32AA, 24″ waist, 42″ hips – Chase spared no details in telling the hilarious, raucous story of her nighttime job at a topless bar. The whole crowd was howling with laughter, as she went on. My favorite quote was probably: “I wore glasses but I took them off, because I did not want to see them suckers looking at me!” Really, to get the full effect you have to watch the video, I can’t do it justice.

Kendra is sillier than putty, and we love her for it. Apparently our judges did too, because amongst the many amazing stories told at our StorySlam she was the winner. Her authentic quirky storytelling style gave her tons of stage presence. Watch her tell her story of songwriting fame – a perfect topic for our monthly theme of “Showing Off.”

Ryan Brandenberg is a photojournalist living in West Philadelphia. He has a degree in photojournalism from the University of Pittsburgh and a degree in documentary photography from Temple University.
Ryan feels that photography captures situations that might otherwise be difficult to access; he likes the immediacy of it and feels it’s the easiest way to interact with the world around him and preserve a situation.

Ryan has produced a book that brings together text and images he took of those people most adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina, those in the 9th Ward.

Pedro Ospina opening art supplies for the children.

It is a rare moment when an entire class of five-year olds looks up and listens with intent, awed expressions. This was the scene outside of the Welcome House this morning as artists Betsy Casanas and Pedro Ospina began to explain their project to the children of CHAD, the Charter School for Architecture and Design. It’s no surprise that the children were so enraptured. They will be creating the art alongside the artists. The plan is to create art that reflects the people of Love Park through multimedia installations using sculpture, drawing, and text.

Its only day three of the Welcome House, and the evolution is already beginning. Its hard to imagine that just yesterday the house was an interpretive dance studio for Nicole Bindler & Liza Clark, who spent the day moving in reaction to what they saw and felt. Even before that, the inside of the cube was covered with transparent velum sheets which artist Anna Moblard Meier divided into squares, filling each one with a different portrait of the people and things she saw in the park. Today the evolution continues, bringing in more people to interact with the art, and transforming Love Park.
Make sure to take a look at the Welcome House each day, and become a part of the transformation.

The Welcome House on Tuesday October 6th

For some of us, “extreme walking” is going ten blocks in the city without a cup of coffee. For others like Todd Carmichael, it’s walking across Antarctica. Impressed? So were we, and so was the Philadelphia Inquirer. Just yesterday they wrote a brief story about his spectacular feats.

It seems that most people know Todd Carmichael as the founder of La Colombe Coffee, a renowned coffee shop and coffee supplier based in Philadelphia; but to us, he is a man of extremes. When he’s not working on his successful business, he can be found trekking across the globe in attempts to conquer ‘the last of the geographical challenges.’

Those of us who want to know a little more about the man behind the mission are in luck. Todd is giving a presentation all about his adventures on Friday, November 6th at the Painted Bride as part of our very own First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art. His stories reflect over a decade of self-sufficient travel and a passion for social and ecological causes.

Or, if you are like some of us less adventurous types who debate the pros and cons of getting up off the couch for some Ben and Jerrys (pro: ice cream, con: getting up,) you can read the article online. Just click here.

If you stroll through Love Park this Sunday and find yourself stumbling upon
a giant glass box with an artist inside, don’t be alarmed. (The artists are
not trapped, and they can breathe.) This is actually an
extraordinary art exhibition, presented by First Person Arts in
collaboration with InLiquid and conceived and curated with Marianne
Bernstein.

The concept goes beyond the idea of a simple exhibition.  It is a residence
for artists by day and an installation by night.. The Welcome House is also
a truly interactive project, allowing artists and the public to connect
through art. To get a better sense of the concept behind the project I
interviewed Vicki Solot, founder and executive director of First Person
Arts.

To understand the exhibit you must first know a little bit about First
Person Arts. “Part of our mission statement is to transform the drama of
life into art.  That ranges from peoples’ every day experiences to life’s
historic events,” says Vicki. “So here [at the Welcome House] artists are
going to be transforming the interactions of life in a public park into
artwork. I see the Welcome House as a public engagement project that is
designed to give artists and the public a way to engage directly in a making
art.”

Every day for ten days a different artist will be living and working in the
Welcome House, engaging the public in their artwork. The public’s
interactions with the artist will define the work they create. There is
something for everyone here: a private DJ, a woman who is knitting herself
into a cocoon, and silkscreen silhouettes of the crowd.  Folks can bring their
favorite objects to the cube to be drawn, (and get to keep a copy of the
drawing!) To top it off, during the whole process, a group of filmmakers
will be creating videos of the art and interactions, which will be projected
onto the Welcome House at night.

For more details, make sure to take a look at the list of artists on the
First Person Arts webpage.

Although the Welcome House itself is new, for the past three years First
Person Arts has been creating public engagement projects to kick off the
annual First Person Festival. Two years ago they created a “story tour,”
using a van to travel throughout the city collecting people’s stories. Last

year they created a complaint choir of seventy community members, who sang
Philadelphians’ complaints throughout the city. These projects have been tremendously
successful in engaging everyday people in making first person art.

The concept of a house was particularly relevant this year. “In light of the
housing crisis we were especially interested in something that would tie
into the idea of shelter and home and homelessness. We wanted something that
would resonate with the times,” said Vicki Solot. In many ways the Welcome
House turned out to be a much more joyous celebration of the idea of ‘home.’
“It says something about how we create a sense of home wherever we are.”
It really opens up a space for individuals to become a part of the art, and to
analyze how we interact with each other to create a sense of home.

Details:
The exhibit runs for ten days (October 4th ­ 13th) in Love Park. After that, the art
that is created there will be exhibited in the Painted Bride Gallery, 230 Vine Street,
starting on the first day of the First Person Festival (which is November 3rd in case
you forgot.)

In a nutshell:
This is something you won’t want to miss. It’s a chance to be a part of the life of the city,
its art and its people. See you there!

Tootsie Pops. Tootsie Rolls. Jolly Ranchers. Razzles. You name it. As a kid, I found nothing more exhilarating than staring at shelves of penny candy at my local sweets shop. Generally, I’m glad that most things from my childhood have gone out of style, like 80’s hair and bands like “WHAM!,” but penny candy is the clear exception. Maybe that’s why Andrew’s story in the August StorySlam was such a success. Listening to him brought me back to a time in my life when I would have traded my little sister for some Sour Patch Kids. His story maps out the highs and lows faced by a little kid with a plan and a penchant for candy. It’s no wonder he was the audience favorite for the theme “High Point” in the August StorySlam. Take a look.

Kylin cast her spell over the judges at this month’s StorySlam with a heartwarming and hilarious story of true love, magic and a mad dash to the Ben Franklin Bridge. Proving that love and magic are more or less the same thing, Kylin took home the coveted Golden Ticket and will return with a new bag of tricks in November.

And don’t forget to come to our next StorySlam in September!

First Person StorySlam
Theme: Foreign Territory
When: September 22, doors at 7:30PM, Slam starts at 8:30PM
Where: L’Etage, 6th and Bainbridge
How much: $8, Buy a Six Pack of tickets here! (Or become an FPA member and get free tix!)

Check out this New York Times article published this morning about storytelling–everyone’s doing it!  If you haven’t come to a First Person StorySlam before, make sure you get to our next one:

Theme:  High Point

Where:  L’Etage, 6th & Bainbridge

When:  Tuesday, August 25th.  Doors at 7:30, Slam at 8:30 (come early, we tend to SELL OUT)

Cost:  $8, $4 well drinks all night

Here’s a video of one of our stellar Slam Storytellers: