In anticipation of our April 11th Edible World event, Sunday Supper and Family Lore, the First Person Blog will feature the stories and family recipes of Philly food personalities. From now till the event, look out for recipes from the likes of chefs, writers and people who just love eating, making and talking about food and family.


Today we are featuring Helen Horstmann of Philly Foodie. On Wednesday, look for Philly food character Ed Tettemer and his recipe for Beach Bean Soup.


Want to be like our Philly Foodies? Share a family recipe at our Edible World event! Send your recipe, story and a photo to Karina by April 2nd! Reserve your seat at the event here.

My mother is a well-known cheater. She is the person with her thumb on the egg in the egg and spoon race, the one stealing from the bank when you play Monopoly, the one who “accidentally” whacks you with a wiimote. She freely changes the rules of a game to suit her needs, and laughs as she does it. So, it should hardly be a shock that she doesn’t exactly play fair when it comes to food.


Specifically, she believes it is her right to consume only what she finds tastiest. The person eating all the berries off the fruit platter? The one leaving behind the rind on the brie? The consumer of chicken skin, muffin tops, and the ice cream on an a la mode? All my mother.


One of the delights of my childhood was a weekly angel food cake. If you have not had the regular pleasure of consuming fresh angel food cakes, the best part is the crust on top. The fluffy center clings to the softly crunchy caramelized exterior. It’s cool and sweet and light on the tongue, and you can eat it every week and never get sick of it. Or, at least, I assume you can… because my mother always did.


It’s a wonderful dish when the second best is consumed with as much relish as the choice bits. But my own crusts taste all the sweeter for knowing that it’s my right to pull them off and gobble them up, without any cares for fairness or making things even.


Once you get going, you don’t want to pause during this recipe, so prep everything ahead of time. Preheat the oven to 350. The cake needs to cool upside-down, so make sure you have a bottle the tube pan will fit on, or you can balance the pan on 4 glasses. Wipe down your egg-beating bowl and beaters with white vinegar to remove any trace amounts of grease; the whites won’t whip if there’s fat around. You also don’t want to overbeat or make your egg whites too stiff; you should be able to pour the final mixture, not need to scoop it.


Angel Food Cake (from the Joy of Cooking)


* 1 1/2 cups egg whites (approximately 12 large eggs)
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 cup cake flour (no, not all-purpose flour)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 tsp vanilla extract (if you have nice stuff, use it now)
* 1 tsp cream of tartar
* 1 tbsp water
* 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice


Measure out 3/4 cup of sugar into a bowl. In a second bowl, put the flour, another 3/4 cup sugar, and sift it 3 times. Then get cracking, and separate those eggs! Whites go into a large mixing bowl; reserve the yolks for something else.


Put the cream of tartar, vanilla extract, water and lemon juice into the mixing bowl with your egg whites. Mix for one minute on low to incorporate the ingredients, then bring the mixer up to medium. Mix for 2-4 minutes, until the egg whites are foamy and about 5 times more voluminous than when you started. Start adding your 3/4 cup of sugar, in tablespoons, over 2-3 minutes. When you’ve finished, the mixture should be glossy and starting to hold peaks.


The rest you have to do by hand. Sift approximately 1/8 of the flour mixture over the whites, and fold until just incorporated. Repeat 7 times, until all the flour mixture is incorporated. Pour into a 10 inch tube pan, and smooth the top.


Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.


Or feel free to make it from a mix; we always did. (But, you know, that was back in the day when the angel food cake mix came in 2 pouches — ooh, complicated!)


Cool upside-down for at least an hour and a half. Steal crusts as desired.


- Helen Horstmann

Heads up… starting this Monday, March 22nd, we’ll be featuring the family recipes of Philly Foodies on the blog. So far our line up includes the Inky’s Rick Nichols, Snackbar chef John Taus, Meal Ticket’s Felicia D’Ambrosio, the Erace Brothers from Green Aisle Grocery, Elizabeth Halen of foodaphilia and Baker E’s, Jessica Rossi from Fries with that Shake, and food personality Ed Tettemer. Plus a few surprises along the way. We’ll be posting them every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from now until our April 11th Edible World: Sunday Supper and Family Lore. Plus the FPA staff will be sharing our family recipes, including some retro cooking, southern fare and the best tabbouleh around.


And the deadline for our Family Recipe Contest has been extended to April 2nd! Details here.


First up? From Philly Foodie, Helen Horstmann’s family angel food cake recipe and a mother who just may be a total cheater.


- Karina

If you’ve been to a Story Slam or two, you’ve seen Kendra Gaeta weaving a tale with the audience in stitches. And if you’re a social media geek (like me) with your ear to the ground, you’ve heard the coming roar of the new marketing campaign for the Ford Fiesta. A renegade marketing campaign across multiple social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, twenty teams in sixteen cities, including two here in Philly, are driving and talking about the Fiesta, including our own Kendra. Follow Kendra as she completes Fiesta missions with Team Philly, be all up in her business on Twitter, and also checkout her Story Slam videos below, including her story for the ’09 Grand Slam!


