Despite the chaotic week, Ed Sheeran said his Linc stop was ‘the best show’ he has ever had

Ed Sheeran took the stage in South Philadelphia on Saturday night for the first time since the British singer-songwriter became the unwitting center of international political debate.

“This week has been the worst of my life, and today has been the weirdest,” Sheeran said to the sizable crowd to begin his performance at Lincoln Financial Field.

Rapper Macklemore was fired as the opener of Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” last week after he performed his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University while showing footage of the war in Gaza and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine.”

Macklemore’s dismissal from the tour led to outcry among some, who saw it as the quashing of free speech. Other opening acts subsequently left the tour in protest, including Sheeran’s backing band.

With pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Linc before the show, and the backlash that grew over the week, it seemed the weight of the world was on Sheeran’s shoulders.

He began the show solo, stepping onto an empty stage at 8:14 p.m. and delivered a speech seemingly read off a teleprompter, at one point getting emotional, saying he never wanted to be a political artist. He opened his set addressing the controversy.

“I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I am so, so sorry,” he told the crowd.

He directly addressed the war in Gaza saying, “What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific, and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and the loss of civilians’ lives. Children’s lives.”

He also said that his show had to be altered because of the events of the previous week — including his stage setup and backing band. Later in the three-hour set, he admitted that Macklemore’s exit from the tour led to a lost connection with longtime friends, many of whom urged him to cancel his tour. The new band and the broader audience on Saturday encouraged him to go on, he said.

Throughout the night, the sympathetic audience cheered and shouted “We love you, Ed” when Sheeran reaffirmed his intention to make music that unifies fans of differing creeds and political views. The crowd ranged from young children to gray-haired fans, each appearing to have their own distinct relationship to the songs sprawled across Sheeran’s catalog.

Sheeran may not consider himself a political artist, but the blowback from last week’s events largely altered his stage show.

“I hope you enjoyed my supporting acts,” he jokingly said to the amused audience. Of course, there were no supporting acts after the likes of Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham, and his backing band, Beoga, quit in solidarity with Macklemore.

Sheeran said that he removed a secondary stage that had been a part of his other concert stops, fearing retribution from the audience. “I took the B stage out because I was afraid of what would happen if I stood in the middle, and I will admit that,” he said.

But that change was unwarranted in South Philadelphia, as the outside pressures had little effect on the crowd, who danced in the aisles and aimed their cell phone cameras at Sheeran throughout the night.

He also introduced his new backup band, consisting of a drummer, guitarist, bass player, keyboardist, and violinist, who came on board on three days’ notice, knowing “the world may hate them” for performing along his side. The band impressed with its sharp performances of “Galway Girl” and “Nancy Mulligan.”

In a show that was marked by inconsistency, the musical star glided through his catalog of hits with an acoustic guitar and a series of loop pedals at his feet. As he sang hits like “The A Team” and “Castle on the Hill,” Sheeran layered his vocals and percussions, creating a live arrangement of synchronized sounds and stacked melodies.

The experience, with pyrotechnics and vibrant graphics displayed on a background screen, was akin to attending what felt like an open-air studio session. Though the clashing of unregulated sounds on songs like “Take It Back” occasionally drowned out his lyrics.

Sheeran’s pensive demeanor at the top of the show soon grew to comfort, as he rattled off jokes and peppered the crowd with stories linked to his songs.

Sheeran seamlessly transitioned from jubilant, up-tempo records like “Sapphire” and “Galway Girl” to emotional tracks such as “Eyes Closed.”

But the stories Sheeran shared of his first cheesesteak experience in Philadelphia back in 2012 and the past heartaches that led to songs like “Old Phone” often spiraled into disconnected tangents that pulled audiences out of an already lengthy concert experience.

“This is where we can congregate, and we all have differing opinions, but then we all come together for one night and agree on the same thing. And I think it’s a wonderful thing,” he said.

After what started as a week like no other Sheeran has faced in his music career, he said Saturday was “the best show [I’ve] ever had.”

Elkins Park’s Lynnewood Hall to open to the public for the first time in 84 years

Lynnewood Hall, the historic Elkins Park mansion constructed during the Gilded Age, is opening to the public for the first time in 84 years.

Starting Friday, the 100,000-square-foot home will host “Fleurs de Villes: The Gilded Age,” a 10-day floral exhibition honoring the history of the period and the characters of the hit HBO series, The Gilded Age.

