An artist started befriending strangers in Pa. prisons. Now she is turning them into artwork.

Over the course of three years, Carolyn Harper and Donna Martorano became fast friends.

The two women, on different sides of Pennsylvania, lived very different lives and shared few similarities. But they bonded over emails, handwritten letters, and virtual visits.

Martorano shared tales of her family, her health issues, her hopes of reconnecting with her two sons, and her growing sense of detachment from the outside world.

They spoke daily, but before they could meet, Martorano died in July 2024 at age 74 at the State Correctional Institution in Cambridge Springs. She was serving a life sentence without parole for first-degree murder for contracting two men to kill her husband in 1992.

The official cause of her death was a heart attack.

Harper said Martorano’s past and conviction weren’t the end of her story. In the 32 years she was incarcerated, Harper said, Martorano became a certified braille transcriber and took violence prevention and mentoring programs.

But in her later years, she grew increasingly “bitter,” Harper said. Martorano was confined to her bed and wheelchair and was often bullied as her health worsened.

“Her spirits were crushed,” Harper said. “I really feel she died of a broken heart because she was not given institutional support. A lot of prison administrators just don’t care. She told me she had nothing left to live for.”

For the past five years, Harper, 60, has connected with dozens of other incarcerated people, some with stories similar to Martorano’s and others with far different lives.

These stories, Harper said, opened her eyes to the emptiness, detachment, and inhumanity people experience in prisons.

Their names, faces, and stories are now at the center of her latest portrait series, “Prison Portrait Project: Faces of Despair, Hope and Transformation," on display at Old City’s Muse Gallery.

Harper has placed their portraits on hand-sewn quilts and vibrant batiks, transforming the faces of those suffering from the country’s carceral system into artwork.

Like Martorano, several of Harper’s subjects are serving death sentences, with little to no path for early release or commutation. Harper has never asked specific questions about their pasts, and everything she knows about them is what she has been told voluntarily. But she’s certain about one thing: None of the people she has befriended is the same person they were when they were first incarcerated.

Pennsylvania, she found out, is one of two states in the country that has a mandatory life without parole sentence, known as “death by incarceration,” for both first-degree and second-degree felony murder.

“I have come to see that guilt or innocence, while important, is not the critical thing here,” Harper said. ”It’s the idea of redemption and rehabilitation. This, to me, is the real story — the story of transformation.”

For decades, people suffering from abuse, discrimination, and disenfranchisement have made their way onto Harper’s quilts.

In the mid-1990s, she created panels for the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a visual project that memorializes the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died from AIDS-related causes at the height of the epidemic.

She also developed a series of textile portraits championing queer love stories, and another shedding light on the systemic issues faced by those wrestling with dispossession and homelessness.

“People often come out of prison and don’t have a pathway to find a real job or housing,” Harper said. “I started to see that connection, and I became interested in the issue of incarceration.

“We pay lip service to this idea that prison is reformative, but really it’s punitive.”

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Harper moved to Philadelphia in 1989 to study art at the University of Pennsylvania. Her days volunteering as an art teacher at local homeless shelters from 2013 to 2020 are what first drew her to the links between homelessness, dispossession, and incarceration. She was driven to learn more about the state’s prison system.

After her best friend was arrested in 2020 for abusing his husband, Harper’s interest became a lived reality. The health of her friend, who struggled with addiction and mental health issues, worsened due to his incarceration. Shortly after his release in 2021, he took his own life.

That pushed Harper to join organizations such as the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, We The People Coalition, and others. She wrote postcards, letters, and emails to incarcerated people throughout the state.

Before this, a self-described “snowflake,” Harper would veer away from conversations about incarceration. She started out fearing that she wouldn’t be able to emotionally cope with the struggles incarcerated people endure and write to her about in their letters. But she grew to become a listening ear, resource, and friend to people seeking human connection.

Through her hand-sewn and fabric-dyed portraits, she encourages her audience to step outside their worlds and enter the worlds of her subjects. Through her art, she highlights the forgotten humanity of incarcerated people and uses their testimonies to draw attention to Pennsylvania’s “harsh sentencing laws,” and correct the misconceptions people hold of those who are incarcerated.

The “Prison Portrait Project” started off with Harper writing to the people whose names, faces, and stories make up her art. Would they send her a photograph, she asked, and consent to be a part of her exhibition?

