Despite her Philly sounding surname, award winning author Deesha Philyaw is not a Philadelphian — yet.
Philyaw, whose first book The Secret Life of Church Ladies(West Virginia University Press) won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was a finalist in 2020 for the National Book Award for Fiction, is planning to move to the City of Brotherly Love next spring.
Over the years she’s spent a fair share of weekends in the city visiting restaurants, shopping haunts, and art museums. Philly friends keep her up on the latest happenings. She already has plans to connect with the women and nonbinary literary group The Claw when she moves to town. And she’s on the BlackStar Film Festival’s host committee for its forthcoming gala.
And Philadelphia, she noted, is extra special to her because it is home to the preeminent Black church, Mother Bethel AME.
There is a lot of history here.
The highly anticipated debut novel ‘The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman” by Deesha Philyaw was released Sept. 29. Philyaw appear at a book signing on Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Center City Barnes & Nobles.HarperCollins/Mariner Books
Philyaw grew up in the Black church and respects its storied past. Still, she says she doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the dogma, patriarchy, and misogynoir.
That was as apparent in The Secret Life of Church Ladies as it is in her latest novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman(HarperCollins, Mariner Books). True Confessions centers on the extravagant life of Atlanta first ladyScharisse Freeman as she tries to fit in with other first ladies in the mega church world. Just as she’s starting to fit in with the catty group, a sex scandal erupts. Scharrise is treated like a pariah and readers are left wondering how such cruelty can be perpetuated in His name.
“The stories in Church Ladies and True Confessions are not a middle finger to the church or its true believers,” Philyaw said. “They do, however, point out where the institutions have failed and hurt Black people, particularly Black women and queer folks. I don’t feel like I need to protect the church. That has been the problem. In doing so, we look the other way, remain silent, and down play these things.”
Philyaw, a mom of two who is queer, lived in Pittsburgh for 25 years before moving to Oxford, Miss. where she served as the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi before settling in Miami. She’ll be in town on Monday for a talk at Barnes & Nobles and in between book signing and book pedaling, she’ll be taking in the scene of her next homebase.
This is her idea of a perfect Philly Day.
One of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast’s six overnight suites, The Blue Note, named after The Sound of Philadelphia’s most iconic group’s Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes.Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast
6:30 a.m.
I’m a woman of a certain age so I’m both an early bird and a night owl. On a wonderful morning, I’d wake up at Akwaaba, the West Philly bed-and-breakfast owned by Monique Greenwood. It’s so beautiful. I’d enjoy a lazy morning that would include having a breakfast of oatmeal without fruit. (Something about fruit and oatmeal irks me.) I’d also have some herbal tea and honey. I’m not a coffee girl.
Inside of the Barnes Foundation’s galleries. The Barnes Foundation
10 a.m.
I would check out one of the private collection tours at the Barnes. I really enjoy the art. They always have such great curated exhibitions like [Maori Karmael Holmes and James Claiborne’s] “Freedom Dreams.” On a perfect Philly day, that exhibit would still be open.
The oxtail cheesesteak from the Taste Cheesesteak Bar in Center City on Friday, June 14, 2024.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Noon
I’d have lunch at Logan Square’s Taste CheesesteakBar for the oxtail cheesesteak. Then maybe I’d visit the BlackStar film offices in the Bok Building, and definitely catch a movie if the festival was going on.
Interior of Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books.ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
I still mask indoors so Sally in Rittenhouse Square is one of the few places where I can eat outdoors year round. My friend Tre Johnson took me there a few years ago when I was in town for the AWP Conference (the Association of Writers and Writing Programs). It was in March and they had heated seats. I’d start with the Japanese eggplant, move on to the fennel sausage pizza and I’d have to get that sangarita
The Philadelphia Parkway Central Library on Logan Square.
7:30 p.m.
I’d end the night at a talk and book signing at the Free Library of Philadelphia. These are great events for writers and readers. There is so much to pick from.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Deesha Philyaw will appear Monday, Oct. 5 for a reading, book signing and live recording of Barnes & Nobles Poured Over podcast hosted by Miwa Messer. The event starts at 6 p.m. Barnes & Nobles Philadelphia, 1708 Chestnut Street, at 6 p.m. Tickets include the cost of the book are $34.56. Ticket information here.
Crime and punishment in colonial America was a brutal business. Incarcerated people were barely fed, were often beaten, and fell ill from unsanitary conditions.
Inspired by the benevolent Quaker tradition, Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin decided, in the late 17th century, to institute a new system through which people in prison could atone by reflecting and reading the Bible.
The catch was they had to be “penitent” all alone, without any human contact. With the birth of solitary confinement, came Eastern State Penitentiary.
Artist Cody Stuhltrager captures the distinctive aesthetic of Eastern State Penitentiary and its enduring presence in Fairmount in this No. 1Cody Stuhltrager courtesy of Colibrí Workshop
Construction started in 1821 and in 1829, the 11-acre institution opened on what was once a cherry orchard situated at the intersection of Fairmount Avenue, Corinthian Avenue, Brown Street, and 22nd Street. Nestled behind a 650-foot stone wall were 250 rooms.
The intention was that every man, woman, and child would have their own cell and would neither see nor talk to another human being.
“Eastern State is considered the first penitentiary in America because it is the first institution that uses solitary confinement for the entire length of the inmate’s incarceration,” explained Kerry Sautner, president and CEO of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.
America’s first penitentiary — the country’s first true correctional facility — will be remembered Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Eastern State Penitentiary.
The observance is part of the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts Celebrations. The weekly day parties, or firstivals are part of a yearlong citywide celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
Eastern State Penitentiary’s legacy of torturous solitary confinement makes this a somber celebration.
The institution’s first prisoner was 18-year-old Delaware County burglar Charles Williams. Within a few years after his arrival, Eastern State became a model for prisons and penitentiaries throughout the country, Sautner said. Still, its controversial methods of rehabilitation were considered cruel.
