Black History Month event will connect community groups to celebrate the arts and clean up a Philly block
The event includes a block clean-up, free lunch, and a visual arts workshop.
This Saturday, the first weekend of Black History Month, the Blues Babe Foundation, the Friends of the Tanner House, and Tree House Books, all nonprofit organizations centered in North Philadelphia, will work together for a community cleanup project near the historic Tanner House.
The cleanup will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on the block of the Henry Ossawa Tanner House, a National Historic Landmark that honors the first Black American artist to earn international acclaim. Tanner once lived at 2908 W. Diamond St. with his family.
While adults are cleaning up, Tree House Books will bring its bookmobile to the block and have storytelling and free books to give away to children.
Chris Rogers, of the Friends of the Tanner House, said the collaboration stems from a $150,000 planning grant that the Mellon Foundation awarded to the Friends group and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) last year. The grant helped the Friends group get input from community members and organizations on what should happen at a refurbished Tanner House.
“These are the building blocks for how you sustain a community.”
“This collaborative project is part of the Friends of the Tanner House’s Community Partnership Network, where we are focusing on other community organizations that are already doing work in the 19121 and 19132 zip codes,” Rogers said.
“We want to tap into organizations that already have a base so we can talk about the Tanner House. It’s also about us appreciating what already exists in the neighborhood.”
After the block cleanup, volunteers will be invited to the offices of the Blues Babe Foundation, at 2233 N. Broad St., for an afternoon of events from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be free lunch, a talk about the Tanner family and their accomplishments, and other history discussions, as well as a free visual arts workshop with artist Misty Sol.
The Blues Babe Foundation was founded by Grammy-winning artist and Philadelphia native Jill Scott.
Paul Jackson, community liaison and volunteer manager at Blues Babe, said the foundation has long worked with other nonprofit groups that are trying to provide services to people in need in the city.
“In a city like Philadelphia that is probably the most impoverished large city in America, it’s very important for various organizations and activists who are serving the same demographics to work together,” Jackson said.
Shakira King, the community educator for Tree House Books, said her organization gave away 92,000 free books last year. She said Tree House Books, at 1430 W. Susquehanna Ave., is located near the Blues Babe Foundation.
“We’re neighbors, we are right around the corner from Blues Babe,” King said. Last year, Tree House Books hosted a Friends of the Tanner House program.
Although Tree House Books operates in a store front, it is not a commercial bookstore because it gives away all of its books that it receives from donations.
It also has an after-school program and a “Words on Wheels” program that delivers books to children during the summer, she said.
» READ MORE: Once ‘the center of the Black intellectual community in Philadelphia,’ the Henry O. Tanner House could be demolished
Saving a National Historic Landmark
The Friends of the Tanner House embarked on a campaign to raise money to preserve the Tanner House, which is a National Historic Landmark because it was Tanner’s home.
Last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the Henry O. Tanner House in North Philadelphia on its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
However, the Friends group plans to broaden the historic recognition of the house to include the achievements of several other accomplished members of Henry Tanner’s family:
His father, Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a clergyman in the African Methodist Episcopal Church who also edited the Christian Recorder newspaper in the 19th century;
his mother, Sarah Elizabeth Tanner, who emancipated herself by escaping from enslavement as a child with the help of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society;
his sister, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, who was the first woman of any race to be certified to practice medicine in Alabama where she was recruited to work at Tuskegee Institute;
and his niece, Sadie T. M. Alexander, who was a Philadelphia civil rights lawyer and the first Black American to earn doctorate degree in economics.
The Friends of the Tanner House organized to save the house from neglect and deterioration, which The Inquirer first wrote about in December 2021.
Rogers said the Friends of the Tanner House will continue to work with other community organizations throughout the year and focus on the themes reflected by members of the Tanner family: Faith, family, freedom, arts, health, and education.
“We want to take those themes and look at the contemporary sense of who’s holding the mantle for those areas in North Philadelphia today,” Rogers said. “These are the building blocks for how you sustain a community.”
On Monday, the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse in East Fairmount Park will also hold a celebration of the legacy of Henry O. Tanner when it hosts a special opening day event for 150 third-graders from Philadelphia schools for the playground’s fourth annual Leaders and Legends Black History Month program.
The exhibit also honors other Black history makers, including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who in November was elected Philadelphia’s first female mayor, and the late Philadelphia School Superintendent Constance E. Clayton.
The exhibit officially opens to the public on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The exhibit will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, through Feb. 29.
Register here to volunteer for the Saturday Blues Babe Foundation cleanup and lunch. Or call 267-324- 5600 for more information.