“It’s kind of a rebirth of an icon,” said Edward Thome, executive director of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, which owns and operates the property. “There’s been so much anticipation and so many years closed off.”

The exhibition will have 15 life-size mannequins made by local floral designers, using thousands of flowers. The displays will capture the essence of the scenes and characters from The Gilded Age, including Peggy Scott, Larry Russell, Bertha Russell, and Agnes van Rhijn.

Guests can observe live floral demonstrations, vote on their favorite floral mannequins, and take a tour that explores the site’s history and ongoing restoration.

The exhibition, which runs through Oct. 4, is a collaboration between the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation Inc. and Fleurs de Villes, the Vancouver-based entertainment company that has organized more than 170 flower shows globally.

Karen Marshall, cofounder of Fleurs de Villes, said she was intrigued by the architectural wonder and stories linked to the mansion. “It’s something magical,” she said.

She hopes that Fleurs de Villes will not only draw visitors back to the site, but that the exhibition will grow to be an annual revenue generator, furthering the foundation’s preservation of the space.

Nineteenth-century industrialist Peter A.B. Widener first welcomed guests to his 34-acre estate in December 1899. Back then, it was hailed as one of the finest residences in the country.

In the decades since Widener’s death in 1915, the assets inside the home were auctioned off, and the property changed hands until it was left abandoned for three decades. In 2023, nearly 125 years after Lynnewood Hall’s completion, Thome and his partners purchased the site for $9.5 million and have spent “several million” reviving it.

Chief operating officer Angie Van Scyoc said the partnership with Fleurs de Villes was “serendipitous.”

The nonprofit has been working with a landscape architect to explore the possibility of starting a flower show of its own. Less than two weeks before Scyoc was scheduled to fly to a flower show for research purposes, Marshall inquired about bringing Fleurs de Villes to Lynnewood Hall.

This encouraged Thome and Scyoc to “step up” and put a plan in motion.

“It was really just amazing timing,” Scyoc said. “An interesting full-circle moment that we’re grateful for.”

The exhibition, Scyoc said, is part of a larger plan for programming in 2027, which includes opportunities for filmmakers to shoot at the estate. She said her hope is that the exhibition will remind visitors about the “forgotten” site, and show them what ongoing history is being made within its walls.

Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation is at 920 Spring Ave., Elkins Park. The floral exhibition runs Sept. 25-Oct.4, open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Adult tickets are $30.50. lynnewoodhallpreservation.org.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Point Breeze’s Keith Haring mural is designated as a historical place

Keith Haring’s famed 1987 mural We the Youth, the artist’s only collaborative mural that still stands in its original location, is now an officially designated historical place.

At a public meeting on Friday, the Philadelphia Historical Commission voted unanimously to add the Point Breeze mural, on a rowhouse at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, to the city’s Register of Historic Places.

With this designation, the building’s owner, listed as “2147 Ellsworth LLC” in city records, will not be allowed to remove or alter the appearance of the mural without the Historic Commission’s review.

It’s the fifth mural in Philadelphia to be an officially designated and protected landmark, and only the first outdoor mural to be so.

The other designated murals are The Dream Garden inside the Curtis Center, the New Deal-era murals inside the Family Court building, the frescoed ceiling at Old City’s St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, and Iron Plantation Near Southwark inside the Southwark Station Post Office in South Philly.

“To finally see the community here stand for the recognition of this unique piece of collaborative work is particularly meaningful,” Simon Castets, executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, said after the decision, citing Haring’s connection to Philadelphia and the foundation’s mission to preserve the artist’s local works.

Haring, a native of Reading, was one of the defining artists of the 20th century and known for his bold drawings and colorful graffiti-style paintings. He died in 1990, at age 31, due to AIDS-related complications.

In 1987, Haring and a group of 14 Philly and New York students collaborated on We the Youth to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

The mural features vibrant figures dancing across the facade of a three-bedroom rowhouse. In 2013, Mural Arts Philadelphia undertook a massive restoration of the mural, located on a shared wall at 2147 and 2149 Ellsworth Streets.

Friday’s decision comes after months of advocacy from the Haring Foundation, Mural Arts, and the Neighborhood Gardens Trust, which collectively oversee the mural’s upkeep.

The three parties have pushed for the mural’s historical protection because of the mural’s artistic and cultural significance to Point Breeze.

“This is an amazing moment, and I’m so proud of our city,” Mural Arts founder and former CEO Jane Golden said. Ahead of the vote, she said, “I thought, ‘Philly, you have to come through.’ And the city did. It was beautiful. It underscores why public art matters.”

