(upbeat music) - Hey, everyone!

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Shirley Min.

- And I'm Regina Mitchell.

Keeping young minds active during the summer months can really help kids to get over the summer slump.

And if you really wanna get their attention, make whatever you're trying to teach them into a game.

That's what a local organization has done.

Placing informative art in key locations where kids pass by hoping they stop, play and learn.

(upbeat music) In a part of Philadelphia where there's less tourists and more people just trying to make it day to day, there's now some very bright art attracting attention.

- [Carrie] This installation is called play everywhere.

It's a set of installations around the neighborhood.

That's intended to highlight the rich history and incredible people who grew out of this neighborhood.

- [Regina] The pieces were created in collaboration with the residents of Brewerytown in Sharswood who wanted teachable art that could also engage children passing by.

- [Carrie] The intention was that there'd be play in non-traditional areas where kids might be walking.

And that also knowing that if you see one you might find another one throughout the neighborhood and know that that's intended for you to go play and interact.

- [Regina] Assets like peace park, which is now getting some attention because of its new residents ♪ Birds flying high.

♪ ♪ You know how I feel.

♪ Marilyn B. Coleman remembered for her role in good times.

- Well, well, well hello there Ms. Bookman.

- Hello, JJ.

May I speak with my husband please?

(laughter) - [Regina] Born and raised right here in Philly.

- As growing up as a little boy, I always said if I could get famous, I'd do things to help my people that other people won't do.

- [Regina] Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all times, walked these same streets.

Rattman says it was the residents who wanted to show the children the legacy of the area they call home by teaching them about the legends who came before them.

- [Carrie] This area is sort of a really important epicenter of great boxers, great music.

This was a jazz quarter.

Great arts, folks wanted to highlight that really rich history.

For like Don Staley.

See how high you can jump.

Compare yourself to Don Staley.

Box against Muhammad Ali, who there was some great stories about seeing him in the neighborhood.

Here you can make some rubbings like Dox Thrash and learn about Dox Thrash, where he would make art and where he lived is right two doors down from here.

In another area, highlighting the Bad Bishops.

They won a national chess competition.

Kids can sort of jump around and jump off things.

- [Regina] Because there are so many things to touch and use the installations are getting some wear and tear.

- [Carrie] It's been really fun to walk around the neighborhood and see like kids punching the punching bag or jumping up, trying to beat Don Staley's jumps.

So they're getting some wear and tear and, but for good reason.

This was a tangible project that hundreds of residents got to work on, weigh in on, so it really gave us confidence as a coalition for other things that we can do next.

- Philly will hold its first polo classic this fall in Fairmount park.

Proceeds from the inaugural event will benefit Work to Ride, a local nonprofit that exposes under-resourced kids to the sport of Kings through its polo program.

This stable tucked away in West Fairmount park is home to the community based prevention program Work to Ride.

- When I started the program, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, you know, which was work with inner city youth, teach them about horses and horsemanship.

- [Shirley] Executive director Leslie Heiner founded the hands on program in 1994.

- [Leslie] The program is income based.

It's also very relevant that the kids have to commit to being in the program for at least a year.

- [Shirley] Commit to working in the barn, caring for the horses and cleaning up after them and the reward for all that hard work, you get to ride the horses.

- Leadership, responsibility, character development.

All of those things are kind of enveloped in a whole sense of, you know, being committed to something.

- [Shirley] Work to ride also offers a polo program where Kareem Rosser learned how to play.

When Kareem got on a horse for the first time, he was only eight years old.

He didn't know it then, but his life was about to change.

- I grew up in west Philly, grew up with a single mom who raised six of us by herself.

It was hard growing up because we had very limited resources.

But once we found the organization, it opened up so many doors for us.

I started by just riding, learning how to ride.

And then eventually when I think when I was about nine or 10 or so, I picked up a polo mount for the first time.