Most replied with a photo or told Harper where she could find one. Others had family members send photos to her. After she sewed them or transferred them onto quilts, Harper shared images of the final pieces with the subjects of the expressive portraits.

“I think seeing their self-portrait, and knowing it’s going in an exhibition, helps them see themselves in a different light. And that can be empowering,” Harper said.

Each quilt and batik-style image features a written statement from the person who inspired the portrait, ensuring their stories (along with their faces) are integral parts of the exhibit.

A binder containing more stories, statements, and poems written by people Harper connected with through the years, sits at the front of the gallery. Three self-portraits of incarcerated artists are also on display.

Harper is hopeful the show will inspire audiences to view those who are incarcerated as people, rather than lifeless serial numbers and charge sheets.

“Most of us don’t think about people in prison. If we do, it’s sort of with the feeling, ‘Well, they probably did something and deserve to be there.’”

She wants people to recognize the lack of redemptive pathways for people upon release, and the need for advocates to protect, defend, and humanize Pennsylvania’s incarcerated population.

“Prison Portrait Project: Faces of Despair, Hope and Transformation,” through Nov. 30, Muse Gallery, 52 N. Second St., Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. musegalleryphiladelphia.com

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

The West Philly rapper whose work has landed on ‘Abbott Elementary.’ Twice.

When Philly artist Amir Bey Richardson first uploaded his rap songs online in 2010, he was told his music was “too corny” to garner an audience.

“I definitely had friends who encouraged me, but I had other friends who used to call it ‘bus driver rap,’” Richardson said. “Or they said, ‘Too many people rap. Get out of here.’”

Today, Richardson is a go-to musician-for-hire for major network shows, including for the Emmy-winning, Philly-set comedy series Abbott Elementary.

Richardson, who goes by Bul Bey, knows his music doesn’t have the same musical edge that has long defined Philadelphia’s hip-hop sound. But he makes up for it with his more soulful and personal hip-hop records that speak to his West Philly roots and connect with a wider range of rap fans.

“Philadelphia is one of those cities where rapping is held to a higher standard, so I had to listen to my heart,” he said. “I was an artist whether I wanted to be one or not.”

While his sound didn’t match that of his contemporaries, he believes it sets him apart from other Philly artists.

On the Oct. 22 episode of Abbott Elementary, Richardson’s 2024 track “Elbow Deep” can be heard in the background as characters Gregory and Janine (played by Tyler James Williams and show creator Quinta Brunson), set the vibe for a friendly hangout.

“I lost my mind when I heard it,” Richardson said. “There are some explicit moments in the song, but when I saw the scene, it all made total sense.”

This was the second time Richardson’s music was placed in the hit series.

Back in February 2022, Richardson sent an “awkward” introductory message on LinkedIn to Abbott Elementary music supervisor Kier Lehman. Among the tens of tracks Richardson pulled from his catalog to include in that message, the 2014 single “Where I’m From” struck a chord with Lehman.

In early 2023, the Grammy-nominated music supervisor reached out to Richardson to request the use of “Where I’m From” for season two, episode 19, of the show.

Richardson said he’s still processing the achievement. “Sometimes I go back to the episode just to make sure it wasn’t changed,” he said.

That song placement, Richardson said, arrived at a “time of desperation.”

After a decade of making music, Richardson was at a creative crossroads. He was confident in his musical talents, but it felt like there were limited avenues to showcase them. “I felt very lost and desperate,” he said.

He stumbled onto Abbott Elementary like everyone else. Only he paused the TV to find Lehman’s name in the credits and reached out to him months later on the networking platform.

While he’s now “embarrassed” by his direct message to Lehman, the eventual song placement was the first time Richardson was ever paid for his music.

“That was definitely me crossing a threshold,” he said. “And in my mind, I was like, ‘I have to do that again.’”

It would be two years until that would happen. Earlier this year, Lehman reached out to Richardson to use “Elbow Deep.” Richardson approved immediately.

In the meantime, that first placement opened several creative doors.

Between his role as an event coordinator for the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, Richardson dropped a pair of collaborative EPs with producers Sam Live and Patrick Feliciano. He also contributed music to WHYY programs, such as Albie’s Elevator and The Infinite Art Hunt, and served as host of the Franklin Institute’s So Curious podcast.

