Midweek News, Approved Textiles on Fabric Row, Tuft the World, Uncle Bobbies & Ta-Nehisi Coates at Girard College, Art at the Border Taller Puertorriqueño and more

Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan. And this is the Midweek News

Roberta: On Artblog Radio. Good morning, Ryan. It’s the election day. How are you feeling?

Ryan: How am I feeling about election day? Oh boy. Well, fine and dandy, I guess. No, I think I’ve gotten two or three texts. A couple from Trump saying his workers are feeling exhausted and he needs money right away. So I sent him a thousand dollars. Hopefully that helps.

Roberta: Oh, you’re so kind to those workers. Yes. You know that every penny will go to those workers. You know that…

Ryan: at least 10%.

Roberta: Oh no, that’s too generous. Yeah. Maybe 1%, maybe 0%.

Ryan: Anybody donating on the last day is just…you have to wonder if there are better uses of your money. And you wonder where your money’s going or, or maybe you don’t.

Roberta: Yeah, no. You should wonder where your money’s going. Everybody, wonder where your money’s going. I want to say, I’ve gotten a couple people hitting me up and saying, what do you think? What’s going to happen?

And Steve and I, my husband, we talk about it a lot and I think I’m more positive than he is. I’m optimistic. I don’t believe in the polls. I believe that they’re, the questions are skewed. Maybe I’ve said this before, they’re skewed to get certain answers, and the sample size is certainly not representative.

I don’t know who they’re sampling. I’ve never been sampled. Have you been sampled?

Ryan: A long time ago? When did John Kerry run? I got sampled during that election.

Roberta: Okay. That was a long time ago.

Ryan: 2004

Roberta: maybe?

Ryan: against Bush, Jr.

Roberta: Could be. Yeah, that sounds right.

Ryan: Yeah. So it’s, it’s been 20 years. God, that sounds old.

Roberta: Well, that sounds like you haven’t been the, the typical person to be sampled, and I want to know who they go out and go after, and who answers the phone. Who’s answering the phone these days? I never answer the phone. If I know you, if you’re in my contact list, I answer the phone. If not. Leave me a message. And if you’re a pollster, forget about it.

Ryan: That must have been more in my gullible phase when I would just answer the phone. Not thinking.

Roberta: We were much more innocent back 10 years ago. Don’t you think? Everybody’s become so jaded.

Ryan: We’re recording this on Tuesday and it gets released on Wednesday. So at the end of this podcast, we’ll announce the winner.

Roberta: Hey, why not? Everybody else is going to jump on it tonight.

Ryan: Speaking of optimism, this is actually the first election that my son is going to vote in.

Roberta: Oh, is he voting today or did he?

Ryan: Yeah, we’re going to go together.

Roberta: Great. I love to go to the polls. I read in an NBC news story today that was on my Apple newsfeed, that 75% of Pennsylvania voters vote on the election day, 75%. Doesn’t that strike you as a lot?

Ryan: I don’t have anything to compare it to, so I’m not sure. How do other states compare?

Roberta: Well, that’s true. There was no data on this. This was someone from the Harris campaign was being asked, why the hell are you coming to Pennsylvania so often?

Trump is saying, ‘Pennsylvania his is their Alamo. They’re desperate. They’re coming to Pennsylvania all the time.’ It’s not true, the Harris person said, ‘We come here because we know 75% of Pennsylvanians vote on the day of the election. That is why we’re here.’ I guess you have to push it that hard at the end.

I don’t know how it compares to other states. But I thought that was interesting.

Ryan: Yeah. And that is interesting.

Roberta: My husband says he’s “nauseously optimistic,” which he didn’t make up. He grabbed that from some blogger out there on YouTube who had coined the term. But I think that pretty much sums it up. You know, we’re all just nauseous about the whole election.

Ryan: You know, I think it’s at this point, you’ve cast the die. It’s in the wind. It’s up to the fates and whatnot. The interesting thing is we talk about how much strife there is in our political system and yet it’s really difficult to say (the outcome). It is a pretty tenuous situation. So the election isn’t the end necessarily. Speaking of the George Bush dangling chads, the Supreme Court came in and stepped in where they ought not.

Roberta: Yes, they did. They gave Bush that presidency.

Ryan: I appreciate that. People say that your vote matters, and my answer to that is, maybe take it with a grain of salt. So there’s a lot of things that happen.

Roberta: Democracy matters.

Ryan: Totally agree.

Roberta: If you lose confidence in the vote, you’ve lost democracy. And that is why that has been a weapon of Trump’s. He is chipping away at democracy by stating that our election system is fraudulent and corrupt. And which it is not.