Eastern State Penitentiary cellblock in 1837.Eastern State Penitentiary
During his first visit to America, author Charles Dickens, who toured the penitentiary, wrote, “I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon its sufferers.”
“People quickly learned that solitary confinement was a cruel form of punishment,” Sautner said. “But they didn’t to let it go easily.”
Despite the formation of the Pennsylvania Prison Society — responsible for part of the state constitution that stressed on the rights of incarcerated people — solitary confinement lasted through the late 19th century. It remained a part of the prison’s culture until it was completely removed from the books in 1913.
During the early 20th century, each cell housed two people.
“We have evidence of a proclamation banning solitary,” Sautner said. “And we found evidence of small Christian gatherings celebrations [within Eastern State] of Jewish holy days in September.”
(Although the penitentiary was founded in the Quaker tradition, there is evidence that prisoners worshipped in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths within its walls by the 19th century.)
In 1965, it was designated a national historic site by the federal government. By the early 1970s, Eastern State Penitentiary was immensely overcrowded with more than 2,000 prisoners. It closed in 1971 and its population was moved to Graterford.
Throughout the 1980s, the building remained mostly abandoned except for a few sporadic instances like when it served as the set for the filming of Tina Turner’s 1985 single “One of the Living” from the Mad Max soundtrack.
In the late 1980s, the city began looking at ways to restabilize what many considered an eyesore in the center of Fairmount, a neighborhood that was in the midst of being revitalized. Planners considered turning the space into condos, a shopping center, and even a youth hostel.
Eastern State Penitentiary hosts Halloween Nights, a festival-like attraction with characters dressed as scary clowns, zombies, vampires and other ghouls — but not prisoners or prison guardsEastern State Penitentiary
In 1988, at the urging of a task force of concerned architects, preservationists, and historians, Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode halted the process of selling the site. And in 1994, it opened as a nonprofit historic site offering group tours under the leadership of Sally Elk.
1997 marked the first “Terror Behind the Walls” the annual haunted house attraction. In 2021 it was rebranded as “Halloween Nights,” a less spooky, more gentrified version with a beer garden.
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Oct. 3, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Eastern State Penitentiary at 2027 Fairmount Ave
Netflix’sA Different World, a reboot of the 1987 NBC original, is what I thought Bel-Air would be. It remains true to the original show’s characters: Whitley (Jasmine Guy) is still an entitled snob, Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) remains as thoughtful as he is brilliant.
And Dwayne and Whitley’s daughter, Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), is a delightful blend of her mom’s sense of bougieness and her dad’s altruism. It’s a stone-cold gas that her favorite accessory are flip glasses just like Dwayne Wayne. (It made me want to dig mine out.)
The obvious Philly connection is North Philly’s own Bill Cosby, who created the show in 1987 as spinoff to the immensely popular The Cosby Show. Cosby starred as Huxtable patriarch Cliff Huxtable and father to Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet). In the original A Different World, Denise attended her parents’ alma mater, the storied fictional Virginia-based historically Black school Hillman College.
Alijah Kai Haggins as Rashida Duvall in “A Different World.”Netflix
But there is another more subtle Philly association in Netflix’s version in actress Alijah Kai Haggins, who plays Rashida Duvall, Deborah’s roommate. Rashida’s mother (on the show and in real life) is Tichina Arnold (Martin and The Neighborhood) and, though Haggins grew up in Los Angeles, her dad is Carvin Haggins, the Grammy-award-winning Philly-area producer who has worked with Jill Scott, Jazmine Sullivan, Chris Brown, and Justin Timberlake. Haggins also happens to be Scott’s cousin.
See? Without Philadelphia, we wouldn’t have A Different World — the original or its highly anticipated reboot.
I blew through all 10 episodes of the Different World reboot this weekend and cheered at the return of familiar faces: Whitley, Dwayne, Freddie Brooks (Cree Summer), Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis), Ron (Darryl M. Bell), and Col. Taylor (Glynn Turman).
I swooned at a few new characters, like Coach Bryce Coles (Cliff “Method Man” Smith), a total shout-out to Gen Xers who came of age with the show. It cracks me up to think that during the original show’s run, Smith was in the New York City streets rapping about how dope it was to be M-E-T-H-O-D Man as a star member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
(From left) Dawnn Lewis as Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor, Glynn Turman as Col. Bradford Taylor, Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne in “A Different World.”Netflix
For a few hours, I was back in my New York bedroom as a teenager inspired by my television role models to go to college.
Where did all the time go?
Much like the original A Different World, produced by Debbie Allen— who reprises her role as the school psychologist and like her character of yesteryear, urges students to “relax, relate, and release” — Netflix’s version deals with timely issues.
Allen and showrunner Felicia Pride (Bel-Air and Gray’s Anatomy) deftly handle the current presidential administration’s attack on Black history, rampant mismanagement of funding by university administrators, and what it’s like for this generation of college students to engage with professors and each other after almost two years of COVID-19 lockdown.
This image released by Netflix shows Debbie Allen in a scene from “A Different World.” Uncredited
The three male leads — Cornel Young IV (Shaquille Johnson), Amir Rodale (Jordan Aaron Hall), and Chibuikem Uche (Kojo Achebe) — are much more open about their emotions and sexuality than my peers ever were.
Men who were young in the ’90s — now in their late 40s and 50s — might learn a thing or two from them. For example, Amir is a gay man who is open and honest about his sexuality. If we had such nuanced queer characters in the ’90s, perhaps men wouldn’t have felt the need to hide their sexuality and be on the “down low” and risk their partner’s lives by exposing them to HIV.
Today’s A Different World even addresses Gen Z church girls who are firm in their faith without judging friends who may have different relationships with God. Hazel Henry (Kennedi Reece) is as empathetic as she is passionate about religion.