He was even tapped to narrate a Skechers ad featuring Sixers star Joel Embiid, showcasing his abilities as a voice-over talent.

It’s all been a surprising path, Richardson said. One that has inspired him to pursue avenues that meld his love of music and Philadelphia.

“It let me know I had a narrower view of what I could do as an artist,” Richardson said. “I wouldn’t say I’m doing unconventional things, but it’s more of a wider range.”

His goal is to be a more notable name for big-budget shows and eventually land a placement on a blockbuster film. He currently has his sights on Sony’s animated Spider-Man multiverse saga, which Lehman served as the music supervisor for in 2018.

For someone who started out making songs from his college radio station at Pittsburgh’s La Roche University, and now sees his name on TV screens, Richardson has learned to avoid limiting his art and musical reach. And to the friends who previously doubted his abilities, he’s proving his music can take him places he’s never been, including prime-time television.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Kendrick Lamar, SZA go full speed at the Linc for the ‘Grand National Tour’

The victory lap continues for Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rap star has journeyed a path few have blazed in hip-hop history.

He sparred with global phenom Drake and came out with a slew of No. 1 hits, five Grammy wins in 2025, and a record-setting Super Bowl halftime performance that will be dissected by hip-hop scholars for years to come.

But Lamar’s behemoth, “Not Like Us,” is only a glimpse into his true musical powers.

Aside from his 22 Grammys and a Pulitzer, the 37-year-old artist has drawn tens of thousands of concertgoers for an already record-breaking stadium tour.

Lamar and R&B supernova SZA generated $9 million for the opening concert of their "Grand National Tour” last month in Minneapolis, making it the highest grossing hip-hop show in music history.

The tour’s momentum remained immaculate at Lincoln Financial Field for Lamar and SZA’s stop in Philly on Monday night.

As DJ Mustard played a a 30-minute set by DJ Mustard, who played classics like “Swag Surfin’” by Fast Life Yungstaz and “We Are Young” by fun., thousands of fans slowly trickled into the stadium.

As the stadium lights flickered, Lamar rose onto the stage. He kicked off the show inside his now-trademarked Buick GNX, rapping the GNX album opener “wacced out murals,” embraced in smoke.

The show featured short skits of Lamar arguing with a lawyer-like disposition, mocking Drake’s recent attempts to take legal action following last year’s grudge match.

Even SZA, born Solána Rowe, gets in on the action. She’s seen correcting the off-camera lawyer’s pronunciation of her stage name in one video, then countering accusations that she has sought dysfunctional relationships for creative purposes.

That fiery intro set the tone for the show, which was adorned with hits from his platinum-selling GNX and SZA’s repackaged deluxe album, Lana.

Once Lamar closed out the first of eight acts with “tv off,” SZA rose to the stage with the same GNX, but perched on top of its moss-covered hood. While Lamar’s “squabble up” and “m.A.A.d city” reflected his rugged Compton roots, SZA basked in sultry tunes like “Love Galore” and “Broken Clocks” as a labyrinth of vines, praying mantises, butterflies, and other bugs flashed across the background screen.

The five-time Grammy winner was in full bloom, showcasing both her roaring vocals and sleek dance routines. While there were moments that seemed off pitch, she recovered as smoothly as her outfit changes.

Decked in knee pads and low-rise safari shorts, the “Scorcese Baby Daddy” singer serenaded the crowd with dazzling slow jams like “Kitchen” and hard-hitting tracks like “Low.” She took her bug fascination to new heights during “Garden (Say It Like Dat),” hopping on a giant mechanical ant she affectionately named “Anthony.”

Lamar’s performance remained sharp, calculated, and grounded. He attacked songs like “Like That” and the showstopper “Not Like Us” with unnerving intensity, while balancing the cunning bars with party records like “peekaboo” and SZA-assisted duets like “All the Stars.”

While the artistic contrasts between Lamar and SZA could alienate crowds, the pair found the perfect equilibrium throughout the nearly three-hour concert.

Lamar’s lyrical performance was impressive throughout the show, but moments like the Playboi Carti cover “Good Credit” and the sequencing of “Count Me Out” did stifle a bit of the momentum. But with over 50 songs shared between the two artists, most performed in full, there was bound to be a break in the action.