Tons of practice and repetition eventually got me to a point to where I was able to compete at a high level.

- [Shirley] Kareem went on to lead the first all African American team to win the national interscholastic polo championship.

And later he led his Colorado State university club team to win the national title in 2015.

- [Kareem] Polo has completely changed my life, has given me so many opportunities from, you know, receiving an incredibly education to traveling the world.

Whenever I was at the stables, I was able to escape all the drama and all the violence and everything that was going on back in west Philly.

And I just felt free.

You know, I was happy, you know, I felt safe.

You know, I felt like I could go and achieve and do whatever I want when I was at the stables.

- [Shirley] Now the 29 year old is giving back by serving on Work to Rides board and organizing the inaugural Philadelphia polo classic.

- I come from a world of poverty and then I've been able to access a world, you know, where there's tons of wealth.

And I thought the Philadelphia polo classic can be a bridge where we can bring those people who really want to give back and those who really need help together.

- [Shirley] The fundraiser will help support operations as the nonprofit expands its programming.

Work to Ride is raised almost 10 million dollars since last year with plans to build an indoor arena by 2023.

Proceeds from the polo classic will keep the arena going once it's up and running.

- The arena's gonna be here.

And hopefully this time next year, you will have a totally different view of what this place is gonna look like.

It's gonna be amazing.

- I feel like I'm forever indebted to the organization, considering the number of opportunities that it's giving me, my family and all the kids here in Philadelphia.

- Last year, Kareem released his memoir crossing the line.

It's on my list of books to read.

Tickets are on sale now for the polo classic with prices starting at $25.

- Do you know of an animal that can respond to verbal cues in both English and Spanish as well as nonverbal cues?

Well, it's the therapy goats at the Philly goat project.

Take a look.

(upbeat music) - [Karen] The mission of the Philly Goat Project is to build community while creating all of these amazing experiences for people.

Our motto is goats for the greater good.

Goats make the most wonderful therapy animals because goats are herd animals that really reflect a lot of the same dynamics that most families have.

So animal assisted therapy is a type of nature based therapy.

It is much more natural.

You're not doing it in an office, which is kind of stigmatizing at times.

A lot of people find a really magical connection with the goats.

♪ Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

♪ (upbeat music) - [Karen] Especially people with special needs because our goats are trained with nonverbal cues and they're also trained to be loving with people and that really is the foundation for the human animal connection with our program.

- Kiss, kiss.

(rooster crowing) That was very sweet.

(upbeat music) - [Karen] The two types of therapy that we do here are functional skill based therapy.

- I like how you're doing that.

We're gonna buckle.

- Yeah.

- [Karen] And more relational, social, emotional based therapy.

For example, one of our kiddos has trouble walking or wants to walk a goat, but might have trouble using their hand that they're going to be more encouraged to try to walk with a goat and use their legs and use their hand or their language.

- What do you wanna him?

- You want this?

- You want this?

- I think the Philly Goat Project's a really great, great service to so many people.

The people here are lovely.

I think it's a place where she comes and she just feels comfortable.

- [Karen] We work with a lot of kids who have experienced bullying.

We've worked with a lot of families who've experienced trauma.

The kids feel confident to be in this space.

Having the experience to gain command of a goat and be able to do tricks with them and walk with them in this safe space here at the farm is something that's so rewarding for them.

This is a real thing happening in a real environment.

And so it transitions to real life in a more effective way.

And so that's more of an emotional based experience.

Many people can come and enjoy the beautiful connection with a goat at any time and it is healing no matter what.

- For years the cosmetic industry has ignored the skincare and beauty needs of multi-ethnic customers.

While local beauty brand Sabbatical Beauty is changing the game.

And joining me now is Adeline Koh the creator of Sabattical Beauty.

Adeline thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me so excited.

- Your skincare is different because one, there are many steps occasionally, but you think of skincare as this radical feminist self care.

- [Adeline] Yes.