This image released by Netflix shows Chibuikem Uche, from left, Cornell Young IV, and Jordan Aaron Hall in a scene from “A Different World.” Quantrell Colbert
It’s a great reboot. Despite the rude internet chitchat on how Guy and Summer look older — Duh, they are nearly 60 now — the Philly associations stand out the most to me.
Among others:
Hillman is based off an historically Black college of which Cheyney University is the first in the nation. Again, no Philly, no Hillman, no A Different World.
Jada Pinkett Smith, back in her breakthrough role as the rambunctious Lena James from Baltimore, is a much more sophisticated version of her militant younger self. (No spoilers here.) Smith starred in A Different World years before she made the ultimate West Philly partnership, her marriage to Will Smith.
Maleah Joi Moon as Deborah and Vincent Jamal Hooper as Ellington in “A Different World,” the Netflix reboot.Netflix
My greatest wish is that at some point in Season 2, Patti LaBelle returns as Adele Wayne, Dwayne Wayne’s mother and Deborah’s grandmother. I wonder if Deborah will have replaced Dwayne as her favorite little “chipmunk.”
Blistering satire, bromance in Brazil, and short stories about women on the brink are among the selection of buzzy fall reads written or set in Philly.
History plays a particularly important role in these Philly-centric books. They shine a light on little known facts, examine the city historic block by historic block, or tell stories of nature discoveries in faraway lands.
As the days shorten and the winds cool, snuggle up with a mug of hot chocolate and one of these picks.
Temple University’s writer-in-residence Camille Acker’s debut novel, “A Very Special Episode,” is a modern day satire about Washington’s Black eliteElizabeth Wellington
Within the first few pages of Camille Acker’s satirical debut novel, A Very Special Episode, it’s clear D.C.’s high-profile Black elite are under interrogation. But West Philly-based Acker doesn’t forget to pay reverence to the legacy of the city’s Black institutions and its people.
At the center of the 285-page novel is the Tenth, a fictional private club and reference to W.E.B. Du Bois’ Talented Tenth theory. Nina, the protagonist, shares a name with Du Bois’ daughter, Nina Yolande Du Bois. Her boyfriend is Booker T. Bruce — whose name is a nod to formerly enslaved 19th-century leaders Booker T. Washington and Blanche K. Bruce. These homages and juxtapositions are doubly interesting, considering Du Bois’ and Washington’s philosophy were at odds.
Acker is a Temple University writer-in-residence known for the biting short stories in Training School for Negro Girls. However, much like those works, A Very Special Episode is grounded in the present. We are with Nina as she tries to keep the Tenth relevant, a darn near impossible job in today’s world in which Jim Crow manifests as gentrification and police brutality. And affluent African Americans willingly don the shackles of material wealth.
A Very Special Episode was released Aug. 18.
Former Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Natalie Pompilio and PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” print and map expert Christopher W. Lane teamed up for this illustrated text “Historic Maps of Philadelphia: A History of the City of Brotherly Love in Rare Maps.”Reedy Press
Former Inquirer journalist Natalie Pompilio combines her affinity for Old City and walking tours in this 176-page hardcover exploring Philadelphia’s past through historical maps.
The maps in this book date to the 16th century when Philadelphia was home to the Indigenous Lenape tribe. They weave through colonial, antebellum, and early 20th-century Philadelphia and ends in the mid-20th century with highways that eased drivers’ trips and decimated historic neighborhoods.
Historic Maps of Philadelphia was released Sept. 1.
West Mount Airy award winning short story writer Kathleen Furin’s first bound collection of short stories, “The Loneliness of Glass” centers strong, resilient, complex women who overcome the odds and learn to love themselves.Cornerstone Press
West Mount Airy-based book coach, equity and inclusion consultant for Germantown’s Just Strategies Hub, and award-winning short story writer Kathleen Furin will release her first bound collection, The Loneliness of Glass, in November.
On Furin’s website, she describes her work as stories about strong, resilient, complex women who, through overcoming odds, learn to love themselves.
The narratives in this 220-page paperback reflect that and include a piece about a young woman who loses her half sister in a tragic murder, and a woman in an interracial marriage who is forced to confront her preconceived notions about race when she visits her hometown.
The Loneliness of Glass releases Nov. 3.
Louisville, Ky.-based psychiatrist Jess Wright explores psychosis in early 20th-century Philadelphia in “Dance in a Madhouse,” the first installment in the Owen Townsend mystery trilogy.Montague Books
Owen Townsend is a promising young medical school intern in 1905 Philadelphia when he gets locked up in the fictional Fairmount Lodge Asylum. Did he really lose his mind? Or, was he set up? Those questions are at the center of noted Louisville, Ky.-based psychiatrist Jess Wright’s mystery Dance in a Madhouse.
Wright, a native of Hollidaysburg, earned his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1969 and interned at Lankenau Medical Center in the early 1970s. This 288-page thriller is set against the backdrop of the Museum of Art when it was located in Memorial Hall and Boathouse Row, the library of the College of Physicians, and Jefferson Medical College. Dance in a Madhouse is the first book in a trilogy of Owen Townsend mysteries.
Dance in a Madhouse was released Sept. 8.
Central High School graduate (Class 255) Cristina O’Keefe Aptowicz’s historical nonfiction drama of William Parker, an enslaved man who emancipated himself from a Maryland plantation as a teenager in 1839, created a new life for himself as a free man in Christiana, Pa. His freedom is threatened when his former enslaver was killed tried to re-enslave him.Simon & Schuster Books
Poet, historian, New York Times best-selling author, and Central High School graduate (Class 255) Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s latest work, The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker, is the true story of a self-emancipated formerly enslaved man’s fight to remain free in early 19th-century Pennsylvania.