As the stadium tour journeys across North America and Europe, their Philly stop proved to be a balancing act with an Olympic-level landing. The concert was a melding of two performers, who are as electric together as they are on their own stages.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

How Future & Metro Boomin Became Trap Music's Greatest Duo

The musical bond between Future and Metro Boomin blazed new paths in Atlanta's rap scene, and transformed trap music into one of music's most expansive exports. The duo first connected on the cult "Karate Chop" back in 2013, and have been on an unrelenting hit streak ever since.

Future's auto-tune-soaked melodies and Metro's ominous trap production has formed an inseparable linkage and some of the biggest records of the past decade. From "Honest" to "Jumpman" and 2024's "Type S**t," the pair have blossomed into music's most in-demand hitmakers and influencers. 

Metro, born Leland Wayne, went from aimlessly sending beats as a teenager from his St. Louis home, to becoming one of the industry's most versatile music producers and a GRAMMY-nominated solo artist. Meanwhile Future, born Nayvadius Cash, has evolved into an international draw with a myriad of No. 1 records, multi-platinum albums, and GRAMMY wins under his belt. 

The two stars have continued to ascend in lock-step, with a new medley of booming street hits and club anthems arriving with each collaboration. But 2024 was their most expansive year to date. The duo cranked out We Don't Trust You in March, and the sequel, We Still Don't Trust You, just weeks later. 

Backed by the Kendrick Lamar-assisted hit "Like That," — and the seismic rap feud it ignited— We Don't Trust You debuted atop the Billboard 100, marking Future's second-largest opening week and Metro's biggest ever. Its follow-up, the more melodic-leaning We Still Don't Trust You, also claimed the No. 1 spot. Together, the joint projects earned the duo four nominations at the 2025 GRAMMYs, including Best Rap Album (We Don't Trust You) and Best Rap Song ("Like That"). 

Future and Metro have hit an artistic zenith unmatched by most rap duos, and it doesn't appear their streak is slowing down any time soon. As their legacy continues to grow, look back at the genesis of their artistic union over the years, and the series of hits that have formed in their wake:

2013

Before Metro became a top-end producer, he was a 17-year-old beatmaker with hopes one of his beats would fall into the hands of a mainstream artist. One faithful email to Brick Squad rapper OJ da Juiceman got him an invite to his Atlanta studio. With permission from his late mother Leslie Wayne, Metro made the eight and a half-hour voyage from St. Louis to the trap music capital. She continued to chaperone him almost weekly until Metro moved to Atlanta full-time to attend Morehouse College in 2012. 

The first-year college student split his time in the classroom and in the studio with Juiceman's mentor Gucci Mane. He eventually crossed paths with Future, who ascended from the disbanded Atlanta group Da Connect and became his own musical entity. Future started meeting up with the teenage producer daily, and the "Tony Montana" rapper hopped on one of Metro's zippy trap beats. He laid down drug-sunken lyrics to the thunderous, heavy-synth instrumental that became 2013's "Karate Chop," but Metro wasn't convinced it was a worthy single. 

"I had no clue from all the records we've done, that [that] s**t just sitting in the studio would be the one. But these days, the people and the streets produce the singles and they was fuckin' with it," Metro said in a 2013 interview with XXL.

Despite Metro's initial hesitancy, the remix featuring Lil Wayne became the lead single of Future's 2014 album, Honest, which featured three other songs from Metro, including the title track and "I Won" with Kanye West. The success of "Karate Chop" convinced Metro to drop out of college and capitalize on the rising momentum. And the musical alchemy between the rapper and producer only strengthened over time.

2015

By 2015, Metro and Future were no longer fighting for attention. The spotlight was keenly focused on the two artists, who, along with figures like Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan, were at the forefront of a booming, melody-infused trap sound. The proof of their collective powers was Future's trap masterwork DS2 and What a Time to Be Alive, an entertainingly disjointed mixtape with Canadian-born superstar Drake. 

Following the release of 2014's Honest, Future dropped a trilogy of album-quality mixtapes. The first was Monster, a darker and more brooding project that saw Future return to his previous form. Metro executive produced the mixtape, and was credited for crafting "Radical," "Mad Luv," "Wesley Pressley" and other tracks.

