Illustrious jazz drummer and West Philly native Justin Faulkner will be a featured guest at tomorrow’s (Sunday, Aug 17) Community Unity Music Festival, which will take place at Clark Park (43rd and Chester), from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. The free festival will feature a variety of local and nationally acclaimed musicians and spoken word artists (check the festival’s Facebook page for details).

Faulkner, who grew up in Cedar Park, has been a member of the Branford Marsalis Quartet since 2009. “The undertone of this festival is to give children and young people in the area other alternatives,” Faulkner told WXPN’s The Key.

In addition to live music, Sunday’s festival will feature games, food, drinks, vendors, information booths, face-painting, stilt-walkers, a theatrical drill exhibition by the Cadets of the Philadelphia Police Explorers and performances by the Kimmel Center Creative Youth Ensemble.

If your child is entering Kindergarten in the fall, check out this great event organized by Parent Infant Center (PIC).

On Sunday, Aug. 17 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., PIC (42nd and Locust) invites all families in the community who have rising kindergarteners to join them for a fun play date.

This is a great opportunity to meet soon-to-be kindergarteners and their families and enjoy a casual time together. You can also learn what you can expect from families whose children have finished their kindergarten year. Representatives from PIC’s After School Center will be on hand to answer questions.

Siblings are welcome and families are encouraged to bring a snack to share.

To RSVP and if you have questions, email: kplaydate [at] gmail.com

Is the summer already over? Penn is preparing for a big student move-in, which means that Spruce street will be closed again between 34th and 40th Streets on certain days starting Sunday, Aug 17. Watch out for traffic detours and bus re-routing during street closure times (see below). Also, you will have to walk your bike on closed Spruce Street segments.

Here are more details from the Penn Division of Public Safety:

“To facilitate new student move-in, closures of Spruce Street will take place on the following dates, times and locations:

Sunday, August 17th: 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 34th and 40th Streets
Thursday, August 21st: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 34th and 38th Streets
Friday, August 22nd: 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 34th and 38th Streets
Saturday, August 23rd: 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 38th and 40th Streets

UPPD  will be on location to assist with traffic flow.

• Emergency vehicles and hospital patient transport vehicles will be permitted access.

• Access will be provided to the Ryan Vet Hospital: Access will be provided for non-emergency cases by way of 40th and Spruce Streets, emergency cases will be permitted access at 38th and Spruce Streets.

• No taxi cabs will be permitted access.

• Vendors will be permitted access to enter the street prior to the street closure.

• Bikes will need to be walked on Spruce Street while the streets are closed to traffic.

• Septa Routes 40 and 42 will be re-routed.

• HUP, Morgue and Wistar deliveries will be allowed to enter Spruce Street at 34th Street.

• Garage 14 will be open and accessible throughout move-in.”

Elissa Sklaroff with the Clark Park photo collage.

West Philly residents Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen, whose Clark Park photography project was featured in a June post, are inviting everyone to check out their photo collage in the park on Saturday, Aug 16. Elissa and Jim were documenting events in the park and capturing images of diverse Clark Park visitors of all ages – people who “bring the magical park to life.” Since the beginning of the summer, they have been sharing their photos with the park community and with their “models” by creating a “photo garden” – from nearly a thousand photos taken over the course of the summer, they selected and posted the most representative ones in clusters on the kiosks around the park.

“Feedback has been positive, including lovely comments posted by some who have stopped to look,” Elissa wrote us in an email.

Now, as Elissa and Jim are nearing the final stages of their Clark Park photo project, they have created a collage with an idea to capture the project and the park in a more complete way. All the decorative materials used in the collage were made from recycled materials: “green” shopping bags, soda cans, etc.

The collage will be displayed in the park on Saturday and from 2-4 p.m., Elissa and Jim will be giving prints out to anyone in the park whose picture they used. Additional copies or posters will be available to the public later by request, at either Elissa’s email address (elissa.sklaroff [at] gmail.com) or Jim’s (klasen.james [at] gmail.com).

It should be very festive, writes Elissa, as it is an Uhuru flea market day as well. Many of the vendors have agreed to display printed copies of the collage at their tables and even on food trucks! Elissa and Jim want those in the photos to be happily surprised to see themselves in many locations.

When a friend asked Elissa, “Why are the pictures so close together?” she replied, “Because as humans we are all close together and these photos show how the diversity in Clark Park emphasizes our commonality. This is what we hope we are saying to everyone.”

“We thank everyone with whom we connected during this project”.

(Photos by Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen)

Photo from WePAC’s Facebook page.

West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), a non-profit organization that re-opens public school libraries closed for lack of funding and staffs them with volunteers, is moving to a new location and holding a big moving sale at their current location in Powelton Village at 3603 Hamilton Street. The two-day sale began on Thursday and everything must go before their moving day this Sunday.

Lots of items are offered for free or at low-cost, including chairs, office chairs, desks, a vacuum, a portable freestanding AC, metal cabinets, freestanding metal drawers, vases, a trunk, computer monitors, computer accessories for scrap, a working laser printer, a large JB Van Scriven conference table, a coffee maker, and more.

Today’s sale started at 9 a.m. and will go on until 5 p.m. so stop by at the corner of 36th and Hamilton to check it out. Please bring a donation for the free items. All proceeds will go to WePAC’s mission.

If you have questions, send a text to 917-865-2652 or go here.

The new WePAC location starting this Sunday is at 5070 Parkside.

Here’s a reminder of what’s happening today around the hoods. And guess what? All of these events are free!

Night Market on Lancaster Ave @ 35th, 6 – 10 p.m. Update: West Philadelphia Orchestra will perform at the Night Market starting at 8 p.m.

Street Movies! at Malcolm X. Park (52nd and Pine), 7:45 p.m.

The Awesome Fest concludes at Clark Park (43rd and Baltimore) with the screening of Skanks. 9 p.m.

Also, the Clark Park Farmers’ Market is from 3 – 7 p.m.