- [Shirley] Talk to me about that a little bit more.

- So the origination of this idea that I have of self-care as a political act actually came about through the work of the black revolutionary thinker, Audrey Lord.

And she said that self-care is not for women of color.

It's not self-indulgence.

Self-care is an act of political upheaval.

It's a act of politic of taking care of yourself, it's political.

And the reason why she was saying that is because most women are socialized from a very young age to believe that taking care of themselves is not important, that it's selfish and that they instead should be taking care of everybody else.

Their husbands, their children, their parents, like everybody, but themselves.

And that is, if women continue to do that, women are not going to be able to really stand up for themselves and demand that they deserve rights and power outside the home as well, right.

- Some of the products you have here, inspired by the K beauty, Korean beauty skincare regimens.

Can you talk about some of these products here?

- Yeah, so this right here, my vacuum cleansing oil is one of my top sellers.

It's like cult beauty product.

Basically I called it vacuum because it works like a vacuum.

It sucks all the crap out of your pores.

- [Shirley] Ooh.

- [Adeline] basically.

(laughter) - [Shirley] Yeah, I like it.

- [Adeline] So it's really good for taking off makeup and it's really good for congested skin.

It takes it everything out without painful extractions.

Marine serum here, that was the very first product I ever made.

I call it, there's a beauty brand called La Mer.

And I call it La Mer on steroids basically because it's like got their fermented sea kelp in it, but it has like everything you could possibly want from the ocean, like five different kinds of seaweeds, including more fermented seaweed and Hawaiian sea salts, a ton of like marine ingredients that are really healing and great for your skin.

The snail serum here has snail extract in it.

Snails are, snails crawl over all these rocks and branches and tear themselves all the time.

Their musin, which is the mucus that comes out of the snail, helps them heal those micro tears in their skin really quickly.

And so it helps human skin as well to heal inflammation and irritation really quickly.

- So I know that we haven't touched on all of these, but a lot of your products have a higher concentration of active ingredients then maybe we might find in the store shelves or in a big box beauty store.

- Yes.

- Tell me more about that.

- So when I say that as a higher concentration of active ingredients, I'm specifically meaning botanical active ingredients, so herbs, things that support your skin, in a more gentle way.

- That are popular too in Asia.

- That are very popular in Asia, yes.

Like most things that you would get from Sephora, for example, from a non-Asian beauty brand, they'll have things in it that will improve your skin, but can be kind of harsh like acids, for example, or retinol is another example.

It will change your skin and make it better, but it will also kind of irritate it at the same time.

The herbs that I have in my skin, the high amounts of herbs I have in my skin will support your skin so that, I also put retinol and acids in my products, but your skin will also be supported so it won't be red and irritated when you use the products.

- Now I know you were inspired by Asian beauty skincare, but the skincare line is not only for Asian people, correct?

It's for everybody.

- Yes, yes - Yes correct.

It's a common misconception that Asian skincare is just for Asian people.

It's Asian skincare because it is using a lot of Asian herbal ingredients.

And also it's Asian skincare because it's influenced by Asian beauty and the concept of different skincare steps and the ritual involved in different skincare steps.

- So where can people buy Sabbatical?

- So we can talk, you can buy online sabbaticalbeauty.com.

And we have a studio in South Philly in the Bach building where we hand make every single product.

And we also have a little studio, part of the studio is a little retail space where you can come and try every product.

What I say is the really nice thing is that there are very few brands that you can buy the product from the very person who made it.

And that's very likely that the person who you, who sells you the product is the person who's hands made the product, or at least labeled the product.

- Right, okay.

Well, Adeline, this is fascinating.

I've already got my list of things to buy.

(laughter) Thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you.

(bright, jazz music) - Loomen Labs, we are a zero waste and science based candle and Selter lab.

It actually has a pretty funny origin.

We atempted to make candles for our moms for Mother's day.