The duo carried the momentum of Monster into Future's DS2, widely considered the rapper's masterstroke of bleak, self-medicated drug tales and fiery trap hits. Metro, alongside fellow Atlanta trap architects Southside, Zaytoven, and Sonny Digital, handled the bulk of the project. Some of the tracks he produced included the strip club anthem "Freak Hoe," the tranquilizing "Rich Sex," and "Where Ya At" with Drake. 

After the recording session for "Where Ya At" wrapped, Drake and Future began working on the collaborative mixtape, What a Time to Be Alive.  Drake flew to Atlanta for six days with the hopes of recording a handful of songs, but Future's relentless work ethic prompted the Toronto native to match his tenacity. 

The 11-song mixtape surprisingly dropped in September 2015, and fans immediately swarmed to Metro-produced tracks like "Digital Dash," "Big Rings," and "Jumpman." The latter became a top 20 Billboard hit, and Metro's Future-assisted producer tag, "If Young Metro don't trust you I'm gon' shoot you," became the industry's most recognizable calling card.

2017

Just when it felt Future's smoldering hit streak was beginning to cool, he released back-to-back albums FUTURE and HNDRXX in February of 2017. The two projects teetered between pop-inspired tunes and heavy-handed street records, and Metro was the unsurprising maestro behind the biggest song from the two records. 

The Metro-produced "Mask Off" peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Future's highest charting single at the time of its release. A remix of the track, which samples Carlton Williams' "Prison Song" from the 1978 Selma musical, featured Kendrick Lamar. 

The massive hit encouraged generations of hip-hop fans to chant the song's drug-filled hook "Percocets (ya), molly, Percocets (Percocets)." And while Future's HNDRXX takes a more R&B and bright-eyed musical approach compared to the dreadful trap sound of his previous works, Metro was credited for the album opener "My Collection" and closer "Sorry."

2022

After five years without a collaboration, the super-duo linked back up for Metro's "Superhero (Heroes & Villains)." Future's gravelly and unpolished delivery contrasted the song's more cinematic and orchestral production. It was the first single off the producer's comic book-themed album, Heroes & Villains, which echoed an evolutionary turn for the producer-turned-solo artist. 

His transition from rugged trap sounds to grander production was first demonstrated on 2018's Not All Heroes Wear Capes, but his second album and expansion into film showcased it at a larger scale. Metro went on to produce Sony's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack, which featured A$AP Rocky, NAV, Travis Scott, Don Tolliver, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, and his other frequent collaborations.  

In the years since their last record, Future was also expanding his musical reach. He cranked out joint projects with Young Thug, Zaytoven, Juice WRLD, and Lil Uzi Vert, and released another collection of projects while taking a few momentary breaks in between. "​That's because I'm happy," Future said of his occasional hiatuses in a 2022 interview with GQ. "I'm genuinely happy with life. And there was a time where I was only happy when I was on the stage, and in the studio. Like it was my escape." After an album-less 2021, he followed up the next year with I Never Liked You, which earned the rapper his eighth chart-topping album and a GRAMMY win for the mega hit "Wait For U" with Drake and Tems. 

Metro wasn't credited on I Never Liked You, but the "Puffin On Zootiez" emcee circled back with his musical companion later that year. The two reunited on other tracks from Metro's Heroes & Villains album, including "Too Many Nights," "I Can't Save You (Interlude)," and ""Lock On Me." And while it may have seemed like Future and Metro disbanded during the five-year stretch, the producer said they never stopped working together.

 "It's crazy, public perception makes it look like we went our separate ways," Metro said in a 2023 interview with Gangsta Grills Radio. "But neither one of us really went nowhere. It's just about the right moment, and I feel like God just brought this moment together."

2024

More than a year before the release of their joint albums, Future hinted at a potential project with his long-time collaborator. In January 2023, the rapper reshared an Instagram post that read, "Future x Metro OTW with the album of the year." But the subtle endorsement failed to highlight how big the joint effort the following year would be. 

In March 2024, Future and Metro confirmed a two-part album release in a 44-second trailer. The duo is seen hopping out of luxury SUVs in the desert, with the late Mobb Deep rapper Prodigy providing the video's contentious narration.  "A lot of f**king garbage ass rappers running around. These n****s ain't supposed to be rapping, man. This game is meant for a select few." 

