Them That Do

After a long hiatus, @themthatdo begins to profile #blockcaptains in #SouthKensington #philly. Today: Sarita and Alberto - co-captains #friends

Sarita Broadnax and Alberto Serrano at the corner of a green space they now call the Tot Lot, at the corner of 1800 block N. 4th Street and N. Cadwallader St.

Broadnax and Serrano, 1800 N. 4th Street.

Ask Alberto Serrano about being a block captain and he immediately begins to praise his newest neighbor, Sarita Broadnax. Sarita moved to the block four months ago after a fire destroyed her…

Elizabeth Waring likes to hug the trees she's planted in West Philadelphia. Her Windowishes display is an expression of her love for trees.

Eilzabeth Waring has planted hundreds of trees in West Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Waring – 4000 Powelton Avenue

Elizabeth has been known to hug the trees she’s planted. And, as a volunteer for UC Green, she has planted hundreds of trees.  She is also a member of the UC Green Pruning Club. “That’s my therapy,” she says. “If I had a stressful day, I get to be underneath a tree, talking and relaxing.”

Renée McBride-Williams wants us to remember the days when 52nd St was the place to go for live music and theater.

Renée McBride-Williams outside the WPEB community radio station on S. 52nd Street.

Renée McBride-Williams – 5100 Webster St.

I met Renée at the WPEBstudio, with it’s windows facing 52nd Street. She remembers 52nd Street in it’s glory days, when it was it was called the Golden Strip. She remembers being drawn to the excitement around famous theaters like the Locust, the Nixon, the State, the…

Pat Jamison's favorite tool for block cooperation is her bullhorn.

Pat Jamison – 1600 Rowan Walkway

At 8:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning last September, Pat Jamison carried her speakers outside and serenaded her neighbors with the warm tones of Teddy Pendergrass to wake them for the fall clean up. ” It kind of gets the adrenaline going, you know?”  says Jamison, referring to the sexy R&B.

But her neighbors were slow to respond. She went back inside to fetch her…

Free Portraits of Junior Block Captains at upcoming Forum #boyslatinofphiladelphia @westphillylocal

Them That Do (Lori Waselchuk) is a sponsor of the 2015 West/Southwest Philadelphia Block Captains Forum.

I will set up a portrait booth to make portraits of junior block captains. Sorry, senior block captains, this is my effort to encourage young people to attend the event.

I will also introduce upcoming creative projects, like the street exhibition Windowishes, that need creative block captain…

Calling creative block captains! #themthatdo needs collabortors for #Windowishes, an exhibit on S. 40th.

40th St. Storefront window displays will be the site for Windowishes exhibition

  Calling creative West Philadelphia block captains!

I am looking for six block captains who would like to work with me to create storefront installations for Windowishes, a street exhibition designed for the seven storefront display windows on the west side of S. 40th Street, between Chestnut and Ludlow Streets in…

Philadelphia Urban Creators celebrate summer w/ Hoodstock tomorrow 12-7pm N.15th & Susquehanna

N. 15th St. & Susquehanna Ave.

I highly recommend checking out Hoodstock out tomorrow in North Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Urban Creators are doing incredible work.

There will be food, music and art. The Urban Creators will celebrate the grand opening of their new “Defend Our Future” community garden as well as the 10th Anniversary of Tree House Books. There will be an all-day basketball…

Rev. Chester Williams wants Aldi to reopen neighborhood grocery store. “This is a hardship for the people,”

  Rev. Chester Williams stands in the parking lot of the closed Bottom Dollar store, the only grocery store in his neighborhood. Williams is persistently reaching out to the new owners of the store, Aldi, to try to get them to reopen.

Rev. Chester Williams – 6200 Chew Avenue

Reverend Chester Williams places a green washcloth on his head for protection from the hot sun. He just finished leading a…

Sigrid Craig, the founder of the “Clean-up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up” campaign — initiated an urban environmental partnership between the City of Philadelphia and its residents. (Photographer and date unknown. The photo is part of the PMBC archive)

In honor of Mother’s Day…

In 1938, Sigrid Craig saw a woman throw garbage out of a third-floor window into the yard below. In an interview years later,…

Rena Graves, 94-yr-old block captain, wants you to vote! Join her tonight at Candidates Forum in Germantown.

photo by Mitch Borden

94 and ‘Working, As Usual’

Deacon Rena Graves wants you to vote. If you live in her Germantown neighborhood, she may have called you to invite you to attend  the “All Candidates Forum” tonight at 6pm in the Wissahickon Charter School gymnasium. And if Graves convinced you to attend the event, she will greet you and serve you some supper before the forum begins.

“It’s…

Andrea D. Carter wants to taste fresh strawberries from her container garden this summer.

Fresh Strawberries at 100 N. Peach St.

Andrea Carter’s regrets planting too late for strawberries last year. “There is nothing like the taste of a strawberry off the vine,” says Carter.

Carter created a container garden in a vacant lot on N. Peach St. The lot was filthy. “I knew no one would want to eat something grown in that soil. ” says Carter. During the weeks she spent cleaning and weeding…

Today is the last day that Ci-Lines, the temporary installation created by Aaron Asis at St. Andrew’s Collegiate Chapel, will exist. It has been an incredible experience to work with the talented and visionary Mr. Asis, to spend time in the stunningly beautiful Chapel, to work the Penn Alexander 5th graders, and to welcome the hundreds of visitors that have come to see the exhibition so far. The…