But his saying that turns it into truth and his listeners, those in his bubble, he is making them not believe in democracy. In fact, he was quoted as saying, ‘You won’t need to vote after this.’ Now what are those code words for? Code words for ‘I’m going to be the totalitarian leader and just figure it all out for you and you just be there and be good people and do whatever I tell you to do.’

So, no, you’ve got to vote. Voting is a keystone of democracy. Yes, it’s flawed. The electoral college, I mean, there’s been massive stuff written about how horrible that is. Got to change that. Yeah, it needs to be worked on, but it’s worked. You know, you could quote unquote say it doesn’t work, but it has worked so far. A few near misses.

Ryan: I would say that has also worked for some, for some part of the time. We’ve had disenfranchisement built into the constitution since its birth. So yes. Three-fifths of a man is legal and we have “man” in the sentence. So, ‘work’ is relative, shall we say.

Roberta: Yeah, I hear you. And absolutely, that is appalling. Our whole government is built on racism. And, you know, I don’t want to get into sexism. Yeah, that too.

Ryan: So let’s say it’s a work in progress.

Roberta: Yes. Democracy is always a work in progress, right.

Ryan: It’s a work in progress.

Roberta: It’s a work in progress.

Ryan: Yes.

Roberta: All right, we’ll leave it at that.

Meanwhile, we’re optimistic, we’re “nauseously optimistic” here that we’re going to get through this and be in a better place. Maybe by Friday or Saturday. We don’t know.

Ryan: And we’ll let Artblog be the beacon of hope that you can look forward to and find art in the city that shows you that people are still trying and caring and are interested in its benefit and its benefit to all.

Roberta: Absolutely. Yes. So now I think we’ve electioned enough. Let’s move on. Go out and vote everybody. Don’t forget.

Ryan: Do we want to announce the winner yet, or are we going to wait till the end?

Roberta: I think we’ll wait till the end. Ryan, that’s your call. You’re the statistician among us.

Ryan: Oh man, it’s too close to call.

Roberta: Well, I don’t believe that either. I don’t believe in the polls, so I don’t think it’s going to be that close. But we’ll see. We’ll, you know, if we can get more than 25% of the population to to vote, that would be a first and that would be really good. Yes. It would be good.

Anyway, I do have a couple of art news things, shall I get into those? There is a new sustainable fabric store on Fabric Row, the first new fabric store on Fabric Row in 40 years, I am told. That’s very exciting. They use sustainable fabrics and the ancillary products that you can buy, the ribbons and the buttons and all that kind of stuff. And bravo to them. It’s called Approved Textiles, and they’re having a grand opening November 9th and 10th. Approved Textiles is at 710 South fourth Street. Sustainable artisan made fabrics and aims to revitalize the district’s fabric shopping scene. So how amazing is that? I remember shopping for fabric on Fabric Row back when Libby and I were doing art projects back in the day.

It’s marvelous to go into those fabric shops. They’re just hoots. You know I love this. It’s such a tactile experience. You go in, you can’t keep your hands off the fabrics. On Sunday, November 10th, which is this coming up weekend, they’re having a community open house from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

I’m reading from their press release, the ‘Know Your Colors and Fabrics Workshop’ to learn to distinguish between natural fibers and synthetic fibers. This could be useful. The workshop underscores the store’s commitment to sustainable fashion by giving participants practical fabric knowledge for everyday choices.

So we’ll put the contact information for them in the transcript (see links list above) so you know how to get there. I’m excited for that. And staying in the fabric universe, Tuft the World — which we’ve written about before, and actually there is a podcast that Libby and I did in 2013 with Tuft’s co-founder Tim Eads —  who with his wife, partner Tiernan Alexander, have now created Tuft the World, their tufting carpet/tapestry project out of West Philadelphia. So there was a beautiful story in the Inquirer over the weekend highlighting how wonderful it is that they’re doing.

They started this business during the pandemic, according to this article, and during the pandemic, they were the only ball game. That is, there was no other place to get tufting materials. No one was doing tufting. Since then, a few years have passed, and now everywhere on the internet you can get tufting materials, and it’s undercut their business a little bit. They’re still going strong, and more power to them. I’m thrilled. This is another sort of success story in the art world in Philadelphia. Way to go!

Ryan: Yeah, that sounds great.

Roberta: Yeah. The final thing I wanted to mention is that there was a story also in the Inquirer about Ta-Nehisi Coates, I believe that’s how you say the writer’s name. He was in Philadelphia at Girard College recently talking with Mark Lamont Hill, who is the owner, founder of Uncle Bobbie’s Bookshop.

And this is through a new initiative between Uncle Bobbie’s and WHYY. So they’re bringing some authors to town, and next up — I’m not sure when, because they didn’t put the date in — is Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court Justice. Yes, she’ll be coming. So, wow, this, this is something to watch out for and we’ll keep it on our radar so we can pass it along to you. It’s a book thing. These speakers are people that have written memoirs.

So Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his memoir called The Message. And he spoke about that. And you know, it’s about empowerment of a person and people. And he also tied it into the election and how it’s very important to vote. Super, very important. I thought that was good. A really nice use of Girard College.

If you haven’t been to Girard College, that would be a great time to go is when there’s a program like that. It’s a beautiful old building — buildings — and it’s not open to the public, usually. It’s a school, a very important school, and it goes back to the founding fathers, Steven Girard, who set it up to educate students who didn’t have funds to go to big expensive schools..

I’ve been in there for an art event once or twice, and it’s quite amazing the space. It’s beautiful. Old, beautiful, sort of heroic space.

Ryan: I’m not sure if our listeners are listening to a lot of other podcasts, there’s a podcast that I listen to regularly called Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, and Ta-Nehisi Coates was just recently on there talking about his memoir.

Roberta: Is this a local podcast?

Ryan: No, it’s not, but it’s one that I enjoy because I think the host is really great.

Roberta: Tell us what it is again.

Ryan: Yeah. It’s called Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, and mainly focuses on cinema, film, that type of work. But has also been doing a lot of writers as well of, of late. I guess he’s talked to authors throughout the podcast history. But it’s a really great show. I enjoyed listening to it. And yeah, Ta-Nehisi Coates, obviously he’s from Baltimore and has a great story. And he was just recently talking about Palestine and all of those issues, and it’s a pretty powerful piece.

Roberta: That’s great. And you can find their backlog at their website too, or on Spotify or one of those places.

Ryan: Yeah. Wherever you get your podcast.

Roberta: Well, that’s about all I’ve got in the news, the art news. But there will always be art news folks come back for the art news.

Ryan: Yeah. The Uncle Bobbie’s series. I mean, that’s right at my neighborhood, so I’m super excited to see a Supreme Court justices might be there. That’s pretty exciting.

Roberta: I’m not sure. I mean, this one with Ta-Nahisi Coates was at Girard College. I think they’re not going to be in the book store. I don’t think it’s going to be at Uncle Bobbie’s. She would bring in quite a crowd.

Ryan: I would think so.

Roberta: Intimate. Yeah.

Ryan: Yeah. We only have seating for 16. The other 500 are going to have to sit outside.

Roberta: And watch On the Jumbo-Tron.

Ryan: And there’s a nice little square right there that I wish they would make something with.

Roberta:  I agree. There is a very nice square there. And is that where the like Germantown city hall is? Is there a Germantown Historic City Hall? Because I think Germantown was a separate little town at one time, wasn’t it?

Ryan: Yeah, it’s where they used to send the presidents whenever there was scarlet fever or something that was going in the water, that kind of thing.

Roberta: Higher ground.

Ryan: It’s the summer vacation, higher ground and away from the city folk.

Roberta: Away from the rivers. Ryan, what do you have this morning?

Ryan: Okay, so my events, we’ll keep them to three. Coming up is November 8th. Well, I have two events that are going to be on November 8th.

That’s this Friday. The first one is a conversation between Michelle Angela Ortiz, who has been well received on Artblog, big friends, and Dr. Veronica Montes. They’re talking about immigration, they’re talking about the border, they’re talking about art, and it’s a conversation. It’s at Taller Puertorriqueño, that is from 6 to 8:00 PM November 8th. Taller Puertorriqueño is 2600 North 5^th st if you haven’t been there. They come up a lot for me on different events. They have a lot of good art. They have a lot of good conversations. They’re a good program to support. They have something.

Roberta: They have a good bookstore.

Ryan: They have a great bookstore. Take a look at that. So I mentioned that, let’s see, the last time I was polled was 20 years ago, so I’m feeling a little bit older. But there’s a show coming up also on Friday, November 8^th, it’s called 20 Dyke Artists Over 40 years Old, which looks like a lot of fun show, particularly it’s a dyke house.

It’s Friday, November 8th. From 6 to 8:00 PM. The address is 709 North 40th Street. That looks like a lot of fun. Show. Take a look at that. It’s going to cover a lot of different things, a lot of different artists and avenues and perspectives.

Roberta: And wait, is this visual art or is it theater? I’m a little unsure.

Ryan: I think it’s going to cover the gamut. But I think it’s primarily going to be — it’s up for a while, through December 29th — so it’s going to be more of a gallery presentation.

Roberta: Okay.

Ryan: November 8th is the opening slash premiere of the show. But yeah, it’s going to run through the end of the year.

Roberta: Okay. Cool.

Ryan: So you do have time to see it. It’s just the opening coming up this Friday. Which are always tons of fun.

