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(01/23/19 6:38am)
Barry Grossbach likens Philadelphia today to the “wild, wild west.” A lot has changed since he moved in 1970 to Spruce Hill, a neighborhood of 19th–century mansions just west of Penn’s campus.
(09/26/18 12:00pm)
When you write about food, you write about people. You write about people’s insecurities, their hopes, their desires. And you write about money.
(09/25/18 12:00pm)
We haven't been in Commons since our freshman spring. Back then, our palates couldn't distinguish between the spongy earth of a cafeteria veggie burger and Trader Joe's tofu marinade.
(04/25/18 1:45am)
“I really like to take care of people,” states Nayab Khan (C ’18) as she prepares tea in her studio apartment on the 21st floor of Rodin. The tea she makes for herself is special—a box of pre–packaged powdered chai that she brought back to the US from Pakistan. She empties a packet of the already–sweetened mix into a mug of milk and continues to bustle around, apologizing for her reluctance to settle.
(04/11/18 1:00pm)
“I bought a hamburger, a lousy round hamburger about this size. For nine dollars.” Linda Harris makes a tiny circle with her hands. She emphasizes, “It looked like a McDonald’s hamburger.”
(11/29/17 6:08am)
When Aiden Castellanos–Pedroza (C ‘19) searched for colleges, he looked for three qualities: a robust financial aid program, a strong Psychology department, and the capacity to accommodate queer and trans students. Aiden’s college application process began like so many others do—with a Google search. One school consistently topped the results: Penn.
(10/25/17 1:41am)
Engraved in the concrete front step of D’Jakarta Cafe is a quickly drawn single rose. Perhaps a vestige of the building’s past residents, the homemade emblem serves well to welcome visitors to this very homelike Indonesian BYO in South Philly. Inside, staff members crowd around the front counter conversing and laughing—but nevertheless were immediately available to seat and welcome us and ask if it was our first time dining with them. The walls are full of white–framed photographs, and the light wood floors emphasize the airiness of the space. Though the restaurant is by no means large, the tasteful decor creates a clean and uncluttered atmosphere.
(04/25/17 5:11am)
In something of an apt conclusion, Alex Fisher (C’19) and Abby McGuckin (C’19) finalized the layout of the first edition of their magazine Mugshot and sent it off to the printer at 4 a.m. in the basement of Van Pelt, drinking coffee from Mark’s Café. Mugshot, according to Alex (a former Street photographer), is “a free print magazine and online narrative platform” that focuses on coffee and café culture. It’s a publication that looks at coffee as a catalyst for conversation, as a means of bringing people together.
(04/18/17 4:48am)
A misshapen, angular structure rises out of the Schuylkill outside of Bartram’s Garden like a type of camouflaged sea monster. It contains a rainwater collection system, solar panels, floating gardens around its perimeter and a beehive. WetLand is both a houseboat and artwork that looks to ask questions of the future: What will housing look like as Earth’s climate continues to change? How can we change our ways of life to be more sustainable? WetLand was brought to Bartram’s Garden through Penn’s Program for Environmental Humanities (PPEH), and the program in general seeks to raise similar questions.
(04/13/17 2:42am)
“I didn’t get here by myself!” Camara Brown half yells and half laughs. “I’m not here by myself,” she affirms. Camara is a poet, an Excelano. She’s juggling multiple graduate school acceptances. She's undeniably impressive, but still humble, aware of how she’s arrived where she is and who’s helped her get here.
(03/28/17 5:21am)
The Penn Mutual tower, designed by the architecture firm Mitchell/Giurgola, overlooks Washington Square Park from Walnut Street. It's a looming structure that is perhaps contradicted by its entryway—the stone façade of the 19th–century Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company Building. Nothing of this building remains besides its façade, and its inclusion in the design of the larger tower illustrates a larger process of the Independence Mall area—its evolution from a historic settlement to a modern metropolitan neighborhood. This contradiction of the past and the contemporary, or perhaps the coexistence of the two, is a characteristic of a much larger movement in architecture, a movement that found a home in the Philadelphia School.