Shortly after her mother died, Aptowicz began exploring her mother’s side of the family tree. She discovered her maternal ancestors were seamstresses for the Underground Railroad, sometimes sewing new outfits for entire groups of freedom seekers in a single night. In her research, she kept coming across the names “William Parker” and “Christiana Riot,” names she, a lifelong Philadelphian, had never heard of before.
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker is Aptowicz’s “best attempt to resurrect this important and necessary story and bring it back into the national spotlight where it belongs.”
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker was released Sept. 8.
“Winterset Hollow” is a fantasy book within thriller book by Allentown resident and social media sensation Jonathan Edward Durham.Union Square & Co.
When Diana Gabaldon — author of the Outlander novels that inspired Starz’s popular time-traveling series of the same name — refers to your book as “astonishingly powerful and multilayered” declaring it among the most interesting books she’s read in years, you might have written a literary winner.
Such is the case for Allentown writer and social media content creator John Edward Durham, or @thisoneoverhere on Instagram, where he has 419,000 followers.
Durham’s Winterset Hollow follows four fictional friends visiting the island that inspired their favorite fantasy novel, also named Winterset Hollow. But when they break into the writer’s abandoned estate, they discover that the truth behind their favorite adored book is dark, dangerous, and terrifying.
First published in 2021 by Credo House Publishers, Union Square and Co. — a subsidiary of the New York’s Hachette Book Group — will release the new edition in October featuring the fictional book Winterset Hollow within Durham’s book.
Winterset Hollow releases Oct. 6.
Robert McCracken Peck, a retired senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, spent close to 50 years as the Academy’s official historian and photographer. “Travels on the Edge: A Naturalist’s Notes from the Back of Beyond” is a collection of essays and photos chronicling his adventures.University of Pennsylvania Press
Retired senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, author, and Chestnut Hiller Robert McCracken Peck spent close to 50 years traveling the world as the official photographer, historian, and chronicler of scientific exhibitions for the academy.
He discovered three new frogs in the Andes, collected several previously unknown species of fish on the Orinoco River, and studied rare insects in Africa and the Caribbean. He’s been on expeditions to Mongolia to study wildlife, witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, and traveled the Gobi Desert.
Travels on the Edge: A Naturalist’s Notes from the Back of Beyondis the scholar and adventurer’s collection of essays accompanied with lavish illustrations and Peck’s original photographs. In 240 pages, readers are transported to the most remote parts of the world to witness the joys (and challenges) of scientific research.
Travels on the Edge: A Naturalists Notes from the Back of Beyond was released Sept. 15.
Ashton Lattimore’s “Runner” follows lady rumrunners from Martha’s Vineyard into Boston and down through New York City during the Harlem Renaissance.Penguin Random House
Shortly after Ashton Lattimore completed the 2024 award-winning novel All We Were Promised, centeringanenslaved women in antebellum Philadelphia searching for her freedom, she began writing Runner from her Bryn Mawr home.
Lattimore has since moved to northern New Jersey, but her ties to Philadelphia’s historic organizations run deep.
Runner follows lady rumrunners from Martha’s Vineyard into Boston, and down through New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. Will the protagonist Lena Jameson discover who killed her father? Will she be able to skirt the authorities on her tail during Prohibition? Or, will she lose it all simply because she’s a woman?
Runner was released July 28.
Omar Tyree’s latest book, “Touchdown in Brazil,” is a bromance between an Eagles fan from South Philly and a Green Bay Packers fan in Brazil during the 2024 game between the two teams. It was the first NFL game played in South America.Dafina, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp.
Dafina, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp., $37.99
West Philadelphia native and veteran author Omar Tyree’s latest novel Touchdown in Brazil centers a Philadelphia Eagles fan who travels to Brazil in 2024 to watch his beloved Birds play the Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s first game played in South America.
The protagonist, named Tony Costa, is an amateur sports better looking for a break from his wife and hoping for a win with the Birds. The Eagles win. But whether Costa — who befriends other husbands and fathers including a Packers devotee and the owner of a local sports bar during his trip — will learn to appreciate his family and take home the ultimate win, is up in the air.
Touchdown in Brazil releases Sept. 29.
Hilal Isler’s first short story in her collection, “Khadijah Number 2,” is set in the working class neighborhood in West Philly and comes to a climax in the opulent Rittenhouse Square.Northwestern University Press
Curbstone Books, Northwestern University Press, $24
Author Hilal Isler set “Khadijah Number Two,” the introductory yarn in her debut collection of short stories Har Mar, among the rowhouses of West Philadelphia and the luxe lofts, expensive gastropubs, and overpriced yoga pants on Rittenhouse Square.
The story centers 25-year-old Turkish server and borderline alcoholic Ayla Erdoğdu. The devout 50-year-old Muslim woman Khadijah picks Ayla because she’s young, pretty, and flaky — just the energy she needs to sell her book. And she’s right. Khadijah’s novel is a hit and Ayla gets lost, becoming a second edition of Khadijah.
Many of the selections in Isler’s 16-story debut work feature women of color. Some of are Muslim, some are not. But all of them are complicated and have a salty vibe.
Isler attended the University of Pennsylvania and currently is an associate professor at the University of Austin.
Har Mar was released July 15.
An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect publisher for Robert McCracken Peck’s new book. It is the American Philosophical Society Press.
My fifth grader wants to take Regional Rail back from his downtown magnet school by himself. He’s done a few weeks with an adult so he knows the route, and I can track him on my phone. But he doesn’t have any buddies to walk back with. Is this crazy, or will it help foster independence?
Amy Rosenberg, Life & Culture reporter
I want this to be OK, but my first thought is maybe fifth grade is a little too young?
Elizabeth Wellington, features columnist
I think you might be right, Amy. I mean, when I was 10 — and that was 100 years ago — I took the bus by myself. But the train was a different animal completely. There are a lot of ways for them to get lost, and missing a stop is a long walk, rather than a few blocks. You know?
