Join us for poetry and light refreshment as we welcome Jay Deshpande, Sasha Fletcher, Kirkwood Adams, Michelle Taransky & Peter LaBerge.

Sasha Fletcher is the author of “it is going to be a good year” (Big Lucks Books, 2016), several chapbooks of poetry, and an out of print novella.

Jay Deshpande is the author of” Love the Stranger “(YesYes Books), named one of the top debuts of 2015 by Poets & Writers. The 2015 winner of the Scotti Merrill Memorial Award, his poems have appeared in Boston Review, Sixth Finch, the PEN Poetry Series, Poem-a-Day, Prelude, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.

“Kirkwood Adams has no bio.”

Michelle Taransky is the author of” Sorry Was In the Woods” (Omnidawn Publishing) and “Barn Burned, Then”(Omnidawn Publishing), selected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize. Taransky is on faculty of the critical writing department at The University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches writing and was recently awarded the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching & Mentoring. She is also reviews editor of Jacket2.

Peter LaBerge is the author of the chapbook “Hook”(Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), recently included on the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow List. His recent work appears or will soon appear in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets 2014, Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, Pleiades, and Sixth Finch, among others. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the Bucknell University Stadler Center for Poetry, and the founder and editor-in-chief of The Adroit Journal. He lives in Philadelphia, where he is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

A new Cedar Park bar, The Bar(n) on Baltimore, is officially opening for business this weekend.

The grand opening will take place on Saturday, Jan. 3, from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.

As we reported in November, the new bar is coming to the former Third World Lounge space at 4901 Catharine St. The Bar(n) on Baltimore (Facebook page) is a partnership among three restaurateurs, Ross Scofield, Danielle Coulter and Tim Blair who are also running Rx The Farmacy, the brunch and dinner spot at 45th and Spruce, and the building owner Noel Karasanyi.

Read more about The Bar(n) owners and their concept for the spot here.

From left to right: Danielle Coulter, Ross Scofield, and Tim Blair. (Photo West Philly Local)

The three young restaurateurs who run Rx The Farmacy (45th and Spruce) have big plans for the Third World Lounge, the bar and dance club with a checkered history, at 49th and Catharine.

Tonight they will talk through those plans, which include a new bar that will feature live music and a wide selection of beer, wine and spirits, at the monthly meeting of Cedar Park Neighbors, which runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Calvary Center (48th and Baltimore).

Ross Scofield, Danielle Coulter – the owners of The Farmacy – and chef Tim Blair have been quietly renovating the Third World Lounge since striking a deal with building owner Noel Karasanyi, who will retain ownership of the building and rent it to the trio. The new place will likely be called The Bar(n) to reflect the connection with The Farmacy and its rustic, farm-fresh cuisine, but also to sidestep any airs of pretension. The name, craft beer on tap and plans for a daily rotating $2 draft special signal a place that will appeal to a wide spectrum of clientele.

“A melting pot,” Blair said of the crowd the trio hopes to attract. A place for beer connoisseurs and “the friend who is broke,” said Scofield.

Karasanyi, who fled Idi Amin’s Uganda in the early 1970s, opened the Third World in 1986 as an establishment aimed at African and Caribbean immigrants. The establishment has had several brushes with city inspectors, tax collectors and police in recent years, which, along with changes in neighborhood demographics, have prompted Karasanyi to close it down. Earlier this year he sold the Watusi II (45th and Locust), which recently reopened under new ownership as the New Tavern.

Scofield said the building’s interior has been thoroughly rehabbed and will include several large flat screens and a dance floor. Local bands interested in playing have already approached the trio. Future plans include possibly adding sit-down dining on the second floor. Scofield said he doesn’t expect to need any zoning variances to get the operation going.

The Bar(n) looks set to open next month.

– Mike Lyons

Hawthorne Hall. Photo via Hiddencityphila.org.

West Philly neighbors and friends have a great opportunity to learn more about the Powelton and Garden Court neighborhoods and their hidden architectural gems at a series of neighborhood walking tours that begin on Saturday, Sept 21. Here’s more details:

• Two Powelton Village tours, organized by Hidden City, will take place on Saturday (Sept 21). Each event will start with a tour of Hawthorne Hall, home to a remarkable installation created for the 2013 Hidden City Festival. Then participants will get a chance to check out the Divine Tracy once owned by Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement, the Hotel Powelton (Albert Barnes’s first factory), the Cloister, a gorgeous church converted to apartments, and more.

The tours will be led by Rachel Hildebrandt, a writer for the Hidden City Daily, who has an MA in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and now works at Partners for Sacred Places, and Caroline Acheatel, who is also of Partners for Sacred Places.

The tour hours are: 1:00 p.m.  –  2:30 p.m. and 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. and the starting point is Hawthorne Hall, 3849 Lancaster Ave. Tickets are $20 ($15 for members) and spots can be reserved here (Tour I) and here (Tour II).

• Also beginning Saturday, Sept 21, there will be a few chances to explore the Garden Court neighborhood. “Farm to Ford” is the name of this historical walking tour. Organized by Garden Court Community Association, it is scheduled for Sept 21, Oct 5, 12 and 19 (all Saturdays).

During this tour you will learn the history of the neighborhood from its rural beginnings to today. You will also find out which children’s author made her livelihood here and discover a “secret” garden typically closed to visitors.

The tours will run from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and the starting point is in the courtyard of the Lea Elementary School, on 47th, between Spruce and Locust Streets. Tickets are only $5 (only cash accepted) and the organizers would appreciate if you RSVP at: GCCAtour@gmail.com. More information is available on the event’s Facebook page.

The traveling exhibition featuring contemporary botanical artworks depicting plants discovered and introduced by two generations of the Bartram family is opening today at Bartram’s Garden (54th St & Lindbergh Blvd). The exhibit coincides with Bartram’s Spring Plant Sale (members-only preview of the plant sale is also today) and many of the plants depicted in the artists’ works will be available for purchase during the sale, which will run throughout the weekend.

The exhibition will be installed in the gallery of the restored Barn, built in 1775 by John Bartram, and the oldest barn in Philadelphia. It will be on display through May 24, then will travel to further venues throughout the southeastern US. For more information, go here.

Bartram’s Spring Plant Sale will be open for general public this Saturday and Sunday (May 4 & 5), 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The plant sale is an annual fundraiser for the garden. For more information on what plants are available for sale this weekend, check out this page.

West Philadelphia icon Miriam W. Crawford, who along with her husband Bill were stalwarts of the political left in the city for decades, died on Saturday in a Germantown nursing home. She was 94.

Crawford retired as the director of the Temple University archives in 1986. She is the former coordinator of the Philadelphia chapter Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She marched against the war in Vietnam and was active in causes up until last year, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Miriam and her husband Bill Crawford, who was the great grandson of an escaped slave, were well known in West Philadelphia for their commitment to leftist causes. Both were committed Marxists and their dining room in the Parkside neighborhood was a gathering spot for social activists. The dining room walls were covered with political memorabilia that spanned generations. The walls were so intriguing that curators removed the political art work when the Crawfords moved and recreated it for a Philadelphia Folklore Project an art exhibition in 2005. Bill died in 2002 at the age of 91.

Bill Crawford ran the New World Book Fair bookstore at 113 S. 40th St. from 1961 to 1974. The store specialized in Marxist and African American books.

Miriam and Bill were married in 1949. They are survived by a daughter, Fanny Jean Crawford, a son, Douglass Barnes Crawford, and three grandchildren.