And then the last one I wanted to mention, and there’s actually a lot of shows that I wanted to mention, but I do try to keep it to three. So this podcast doesn’t go on for. 20 minutes just by myself. This is what Artblog Connect is for because there’s all, all of our, the shows that we know about, we, we try to get them up there so everybody can be on the same page and know what’s going on and not doom scroll Instagram to find what’s going on.

Beyond the Page – Lyrics and Line breaks. That’s at H and H Books. That’s November 13th, so that’s next week, but it’s going to be between our podcast. So I wanted to mention that one. H and H is over in the Kensington area and wanted to throw something out in that neighborhood. That address is 2230 Frankfurt Avenue, and that’s November 13th from 6 to 8:00 PM

It is going to be something about the intersection between writing lyrics and music.

Roberta: So it’s talk. People are going to talk.

Ryan: I think so. I think there’s going to be talk since there’s some examples. So it’s going to be combination of conversation and music is my expectation. I’m not sure. But November 13th, you can find out for yourself.

And H and H Books is…we love supporting bookstores. We mentioned Uncle Bobbie’s. It’s a great place. H and H books, support books, support local books. And so that’s coming up November 13th at H and H. So those are my three for the week.

Roberta: I want to say we had a birthday party last Saturday. We missed you all. If you weren’t there, the cake was good. People were in a very optimistic, celebratory mood. That’s always fun to be around. The show still looks great. Everyone come see the ART MKT. It’s up till December 7th at Moore College. You have time to look. You have time to buy. There’s all kinds of, in addition to the beautiful art, there’s wonderful books from Partners and Son and from Ulysses and merch from all of the above.

And we have merch. Artblog has tote bags and T-shirts and a book and a blank book…and stickers, lots of stuff. So it’s good for all different pocket books and just go on over. And we also had a zine making workshop over the weekend. Michelle Harris, who is a co-director of Big Ramp Gallery with Chris Hammes, came in with a rolling silver cart filled to the brim with the most amazing stamps and stamp pads and cut paper and torn paper and things that you could just mess around with. And I don’t know about you, Ryan, but I had the best time messing around. It was just fun. And at the end I made a book, one of those one page books where you fold a sheet of paper in half and then in half again, and then in half again, and then make a little cut at some point, and then you open it a different way and it becomes a book.

An eight page book. It was just great. And Michelle is a lovely person and she’s totally committed to this. And she also has art in the art market. So she and her partner Chris are both in the ART MKT. You can come and see their work. I believe Michelle also has a zine workshop coming up at Head and Hand since you mentioned them above.

I don’t know when it is. (That actually took place Sunday, Nov. 3 at H+H)  Michelle does a really good workshop. She’s very accommodating, and it’s more like a tutorial one-on-one, not her standing in front and saying, now do this. Now do that. It was like, here, let me help you, let me show you. Shout out to Michelle.

Ryan: It was a lot of fun. It was the therapeutic session of just sitting and working with your hands and totally, it was really nice. It was relaxing. Enjoyable. It was great.

Roberta: and at the end, I made something that I’m not unhappy with. I like it, you know what I mean?

Ryan: Yeah. That’s funny. Yeah. The birthday party was a lot of fun. That cake did not last.

Roberta: No, it did not.

Ryan: It was gone really fast.

Roberta: People were hungry for cake. What does that tell you? We ran a selection of videos from our YouTube that were sort of the archive of Artblog going back a bunch of years, and everybody loved it, loved it so much. Yeah, I think we ought to put that on Artblog. People liked it so much.  Maybe the Instagram is the place to put it.

Ryan: Yeah, I’ll do that. That sounds great.

Roberta: Yeah.

Ryan: Yeah, a lot of, a lot of good times, a lot of good conversation. It was nice to see people and, and connect with people that you see online, but never in person.

Roberta: That’s right.

Ryan: Or are, you know, so, but it was a lot of fun. And so the art market continues through December into December, first week of December. And feel free to stop by anytime on Thursdays we’re down there and say hello and we’ll walk you through the gallery. Definitely. Yeah, we look forward to seeing you.

Roberta: Yes. If you want to be interviewed about the state of art in Philadelphia, come on down and talk to us. We have video, audio equipment, and we’re putting together clips that will run on Instagram and on Artblog showing the voice and face of the art community, which is pretty much hidden as we know when it comes to art In Philadelphia, people would rather talk about sports.

Which is wrong, but we’re going to show them that the face of the Philadelphia art and artists is amazing and they ought to pay attention

Ryan: Because we’re paying attention. And I think that’s really great.

Roberta: Yeah. Alright, well, stay optimistic everyone. Stay positive. Keep your friends and family around you. Clasp them to your bosom, as they say. And we’ll see you next time. Thanks for listening.

Ryan: Thanks for listening, everyone. This is Ryan. This has been Artblog’s, Midweek News,

Roberta: And this is Roberta saying bye bye-Bye

Ryan: Bye-Bye.