King’s Chester Years

In an excerpt from the bestselling King: A Life, the iconic moral leader attends Chester’s Crozer Theological Seminary, takes part in his first civil rights confrontation (in a Maple Shade, New Jersey bar!) and loses his heart … to a White woman

By Jonathan Eig
Art for Change

The Soundmaker

Penn music technology professor Eugene Lew experiments with electronic music and sound. His latest project: a collaboration with textile weavers.

By Logan Cryer

Why Aren’t Funny Mummers … Funny?

The Comics and Wenches are having fun. The crowd watching them? Not as much. Here, some particularly Philly advice.

By Lauren McCutcheon
Your City Defined

The Mummers Parade

A history lesson, including some scholarly conjecture, about Philadelphia’s New Year’s Day … phenomenon

By J.P. Romney
Guest Commentary

Tales of a Two Street Stomper

A dozen years ago, a South Jersey resident decided to cross the Delaware before dawn every New Year’s Day to join suited-up pals in a Mummers comics club. And she has never looked back

By Anne Johnson

The Last of the Fancies

The Mummers Parade started with Fancy Divisions. Only one such club remains. Their plan to survive: inclusiveness.

By Lauren McCutcheon
Listen

Ali Velshi Banned Book Club on The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The MSNBC host and Citizen board member interviews Stephen Chobsky, whose classic The Perks of Being a Wallflower has literally stopped suicides

By Ali Velshi
The Citizen Recommends

“Talking” To Your Dead Loved Ones

A Rail Park installation allows a grieving local writer to call her deceased parents and convey thoughts that are “carried by the wind.”

By Natalie Pompilio
Art for Change

The Wandering Weaver

Galen Gibson-Cornell tears posters off of city streets, shreds them into thin strips and weaves them back together to create trippy mash-ups that mix brands, colors and patterns from across the world into something entirely his own

By RJ Rushmore
Development … for Good

Built to Heal with Michael Murphy

The renowned architect spoke for a large Citizen crowd about why all people deserve good design — and how he intends to bring it to them

By Lauren McCutcheon