And it was just a really fun, enjoyable process.

And we think it's a really cool and interesting thing to share with everyone.

- We decided to order a few more candle supplies, mixing our own ingredients in our kitchen.

And while we were interested in making our own candles, we were more interested in seeing what other people could come up with.

So we thought that if we could bring those materials to the people and give them the basic instructions on candle making that they could come up with their very own candle and also walk away with some memories that are sustainable to them.

- Loomen is the unit measurement for light.

Labs, of course, attributes to the chemistry and scientific based nature of our store.

I have a degree in chemical engineering.

Obviously there's a lot of different components where science comes in and the beakers we serve our shelters in and the separatory funnels that we use for our fragrance oils and our graduated cylinders that we use to help measure their actual fragrance soils as well.

- [Jordan] The first step is making your reservation and how many candles you'd like to make because the options are really limitless during your 90 minute experience.

We pick out our candle jars together as a group, our scents as a group, we decided to name all of our scents after Philadelphia neighborhoods.

We even have some dyes that you can mix or match into your candle.

So you really walk away with something that is completely your own.

It's just a way to talk to your neighbors and your community a little more.

- Our past guests, they write down their recipes in our recipe book.

We just thought it was a great way to see the creativity of everyone in a documented form.

And we've evolved it into this lab log that's now hanging on our wall and our guests can add their own recipes too.

- [Jordan] I think the best part about Loomen is that it's a one of a kind experience.

For each reservation at Loomen Labs we also plant a tree.

So the tree will be planted in our Loomen Labs forest.

We've been partnering with Conserve National Forests in Thailand to make that happen.

Right now, our forest has about 1000 trees in it.

Recently we started adopting our very own trees back for our customers so they can even watch their trees grow in real time and see exactly how much carbon you've also sequestered in it.

So you really get a full eco-friendly experience at Loomen Labs.

- We picked out our candle jars.

We picked out our scents.

We mixed them all together.

Poured the wax in and they came out great.

- This was a gift for my mom making our own little candles.

We picked out our own scents.

We made little seltzers, which was cute.

We just had the best time.

- This is my first time ever making a candle.

And it was an amazing experience.

It was a lot of fun and I feel like it's something anybody can do, which makes it an even better experience for everyone.

So thank you, Looman Labs.

- [Jeff] It's been kind of incredible, just the journey we've been on.

We've had over 2000 guests come in through our door and make their own candles.

It's been really rewarding just to see the receptiveness of everyone, to all of our efforts.

- Beer isn't the only thing on the menu to celebrate Oktoberfest.

- We learn about a few other cuisines and food and culture with Kei Lani Palmisano.

(upbeat music) - [Raymond] Oktoberfest started first as a Royal Bulgarian wedding.

It was in 1810.

They would celebrate his anniversary year after year which kind of coincided with the traditional beer brewing cycles.

So you could really only brew beer in the springtime and in a fall time, it was too hot, too cold for the yeast to survive.

So what they would do is they would brew a boatload of beer in March time.

It was called a meriton and they would store them in their cellars, their caves.

And then in the fall time, they would do the same thing.

Darker, higher alcohol beers or winter seasonal, if you will.

And they now had to make room in their cellars and caves to store their fall winter beers.

So they had to get rid of their March summer beers.

They're like, well hey, we have a wedding anniversary celebration.

We have a whole lot of beer left over.

Let's just put two and two together.

And that's kind of how that started.

- [Kei Lani] Walking into Frankfurt hall is like literally walking into a German Hoff.

- [Raymond] It's a normal industrial building that was converted into a German beer hall, as you see.

It's mostly outside, part three quarters of seating is outside it.

We got picnic benches that are imported from Germany.

And we specialize in all things German.

Food, beer schopps.

We try to have a nice variety of different German beer styles.

Your average beer drinkers familiar with Octoberfest beer and Hefeweizen.

But there's so much more when it comes to German beer.