The first in the series was We Don't Trust You, a 17-song project that combined Metro's cinematic production with Future's street poetics. Kendrick's verse on the single "Like That" sparked a series of diss records between Lamar, Cole, and Drake, with the Comtpon rapper declaring, "Motherf**k the big three, n***a, it's just big me." 

The result was weeks of musical exchanges between the three artists, including a Drake-directed instrumental from Metro called "BBL Drizzy," which the producer encouraged fans to rap over for a chance to win a free beat. The hotly-contested battle, paired with songs like "Type S**t" and The Weeknd-assisted "We Still Don't Trust You," pushed both albums atop the sales and music charts. 

The pair capped off the year with a 27-date North American tour and a handful of nominations at the 2025 GRAMMYs.

2025

While Metro and Boomin went home from the 2025 GRAMMYs empty handed, the duo’s influence remains undeniable. Between the No. 1 records and recognition redefining modern trap music, they have influenced a new generation while staying true to their signature sound. With undeniable chemistry, their legacy is already cemented — but their reign is far from over.

– Grammy.com

Keke Palmer and Tierra Whack bonded over a secret pregnancy

Keke Palmer met Tierra Whack over a game of spades at Jackie Chan’s house in South Philly.

Trust me, the story gets even better.

They started arguing with Rihanna when Eddie Murphy showed up to diffuse the situation.

And if all this sounds too good to be true, that’s because, well, it is.

“All right, we play too much,” Palmer joked to the Fitler Club crowd. The newly published author stopped by on Thursday for an event presented by Harriett’s Bookshop and sponsored by the Fitler Club and The Inquirer. Whack interviewed Palmer about her book, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative.

The real story? The actress, singer, and KeyTV founder met Whack at Alicia Keys’ house in 2023, bundled up in a puffer coat, which she took off to reveal a baby bump. She was months away from giving birth to her son, Leodis “Leo” Jackson.

Whack kept her lips sealed on the secret pregnancy, and the two multi-hyphenates have built a special bond over the past two years. “I love you girl,” Palmer said as she walked over to hug the North Philly native. “I love you, too,” Whack said.

“I’m here, no payment or nothing,” Whack said to the crowd in the Fitler Club ballroom. “This is my girl.”

Palmer’s memoir delves into her days as a child actor, and the lessons she’s learned on her journey to becoming an Emmy-winning entertainer, entrepreneur, and mom of one.

“Kids bring perspective,” she said. “I have to make sure this baby is good, and then I have the rest of the day. It’s helping me understand what’s really important.”

Palmer and Whack spoke of their love-hate relationship with musicals and their fondness for ’90s and early 2000s sitcoms like The Jamie Foxx Show and The Parkers. And like the rest of us, Palmer can’t get enough of the Apple TV+ thriller Severance. “It’s so good, I had to go back and re-watch season one,” she said.

By the end of the evening, Whack had seemingly found a name for her next project.Whack of All Trades.

“If that’s the next album, I need a feature,” Palmer said.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

An in-the-works UArts documentary will show what led to the school’s collapse

Amid the thousands of emails that filled his inbox, former University of the Arts professor Kyle Crichton never expected to receive a message like the one delivered at 6:19 p.m. on May 31.

Crichton froze as the news broke — president Kerry Walk said the school was closing in a week. And on June 7, the historic arts college officially shuttered its doors, leaving hundreds of students and educators wondering how and why the university suddenly collapsed.

Administrators blamed declining enrollment and unexpected financial challenges as the source of the dismay, while some UArts employees and union members pointed to alleged mismanagement. The closure sparked days of protests and class-action lawsuits filed by dozens of ex-staffers.

‘I started filming it’

With uncertainty still looming,Crichton grabbed his camera and began capturing student-led protests on the steps of Dorrance Hamilton Hall on June 5. The award-winning filmmaker had another project on the books, but he decided to chronicle the story he was experiencing and watching unfold.

“As it happened, I started filming it,” said Crichton, who received a Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy for his work on the 2023 documentary Angel Dose. “I was disappointed financially, but I was also disappointed I wasn’t going to be teaching these kids.”

In need of a cinematographer and co-director, Crichton tapped fellow UArts graduatesKatie Supplee and Michelle Rose Goodwin, who agreed to be a part of the project, still in early stages and currently titled “Reckless Education.”