The meeting largely drew support from Point Breeze residents and other community members, including those wearing shirts with Haring’s signature figurines.

However, prior to the vote, attorney Sean Whalen, who represents 2147 Ellsworth LLC, spoke out against the designation, citing the extensive preservation efforts needed to maintain the mural in its current state and location. He said he supported a “methodology that is feasible.” But under the bounds of this designation, these efforts, he said, are not “logistically capable.”

Whalen and Ori Feibush, the property manager at 2147 Ellsworth LLC, pointed to the structural infirmities of the wall on which the mural is placed, saying the mural has delaminated from the underlying salmon brick.

“We are not talking about a wall that is failing. We are talking about a failed wall,” Whalen said.

Feibush shared a video showing the back of the mural that he recorded last week with a scope camera. As a result of a poor “stucco and plaster connection,” he said, there are gaps between the mural and its support wall.

“There is absolutely no portion of the mural that is attached to the plaster in the brick wall. It is 100% freestanding,” said Feibush who, with Whalen, suggested the removal and reinstallation of the mural as the best step forward.

Throughout the hour-and-a-half-long discussion, commissioners Zachary Frankel, Emily Cooperman, Robert Thomas, and others agreed that the damage to the mural and shared party wall is common among decades-old properties and that there are viable options for preservation.

“There are many possibilities,” Cooperman said regarding the next steps in the mural’s preservation.

Current Mural Arts executive director Emily Mello said she and others will work diligently with community partners to ensure this newly designated historical marker and piece of Haring’s legacy remains a “cultural memory” that never fades.

“It may take a lot of resources,” Mello said. But the advocacy of the community members who are most impacted by the mural will anchor this initiative.

“That’s our greatest resource.”

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

A$AP Rocky’s Xfinity Mobile tour stop was a Hollywood-style production.

A$AP Rocky was always primed for stardom.

In his 2011 breakout “Peso,” the Harlem-bred rapper declared his love for Raf Simons and Rick Owens couture, but also flashed a sound that shed the regional barriers that once confined hip-hop artists.

The song’s Southern chopped-n-screwed coda over early cloud rap instrumentals, combined with the lo-fi distortion of Memphis’ underground ’90s sound, ushered a new wave of New York rap that favored nuance over boom-bap traditionalism.

Rocky also looked the part. His camera-ready smile, coated with polished gold grills, and his brash arrogance mirrored the likes of fellow Harlem rap legends Cam’ron and Mase.

That showmanship has remained unchanged, as was evident on Thursday night as the lights flickered around 9 p.m. inside Xfinity Mobile Arena on the Philadelphia stop of the “Don’t Be Dumb” tour. Fans jetted to their seats, pulling out their phones, and aiming it at the stage to anticipate Rocky’s arrival.

It was all a ruse. Rocky was never going to open his show on that stage.

Instead, he came down from a prop helicopter suspended in the middle of the arena, and landed on a makeshift helipad adorned with the Tim Burton-designed cover of his 2026 album, Don’t Be Dumb.

The mosh pit went into a tizzy as a crew of actors dressed in military gear stood as a barricade between Rocky and his fans at the arena’s center.

He kicked off the show with “Grim Freestyle” and “Highjack” in the crowd, then disappeared into an exit. He reappeared perched atop a platform hovering above the crowd, with a mic lodged inside a speakerphone, performing rave-fueled tracks like “Helicopter.”

He finally marched onto the stage, backed by his faux militia of ski masked guards, to perform “A$AP Forever” and “Stop Snitching,” before simmering things down with the slow jam, “Playa.”

During the slight break in the high-intense action, Rocky apologized for shoving one of his fans earlier in the pit.

“I got made mad because one of y’all was recording me, and I pushed you. My bad, little bro. You’re good,” he said.

Through the show, Rocky fully leaned into large-scale SWAT and military-themed theatrics, decked in all-black tactical wear, with zipper-lined cargo pants, an AWGE-branded puffer vest, and a ski mask. The stage’s LED screens acted as a live feed of his performance, and beaming search lights and chopping sound of helicopter blades added a menacing sense of being surveilled.

It’s a nod to the reality Rocky now faces.

His high-profile romance with Rihanna, Met Gala appearances, roles in blockbusters, and brushes with law enforcement have made his life a source of inescapable intrigue despite his attempts to maintain a veil of privacy.

To drive the point further home, he had banners that read “Big Brother is Always Watching” hanging from the stage’s wall.