(03/14/17 6:07am)
A dead bird sits in the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia: a massive, glossy–looking dead raven named Grip.
(02/20/17 5:19am)
What is it?This year, the Institute of Contemporary Art has sought to self–reflect – asking questions about its past, what it means in the present and where it might go in the future. On Wednesday, the ICA will welcome a range of voices from various Philadelphia contemporary art spaces for a roundtable discussion to help answer these questions. Participants will discuss the work of their respective organizations and speak to what contemporary art means right now and what its responsibilities are – all while looking at the cultural fabric of Philadelphia in general. Participants will include Vox Populi, Philadelphia Contemporary, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more. Curator Alex Klein and curatorial fellow Gee Wesley will moderate the discussion.Who’s it for?The activist, the visual studies major with an urban education minor, the sophomore with a yearlong internship at a nonprofit in Center City, the “well–meaning” art bro and anyone who just wants to understand the current cultural climate of Philly.
(02/14/17 9:57am)
On the base of I am Beautiful, one of the sixteen sculptures in the Rodin Museum’s new installation, is inscribed the first stanza of Baudelaire’s poem "Beauty":
(01/31/17 5:22am)
The runway is typically a place of a stylized, idealized beauty—cold and exclusive. It’s a place, typically, of thinness and whiteness. That was not the case on January 25th.
(01/24/17 5:55am)
In the waiting room of the Healing Touch Integral Wellness Center in Old City, I hold a pen to a diagram of the human body with the instruction to label the site of my emotional pain. I do, and then I continue to answer the rest of the questions on the medical forms I’m filling out. Am I pleased with the number or intimacy of my personal relationships? Do I consume any caffeinated beverages? What was the last work of art to make me cry? Did crying help?
(01/16/17 6:09pm)
The Architectural Archives comprises the basement level of the Fisher Fine Arts Library. Apart from the central gallery and reading room, it’s a labyrinthine space of project drawings, notebooks and models piled on shelves up to the ceiling. The Archives were established in 1978, when the University acquired Louis Khan’s personal collection of drawings, correspondence and project files (on permanent loan from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission). Now, they serve as an internationally renowned resource for scholars of art and architectural history. Currently, the archives are showing “Back Matter: The Making of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction” until March 3rd.
(11/03/16 8:46am)
The Offering, a monumental painting by Saturino Herrán, confronts you at the entrance of “Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950,” the recently–opened show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Six figures and the boat they inhabit fill the frame; two men stand, another sits and rests, a woman kneels with a child strapped to her back and the last, a child, glowers out of the frame. Undulating mounds of orange marigolds pile around them and engulf them like fire. The central figure, strained under his own burden of the flowers, wears brilliant white and stands crucified by the boat’s oar.
(10/27/16 9:42am)
Of all the design choices to consider when personalizing your home/apartment/space, few have quite the transformative effect that the choice to add a houseplant does. Because plants are not static objects or decorations, though, you must fully understand their needs and requirements before deciding to actually acquire one. Equally important is compatibility—does your personality agree with that of the plant you've just purchased? If not, the consequences might be disastrous. This guide aims to navigate you through your decision to ensure only the best possible results.
(10/13/16 8:08am)
DesignPhiladelphia is a festival celebrating Philadelphia as a place of creative innovation. From October 6 until October 16, it will highlight local artists, architects and other creative professionals in a series of events ranging from lectures, exhibitions, tours and hands–on experiences. The festival, now in its twelfth year, states that its mission “is to support, demonstrate and promote the ability that design has to generate innovation, solve problems, enhance daily life and influence both the perception and economics of the region.” With over 100 events, DesignPhiladelphia will exalt the city’s history of engagement with design and present an image of how it will continue this history into the future. For Penn students, other college students and just residents of Philadelphia in general, the festival is an opportunity to learn something about the construction of the city, to learn about how it breathes and how it grows.