Amy Rosenberg
It also depends on the child. Some are more ready than others. A group of fifth graders, or maybe two of them together, might work? Not sure about the walk home from the stop either. I walked to and from school for lunch as a fifth grader and that seemed fine, but it was also a long time ago.
Elizabeth Wellington
I walked to and from school by myself when I was in the fifth grade. I demanded it because I had a crush on a boy, but that’s another story.
Now, I’d be afraid to let my fifth grader walk to the end of the block by themselves. Then again, I wouldn’t want to foster sense of fear for the city in my fifth grader either.
Amy Rosenberg
I used to walk home and read the newspaper that was in the driveway and eat my lunch out of a bag (not every day!). My girls had a lot of freedom as kids, but still, as fifth graders they were not traveling around by themselves.
Maybe this person hires someone to meet the child at the train station? I’d definitely try to find another student making that same trip. Maybe there’s an older student that could be a buddy.
Elizabeth Wellington
That’s a great idea. I think the fifth grader wants to feel independent around friends, and there are always friends to travel from school to the train with. If someone is waiting for them when they get home then the parent can know the child made it home safely and the 10-year-old can still feel cared for. Because sometimes when you’re 10 — and even when you are 50 — you need to know someone is there for you when you get home.
When the 10-year-old becomes a 12-year-old or maybe even 13, then they can travel by themselves confidently. Even today, as Gen X’s latchkey-kid generation, I’m not sure 9- and 10-year-olds coming home by themselves from school was the safest thing.
Amy Rosenberg
I agree. There’s a lot of maturing that happens between 10 and 12. I think kids should move around the city confidently and be able to ride public trains by themselves, but the sweet spot age seems a little bit older than fifth grade. Especially the start of fifth grade.
I also think the parent would worry, and be constantly tracking, or even on the phone with the child, and that’s hardly independence. That’s just anxiety.
Elizabeth Wellington
And independence for one person should never translate to anxiety for a loved one.
Amy Rosenberg
I had an after-school babysitter one year who famously drove into our garage door with my girls in the backseat, at around fifth grade. Luckily, only damage to the garage door. So danger everywhere!
Elizabeth Wellington
Yeah, and I fear a 10-year-old kid walking to and from school by themselves, even with a cell phone, might be a danger magnet.
I’m getting nervous just thinking about it.
Amy Rosenberg
I have recently done a bit of traveling on Regional Rail, and I didn’t see anyone that young. And those stations are big. It’s nice to want independence for your kids, but this seems like a big step. I would definitely wait, or try to find a traveling buddy.
I also bet other parents at the school have a big range of travel strategies and opinions about age and independence.
So, look for smaller ways to foster independence at this age.
Elizabeth Wellington
And explain it to them in a way that doesn’t say you don’t trust them, but that it’s a good idea to wait a few years.
Amy Rosenberg
Yeah, lean into finding a buddy or two. I traveled on trains to school with buddies beginning at around 14 and those were great memories.
Elizabeth Wellington
I think it’s important that the child knows that it’s not that you don’t trust them. … Just it’s not their season yet to be taking public transportation alone.
Each time Theophilus Annor descends the stairs nestled underneath Frances M. Maguire Hall’s grand first-floor banister and into Woodmere’s Jewelry Vault, he’s humbled and proud.
The 26-year-old metalsmith, 3D printer wiz, and graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture has a significant amount of bling on permanent display in the vault, which comprises the Woodmere Art Museum’s three underground galleries dedicated to baubles fashioned by Philadelphia’s most celebrated jewelry artisans.
Theophilus Annor explains the loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work as he poses next to “Hairpiece,” 2025, on display at the Jewelry Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
Holding On is a gold-plated brass ring Annor, one of the youngest artists featured in the vault, fashioned into the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol for loyalty. It sits in the vault’s center display case with its rose gold gemstone sparkling in conversation with more than a dozen other pieces from artisans Richard Reinhardt, Wesley Emmons, Henri David, and Doug Bucci, Annor’s teacher and mentor at Tyler.
Each ring in the showcase is delicately planted between the middle finger and thumb of a silicone hand Annor cast from an alginate mold of his own. The lines in the 14 gray palms and shape of each nail bed clutching the trinkets mirror Annor’s lithe ebony hands. The young artist’s hands literally uphold the masterpieces of the artists who came before him.
Theophilus Annor’s work features the Agyendewura Adinkra symbol, a loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work as he poses next to “Holding On,” 2024, gold and multifaceted gemstones, on display at the Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
“Of that I’m so honored,” he said, sitting on a bench on Maguire Hall’s porch. Above him is one of five window grills he designed with Philadelphia blacksmith John Rais.
Rais created the decorative wrought iron while Annor scaled another Adinkra symbol up to life-size with a bronze, metallic finish.
He made the ornamentation on a 3D printer, and it took several days to print each of them.
Woodmere purchased its four-story Victorian mansion home from the Sisters of St. Joseph in 2021. In 2022, the Maguire Foundation gave the museum $10 million in honor of its late matriarch, Frances M. Maguire. Through a capital campaign, Woodmere’s executive director William R. Valerio raised a total of $28 million to purchase, renovate, and create an endowment for Maguire Hall.
Last October, the 14-gallery space opened, Annor’s touch dispersed throughout, “reminding visitors of the diversity of Philadelphia artists on display here at Woodmere,” Valerio said.
Theophilus Annor’s work features the Agyendewura Adinkra symbol, a loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work, as he poses next to “Commissioned,” the collaboration between artists John Rais and himself, at the Jewelry Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
“My work is next to that of so many amazing artists,” Annor said. “And I’m so excited to be a part of the legacy.”
As part of Maguire Hall and the vault’s first birthday, Woodmere will host a jewelry trunk show on Oct. 22.
The 1,000-square-foot vault was conceived to serve as a showcase of Philadelphia artisans and pay homage to the city’s history of jewelry arts. It’s less about engagement rings and more about engagement with the community of Philadelphia artists and their patrons.