Rocky is well-versed in the language of stardom, and the drawbacks that come with it, but he’s most comfortable when his artistry is at center. And Thursday’s show was a Hollywood-style production with Rocky in the director’s chair.

“I want to get to some turnt up s—. I love this energy. Philly, are y’all ready? Let’s start a riot,” Rocky ordered before performing “Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n).”

While most of his performance focused on Don’t Be Dumb, the setlist included some tracks from his 2011 mixtape, Live. Love. A$AP, and some more recent creative undertakings.

The crowd, largely comprising teenagers and mid-20-somethings, rapped along to “Trunk” and “STFU,” and swayed to the smoother R&B cuts like “Stay Here 4 Life.”

His two-hour set was a marathon of solo favorites like “Goldie,” “F—’ Problems," and “Praise the Lord (Da Shine),” but he also snuck in posse cuts from his Cozy Tapes days in 2016 and 2017. He dove into A$AP Mob collaborations like “Hella Hoes” and “Yamborghini High,” a song that was followed by a moment of silence to honor Rocky’s beloved friend A$AP Yams, who died from a drug overdose in 2015.

A$AP Twelvyy joined Rocky on stage soon after.

Don’t Be Dumb comes eight years after the lukewarm response to 2018’s Testing, and seven years since A$AP Rocky last hit the road on tour. His fans have often questioned if Rocky still had music in his sights.

Thursday night’s show proved that his artistic ambitions have gone nowhere, but only magnified.

He made the entire night look effortless, except for the noticeable moments when his temper flared when “American Sabotage” was prematurely cut short. While the brief audio issues frustrated Rocky, who’s headlining his first tour since 2019’s “Injured Generation” tour, it didn’t halt the momentum or action.

Before the night ended, Rocky left the crowd with a M. Night Shyamalan-style plot twist.

He seemingly “ended” the show with a message of wisdom for his fans.

“Don’t have unsafe sex. Don’t drink and drive, and don’t be dumb,” Rocky said before performing his newest title track, “Don’t Be Dumb.” Even adding a “I’ll be back soon, Philly. I promise. I ain’t talking out of my ass or gassing y’all. I want to thank y’all for supporting me.”

As fans began walking toward their exits, Rocky pulled off his last trick.

“Oh, y’all didn’t think I was done, did you?”

He performed “Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2,” sealing the show and proving that this wasn’t his hallowed return to form. Because he had never left.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Review: J. Cole brings 'the Ville' to Xfinity Mobile Arena

What’s a “fall-off” exactly?

In the NBA, it’s when a player loses his burst or first-step. Eventually, the player’s statistics dip, injuries pile up, and the calls for retirement become unavoidable.

Rap superstar J. Cole, whose latest album is called The Fall-Off, loves the sport. His music is coded with basketball references, begging comparisons between an athlete’s dedication on the court to Cole’s in the studio. He, being a basketball player himself, understands how the game can force you to hang up your jersey, even when you feel there’s more to give.

The same rules don’t apply to the rap game, and Cole knows that. At 41, Cole made a brief pro basketball run in China in April, when most athletes his age have either retired or are in the twilight of their careers.

Sure, his new song claims “the fall-off is inevitable,” but unlike an aged NBA star, there’s nothing that points to Cole’s musical decline.

His first of two shows at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday night for “The Fall-Off World Tour” was enough proof.

Despite his initial claims that The Fall-Off would be his last studio album, the man isn’t showing signs of retiring. He’s relishing the moment, enjoying the ride he’s taken with his fans since 2007’s The Come Up, and occasionally taking personal detours along the way. And to his fans’ delight, he doesn’t let his foot off the gas.

Cole’s journey to the Xfinity Mobile Arena stage began amid the crowd. Dressed in an unassuming black sweatshirt, he appeared sitting in the stands, in the middle of an arena spotlight. . A video of him appeared on the stage’s LED screen; a title card identified Jermaine Lamarr Cole as the director of the show we were about to witness.

With “39 Intro” blaring in the arena, Cole walked through the crowd shaking hands with everyone in his path.

The battered Honda Civic that Cole has kept from his college days, and later drove across the country to promote The Fall-Off’s release, descended onto the stage.

From then on, Cole was in the driver’s seat.

With a replica of Fayetteville, N.C.’s historic Market House in the background, he transitioned to hard-hitting odes to his hometown.

