[Untitled] Divine Loraine Hotel
Originally posted by Christopher Adair
This is an image I took last May while walking down to Center City. It is the Divine Lorraine Hotel that is situated on Broad and Fairmount Ave.
Earth Curtain
Originally posted by Morgan Gilbreath
I created this art piece by hand-embroidering an old curtain and installing it in the window of a burnt down, abandoned house in North Philadelphia. I wanted to draw attention to the beauty and inspiration that can come from urban decay, as well as issues of home, housing, and diversity.
[Untitled] Phila. Electric Plant
Originally posted by Hunter Johnson
HDR imagery from the abandoned Philadelphia Electric Plant on the Delaware front.
[Untilted] City Scapes
Originally Posted by Arlene Brunkhurst
Chills and chatter
and feet breaking the surface
Philadelphia calls my name
shy as I to her cold arms
I cannot keep my feet from treading her gridded and garbaged streets
winter air welcomes my steady entry into a late afternoon sunset
stairs I climb and repeat as I watch many snap photos with raised arms
And this Philadelphia, so far removed from
love(less) parks and speedy cars
dollar bills and jars of ale
here,
black coats and shiny badges lurk the streets
and we find relief in open door communities
but, don’t you know?
we are bleeding
we are all BLEEDING
the same colors
Deep stares and hyper curious eyesPenetrate my skin as I hurriedly jog past
and your braids and berets, they jingle
little footsteps imitate my own
the letters of your name
emerge as a foreign language on my breath
(and I wonder if it shows)
—but she stands tall and light, away from the scene as if not knowing
which step to take
as if she’s never taken one before
you’re in my neighborhood
(we’re a part of the same breath)
i’m in your neighborhood
standing )( apart
one day you will be grown, and torn
in more directions than
just two
Philadelphia
what lies behind your bars?
and all the windows of the rich buildings lining your skies?
and what of all that litters your streets?
do you feel the angst of all those walking through your alleys?
do you cry for us?
do you sing with us??
Philadelphia
I am a paradox
full of love and devoid of commitment
Laying bare all I lack
in the faces of the homeless and the egos of the rich
in the deepening chasm of my streets divided by pigments of the skin
I am LOVE and
those who love me are determined to hatred
I am FREEDOM and those who know me remain chained
Philadelphia.
Where are you headed?
Bottle-y functions
Originally posted by Megan Carter
South Street Spectacle
It’s not such an ordinary thing
To see abandoned bottles and think
ART! Or maybe it is.
Trash is treasure for anyone
You just need the right motivation
And a new perspective
Nothing is impossible
Passion is desirable
What could be a landfill
Can turn into a spectacle.
-Megan Carter
Collision
Originally posted by Ian Brunell
While the collision of grit and beauty manifests itself throughout Philadelphia’s abandoned buildings and street art, I believe it is more noticeable in the people of the city.
Grit & Beauty Essay
riginally written by Seemal Awan
You have the Biology books sprawled over your desk, trying to find some sort of a connection
between those biology books and the world you are sitting in. You hear the sirens getting louder outside
and you move your curtains to watch the ambulance and the two police cars pass the streets that you
live on. Your curtain falls back comfortably into place, as if nothing has changed. Nothing in your life
has changed, your biology books remain positioned on your desk. You wonder about the ambulance for
a split second and realize that this ambulance is nothing new, there will be more by the time you are
through with the chapter.
You finish a chapter and realize that this night will not be a productive one unless you convince
yourself to walk to 7-eleven for a cup of coffee. The journey to 7-eleven starts as an unremarkable on,
one that you will forget or clump together with all the other walks to 7-eleven in hopes of a remedy of
staying awake.
Your walk begins with you testing yourself with the information you just learned in the chapter.
You turn the corner and walk into the full blown situation that apparently caused the ambulance and
police cars to rush over. You see a middle aged woman being held by an older member of the family,
crying and saying this is not happening. You stand at the corner of the street paralyzed from the waist
down; all you can feel is raw emotion slipping through your body, unable to transform that feeling into
movement. You grip the building that you are stuck next to because you don’t realize that the stories
are true until you see it with your own eyes. You watch the middle aged woman and for just a little more
than a second she glances over at you, angry. Those eyes tell you the story of pain that is undeniably
reminiscent of Philly. You look down at the ground because the pain transcends from her eyes to your
heart. You turn around to walk back to your apartment without a coffee in your hand and for some
reason you find staying awake a lot easier. The chapter of biology left for the night seems like a smaller
mountain to climb than it did before and you are through with the chapter in record time.
You sit there and think about the happenings of the night. You push your curtain to the side a
little to see what is going on and see that the people have all pretty much disappeared. At some point
during the night, you realize this is the reason you are Philly studying biology. You want to practice
medicine, right here, in all the sadness to bring about some sort of happiness, some sort of a hope to the
people of Philly.
Somewhere along the sadness and pain outside the comfort of your apartment, you realize
that the beauty of Philly does not lay in its littered streets, its polluted walkways, or in its broken down
buildings. And the beauty of Philly does not lay in the police cars with their sirens always on or the
ambulances always rushing toward some emergency. For me, the beauty of Philly lies in its people, the
people who wish to bring about change in a city where sadness is so commonplace. In a city that is so
degraded, the people are actually who make this city so remarkably beautiful.