To the right of the entrance, a vitrine beams with exquisite Gilded Age accessories: a J.E. Caldwell sapphire-and-diamond ring twinkles next to a Bailey, Banks & Biddle topaz brooch.
Jewelry on display in the vault at the Woodmere Art Museum Maguire Hall in Chestnut Hill on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
These brands were featured in the 1876 Centennial as part of its jewelry arts exhibition, which catapulted their popularity. And within the year, Philadelphians’ interest in the jewelry arts led to the opening of the University of the Arts, home of one of the country’s first jewelry arts programs. The university helped Philadelphia become an industry leader in the jewelry arts during the 20th century, Valerio said.
Of course, many of the vault’s showpieces celebrate the beauty and drama of all that is jewel-encrusted.
A Henri David installation gives enchanted forest vibes, taking up the entire back wall of the first gallery. A cloak sewn together from thousands of iridescent feathers from the tails of French roosters is centered next to faux greenery. David’s nature-inspired frippery glistens: a 14-carat yellow-and-gold stingray brooch, a diamond-and-pearl dragonfly brooch, and a druzy agate flower brooch with a pretty black fresh freshwater pearl affixed to its center.
In the Henri David case, the Philly-based jeweler’s fantastical work takes up the entire back case of the vault in Woodmere’s Maguire Hall.Elizabeth Wellington
Jewelry innovation is a focus of the vault, too.
Across from the ring case is Bucci’s insightful Shroud, a continuous sheet of polylactic acid and cubic zirconia installed into the floor. But Shroud is more than a thin layer of ivory glitz under a glass case that resembles a tomb. It’s a 3D-print installation generated from 30 days of Bucci’s blood glucose data. Bucci is a Type 1 diabetic who wears an around-the-clock insulin monitor. Each day is a vertical slice of Bucci’s metabolic history, brilliant evidence of his lived experience.
“The funny thing is that we were really just figuring out what to do with the hole in the ground,” Bucci said. “What we came up with was inspired by beauty, inspired by architecture, and the unseen. It’s like the game of Operation where you have that look inside.”
View of the 3D-printed “Islet I, White a sectional” (Neck Piece) by Doug Bucci, on display in the vault at the Woodmere Art Museum Maguire Hall in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
Islet — Bucci’s most well-known work that includes a necklace, a ring, and a bracelet — also resides in the vault. Each one of the links in the necklace is a honeycomb-patterned tube that is printed as one piece and interlinked, creating an unbroken chain. Bucci was the first jewelry artisan to manipulate a 3D printer to do that.
Islet shares gallery space with a purple polyester resin and sterling silver torque, or metal collar, by Stanley Lechtzin, who founded Tyler’s jewelry program in 1962 and served as its head through 2018.
Lechtzin is considered the grandfather of computer-aided design in the jewelry industry, the first to use a 3D printer to design and produce jewelry. He also developed electroforming, a process that makes big, chunky jewelry light. (It’s why bamboo door-knocker earrings look heavy but are actually light.)
“Lechtzin is truly an innovator in the design field,” Bucci said. “He is one of my educators, mentors, and heroes. So for my work to stand along his and with my students’ is one of the most important moments of my career.”
The vault houses the ostentatious and the kitschy. Brooches made from found art and resin by Maximal Art’s John Wind and Hilary Jay are placed next to brooches, cuffs, pendants, and pleated gowns by the late fashion and accessories designer Mary McFadden.
McFadden — who died two years ago at 84 — made an undisclosed donation to the vault and gave Woodmere several pieces of clothing and jewelry to exhibit. One of the vault’s galleries is named for her.
Theophilus Annor’s jewelry artwork centers the loyalty symbol from Ghana, as seen here in his “Hairpiece,” 2025, on display at the Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
The vault’s permanent exhibit comes full circle, ending with a glass cabinet filled with hair adornments. It’s called the Crown Case. In this glass cabinet is a laurel crown symbolizing power, sanctity, and celebration designed by McFadden, a wedding tiara by Reinhardt, and a knotted red-and-yellow hair piece by Annor.
The piece, Annor said, explores the historical significance of knots used in Ghana as ladders during the African slave trade.
“I am from Ghana, but a lot of my thoughts and experiences as a jewelry maker are here in Philly,” Annor said. “At Woodmere I’m able to blend traditional and contemporary art and honor my heritage.”
The Woodmere Art Museum’s Frances M. Maguire Hall is located at 9001 Germantown Ave. The Jewelry Trunk Show will be held Oct. 22 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Charles Knox Smith Hall at 9201 Germantown Ave.
Watching parents struggle to pay for lodging and food as their children underwent treatment for cancer in the early 1970s broke the heart of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia oncology director Audrey E. Evans.
Evans, a British pediatric oncologist, wanted to do something to make the families comfortable during this terrible time. When she found a four-story, seven-bedroom house in West Philadelphia, she envisioned a space where beleaguered parents could stay, eat, and rest during the tough days and tougher decisions ahead of them.
She just needed $34,000 to buy it.
The Ronald McDonald House No. 1 was created by Alana Sxmone in a pop art, ’70s-inspired comic style to capture warmth and optimism. It features cofounders Audrey E. Evans and Jim Murray surrounded by families helped by the Ronald McDonald House.Alana Sxmone for Colibrí Workshop
In 1974, on the other side of town, at North Philadelphia’s St. Christopher’s Hospital, Eagles tight end and wide receiver Fred Hill’s 7-year-old daughter, Kim, was fighting — and beating — acute lymphatic leukemia.
Hill wanted to make a difference for families with sick children. With the help of the team’s then-general manager Jim Murray, he formed the fundraising nonprofit Eagles Fly for Leukemia. Together, Hill and Murray approached Kim’s doctor, Lawrence Naiman, who suggested Hill chat with Evans. She was in the midst of building CHOP’s state-of-the-art cancer facility and needed the money more than he did.