We have dark lagers, light lagers, filtered, unfiltered, wheat beers that are dark and light and filtered unfiltered, fruity wheat beers, sours, conche, (inaudible), you name it.

There's a whole, whole array of them.

- Oftentimes when we think of German beer, what comes to mind is Oktoberfest.

When people wanna celebrate Oktoberfest, like what types of foods are they having along with what kinds of beer.

- Oktoberfest is itself is certainly a beer centric festival.

So we have two different styles of Oktoberfest.

We have the old traditional meriton Oktoberfest beer.

Meriton, again, they going back to the March beers and then a wiesn Octoberfest beer.

And traditionally when Oktoberfest started, it was a Amber colored lagger that was brewed March.

So they tried to make it little bit more approaching to your to average beer drinker.

So they changed the color from an Amber lagger to a blonde lagger and this is now what's served at the festival today.

- [Kei Lani] We have these delicious German beers.

What do we pair it with?

- [Raymond] Well if you ever make it to Munich at the Oktoberfest festival, you'll certainly see these two things.

We have the brez'n pretzel or large Bavarian pretzel served with oaxaca, which is a room temperature kind of a cream cheese with a lot of paprika and onion in it.

Then right here, we have the swine Hawks rotisserie pork shank slow roasted for several hours and then cooked off at a higher temperature, it's got the skin, the crackling still on it.

So it's crispy on the outside, salty, and then once you cut into it, you'll see the fatty juicy meat and it's cooked with the bone in it.

So the bone marrow is cooked along with it and brings a little extra flavor and tenderness to it.

And we paired that with the spaetzle, German traditional egg noodles and the sauerkraut, of course.

Can't go without the sauerkraut.

Then we got a little bit of salt and caraway on the side and spicy yellows zest mustard.

Chirz!

- While you may know of Philadelphia's ties to the Quakers, did you know that many of the Quakers who first settled here were from Wales and Wales culture has had a huge influence in our area ever since.

Here to tell us more is Catrin Brace, one of the organizers of Welsh week in Philadelphia.

Welcome Catrin.

- (foreign language) - See, see, I knew you were gonna... (laughter) - And what does that mean?

- That says, hello.

- Oh.

- How are you?

- Well (foreign language) I like it.

I had no idea before meeting you that there were so many ties between Wales and the city of brotherly love.

In fact, they wanted to name all of Pennsylvania New Wales at one point.

- That's right.

William Penn inherited this large tract of land from the king, then Charles II, the English king, because his father owed, sorry, the king owed of his father, a lot of money.

So, and William Penn was a good chap and he wanted to give this land to people who were repressed and cause Quakers at that time were very much oppressed by the parliament, the English parliament, and they weren't allowed to worship in public.

Otherwise they'd be thrown into jail.

And also people were sort of anti Welsh language and the Welsh Quakers were Quakers and Welsh speakers.

So William Pen said to them, I'll give you 40,000 acres of land in this new area, in the new world.

And that's what happened.

- And now we have three centuries of Welsh culture here in Pennsylvania, and there's gonna be a huge celebration at the end of August.

Can you tell us about that?

- Yes, it's centered in or in and around Philadelphia.

We'll have hundreds of Welsh people from America, Canada, and Wales who will come here to celebrate all kinds of Welsh culture.

I'll go through some of the main events if you'd like.

- Sure.

- We kick off with a family fun day in Fort Mifflin.

They're doing a Welsh track day and there'll be all sorts of interesting things for kids and families to do with a Welsh flavor.

And then during the week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, that's the first, second, and 3rd of September, we will have all sorts of activities going on in the Double Tree Hilton Hotel in South Broad.

For instance, one thing that some of the viewers might be interested in is genealogy, because we know that there are a lot of people in this area who are of Welsh descent.

And so you can come and get a free consultation with our genealogists in the Double Tree to find out more about how you go about tracing your ancestry.