Along with capturing the devastation of the June 7 announcement, the three filmmakers have interviewed UArts students, staff, and faculty about the lasting affects of the shut down over the past four months.

Goodwin, the co-director and producer of the film, is hopeful the documentary will fully capture the frustrations, anger, and heartbreak felt among the UArts community in the days and months after the unforeseen closure.

“The school dissolving in the fashion that it did shook a lot of people’s foundations, took a lot of control from their lives, and made a lot of people feel powerless,” Goodwin said. “And I think this documentary is a way to try to give them that power back.”

Why did UArts close so suddenly?

Goodwin said they aren’t shying away from the school’s missteps, which ultimately led to its dissolution and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. But a goal of the documentary is to figure out what happened.

To unveil the full wreckage of UArts, Crichton said it’s a “multi-pronged” approach that requires the voices of city officials.

Crichton, Supplee, and Goodwin are hoping to land interviews with city council members and attorney general Michelle Henry.

“Art is such a good vessel for spreading ideas, and I feel like that’s what we’re doing here,” Supplee said. “We don’t want to just impact the Philly arts scene with the film. We want to speak to the shuttering of educational institutions as a whole.”

Next steps for production

Supplee, whose fiancé worked at UArts before the university closed its doors, said the small production crew is now following “displaced UArts students who were forced to transfer schools to pursue their creative arts career.”

With filming in full swing, Crichton said the team is aiming for a 2026 release. The next step is to add more interview subjects, researchers, and filmmakers to bolster up the production, and score additional funding to piece the self-funded project together.

The three filmmakers are funding the independent venture while balancing their daily work as documentarians and content creators.

Crichton is confident they can produce the film “rag-tag style” for $100,000. And as they bring on more contributors, preferably UArts alums, he believes the nearly two-year process will be worth the wait.

“It feels like we have lightning in a bottle, and we want to continue pursuing it,” Crichton said. “Things will unfold, and we’ve come to the realization that it’s going to be a little bit of time, but we’re prepared for it.”

For more information, visit recklesseducationfilm.com.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Eagles super fan sports a 72-inch custom wig in the team’s colors

Lifelong super fan Tina McIntosh, 52, has taken her love of the Eagles to new lengths.

For Monday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons (which the Eagles lost in a late-game rally by Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins) the Southwest Philly native wore a custom kelly green Eagles shirt, green high-top Nikes, white crew socks with the Eagles logo, and a 72-inch long, team-themed wig to match.

“When the Eagles play, I usually look for a lime green wig, but this time I wanted something different,” said McIntosh, who worked as a cleaner at Veterans Stadium in the early 1990s and is now a home health aide. “I had to think outside the box and that was it right there.”

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The $300 braided wig is almost like a tapestry with a reimagined Eagles logo from the 1960s: a green eagle carrying a football with yellow talons against a white background. The top and bottom is black and green.

McIntosh shared her outfit on Instagram before watching the NFC matchup with her cousin and grandchildren in North Philly, where she now lives. When CBS Philadelphia posted a video of McIntosh in her Eagles regalia, she caused quite a stir.

“I feel like she deserves a walk-on role in Abbott Elementary for this wig alone,” one Instagram user wrote before tagging actor Quinta Brunson.

McIntosh purchased the wig from part-time hairstylist Shana Everson of Braidedbyshana. The Syracuse-based wig maker has made Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs-themed wigs over the years.

McIntosh had seen Everson’s work on TikTok and went to her website to place her custom Eagles order. After exchanging images and ideas, Everson delivered a “butt length” wig adorned with Eagles colors within a week.

Everson is surprised by the attention the wig has received, but she’s happy for McIntosh who has been lapping it all up. “She’s such an animated character and she really rocked it,” said Everson, a Buffalo Bills fan. “I was satisfied, and I can’t wait to see the reactions when she wears the wig at the game.”

Ahead of the Eagles Sunday matchup against the New Orleans Saints, McIntosh has already mapped out her Eagles day outfit — another custom kelly green top, a pair of Eagles-themed jeans, and, of course, her new wig.

This time, she wants the Eagles to soar to victory.

“We win some, we lose some. I just pray that we win this Sunday,” she said.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Wallo267 doesn’t want you to count yourself out

Two decades of incarceration and a lifetime of hardship made Wallace Peeples realize his greatest defense was a loaded mind, not a loaded gun.