“The Eagles pledged a million to build the oncology ward,” said Ronald McDonald House CEO Susan Campbell. “That began Dr. Evans’ relationship with Fred Hill, Murray, and Eagles owner Leonard Tose.”
Evans didn’t stop there, said Campbell. “She told them, ‘I need to buy this house in West Philly. I need $34,000.′”
The original Ronald McDonald House, at 4032 Spruce St. in West Philadelphia.The Ronald McDonald House
The Eagles and McDonald’s, the fast-food chain, were clients of the same Philadelphia-based firm Elkman Advertising. Tose devised a deal: He offered to the then-regional manager of McDonald’s, Ed Rensi, his top players, including Roman Gabriel and Bill Bergey, as spokespeople for the Shamrock Shake. His ask? Maybe McDonald’s would donate a portion of the proceeds to Evans’ house.
“Rensi said that he would give Evans all of the proceeds if she would call it the Ronald McDonald House,” Campbell said.
On Oct. 15, 1974, Tose, Gabriel, Bergey, then-chairman of McDonald’s Ray Kroc (the same Ray Kroc for whom the area Salvation Army Kroc Centers are named), and Mayor Frank Rizzo joined Evans at the ribbon cutting of the world’s first Ronald McDonald House, at 4032 Spruce St.
That ribbon cutting will be feted as a “firstival” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ronald McDonald House’s Chestnut Street location. Firstivals are weekly parties the Philadelphia Historic District is throwing each Saturday celebrating people, places, and things born in Philadelphia in honor of America’s 250th birthday.
There are more local connections: South Jersey builder John Canuso, whose daughter had leukemia, donated the elbow grease, furniture, appliances, and electrical wiring for the original Ronald McDonald House, helping it build its reputation as a sweet space for care and convalescence. By 1979, 5,000 people from 29 states and seven countries called Ronald McDonald House home during a difficult time.
Ronald McDonald House Philadelphia cofounders Jim Murrary, Eagles general manager, and Audrey E. Evans, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia oncology director, in the 1980s at the Chestnut Street location.The Ronald McDonald House
In 1981, the new Ronald McDonald House opened its doors at a 32-room mansion at 3925 Chestnut St. The new spot — also renovated by Canuso — replaced the original Spruce Street location. It remains open today and features 19 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, library, and laundry room.
Kim Hill died when she was 44, in 2011. Radiation from her treatments for leukemia as a child caused brain tumors as an adult. Fred Hill is in his 80s and lives in California.
Today, there are about 400 Ronald McDonald Houses in 62 countries, including ones at 100 E. Erie Ave. in Juniata Park, in Camden, and in Wilmington. Families are given a room, three meals a day, and transportation to and from the hospital. The suggested rate is $25 a night, but no parent is turned away. All families with children facing life-threatening illnesses — and being treated at CHOP or neighboring hospitals — are welcome.
Carmen Montes, 17, participates in a game at the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey in Camden on Oct. 14, 2016.DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer
“The ultimate goal is that every child is healthy and that we wouldn’t need a Ronald McDonald House,” Campbell said. “But that isn’t the case. We are grateful that medical technology is advancing and that we’re able to support so many families on this journey.”
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Sept. 26, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Ronald McDonald House at 3925 Chestnut St.
Nasir “Gillie da King” Fard is back for the 2026-27 Eagles season with a new pregame Instagram dance, and it’s giving uptown funk.
Perhaps the new kickoff song is a nod to Gillie’s proud North Philly roots.
The two-step Philadelphia Eagles love fest is definitely a soul-filled shout-out to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ 2014 hit “Uptown Funk,” complete with the fancy footwork, twists, turns, and the shoulder shimmies Eagles fans have come to expect.
Gillie begins the two-minute video — with almost 40,000 likes before Sunday’s game even started — with his signature bravado.
“Rain, sleet, or snow, the Eagles train to go,” Gillie begins, wearing his trademark colossal Noggin Boss hat in black and a Brian Dawkins No. 20 jersey in classic midnight green.
Then, using a flurry of colorful language, Gillie promises the Eagles will dominate the Birds’ Week 2 foes: the Tennessee Titans.
“This ain’t no movie,” Gillie says, in a playful reference to the 2000 film starring Denzel Washington. Then his message turns humorously dark. “This is dismember the Titans.”
Ouch.
And just like that, Gillie proceeds to get his dance on, a mashup of moves from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. He starts off with a little bit of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and mixes in a few Michael Jackson “Thriller” shoulder shrugs. It’s clear Gillie means business.
After, the steps get current: a more dramatic version of Gillie’s favorite Little Duval dance from his 2018 hit, “Smile,” with extra shoulder oomph. Another of his favorites in the video is the Kodak Black.
Just like the previous two years of Gillie’s viral pregame performances featuring 1986 old school grooves: Cameo’s “Candy” and Cheryl Lynn’s “Encore” in 2024 and 2025 respectively, this is a video you want to watch over and over again.
So fun.
Not to worry, an Eagles win still calls for an homage to Too Short’s 2006 earworm “Blow the Whistle,” featuring JoJo the Bird and Broom Man, excited to sweep up the competition.
In the last two years, the videos have become so popular, celebrities like Patti LaBelle, Meek Mill, Jazmine Sullivan, and Kevin Hart have posted, reposted, and filmed themselves doing the Gillie Dance. Even actor Morris Chestnut, who turns out to be a diehard Eagles fan, has been in on the fun.
The Birds have made it to the finals each year since Gillie’s dance became a part of the city’s pregame ritual. Gillie led the Eagles through the tunnel in the championship games.
So when Colin Kaepernick’s memoirThe Perilous Fight(Hachette, $32.50) hit bookstores this week, of course the former NFL player would make a local appearance courtesy of Uncle Bobbie’s, right?