- That's such an awesome gift.

There'll be history tours, lots of food and drinks.

So many things for people to enjoy.

I'm sure they'll wanna go out to enjoy this.

So thank you so much, Catrin and Welsh week will run from August 27th through September 4th, but we're not done.

Shirley is going to join us in a little while to play a little game we like to call... - [Announcer] Welsh words.

- Shirley, do you speak Welsh?

- No.

(laughs) - Good, good, I'm glad because this will make the game a little bit, you know, more fair.

So Catrin here speaks fluent Welsh.

- Okay.

- And she has a few words that she's going to say, and then she wants us to pronounce them and see how close we get to the way the word is actually said, correct?

- Okay, okay.

- All right.

All right.

- So go ahead, Katherine.

What's our first word.

- [Shirley] I'm looking at it in our prompter and I'm gonna guess (foreign language)?

- [Regina] And I'm gonna say (foreign language).

- [Catrin] Well, you're both wrong.

It's (foreign language) - (foreign language)?

- (foreign language)?

- Now is that a car?

- That's the name of Wales?

That's Wales in Welsh.

- Oh, (foreign language).

- (foreign language).

- Okay, oh boy.

- All right, next word.

(foreign language) - [Shirley] (foreign language).

(laughter) - [Catrin] Nope, sorry girls.

- [Shirley] Oh, neither of us?

- [Catrin] (foreign language) - (foreign language).

- And that is?

- Yeah, well it looks like it hasn't got any vowels in it.

- No, no, not at all.

- But y is a vowel in Welsh so, - Oh okay.

- It means health hospital, by the way.

- Oh okay.

- I will never make it there if I get sick.

- Wait, say it again.

(foreign language)?

- (foreign language).

- (foreign language), okay.

- All right, you're up Shirley.

- Wow.

So many letters.

(laughter) Okay.

(foreign language).

- [Regina] Yeah, what she said.

(laughter) I'm gonna go with (foreign language), yeah.

- Not bad.

(foreign language).

- Oh.

- It looks like it's got loads of vowels in it, doesn't it?

- Yeah it does.

- And it actually means competition.

I thought that was quite relevant.

- Oh, see, you were in this (foreign language).

- Okay.

(foreign language)?

- [Regina] And I'm gonna say (foreign language)?

- [Catrin] No.

(foreign language) - Oh, geez.

Catrin what are you doing to me!?

(laughter) - We have two letters in Welsh.

- Okay.

- Ch and double L. They are letters, even though you know, they're single letters.

They've got two letters in there and the ch is, and the double L is.

(letter sounds) - My tongue doesn't make these sounds.

- (foreign language) actually means slates, which I thought was relevant again, because the Welsh came to the slate industry in Pennsylvania in 1840s.

- Oh, see.

- Which was not far from here.

So I thought that was relevant too.

- Oh my goodness.

- I gotta practice that one.

- Wait, say it one more time.

Say one more time for me.

- (foreign language) - I'm done, I'm done.

- Wow, okay.

- All right.

And our last word, I'm going to say it is (foreign language) Go ahead Shirley.

- [Shirley] The word looks like the cat sat on the keyboard, but I'm gonna go.

(laughter) (foreign language) - [Catrin] Okay its (foreign language).

It's the longest place name in the world.

- [Regina] thank you so much.

That was so much fun.

- [Katherine] Thank you.

Well done.

- Okay.

some surprising answers there.

I definitely, I went oh for four.

- I don't even think I got that many.

I mean, it was, I really need to sit at home and practice my (letter sounds) - Yeah.

- Like, yeah.

- Making that, yeah.

- It's not easy.

- Not at all.

Well, thank you all for joining us.

- We do have a brief programming note for you.

We will not be here for a few weeks.

- That's right.

But we will be working on some new stories.

- And we'll see you on October 7th.

Goodnight, everyone.

- Bye.

(upbeat music)