Essays
1090 results
Page 3
The freedom on the bike, and the freedom in the weeds
Making magic in the ragweed
As a boy, Kile Smith knew there was no freedom like riding your own bike on your own time. But now, as he watches the world go by from his garden, a whole new kingdom opens up.
Essays
5 minute read
Remembering Stan and Jan Berenstain, the Philly artists who created the Berenstain Bears
The makers of America’s favorite bear family
Stanley Melvin Berenstain met Janice Marian Grant when they were both studying art in Philadelphia—ostensibly to join the army, but their career took a very different turn. Emily Zarevich considers.
Essays
3 minute read
As a mom, daughter, and freelancer, I'm good at juggling (figuratively). But can I really catch and let go?
This is not a metaphor
Writer Anndee Hochman is used to toggling through life: her mom, her family, her home, her work. So when life got grim, she decided to try juggling for real. How do you learn to catch and let go?
Essays
5 minute read
Dive into the 2023 Philly Fringe Festival with avant-garde necromancer Sarah Knittel
Philly Fringe 2023: How did we get here?
Sarah Knittel—not a Fringe queen, but certainly a mage or wicked-cool duke—gets us ready for the 2023 fest by sharing her Fringe journey as a self-producing artist.
Essays
8 minute read
Coming of age with Sinéad
We need Sinéad O’Connor’s spirit more than ever
When Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer heard about Sinéad O’Connor’s death this summer, she became her 21-year-old self, sustained against harassment and injustice by a singular voice.
Essays
4 minute read
Prison, hospital, burger joint, cathedral: does art transcend the space it’s in?
Art on the horizon
When art isn’t created for any particular site, how does it relate to the space where it’s exhibited, whether it’s a gallery, a prison, or a house of worship? Treacy Ziegler considers secular art in sacred places.
Essays
5 minute read
No house lasts forever, including our own bodies. We keep moving as long as we can.
Good-enough bones
While Anndee Hochman faces treatment for osteoporosis, she remembers the different homes we live in, from our bones to our houses, and everything we’ll do to keep them standing.
Essays
5 minute read
My therapist broke up with me—and I don’t know how I feel about that.
Trials and terminations
Fredricka R. Maister felt grateful to find a therapist when she needed one most at the height of the pandemic. Their relationship wasn’t perfect, but should it have ended the way it did?
Essays
5 minute read
What grieving the Eagles loss taught me about how to come home
It’s a Philly thing
Heather Joelle Boneparth says the Eagles’s Super Bowl loss felt heavier than it should have: more grief was lurking, but also a new understanding of home, with a Philly flair.
Essays
6 minute read
The heartbreaking luxury of home hospice care
Earthy, real, and worth every moment
Emily B. Schilling cared for her dying mother at home and, about a decade later, she faced a similar goodbye to her husband. Hospice is exhausting and heartbreaking, but she doesn’t regret one moment of it.
Essays
6 minute read