Kaepernick’s memoir is a coming-of-age story about a Black child who was adopted into a white family and found his identity through sports.
This cover image released by Legacy Lit shows “The Perilous Fight” by Colin Kaepernick. (Legacy Lit via AP)Uncredited
Football didn’t just become Kaepernick’s refuge, it helped him find his voice, ultimately informing his decision to take a knee in 2016 while the national anthem played at the beginning of a game between San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers. It was an act of protest against the country’s racial inequities.
The truth is, Kaepernick was scheduled to come through Uncle Bobbie’s on his book tour. Hachette asked the Germantown bookstore to reserve a date. And the bookstore did find a venue big enough to hold Kaepernick’s fans at what would likely have been a sold-out event.
But because of an industry kerfuffle, the Philadelphia stop was canceled as were several of Kaepernick’s other tour stops.
The fault, says Justin Moore, Uncle Bobbie’s general manager, lies squarely in the hands of former NBA player and former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson’s nonprofit the National Association of Black Bookstores.
Once Kaepernick signed on with NAB2 — which is also working with actress Tisha Campbell on this week’s release of her memoirThe A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love (HarperCollins, $29.99) — to manage the book tour, the previous agreement with Uncle Bobbie’s and other bookstores was seemingly null and void.
So, the beef isn’t with Kaepernick, it’s with NAB2.
“Although NAB2 was fully aware of the previous arrangements, they nonetheless chose to undermine our collective efforts, forcing us to cancel previously scheduled dates,” Moore wrote in an Instagram post this week. “As a result, multiple bookstores (including Black-owned stores) lost considerable revenue, and wasted valuable resources planning those events.”
Moore didn’t stop there.
“While these circumstances would be disturbing under any circumstances, it is particularly concerning it was created by Mr. Johnson and NAB2, an organization whose expressed mission is to support and uplift Black-owned bookstores.”
Moore learned of the cancellation months ago but made the post earlier this week after customers began asking him if and when Kaepernick was coming to Philly.
NAB2 did not respond to requests for an interview.
The West Coast nonprofit said in a social media post that it “is deeply saddened by Uncle Bobbie’s assertions that the organization engaged in ‘harmful business practices’ that undermine Black-owned bookstores.”
“NAB2 is honored to be partnering with 17 Black owned book stores on Kaepernick’s tour,” the post said.
“True to our mission, it includes many smaller bookstores that have historically been overlooked and excluded from similar events. Further, NAB2 did not ask or advocate that Uncle Bobbie’s, or any other Black-owned bookstore be excluded from Colin Kaepernick’s book tour or prevented from benefiting from it.”
In the meantime, Kaepernick’s signed memoir is available for sale at Uncle Bobbie’s. Whether the book tour will make a stop in the city is still unknown.
Free Library Foundation president Monique Moore Pryor is stepping down to tend to family matters, the foundation announced Thursday.
Her resignation is effective immediately.
“Serving as the president of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation has been one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my professional career,” Moore Pryor said in a statement.
She served as the foundation’s first executive and had been at the helm of the nonprofit fundraising arm of the Free Library since August 2023.
“I want to thank the leadership and staff of the Foundation and the Library for all the vital work we did together,” she said, “and I look forward to seeing all of the fantastic things they will do for Philadelphia in the future.”
When reached for comment, she would not elaborate on her statement.
Former Free Library Foundation board member Antoinette Brock Johnson will lead the foundation until an interim president is identified, board members announced at a staff meeting Thursday.
The foundation will begin the search for a permanent replacement for Moore Pryor following the completion of a new strategic plan in the spring.
In her three-year tenure, Moore Pryor is credited with securing substantial grants, including nearly $750,000 in an unrestricted grant from the Kellogg Foundation to potentially fund resources and programming within the Free Library’s business and information centers.
But Moore Pryor’s time leading the foundation was controversial from the beginning. Her leadership style, staff members said, led to the June 2024 resignation and subsequent firing of the Author Events team that hosted the biggest names in the publishing world, from Toni Morrison to Jennifer Weiner to Malcolm Gladwell, at the Central Library on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The four-person team tendered its collective resignation with four weeks’ notice, saying they disagreed with Moore Pryor’s programming direction and treatment of the staff.
At least 10 other staff members have been fired or quit in the last year.
As a consequence, donors stopped writing checks to the foundation and authors like Weiner vowed they would not return to the Free Library’s stage. The staff departures have left local book communities with a sour taste that still lingers.
Moore Pryor appointed Daniel Blank, who holds a Ph.D. in literature from Princeton University, to lead Author Events. Under Blank and Moore Pryor’s leadership, the foundation instituted a $5 admission charge for all events — previously, most events were free to attend, and for others, entry was the cost of a book. The move was criticized by one author for creating “an unnecessary barrier to entry for one of the library’s most popular and influential programs.”
Corporate sponsors FanDuel and Comcast began sponsoring Author Events. And heavy-hitting authors including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Anthony Fauci, and Maria Shriver participated and took part in conversation with local moderators, just as before.
Although separate entities, the Free Library and the Free Library Foundation used to operate as one, commingling money and resources. Moore Pryor’s position was created with an intent to separate the foundation and library funds.
She was named president in 2024.
During Moore Pryor’s time with the foundation, the Free Library has opened the bulk of its branches on Saturdays and renovated several buildings. She is also credited with diversifying the foundation’s donor base and revenue sources.
In 2023, she launched the community impact awards that recognize the work of local leaders and organizations who have had a positive impact on the city’s literacy and education.
“We want to thank Monique for her partnership and wish her the best as she begins her next chapter,” Jeffrey Benoliel, chairman of the Free Library Foundation Board, said in the statement. “We are excited about building on the progress of the last few years and will begin to search for a new president as the work continues on the strategic plan that will guide the library and foundation going forward.”
Staff writer Nate File contributed to this article.