When he performed “Two Six,” a reference to the 26th county in North Carolina where his city lies, the crowd swung their tour-branded towels in the air like fans at an NBA playoff game.

“We’re only a few songs in, and I can tell this [is] one of them ones,” Cole said less than 10 minutes into his setlist, before breaking into “Safety,” followed by a five-minute monologue about Disc 29, the first half of The Fall-Off.

These moments allowed Cole to delve deep into his creative choices and concepts, but it was at the expense of the show’s momentum. He halted tracks like “Life Sentence” to express how much he wants his fans’ marriages to succeed, all to little effect.

Those lengthy spiels aside, the sequencing of his songs provided a window into Cole’s mind. And with every changing record and shift in the emotional weight, the stage backdrop changed hues — from bright amber on “Two Six” to deep blues and violets on “Poor Thang.”

The smoke intensified as Cole bounced from 2014’s “A Tale of 2 Citiez” and “Fire Squad,” before pausing to ask the crowd for a quick favor. “Philly, I know y’all don’t play about your sports teams … Whether you’re from PA, Philly, or Jersey, can y’all pretend y’all from Fayetteville for this one song? Is that cool?”

It didn’t take much convincing.

He broke into “Old Dog,” and the crowd obliged – erupting as the booming record sprung into rotation.

As a note of thanks, Cole played a medley of one-off singles and collaborative hits, including “MIDDLE CHILD” and “a lot,” his Grammy-winning collab with 21 Savage.

He polled the audience to see which of his fans could spit his verse on Benny the Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy,” and one lucky Altoona, Pa., native was handpicked to join him on stage.

Cole then moved to early mixtape favorites like “Lights Please” and “In the Mourning” before leaping to radio jams like “Work Out” and “Nobody’s Perfect,” all with seamless execution. .

The crowd rose to their feet for “Wet Dreamz” and hoisted their phone lights to “Love Yourz.”

Then, after singing “Power Trip” and “Planez,” Cole proceeded to spoil the show’s end.

“I can’t lie, I have two more songs left,” he declared. “The second is a selfish one. It’s for me.”

The first was “No Role Modelz,” a track accompanied with an AI video of Cole dressed as former President George W. Bush misstating a common proverb during his 2002 visit to a Nashville high school.

“Fool me once … shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again," Cole rapped, repeated the former president’s words. The obviously doctored video briefly amused the crowd (and Cole).

The final song of Cole’s performance was “Quik Stop.” Another personal detour, but a welcome one, no doubt.

“It’s not a hit record. So, if you want to leave to beat traffic, I get it,” he said. “I got to do this song.”

Fans barely budged as Cole closed the two-hour show with a record that encapsulates how one encounter with a fan reminded him of his musical existence.

That closing record was reflective of Cole’s delivery throughout the show.

He isn’t one for onstage theatrics, synchronized pyrotechnics, or elaborate LED graphics. It’s just him and a microphone, a direct exchange between him and his fans with a few monologues thrown into the mix.

As it stands, Cole hasn’t lost sight of that connection, and he certainly hasn’t lost his musical touch or command on stage.

There’s no “falling off” here, only falling forward. Cole is still commanding the rap game, as a great point guard controls the flow of offense.

And neither he nor his Honda Civic has met its last stop yet.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

What is the Camden bop, the region’s latest viral dance that's drawing millions of fans online?

Last week, just outside the Camden Waterfront walkway, stood a group of five men, ages 18 to 25. They were all decked out in embroidered hoodies with the words “Camden Bop” stitched on the front.

They were quiet at first before the sight of a camera and sound of an up-tempo beat grabbed their attention. They smiled and their motionless bodies kicked into action.

They shifted their hips from side to side, while their arms and heels bounced to the song’s drum kicks and chopped vocal sample. They added leg extensions and shifty pivots into the mix, creating a synchronized dance that flowed like water.

The words stitched across their hoodies took on new meaning.

This is the Camden bop. Viral TikTok videos and Instagram clips of the group, known as the Camden Bop Originators, have turned the move into a social media sensation.

The crew comprises Camden natives Ethan Tarte, Myles Thompson, Nafi Muhammad, Rodney Barge Jr., and Haleem Muhammad.

At 16, Tarte unintentionally created the Camden bop by trying to imagine what it would be like to circle the rink at Camden’s Millennium Skate World. Before he had skates, he practiced his moves barefoot in front of his mirror.

What emerged became the foundation of the Camden bop.

