Standing in a cleared out square amongst a sea of bookshelves at Port Richmond Books, Kensington native and history buff Kenneth Milano uses his old-school wooden pointer and overhead projector to highlight the route of the Nativists who rampaged the streets of today’s Fishtown in 1844…. Read More

Little Berlin, a Kensington collective art space and gallery, is currently in the midst of its June exhibit, “Gone Shadowing.” The focus, according to curator Alex Walcroft, of the exhibit is on performance art, photography, paintings and poetry that  observes “immediate surroundings without giving into the notion of familiarity as an endpoint.” In other words, “Gone Shadowing” intends to cast new light on the ordinary…. Read More

On a humid Tuesday afternoon at the intersection of Kensington Avenue and Hagart Street in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, residents and passersby stopped by the Cast Your Cares Ministry to receive an assembly of midday snacks such as canned fruit, Tastykakes and ice water…. Read More

Philadelphia is home to more than 40,000 vacant lots across the city, many of which are found in Kensington. This summer, the program “Lots of Power” will give high school students the opportunity to team up with seasoned professionals to create beauty from the overgrown lots of Kensington…. Read More

For many, the battered streets beneath the El along Kensington Avenue serve as an eyesore, but for some, it is an outlet of expression.
Photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge, 31, has turned the littered sidewalks of Kensington into a narrative of the neighborhood’s struggle
with drugs and addiction through his blog Kensington Blues. By using photographs, audio recordings and journal entries, Stockbridge utilizes several media platforms to show the lives of those living along Kensington Avenue, better known to them as “the Ave.”
Stockbridge started Kensington Blues in 2008 after spending years photographing the interior of abandoned houses around Philadelphia. Through his work within blighted neighborhoods he became more familiar with those who occupied their streets and narrowed his focus to document their stories.

Local pizza aficionado Brian Dwyer, owner of Pizza Brain- the world’s first museum and restaurant dedicated to the slice- values human interaction. Pizza is synonymous with party, according to him, and parties don’t occur online. “I think it’s healthier when people interact with other people,” he said, before admitting “it’s funny now because I use the Internet so much for my business.”

By Internet, Dwyer means that Pizza Brain, which opened nine months ago, inhabits a growing social media presence among independent restaurants and food vendors in Philadelphia…. Read More

The Fifth Street neighborhood block between Cecil B. Moore Avenue and Montgomery and Germantown Avenues will soon be the home of the Saint Benjamin Brewing Co.

Construction is under way for this brewery that will also have a restaurant and pub attached…. Read More

A fax machine printed out a lunch order at George’s Pizza, located at Second Street and Girard Avenue in South Kensington. Employees did not take the order over the phone—they hadn’t even spoken to the customer.

Internet resources ranging from Facebook and Twitter to GrubHub and Yelp and even Lucky Ant are playing a role in how South Kensington businesses bring in more customers and develop…. Read More

Once nicknamed “the workshop of the world,” Kensington was a manufacturing district with business opportunity and thousands of jobs. As the factories closed, the jobs and residents decreased. Vacant homes began to line many of the streets, attracting poverty and crime with the diminishing neighborhood value…. Read More

Philadelphia is a city that is beleaguered with privately owned structures that have been either abandoned by its owners or are left to rot until property values are high enough to make a profit. These buildings have become eyesores in communities and facilitators of crime…. Read More