In honor of the birthday of Paul Robeson, an acclaimed actor, concert singer, lawyer, athlete and social activist, The Lucien E. Blackwell Regional Library presents two programs in collaboration with the Friends of the Blackwell Library and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

On Saturday, April 7, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. two biographical films will be shown: “Speak of me as I Am” and “Paul Robeson, Tribute to an Artist.” Refreshments will be served.

On Tuesday, April 17, at 6:00 p.m. there will be a lecture by Frances Aulston, Founder & CEO of the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance-Paul Robeson House. A reception will follow.

A series of panels depicting various stages of Paul Robeson’s life will be on display for both programs.

The Lucien E. Blackwell Regional Library is located at 125 South 52nd Street (corner of 52nd and Sansom). For more information call 215-685-7433.

This photo, titled West Philadelphia 7 am, was taken by West Philly based photographer Stephanie Ricci.

Send us your photo of the neighborhood at editor@westphillylocal.com

Mariposa Food Co-op is seeking a new Membership Coordinator to join their staff collective. They have recently expanded their operations and their membership is quickly increasing in size. They are interested in applicants who have previous experience managing large numbers of individuals, especially coordinating people in a volunteer organization and/or working within a cooperative model. A major part of this job is interacting with people, so Mariposa is asking that only candidates with exceptional communication and interpersonal skills apply for this position.

Compensation is $12.25/hour with a yearly raise. Benefits include health savings account, paid vacation and sick/personal days and monthly $25 in-store shopping credit.

Deadline for applications is April 14, 2012. Ideal start date is June 1, 2012. For the full job description and to apply, visit this page.

Reader Chelsea believes she was pressured into switching energy providers by door-to-door salesmen and wants other residents to be aware of this possible scam. Here’s what she wrote us in an email:

“I thought other West Philadelphians should be made aware of door-to-door salesmen who try to scam you into switching energy companies. Some people seem to know about this company already, but for people who are new to the area, like me, it seemed believable.

There were two well-dressed young men going door to door in my neighborhood (Spruce Hill area) from Direct Energy. They represented themselves as belonging to the parent agency of my electric provider and asked to look at my PECO bill to make sure that I was getting the newly-lowered rate customers in this area are supposed to be getting, since there was an “error” and “some customers were accidentally getting overcharged and hadn’t properly fixed it on their bills.” They claimed this “fixing” would be greatly expedited if they did it for me. They then called their managers to, in their words, make sure the new discount was applied to my bill, and then had me sign something and write down my account number. They quickly left before I could read the fine print of what I signed, but I looked it up afterwards and realized they completely misrepresented their affiliation: they are in no way affiliated with PECO, but are a competitor company.

What they do is take your information from PECO and use it to change over your energy provider to them. I don’t know if their company is any better or any worse, but people should be able to make their own decisions and not get pressured by this misinformation. If anyone else signed the form (as I did) they can call the company within three business days to cancel.”

This beautiful photo was taken by Jeremiah Thomason (“Jay Tee”) between Clark Park and 48th Street.

Send us your photo of the neighborhood at: editor@westphillylocal.com

This Saturday, March 31, St. Mary’s Church at 3916 Locust Walk is hosting 2012 Band Extravaganza(!), a fundraising concert to support instrumental music instruction at Lea Elementary. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Penn Jazz, the 2012 High School Honor Band and Play On, Philly! are among featured performers. See the flyer below for more details.