Great news from Cedar Park: thanks to contributions from the community, Friday Night Jazz Series in Cedar Park has been extended for at least two more weeks. This Friday, July 20, Perseverance Jazz Band will perform and on July 27 Shirley Lites and Company will bring funk/jazz/R&B vibes to the park. Both performances begin at 6 p.m.

If you would like to support Friday Night Jazz Series, you can make a contribution on this page.

The International Action Center is holding its annual “Giant Rummage Sale” on Saturday, August 11 at Calvary Church (48th and Baltimore) and is seeking support to make it successful. You can donate books, records, gently-used clothing, toys, games, housewares, small furniture or other items for this sale. Pick-ups or a convenient drop-off time can be arranged. You can also volunteer to poster fliers for the sale and/or to help with set-up on the evening of Friday, August 10.

The IAC has been actively involved in the struggle for jobs, justice and equality in the area, and participated regularly in the Occupy Philadelphia movement. It also helped launch the People’s Power Speak Outs in West Philly and has been organizing Clark Park Summer Film Series for 10 years. The annual rummage sale helps cover the rent and related expenses for the IAC Solidarity Center office.

If you have items to donate or if you want to volunteer at the sale, please call 610-352-3053 (Betsey) or email phillyiac@peoplesmail.net.

Are you ready for your first Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll this summer? This is one of the coolest summer events in West Philly. You can get $1 food, drink and other items from local businesses. The first of three Dollar Strolls schedule will be Thursday, July 19, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., as always along Baltimore Avenue between 42nd and 51st Streets.

Over 20 businesses are participating in this stroll, both the usual suspects – Milk & Honey, Green Line Cafe, Dock Street Brewery, Baltimore Pet Shoppe, VIX Emporium, Elena’s Soul, Mariposa Food Co-op, etc. – and new businesses and vendors. Look for $1 items and deals from such new participants as Thrive Fitness, The Sunflower Truck Stop, Studio 34, Maru Global Takoyaki, Independent Rock, and a few others. And yes, Subway is participating too.

In addition to shopping for $1 items, don’t miss live music by The Makes (between 46th and 47th Streets), the Independent Rock School (50th Street), the Give & Take Jugglers and entertainment by various street performers and fire artists.

Check out the event’s flyer below for the full list of participants and what they are offering.

(click to enlarge)

 
Some students at West Philly High School will be the subject of tonight’s esteemed documentary program Frontline for all of the right reasons.

Tonight’s episode, “Fast Times at West Philly High,” will build on the legend of the EVX Team, which is competing with top engineers and multi-national corporations to build a viable, affordable car that can get 100 miles per gallon. The prize is $10 million. Most of us in West Philly are familiar with the EVX Team. They’ve been to the White House. They’ve taken on – and beaten – students from top engineering programs and Ivy League schools in design competitions.

Philadelphia filmmaker Debbie Morton followed the team for two years and the result of that work is tonight’s program.

Here’s a line from the promotional material: “In Fast Times at West Philly High, Frontline explores the viability of these cars, the potential that exists within our young people, and the prospects of effective innovation in public education.”

The film is about these kids and their amazing story, but we hope that it reminds people all over that amazing kids are everywhere – they just need the right tools and guidance.

The show will be on WHYY locally at 10 p.m.

The 19-year-old man who pleaded guilty in April to a highly publicized sexual assault last fall and was scheduled to be sentenced last Friday has changed his mind.

During his sentencing hearing, Kareem Drayton rescinded his guilty plea and fired his attorney, according to court records. Drayton negotiated a guilty plea in April to the sexual assault at gunpoint of a 32-year-old teacher last September near 48th and Springfield and other robbery and weapons charges. Drayton told the court that he wants a trial.

A trial would require locating several witnesses and complainants in the case.

“(He) wants to roll the dice,” said a source familiar with the case.

Drayton’s next court date is August 16.

Bill “Ready” Cash traveled far and wide during a baseball career that included stops at baseball diamonds all over North and South America and the Caribbean. But he called Southwest Philly home.

Cash’s career, which included a lengthy stint with the Negro National League’s Philadelphia Stars (another West Philly institution), is chronicled by Cash himself along with West Philly journalist and baseball fan Al Hunter Jr. in the book Thou Shalt Not Steal: The Baseball Life and Times of a Rifle-Armed Negro League Catcher. Hunter will discuss Cash’s life and read from the book at Bindlestiff Books (4530 Baltimore Ave.) on Thursday, July 19 at 8 p.m. (after the Dollar Stroll).

Hunter, who spent 17 years at the Philadelphia Daily News writing about music and later as a member of the editorial board, spent hours interviewing Cash for the book.

Cash reportedly got his nickname after being benched during a game when he told his manager, “When I put on the uniform, I’m ready to play.” His career took him all over the United States, to Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. At the age of 33 he signed with the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball in 1952, but he never made it to the major league roster. Cash believed that he may have been blackballed after he accidentally clipped a white umpire during the 1946 season. Like many black ball players of his generation, baseball historians say Cash would likely have been a star in the majors had he gotten the chance earlier in his career.

Cash, who attended Overbrook High School, died last September at the age of 92.