The Story Is Around You

I was driving down the streets of Parkside trying to score a photo for this very blog when something hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only are we in our final weeks of this semester, but soon this will all be over. No more curious stares as we lug around our camera and tripod. No more jotting down tales from the older local residents of how things used to be and probably worse of all, no more interesting faces to capture on screen. This is a part of Philadelphia that no one knows; this is a neighborhood that gets blended way too often in the stereotypes of West Philly.

What I did not find on that drive is a really eye-popping photo of some tragedy or some great story idea. Instead I found a man on a corner waiting for the bus. So I took out my pencil and notebook, and wrote down his story. He was on his way back home from New York, after having spent the week there with friends. The one thing that he really kept coming back to was how much he missed being home. “It’s not that much,” I remember him saying, but this is where he was raised. He grew up within walking distance of the Philadelphia Zoo and recalls summers in West Philly as one of the best times of year.

It is a shame that I will not be around here to white balance my camera again as I set up to record a summer block party or adjust a LAV on a lapel for that perfect interview. What I do know is that I was able to get a small piece of this city’s culture right here in the “bottom”, of all places, just by stopping on a corner and lending an ear to another smiling curious face. From the looks of it, Mantua seems like a pretty tough cookie, but underneath really is a whole world of friendly people waiting for their stories to be told.

Posted By Tresaun C. Lee. [Group Six; John Cassidy & Meagan Lullick]