Peeples, better known as Wallo267 on social media, is a motivational speaker, podcaster, and influencer. Growing up in Nicetown, he bounced in and out of juvenile centers, before being arrested and convicted for a string of armed robberies and served a total of 20 years in the Pennsylvania prison system. But instead of faltering under the strain of imprisonment, Wallo reprogrammed his mind and vowed to change course. If he didn’t, he knew there would be no breaking away from the continuous cycle of incarceration.

While incarcerated, Wallo learned the inner workings of social media from friends and family who made the two-hour commute to visit him in state correctional institutions across the state. He built a following by posting motivational pictures on a contraband phone.

On Feb. 18, 2017, Wallo walked out of the State Correctional Institution of Coal Township with a renewed sense of purpose and over 50,000 Instagram followers.

Now, he has millions of social media followers and a hit podcast, Million Dollaz Worth of Game, with his cousin Gillie Da King, where he has hosted cultural figures like 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, and Mike Tyson. And this week, his new memoir, Armed with Good Intentions, hits the shelves.

“When you come from the ghetto, sometimes you find yourself trying to steal the American dream, and it’s a lot you have to go through,” he said. “It’s just a journey trying to make it out of the jungle. Most of the homies and the people I grew up with didn’t make it out. They died as teenagers. For me to be 45 years old and still operating within culture and society, that’s major.”

We talked to the social activist and motivational speaker about his evolution from life in incarceration to being a social change-maker, the nostalgia of hot scrapple and grits in the morning, and the power of vulnerability. His memoir, Armed with Good Intentions (Simon & Schuster), releases Sept. 10.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does it feel to have your life story on bookshelves?

It feels good to open up to people who have supported me for so many years. I think it’s great to see that I’m just like everybody else. I go through ups and downs in life. I cry, I hurt, and I laugh. Some people would think once success happens that you’re not normal like everybody else. This book is about human connection. It’s bringing people into my world, with all the struggles, ups and downs, and just trying to win coming out of the ghetto.

Why did you write the book now?

I put out a motivational book that was self-published [in 2020], but I felt like there was more. As you start to level up, you have to time-stamp some things. When you’re dealing with big-time publishing houses like Simon & Schuster, it’s not always about when you want it. You have to always think like, “Man, I guess it’s meant to happen when it’s meant to happen.” Some things we just can’t control.

What was it like?

I have a lot of stuff going on in my mind based on my journey and my experiences because I’ve been in these streets since birth. And for me to be operating in a different world now, there’s just so much that people don’t know. It will take a lifetime to tell them though. Sometimes you can show somebody something, but you have to go through it in order to feel it. I try to share what I can, but sometimes it’s not that easy.

Was looking back difficult?

I look at my life differently than most people. From the time I was 11 years old, I was never free for more than a year before getting out of prison at 37. Being out this time is the longest of my life. I spent all that time incarcerated, getting out, and then getting arrested at 17 and spending all that amount of time. I’ve only been out seven years, so I’m living that life.

It was an emotional roller coaster. When you’re reminiscing about these moments, you have to live in them sometimes. Nobody remembers your life how you remember your life. You remember how you were feeling, and the emotions that came with the ups and downs. The wins and the falls. It’s really deep and just wild.

You were labeled a kid who lacked ‘self-confidence, accountability, and discipline’ during one of your stints at a juvenile facility. What inspired you to add it to the book?

So many people are going to look at this book who have been labeled by society, family, coworkers, or whoever. But it’s important to never count yourself out. The majority of the time, it doesn’t matter what someone says about you. But as much as it doesn’t matter, it can paralyze you for life. Somebody can sit there and judge you, and they don’t even operate in your circumstances. They don’t know anything about you.

You start the book by saying quotes like ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ didn’t mean anything to you when you were young. What does it mean now?

I always had a good heart somewhere, but my environment had me on a different mission because I had to be a part of what was going on.

You grew up eating scrapple and grits. Is that still a go-to?

Nah, that was a long time ago when I was a kid. My grandma used to make it and it was unbelievable. But if you look up scrapple, it’s like a bunch of parts from an animal mixed up. Man, it’s like ear, tongue, and feet. When I was young, it was everything. It tasted good back then.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer