April 13, 2022
Bag Count - 72 (!!). Cleanup MC - Temwa Wright. Music Rec - Banned Books.
One of those lovely, lovely, strong people. Normally when I say “cleanup MC” I mean a local musician that I’m recommending in the post. At today’s cleanup, though, there was a true Master of Ceremonies, and she’s not a musician — just a bad ass citizen named Temwa Wright. Temwa is the acting Zone 2 Ambassador for the group Cobbs Creek Park Cleanups, which I wrote about in my last post. When I wrote that post, I had only spoken with Rich Guffanti, the group’s co-founder and primary logistical organizer. But then I started working on a modified version of the piece for The Philadelphia Citizen, and for that version, I had the opportunity to talk with Temwa.
Lauren McCutcheon, the Citizen’s new editor, was ecstatic to hear that I was speaking with Temwa for the piece. In her words:
Temwa Wright is AMAZING. I know her through her sons, Manny and Samuel, who have been students at [omitted] (where I used to work). I met her briefly during a photo shoot with them. She's one of those lovely, lovely, strong people you just don't forget.
That should give you a sense of who we’re dealing with here. Temwa is originally from Malawi, Africa, and she’s now the Executive Director of a nonprofit called Pamoza International, which does Christian missionary and poverty alleviation work in Malawi. When she’s not busy with that, she’s raising her two sons, leading cleanups in her community, or both (this morning, she had her sons come along to the cleanup).
Here are some quotes that stood out to me from my initial interview with Temwa:
“I’m originally from Malawi, Africa. Then I moved to Washington State, then Alaska, and then Philadelphia, and I came in the Philly area around 2000. And I was really shocked with the amount of litter that was in the city. Living in Washington State and Alaska was a very different experience, those areas were very pristine. So I really was taken aback with the litter here, but I didn’t want to be part of the problem, I wanted to be part of the solution.”
“I always tell my children: never assume that someone is doing something about the problem that you see. Don’t just wait and see it day after day after day. You have the power to do something about it.”
“I hate litter, and I love nature, and I think [cleanups] are a great way to unite across differences.”
I’m particularly fond of that last quote — viewing cleanups as a way to unite across differences. This is part of why I gravitate toward Philadelphia’s trash crisis. Not only is the condition of our streets shameful — people who move here from outside the region, like Temwa, shouldn’t be shocked by the filth they encounter — but cleaning up our streets is about as unobjectionable a cause as I can think of. It’s a relatively simple issue and one that hits the poorest communities the hardest. It’s something people of all political stripes can get behind and it’s something ordinary citizens and the media already care about. There aren’t any obvious downsides to having cleaner streets. For all of these reasons and more, I sense some real possibility for change here. In an era of bitter partisanship and overwhelming political gridlock, I think it’s important to focus on unifying issues like this that offer some hope of meaningful positive change.
And change, if it’s going to come, will need to come via collaboration between civic heroes like Temwa Wright and municipal employees like Robert Gillium, who leads the District 8 Grounds Crew for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. This morning, I got to see Temwa’s strong leadership in action as she orchestrated a collaborative cleanup attended by more 20 volunteers and the District 8 Grounds Crew.
The cleanup. When I pulled into the parking lot of the Laura Sims Skate House this morning at 8 AM, Temwa and Rich Guffanti were already hard at work handing out equipment to volunteers. Buckets for garbage and recycling, trash bags, gloves, litter pickers, dollies with big trashcans strapped to them. Normally, Temwa hosts “power hour” cleanups from 8-9 on Wednesday mornings at the intersection of Catharine St. and Cobbs Creek Parkway. But today was a special occasion, as explained by Temwa in her announcement email:
“We were recently contacted by a neighbor who volunteers at Laura Sims Skate House and she and staff are planning an Easter egg hunt and sack race for this Saturday. They would like to use the green space behind the Skate House but it is full of trash and dumping. They reached out to Cobbs Creek Ambassadors for help and so I am reaching out to you to join us for a special clean up tomorrow morning behind the skate house.”
“Full of trash and dumping” doesn’t quite convey the extent of the problem — you need to see the pictures:
And if you watch this video that Temwa took, you’ll see that some homeless people are living in a tent in the woods near this site. Or, I should say, Rick and Zena are living there, a friendly couple who helped out with today’s cleanup. There was another man living in another tent not far from Rick and Zena, and — believe it or not — yet another person living inside that little white structure up against the Skate House, visible in the first picture.
At one point, Zena found a backpack in a pile of trash she was helping clean up, and she exclaimed that it was hers and that she’d been looking for it for over a year. Clearly, she and Rick have called this location home for a while now. Fortunately, Temwa had a volunteer on hand who was prepared with a strategy for treating the area’s homeless residents with the respect they deserve. Cindy LaRue, a Field Coordinator with The Friends of the Wissahickon, has a long history of experience encountering encampments during cleanups and other park improvement efforts. After noticing the encampments behind the Skate House, LaRue went to speak with Rick and Zena and the other two people living at this site. She explained to the cleanup plans to them and took note of what they claimed as possessions versus what was safe for removal.
Throughout the cleanup it became clear to me that much of the garbage behind the Skate House was left behind by homeless people who’ve inhabited the area over the years. And this, admittedly, complicates what I normally hail as a relatively simple issue. Philadelphia has a large homeless population, and when you live outside, you inevitably produce waste outside. It’s often simple to pick up trash off the street, but it’s not so simple when that street doubles as a person’s living quarters. For instance, the man living in the white structure up against the Skate House was a bit standoffish — he didn’t want to be bothered, and he didn’t want us touching his stuff. So, we cleaned as best we could around his area, and — because of the impending Easter egg hunt — LaRue contacted a park ranger who specializes in handling homeless encampments.
Working around that encampment, and receiving help from residents of the others, we were able to collect over 1,000 pounds of trash and 63 pounds of recycling from the field and forest behind the Skate House. Towards the end of the cleanup, the Parks and Rec ground crew showed up with a garbage truck and some heavy equipment to help haul away the load. Here are a series of pictures showing the trash being removed:
Overall, it was an impressive operation made possible by the persistence and diligence of Temwa Wright, Rich Guffanti, and the Cobbs Creek Park Cleanup crew. They’ve been out in their community consistently for over two years now, slowly forming a reliable network of volunteers and building trust with the Parks and Rec employees whose job is to maintain the area, but whose capacity is outmatched by the volume of trash. The cleanup this morning only took two hours, but years of sacrifice and community service went into making it possible to organize the event so effectively.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. Or, rather, it can happen overnight, but only after you’ve built the relationships and structures necessary for facilitating it. And when it comes to building all that, it sure helps to have some of those lovely, lovely, strong people like Temwa Wright involved.
Anddd some music recs. Temwa may have been today’s cleanup MC, but it’s been a while since I highlighted a local artist, so here goes. Banned Books is Philadelphia-based band that was active from 2008-2016. I forget how I stumbled across them, but I remember the name piquing my interest because, well, it’s topical, as activists from both sides of the aisle battle for control of our libraries in school board meetings and state legislatures across the country. Here’s how the band describes their sound, at least as it pertains to their self-titled 2016 album:
Sewn through a constant embedded darkness, Banned Books is fueled by a transcendent and fantastical whimsy. Where the band still takes influence from personal heroes, Deerhoof and Lightning Bolt, Banned Books approaches their songs with a breathtaking energy, locking into tight, rock grooves before falling into free improv madness. There’s a constant battle between strange, meticulously crafted structures and abrasive, improvisatory bursts of energy. Matt Dermond’s guitar sounds are intricately carved from MaxMSP patches (a computer language that builds interactive programs) on a tablet that he runs through his amp; his tendency towards subtle, precisely crafted crunch tones makes for a rich combination with drummer Zane Kanevsky’s unhinged, emotionally driven percussive style.
While the band was together, it got the chance to tour with one of its “personal heroes,” Deerhoof. They also toured with Xiu Xiu, an artist I’m familiar with by way of this spooky-yet-beautiful record of Twin Peaks soundtrack remixes. Here’s my favorite track, representative of the record’s overall spooky-beauty vibe:
Anyway, back to Banned Books. The music is, admittedly, sometimes a bit heavy on the abrasiveness, but it’s always captivating for its “unhinged” percussion, its “meticulously crafted structures,” and its energetic bursts of “improv madness.” Here are two of my favorites:
And here’s a song from their musical hero, Deerhoof, because the title is cool and the music is too:
Alright, that’s all for today. I’ll leave you with a cute cleanup selfie that Temwa took:
