⚖️ Trump targets Philly, other sanctuary cities

🎉 Philly's Iconic African American Street Festival Hits Milestone

Philly is going to be lively with events this June, but an event we’re really looking forward to is the June 8 Odunde Festival on South Street. The largest African-American street festival in the U.S. is celebrating its 50th year. City Cast Philly host Trenae Nuri sits down with organizer Oshunbumi Fernandez-West on how Odunde honors the community’s legacy, and the love and sacrifice her late mother Lois poured into founding the celebration. [📝 Hey Philly, 🎧 City Cast Philly]

⚖️ Trump Admin Cracking Down on Sanctuary Cities

Philly is at risk of losing federal funding after the Trump administration accused the city of purposefully impeding federal immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security released a list targeting 500 jurisdictions in the U.S. While these sites cannot prevent ICE operations, cities like Philly choose not to cooperate or assist in said enforcement. [6ABC, 📝Hey Philly]

🐶 Ruff Relations in Fitler Square Over Paw-ful Poo Problem

We know in Philly you often have to dodge poo thanks to the proliferation of dogs in the city. And while we try to figure out how humans and pups can live harmoniously, dog waste in one neighborhood has led to arguments, an ultrasonic dog deterrent device, an L&I complaint, and a $250,000 defamation lawsuit. [🎧 City Cast Philly, 🔒 The Inquirer]

• Related: If you don’t know where to go when your dog’s gotta go, consider one of these dog parks around the city. [📝 Hey Philly]

Philadelphia’s green spaces are favored sites for hiking, bird watching, and finding reprieve from the hustle and bustle of daily life. But at one forest in Roxborough, nature becomes the center stage for drama and dance.

The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is hosting “TERRA: Bodies & Territories” on its grounds. Philadelphia-based choreographer Silvana Cardell’s latest project works with the forest as a collaborator, exploring the relationship between women and the land while honoring the ancestral protectors who preceded us. This is not new territory for the 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, whose work regularly addresses social issues and breaks norms.

In “TERRA”, Cardell poses the question, “What does it mean to live inside a body that is constantly politicized, controlled, or dismissed?” Through times of war and political turmoil, how are women and the earth united in the shared experience of exploitation, but also in the ability to survive despite these threats?

The non-linear, experimental dance set is carried by an ensemble of women and femme dancers ranging between the ages of seven to 78. Each sequence is intimate and requires the dancers to trust each other and the land, as they raise each other up and climb the trees with great agility. Dancers must be aware of every rock, branch, and creature in the space and adapt movements within each performance. The range of ages represents what has come before and what will come after and allows the performers to weave their memories together to learn from one another.

The score for the play is a collection of audio collected straight from the site, capturing how the sounds of urban life and the environmental sanctuary blend together. For months, composer Devin Arne recorded the ambient sounds heard in the forest to turn into instruments, such as the melodic songbirds, babbling stream, and passing trains’ blaring horns and screeching rails. At one point, Arne even buried the mic into the ground to record stomps. At other times, the incorporated sounds were improvised.