Also, a small story of my own about the cat picture before we get to the videos.  Of course, we like to put pictures on the blog because you like to look at pictures.  Today I included a picture of a cat, partially because I am clever and I know you constantly check that blog of grammatically incorrect “kittehs” from your iPhone or Blackberry and I really think this might make the First Person Arts blog go viral.  However, there’s a deeper reason.  Mostly I’ve written about professional artists and snagged head shots from their websites plus images of their art.  This wasn’t the case with Kendra and it seemed creepy stalkerish to pull a picture of her from Facebook, so I settled on pulling a picture of her cat, Geno.  (Or what I assume is her cat Geno since in her “Good Intentions” video below she talks about a black and white cat she has named Geno.)  If it’s the wrong cat or I’m still a creepy stalker for all of that, apologies to all offended parties!


The three videos below are from the Story Slams with themes “Good Intentions,” chronicling Kendra’s experience with a dead on pet psychic (we hope kitties Geno and Alice get along one day!), “Showing Off,” where we learn of her short lived music career from open mike nights to one glorious evening opening at the Knitting Factory, and, finally, her story from the 2009 Grand Slam “Letting Go,” which is about a secret and I’ll let you find out for yourself what it is.


- J. Rudy Flesher

I just got back from talking to Bill Tortorelli’s freshman humanities seminar at Temple. The course has been focusing on various models of storytelling – like the travelogues of Marco Polo – and the biases and motivations of each author in creating a first person narrative. Bill wanted to bring the live storytelling experience into his classroom. So, with help from Temple’s GenEd program, he partnered with First Person Arts.


I gave a little spiel on the mission of FPA and our philosophy on the power of storytelling. Then Katonya took the floor and interacted with the students in true Katonya style- frank, funny and totally engaging. She got the students storytelling right away by asking the simple questions, “How are you doing today?” and “What do you think about storytelling?” She shared her principles of storytelling. First and foremost, know yourself. She talked about using the energy from your audience, being an “energy vampire,” which was how one of the students described Katonya herself.


(And Katonya is our guest storyteller at next Tuesday’s StorySlam at L’Etage! Watch her tell a story on the theme of Gifts. Here is video of Katonya using her non-linear narrative style to talk about mortification at last year’s Chicago v. Philly Slam at the Free Library Festival.)


We’ll be returning to Bill’s class on March 29th for the first ever First Person StorySlam at Temple! The theme, chosen today by the class, is Growing Up. Katonya and I (along with another “celebrity”) will be the judges. I’m psyched and while some students were honest about being nervous for the Slam, a lot of them were totally into it. I’m looking forward to some awesome stories.


- Karina

Many of our readers may be familiar with the Philadelphia based Asian Arts Initiative, having attended the Asian American Arts Festival, or one of their workshops, gallery shows, or film screenings. Asian Arts Initiative recently celebrated their relocation to a new facility in Chinatown and expanded their offerings to include an open mic event called Family Style, which is similar in format to our StorySlams. Family Style is a monthly series held through May (every third Friday) inviting extended “family” from all communities and cultures to hit the open mic with poetry, stories and other performance.


Each event is hosted by Michelle Myers and Catzie Vilayphonh of Yellow Rage (warning: this clip contains graphic language), and features a different guest artist and theme. This Friday, March 19th at 7:30 pm join artist Sham-e-Ali al-Jamil at Family Style to celebrate Women’s History Month with the theme Holding Up Half the Sky: A Tribute to Women. Interested participants should contact Michelle[at]yellowrage[dot]com to reserve a spot, and visit the Asian Arts Initiative website for more details on the open mic format and rules.


- Sarah Crawford

Everyone has at least one special family recipe, one that’s been passed down through the generations. The one that reminds you of supper at Grandmom’s or summer picnics with aunts and uncles. Or maybe you created it just this past Thanksgiving and your family went wild for it. It’s the one that comes out flawless each time or it’s the type of recipe that survives despite numerous kitchen catastrophes. Regardless, it’s a recipe that goes deeper than delicious; it contains a story.


For our next Edible World program, we are hosting a family recipe contest! We are very excited to be bringing author Suzan Colón to read from her memoir Cherries in Winter on Sunday, April 11th. Bridget Foy’s is creating a special three-course meal (menu details are here) for the event. Dinner guests can submit family recipes from now till March 26th. Three will be chosen to tell their family story along with Ms. Colón and they will be featured on her blog!


Your story should be a maximum of 250 words. Send recipes to me at kkacala@firstpersonarts.org by March 26th. Buy tickets for the event here.


Also, starting March 29th, look to the First Person blog for family recipes from some of Philly’s best foodies: Snackbar’s John Taus, Meal Ticket’s Felicia D’Ambrosio, Green Aisle’s Erace Brothers, and more!


-Karina

Nick found this interesting compilation of interviews with 82 women working in film and tv about the type of movies they would make with an unlimited budget and the women who have inspired them.


The impetus for the project was Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar nomination and the question, “Why haven’t more women been nominated for Best Director?”. The responses reveal the wide diversity of interests and experiences of these women working in the film and tv industry. I’m curious to see what the filmmakers behind 82Women do next with the project. Ten minutes offers you just a taste of what these 82 women have to say on the topic.


For more info on the project visit www.82women.tumblr.com.


Any female filmmakers out there want to join the discussion? Let us know what you think in the comments section.







- Karina

AND he was the Audience Favorite at Monday’s Slam at World Cafe Live. Congrats Donald!


P.S. Love the prop!

First Personalities is a series on the First Person Arts Blog where we check up on and catch up with past Festival and Salon presenters and participants.

We posted last week about JJ Tiziou’s phenomenal project, How Philly Moves, where dancers – of any style, level of training, age – dance for JJ at special photo shoots. These photos are going to become the basis for a 50,000 square foot mural at the Philadelphia International Airport. Read Part 1 of our interview here.


“Everyone is photogenic.”
Similar to the democratic dance philosophy behind HPM is JJ’s belief that “everyone is photogenic.” As a dance and theater photographer, his subjects often are the people in the spotlight, those who love having their photos taken, but he also shoots a lot of the people behind the scenes or just everyday people at a protest. He doesn’t need to manipulate the scene to make them look beautiful; he sees the beauty that is already there, and knows how to highlight it.


I’ve been photographed by JJ on a couple occasions and can attest, he makes you feel comfortable, even when you have to keep perfectly still while staring into a flashlight for seconds at a time in an otherwise unlit room. (Really. We did this. For a couple hours. For a light-painting series that he was working on.)


That comfort is the basis for our photogenic-ness, that everyone should feel good about being photographed. He writes in his online manifesto, “People are beautiful when they’re finding joy in life, being kind to others, and enjoying themselves. Of course the photo will be stronger if you’ve nailed the lighting, composition, focus etc… but people look beautiful in pictures if they are comfortable and happy, and if you’ve caught them at just the right moment. That’s all there is to it.”


“I know that everyone’s photogenic, but […] I need help in order to keep proving it.”
JJ wants to change the way people think about his work. He wants to grow a community supported model of photography, where friends, fans and colleagues can contribute financially to JJ Tiziou Photography. It’s a different way of thinking about photography, seeing it as a form of public art, art supported in part by everyone who enjoys it.


Financial support from his base will allow JJ to do more of the community-based photography he loves and for which he is known. According to JJ, “If I follow the standard commercial photography models, I end up photographing only the things that the broader market values, and that doesn’t match up with my values. One of my goals is to provide ammunition for positive social change, by creating compelling images of everyday people engaged in creating positive communities through their art and activism, and by sharing them broadly online, to allow them to share their mission.”


You can subscribe and donate monthly or contribute per photo download. It keeps us all involved in the process of JJ’s work and allows JJ to keep taking so many community photos. JJ’s been investing in his communities for years; this is a chance for his communities to invest in him.


Next up for JJ… he’s heading down to North Carolina in April to teach a workshop on Visual Storytelling for Activists at The Stone House. He’s hoping to first head to Florida to document a march organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers – an organization fighting for human rights in the agricultural industry that JJ has been supporting with his work since 2003. (Maybe you can help him get there by chipping in at http://community.jjtiziou.org?)


The HPM shoots just happened this past weekend, and JJ says they were amazing – but people can still sign up to be involved with the future evolution of the project.


-Karina Kacala

Josh Neufeld, comix artist extraordinaire, will be talking about the graphic memoir tonight at Warning: Graphic Content. I’m psyched I get to meet the author of A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge. I read the book prepping for tonight and fell in love with the real-life stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors. In 2008 I visited NOLA and was shocked at both how much the city was thriving but how much work still needed to be accomplished post-Katrina. To visit New Orleans is to love New Orleans and I’ve felt a kinship and empathy towards the city ever since.


Here are the things I might talk to Josh about tonight, if I get the chance.


1) His upcoming collaboration with NPR’s “On the Media” co-host Brooke Gladstone. (Their book is tentatively titled The Influencing Machine and it’ll be a comic book about the media.)
2) His trip down to Philly from Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
3) If he’s still in touch with the people featured in A.D. and what they are up to now.
4) How he thinks the situation in New Orleans has improved since the storm and flooding.
5) Did he feel totally cool when MTV’s “Splash Page” blog called A.D. the best nonfiction comic of 2009?


Ok, maybe I’ll save face and refrain from asking him that last one.


Meet Josh, Jamar and Daniel tonight and ask them your own questions at BMFI.


-Karina Kacala