Essays
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Page 5

Legendary DJ Jerry Blavat spun a whole new world for Philly teens in the 1960s
Live from Wagner’s Ballroom
Local music icon Jerry Blavat, a South Philly native, passed away on January 20, 2023. Susan Schaefer remembers how a whole new world opened up when she danced to Blavat’s tunes at Wagner’s Ballroom in the 1960s.

Essays
5 minute read

Voices In Power presents its Poetry Open Mic Experience, featuring Courtney Lynn, Scott Free, and Sunny CeLight
Voices in power and nothing but
At January’s Voices In Power open mic, a monthly celebration of local and national poets in the Fashion District’s REC Philly, hundreds turned up for the show. Chris DeMento was there.
Essays
4 minute read

I love Greta Thunberg — but why is it ok for her to mock guys with small dicks?
Fame is no excuse for body shame
Misogynist influencer Andrew Tate deserved to be burned on Twitter by climate activist Greta Thunberg, but Roz Warren says it's time to stop the body-shaming.
Essays
4 minute read

Spending the winter holidays alone? You’re not the only one.
The joy of going solo
We often make solo holidays sound like a problem to be solved, instead of an opportunity for personal enjoyment, reflection, and renewal free of others’ expectations. Melissa Strong shares her traditions.

Essays
4 minute read

One man, his van, and 18 hours: Journey to an orphanage in Kyiv
“I drove and got them.”
Philly composer and essayist Kile Smith was traveling in Germany when he met an electrician with an extraordinary story in the months following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Essays
6 minute read

It’s no big deal to get glasses or treat anosmia. Why was it so hard to face my hearing loss?
A sound realization
Anndee Hochman had no problem getting help when her sense of smell or her sight suffered. But somehow, addressing her hearing loss felt different.
Essays
5 minute read

I had a life-threatening miscarriage in 1979. Would I have survived the same thing today?
Abortion access saved my life
Fredricka Maister suffered a hemorrhage after she became pregnant in the late 1970s. Abortion access may have saved her life. She worries about the dangers pregnant people face today.

Essays
6 minute read

From Philly to Chile: meeting the pandemic in a whole new hemisphere
How to change the sky
After almost two years of sheltering at home, Anndee Hochman flew to Chile, and experienced a very different response to the pandemic there. What made the difference, and why is it important to witness?
Essays
5 minute read

School reunions in a pandemic make us wonder what could have been, but are we looking in the wrong direction?
The universe inside
A pair of school reunions this year, plus emerging from the shutdowns of the pandemic, restarted Michelle Chikaonda’s habit of wondering who she would be in an alternate universe. But this time, something is different.

Essays
5 minute read

Why a trip to Kentucky’s Creation Museum makes me worry about Pennsylvania’s future
Because the Bible says so
Nowadays, Kentucky’s Creation Museum is starting to feel awfully familiar to the Christian battleground looming in Pennsylvania, thanks to far-right politicians like Doug Mastriano. Rob Laymon considers.

Essays
5 minute read