Pumpkin Carving Contest. Thanks again to everyone who participated in the contest and to those who voted.

And the winners are:

The Readers’ Choice winner is the Scary Philly School Closings pumpkin (Pumpkin 3) and her creator Milena Velis. Nearly 250 votes were cast in the Readers’ Choice category and Milena’s pumpkin received 108 votes. As one of West Philly Local readers said in the comments, “Really amazed at the detail in pumpkin. And the statement on what is happening in our city.” Most of the voters agreed. Milena wins the grand prize, which includes two gift cards/certificates from local businesses of her choice, a $20 Four Worlds Bakery gift card  + two free tickets of her choice (to Penn Museum or Curio Theatre).

The winner in the Kids’ Category is 10-year-old Edward Brown who carved The Invisible Man pumpkin. Nice work, Edward! You win a $20 Lil’ Pop Shop gift card, and two Penn Museum tickets.

The winner in the Philly-themed category is Shir K and her West Philly themed Porch Kitties pumpkin.

The scariest pumpkin, in our judges’ opinion, is Bimal Desai’s Werewolf pumpkin. Congratulations, Bimal! You did it again.

Unfortunately, no pumpkins were submitted in the Funniest category, so our judges didn’t select a winner here. As a special prize, though we decided to award the pumpkin that finished second in the Readers’ Choice category – the Lou Reed pumpkin carved by our last year’s Readers’ Choice winner Nate Johnson. The Lou Reed pumpkin received 56 votes out of 249. Great job, Nate, once again!

We will be contacting all the winners shortly with more details about the prizes they won. And we would like to thank again the businesses who provided the prizes and made this contest possible: Aksum, Curio Theatre, Dock Street Brewery, Four Worlds Bakery, Cafe Renata, Honest Tom’s Taco Shop, Lil’ Pop Shop, Penn Museum, and VIX Emporium.

Peoplehood Parade returns to West Philly streets and Clark Park this Sunday. Archived photo / West Philly Local.

Local parks will host some great community events on Sunday, Nov. 3.

The Spiral Q Theater is bringing its giant puppets back for the annual Peoplehood Parade that will kick off at 1 p.m. near the Paul Robeson House (4951 Walnut St.). The parade will proceed to Clark Park (45th and Chester Ave.) where it will be followed by a pageant at 2:15 p.m. Here’s some more information from the event’s Facebook page:

Join in the Parade!
Individuals, families and friends – all are welcome!
Come to the Paul Robeson House at noon to get a spot in the parade.
Bring your own puppet, costume, fancy parade outfit, your art and/or your heart and jump into the action or join in a Spiral Q section.

The parade organizers are also looking for volunteers who can provide help to seniors from the Renaissance nursing home who would like to join the parade and the action at Clark Park. Volunteers are asked to come to the home between 12:30 and 1 p.m. and bring the seniors in wheelchairs outside to wait for the parade, join the parade as it passes, and then stick with them until about 3 p.m. and bring them back to the home. The nursing home is located at 4712 Chester Avenue, which is a few blocks from Clark Park. If you would like to volunteer please contact Liza Goodell at community@spiralq.org.

Also this Sunday, Vineyard Community Church is inviting community members to a free “Fall Festival” for children in Malcolm X Park (51st and Pine). The event will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. and will feature fall themed arts and crafts, games, and activities.

Philly Thriller dance group performing on the streets of West Philly. Photo from Philly Thriller’s Facebook page.

You’ve probably heard about the Philly Thriller “zombies” group, which dances at various locations around West Philly on Halloween night. But it’s hard to catch up with them because they show up flash mob style, perform their routine and move on to the next location. So here’s the Philly Thriller performance schedule for tonight that their leader, Rashida Holmes, kindly shared with us:

“Weather permitting, we’ll be doing a dress rehearsal performance on The Rotunda Plaza (40th & Walnut) from 4-ish to 4:30-ish, then we’ll be “flashmobbing” a couple spots along Baltimore Ave around 5-ish then we will be stationed at the Haunted Gym at St. Francis de Sales (47th & Windsor) from 6-ish to 7-ish. If we are totally rained out, we’ll make our way to the gym earlier (5-ish or so) but that doesn’t seem likely.”

For more info about today’s activities in the neighborhood, including the Halloween Tot Parade and Haunted Gym, check out this page.

Halloween week is here and we compiled a list of spooky and fun happenings in our area, for kids and adults alike, in the next few days. If you know of any other events that are not included in the list please email: editor@westphillylocal.com or use the comment section below.

Tuesday, October 29

Bat House Building Workshop – Mariposa Food Coop (49th & Baltimore) – 7 p.m. – A special Halloween week workshop exploring the funny flying nocturnal creatures and what you can do to help restore their often threatened habitat. You can learn how to build your own bat house, where to put it, and what to do when a colony moves in. Free admission. Please RSVP to education@mariposa.coop.

Thursday, October 31

Peanut Butter and Jams Halloween with Charlie Hope – World Cafe Live (30th & Walnut) – 10:30 a.m. – Come sing along with 2012 Juno Award Winner Charlie Hope. Charlie will sing some well-known songs as well as her originals that will get children and parents moving and singing along. Audience participation is encouraged, so be sure to bring your singing voices and dancing shoes! Costumes are welcome. Tickets ($10) are available here.

Halloween at The Woodlands – 40th & Woodland – noon – 4 p.m. – Bring your kids for some treats at the mansion before the tot parade in Spruce Hill.

Stories to Make you Shriek! – Kingsessing Library (1201 South 51st Street) – 4 p.m. – A spooky story time presented by Ms. Kim for brave kids.

Spruce Hill Halloween Tot Parade – 45th & Baltimore – 4 p.m. – This is a fun Halloween tradition in the Spruce Hill neighborhood. The parade will start gathering after 4 p.m. on 45th St. just north of Baltimore Ave. (next to Milk and Honey). The kick-off time is 4:30 p.m. To read more about the parade, click here.

Town Watch Haunted Gym – St. Francis de Sales School (47th & Windsor) – 5-7 p.m. – This year, St. Francis de Sales School has agreed to host the annual Haunted House & Garden event, in their already scary Basement-Gym-Basketball Court. Springfield Avenue will remain open this year, but the 900 and 1000 blocks of Farragut  and the 900 block of 47^th Street, from Springfield to the north side of Warrington, will be closed to auto traffic. For more info and if you want to volunteer at this event, check out this page.  Continue Reading

Dear West Philly Local readers,

Sharpen your knives and carve carve carve your pumpkins! There are only four days remaining to enter our Pumpkin Carving Contest with a chance to win awesome prizes from local businesses. Remember that neighbors of all ages are welcome to participate (we have the Kids category, too) and you don’t have to be a Michelangelo to enter the contest. You never know which pumpkins can win, especially in such categories as Funniest, Scariest and Best Philly-themed.

And here’s the list of the businesses who kindly agreed to support the contest and their prizes (please note that Honest Tom’s Taco shop has recently been added to the list): Aksum (a gift certificate), Curio Theatre (two tickets), Dock Street Brewery (a gift card), Four Worlds Bakery (a gift card), Cafe Renata (a gift certificate), Honest Tom’s Taco Shop (a gift certificate), Lil’ Pop Shop (a gift card), Penn Museum (two general admission tickets), and VIX Emporium (a gift card + tote bag).

For more information on how to enter the contest, click here.