The influence of Jersey Club dances is present in the heel-toe slides, leg extensions, and quick pivots they add to the Camden bop over up-tempo club remixes of popular rap and R&B songs like Ryan Leslie’s “Addiction” and R. Kelly’s “Freaky in the Club.”

“We grew up Jersey Club dancing ... back when dancing was allowed,” Tarte, now 25, joked, “so it definitely comes from that.”

‘We’re more than what everybody thinks we are’

When the dance didn’t yet have a name, Tarte flirted with the idea of calling it the E Boogie Bop, after a nickname he had earned for his quick moves on the basketball court at Camden High School. But he opted for the name of his hometown, hoping the dance would change people’s perception of a city that was once among the nation’s poorest and most dangerous.

“I hear how people talk about Camden, and people are genuinely afraid sometimes to come through here,” Tarte said. “I was excited it was the Camden bop, so that everyone knew that there was something good that came out of Camden. We’re more than what everybody thinks we are.”

Not long after, Tarte started posting Snapchat videos of him doing the dance with his friends Thompson, Barge, and Nafi Muhammad. Haleem Muhammad, 18, joined later. Some of their peers called them corny at first, but the bop eventually caught on with others at Camden High.

“It really started from us having fun, and wanting to be us,” Tarte said. “People used to make fun of us, but it really comes from the love [of dancing].”

The same people who called the dance corny are now tripping over their feet to learn it, said Tyray Green, who graduated from Camden High with Tarte.

“People are insecure with themselves,” he said. “The whole time, they could have minded their business.”

“I feel like they’re doing it worldwide now,” Green said.

A fan in 2Rare

The dance shared among high schoolers has now drawn the attention of artists, athletes, and content creators from around the country.

Among them is North Philly rapper 2Rare, best known for his viral TikTok songs and dance videos, who featured the Originators in the video for his single, "Camden Bop," after seeing the group’s TikTok videos.

2Rare, born Naseem Young, reached out to the Originators so he could put a face and name to the dance that was taking over people’s social media feeds.

“I know how quickly people can steal a wave, and nobody will ever know who the dance was from, who started this or started that,” he said. “I’ve had it happen to me. People have stolen my dances and ran off with it, so reaching out to them was a big deal.”

He first considered shooting the video in Philly, but thanks to advice from Gillie Da King, he recognized the significance of bringing the production to the birthplace of the dance.

“I had to make it happen,” 2Rare said. “I want to really shed light on them, and Gillie said, ‘They will never forget about you for doing something like that,’ and he was absolutely right.”

For Green, the recognition proves what he’s always known: Camden has more than just athletic talent. For him, it’s a city with both grit and style, deserving of its own recognition.

“We get overlooked a lot,” he said. “To see [2Rare] who has eyes on him, stick their arms out to give our city notoriety is big.”

‘There’s love all over the map’

In April, the dancers joined 2Rare outside of Camden High School to film the music video, now sitting at 2.8 million YouTube views since its May 7 premiere.

“It’s humbling,” Tarte said. “This all happened for a reason. It all fell into our lap.”

Earlier this month, their performance on a New York-based music radio show, On The Radar, with 2Rare shined a brighter light on the movement. The viral clips from that performance have reached more than 3 millions views on Instagram, with hundreds of commenters lauding their performance and the homage to their hometown.

“Keep [putting] on for the city @camdenboppers 🙌🏾🕺🏾," one user commented.

Even Chance the Rapper followed the group’s Instagram page, and top streamer Tylil dropped a comment, giving 2Rare and the crew props for their performance.

Nafi Muhammad, 23, who started bopping as a junior at Camden High, said the reactions have been “overwhelming.”

“My nephew watched it on his tablet like a thousand times,” he said. “It’s been a lot of love.”

For years, Muhammad wondered where the group would be if they dedicated more time to promoting the dance back in high school. Now, with the millions of viewers they have reached, little is left to the imagination.

They are living it.

“If TikTok was jumping like it is now back in high school, we would have the dance in another stratosphere,” Muhammad said. “But we kept saying it, and then it happened.”

“There’s love all over the map, and it’s definitely only the beginning,” Tarte said.

The group has met criticism too, with online comments often ranging from “wild dance” to “horrible song.”

The criticism isn’t new territory for Tarte. “People used to call me weird in high school, and now I hear I’m too old to do the dance,” he said.

None of that has ever stopped him.

“Camden is a small city, but we’re making big noise right now, and we’re trying to keep that going,” Barge said, adding that he’s grateful for the collaboration with 2Rare.

The love is not one-sided. 2Rare said the collaboration has elevated his career, too.

“They are part of the reason I’m hot right now, so I could never not acknowledge them,” the rapper said. “If it wasn’t for the dance, it would have still been difficult. I had a quiet moment, but I had to pop out and show out. That was a big jawn.”

The rapper is already planning for a remix of “Camden Bop,” and wants to bring the Originators to Atlanta for Streamer University, a multiday workshop for growing and aspiring content creators.

As for the Originators, they want to continue spreading the joy that dancing has afforded them, and encourage others to absorb it as well.

That’s the Camden way.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Benjamin Franklin’s oldest surviving letter is on display for the first time, thanks to a former Flyers president

In 1738, Benjamin Franklin wasn’t yet the revolutionary history remembers him to be. It had been 10 years since he had set up a printing house and nine since he began to publish the Pennsylvania Gazette, which often carried a list of his stock of imported books.

On June 2, 1738, he wrote a letter to John Ladd, a 17th century surveyor who helped fellow Quaker William Penn map out the city of Philadelphia, confirming Ladd’s book purchase. Ladd had bought The Ladies Library and the balance of a set of Cervantes, assumed to be John Ozell’s revision of Peter Motteux’s English translation.

Franklin also used the letter to advertise a “beautifully printed” five-volume set of The Odyssey.

“I send you the Ladies Library & the other two Vols. of Don Quixote,” it reads. “The Homers I have are done by Pope. The Iliads are in 6 vols. 12mo price 45/. The Odysseys 5 vols. 12mo price 37/6. They are beautifully printed and neatly bound. I will not part with them until I hear from you.”

This letter of receipt and everyday business, offering a glimpse into Franklin’s career as a prosperous Philadelphia bookseller and printer, belongs to the collection of Jay T. Snider, the former president of the Flyers and Spectacor.

For Snider, who purchased the centuries-old letter from a Los Angeles-based academic nearly a decade ago, Franklin is “an endlessly fascinating human being.”

Two hundred and eighty-eight years after it was written, that letter — along with other highlights from Snider’s extremely valuable private collection of Franklin memorabilia – will be displayed at Library Company of Philadelphia, the institution that the author of the letter founded in 1731.

“The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin” also includes a first edition of Benjamin Franklin’s Experiments and Observations on Electricity, 347 of Franklin’s promissory notes for the Pennsylvania Hospital, and the mortgage register that Franklin made during his first government printing job in 1729, among others.

The 1738 letter to Ladd is one of Franklin’s earliest letters to survive, and the earliest to ever come to auction, per the auction house Sotheby’s which will be auctioning parts of Snider’s collection next month.

“It’s the earliest Franklin letter I’ve ever seen. There hasn’t been an earlier one in the market since I’ve been collecting,” said Snider, whose collection, Sotheby’s calls “the best assemblage of Frankliniana offered for sale at auction in over 120 years.”

“Franklin’s letters turn up with some regularity. But to find one from the 1730s is essentially impossible,” said Selby Kiffer, senior international specialist for books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s.

A childhood passion to an adult collection

Like many kids growing up in the late 1950s, Snider was enamored with stories of cowboys and Native Americans, a passion that carried over into adulthood.

After graduating from the Wharton School in 1979, he began to collect books about American’s Western expansion. He started with Astoria by Washington Irving, which detailed Germany-born, American businessman John Jacob Astor’s failed attempt to establish a fur trading empire in the Pacific Northwest.

He read through dense bibliographies and bought more books on the subject, eventually finding an interest in the nation’s formation.

“Philadelphia is critical to that [history],” Snider said. “Philadelphia was central to our revolution and also the history before that. And then of course, I’m from Philadelphia.”

He soon narrowed his collection’s focus to Philadelphia, and eventually Franklin, after meeting Martin P. Snyder, who was a life-long Philadelphian who collected rarities such as the first edition of William Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, and other 19th century maps, engravings, and lithography.

Snider purchased the late collector’s materials in 2004 and auctioned several artifacts from it in a 2005 Christie’s auction, but held back Franklin’s items.

“That really became the greatest passion I’ve had in this,” he said.

His collection, Snider said, has included items he purchased for $10, and others — like George Washington’s letter to Benjamin Franklin, introducing him to the French military officer, Marquis de Lafayette — that Sotheby’s sold for over $1 million earlier this year.

“And I love them both equally,” Snider said.

‘Not a checklist collection’

The Library Company exhibition will mark the first time this material will be displayed for public view in Philadelphia. It will then travel to New York for an exhibition at Sotheby’s between June 20-24 before the auction.

Kiffer said Snider’s isn’t a “checklist collection,” but traces Franklin’s story as a book and almanac publisher to his life as a civic leader and scientist, postmaster, and diplomat.

Given Franklin’s connection to Philadelphia, Kiffer said it was important to bring the exhibition to the city before the New York auction.

“Philadelphia was the only possibility,” Kiffer said. “[Franklin] is in the city’s DNA, and to have the sale and exhibition limited to New York City, Franklin and Philadelphia deserve more.”

While the ultimate goal is to attract buyers for the collection, projected to total anywhere between $3 to 4.5 million, Snider said he hopes the highlights from his collection rekindle visitors’ interest in American history, and show them a side of Franklin that isn’t widely known.

“It’s always been my feeling that too many things end up on shelves somewhere, or in drawers. Somewhere that no one ever gets to see again. I’m hoping people just enjoy connecting with Philadelphia.”

“Highlights of the The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin” is on view from May 5-7 at the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust St. sothebys.com

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

A Penn State inventor brought the world’s first double Dutch machine to Philly

At 8 years old, Tahira Reid Smith drew the one thing she wished she owned: A double Dutch machine in never-ending motion.

As an only child growing up in the Bronx, Reid Smith dreamed of enabling someone to endlessly enjoy the the high-intensity jump-roping game.

“Jumping double Dutch is like being a part of a club,” Reid Smith said. “It’s culture. It’s a part of our history. It’s part of our heritage.”

For her school’s drawing competition, the then-third grader sketched two poles with three push buttons, and a girl jumping in the middle. Her drawing won first place in the competition, but decades later, she brought the invention she dreamed of as a child to life.

Nearly 40 years after submitting her class drawing, the mechanical engineer and Pennsylvania State University professor showcased a prototype of the world’s first automated double Dutch machine in Philadelphia on Saturday.

Reid Smith traveled from State College to bring the prototype of Jump Dreams to Awbury Park for Double Dutch Day, a community event led by Philly Girls Jump.

“It was important to be here,” Reid Smith said. “I love Philly Girls Jump’s mission, and what they are doing.”

It was another class project that rekindled her interest in double Dutch. While she was studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1997, her late professor Burt Swersey, who served with her as co-inventor of the machine, tasked her with a design class assignment that focused on sports and recreational activities.

It was then she thought about the double Dutch machine for the first time since making the sketch. After a long development, she has a prototype.

At Double Dutch Day, hundreds of participants, ranging vastly in age and skill, met at Awbury Park’s tennis courts to jump rope, dance, and enjoy local vendors.

Others stopped by Reid Smith’s booth to try out the app-controlled double Dutch machine.

Swan Fleming said, after a friend pointed her to the machine, “Well, I have to try it out.”

Fleming, who traveled from Atlanta to attend Saturday’s event, said the ropes moved a bit slower than she was accustomed to. But within seconds, she adjusted to the synchronized arms that whipped the beaded rope in motion.

“I think it’s great because sometimes it’s hard to find a good turner,” Fleming said. “And turners really matter. I think it’s awesome that this was so invented.”

Sarina Hudson, who jumped in to experience the mechanized double Dutch for herself, said it requires added skill to get comfortable.

“[The experience] was different,” the North Philly native said. “I’m used to turners who can adjust, but you had to adjust yourself.”

Hudson said she could see the invention being inside people’s homes, including her own.

“I want to see if I can buy it,” she said.

While the machine is not for sale, Reid Smith said the goal of having participants like Hudson and Fleming try out Jump Dreams was to get feedback for future iterations of the machine that could become widely available.

Among the current design’s challenges is the use of double-handed arms, which can lead to off-rhythm turns.

Reid Smith said a new version of her evolving invention, which she first constructed in 2000, will be easier to use for jumpers of varying skill. Not just experienced double Dutch athletes.

“The next design iteration is going to work out the kinks that we learned, and all the imperfections,” Reid Smith said. “The next iteration will make it so novices can do this.”

She’s hoping to launch the new design as part of a larger marketing push under her company Jump Dreams Inc. by February 2027.

Reid Smith said the aim is to place the double Dutch machine in schools, recreational facilities, and youth development centers. But she’s not ruling out other possibilities.

For now, she’s continuing to build up her early access list, expand her professional network, and market the forthcoming product at events like Double Dutch Day.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer