(upbeat music) - [Shirley] Philly puts its spin on a 19th century game that originated in China.

- [Vance] We can now play when we want.

- [Shirley] Using martial arts to teach and enrich minds.

- [Salvatore] Use it to help people achieve living up to their fullest potential.

- [Shirley] Plus, this adaptive car is giving children a chance to have fun being kids.

- [Luandra] It helps 'em get places faster.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for tuning in.

So glad you could join us.

Assistive technology is helping to improve the lives of many.

See how a partnership between Easterseals and Thomas Jefferson University is allowing children to enjoy childhood.

(upbeat music) - For many of our students here at Easterseals, being able to activate a switch to operate a toy is really important for their development.

- With a toy like that, Dy'Mir enjoys riding it.

It helps him get places faster.

He feels like he has control.

With the adaptive car, Dy'Mir can join in on the play.

He could twist, turn, all types of ways, and move fast.

- Make him fit in with other kids.

So if he could do what other people could do, then he just like them.

He's a wiz.

He figures everything out.

He got in that car and he just take off.

- It helps them have self-efficacy.

Being able to activate something, make something happen in their environment, make a change.

They're having fun, they're playing.

- [Luandra] It helps with self-esteem.

- Yay!

- High five, yay.

(upbeat music) - [Diane] This collaboration between Jefferson University and our classrooms, they're providing this awesome ability for our students to learn different skills with these mobility devices.

- There's a longstanding relationship between industrial design and the rehab science programs here, both occupational therapy and physical therapy.

The project originated in some conversations between Dr.

Muth and Sarah Garman, who's the physical therapist at Easterseals.

- When we collaborate with industrial designers, architects, et cetera, we can change entire communities.

And for me, that's what's really important to share with my students and for them to have that eye-opening experience, that what we can create when we work with other design professionals, it's a real game changer.

- The adaptations that we created for the cars were things like raising the back rests up, 'cause a lot of the kids with these disabilities have postural issues.

The students designed both padding and bolstering systems to support the kids.

Some of the kids could use the foot pedals and the joysticks, but others could not.

We actually have adaptive joysticks that are different shapes, and the students very cleverly came up with this interchangeable system so that the therapists working with a kid could easily unsnap the joystick and snap in a new one.

Students made a removable footrest that would keep the kids' feet on the car.

There's a tray system that puts buttons in front of the child, so all they have to do is hit the buttons, to get the car moving forward and back.

We actually rewire the cars to actually make them more ambidextrous.

As a professor, it doesn't get any better than this, because the students get really excited by seeing the benefit.

It's really transformational.

- [Stephanie] To give a child the ability to move around independently, interact with their environment, interact with their peers without a parent or a therapist having to hold them, it's life-changing.

And as a physical therapist, as a mom, it just resonates.

I get goosebumps.

- [Luandra] That makes me feel great as a mom, that Dy'Mir could do a lot of stuff.

(all cheering and applauding) - Go, Dy'Mir.

Go, go, go!

- Over the river, we go to learn more about a cultural destination on the campus of Rowan University.

(performers clapping) - One, two, three, four.

- An important aspect of any campus is that it's artistically and culturally vibrant.

That's something that we are uniquely positioned to do.

We contribute to the Delaware Valley as a whole, but especially in South Jersey, it's important that we are bringing the best performers, the best artists here.

And our informal motto is that you shouldn't have to cross the river to see and hear the best.

We are in the courtyard of Wilson Hall, which is one of three buildings that we use on campus.

And this is the home of our dance and music programs and also part of our theater program.

- This is Pfleeger Concert Hall.

It is the home of the College of the Arts at Rowan University.

There are 810 seats here, and it is active year round.

We bring major performing artists that span from different identities, different places, and perform for both the public and are on on-campus communities made up of students and faculty and staff.

We're looking for those artists that are just as committed as we are to education and to mentoring and to outreach.

We partner with public schools to bring our artists to put on assemblies during the school day to boys and girls clubs to senior centers.

We are just trying to make the most out of the fact that we're bringing an artist to this region.

- We are Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum, in close proximity to downtown Glassboro.

We are open to the public.

We are free.

We do not charge admission.

Right now, we have an exhibition by internationally celebrated artist of Vanessa German.

She's multifaceted.

She's a sculptor, but she's also a performer.

She's a poet, she's a shaman.

She talks about her work in terms of what moves her, how the materials speak to her.

Vanessa is very much inspired by spiritualism, self-healing, meditation, all elements that she feels are important for self-growth and mindfulness.

They're figurative pieces that she refers to as power figures.

She's never interested in being very concrete about what a piece means.

She wants the viewer to discover it.

- I've been exposed to so many different artists and different kinds of work that I've never seen before, and I do feel like that's really enriching for me, especially because, occasionally, I get to be a part of it.

I get to help put up exhibits, and I even helped make a garland for an old friend that was part of a show before.

And so there was just like a little piece of me involved in that show, and I really enjoyed that.

- Our next exhibition will be Qualeasha Wood, the Philadelphia-based artist, originally from New Jersey.

She is blending the analog and the digital.

She pulls posts and images of herself from social media and then she weaves them into a textile form and intentionally adds glitches and mistakes and a static as a way to amplify the distortion that happens when experiencing social media and those types of platforms.

And that will be opening November 15th.

- This fall is all about family audiences and access.

Moving into November, we are celebrating Dia de Muertos with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, and they'll be bringing their original Dia de Muertos production here for a Sunday matinee, which is also free for children 12 and under.

Moving into the winter and spring, we'll be hosting Ragamala Dance Company.

They are experts in bharatanatyam, which is a South Indian classical dance, and they'll be working with students and performing an original production called Sacred Earth, combining sacred ritual art forms.

And it tells us about the fragile relationship between us as humans and nature.

I love the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar.

(Indian music playing) And then I'm very excited to be hosting Mnozil Brass.

hailing from Vienna.

They're a very special ensemble.

Not only are they made up of some of the world's best brass musicians, but they're also very silly and very comedic, and that's what they're known for.

They are working on completing a brand new show that's going to be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the life and work of Johann Strauss.

Rowan's Pfleeger Concert Hall is one of very few venues in the U.S.

that's going to be presenting this show, and it's very special for us.

We'll be finishing our season with a big Philly finish this year.

We are hosting the Philly Pops.

It'll be a celebration of the familiar film scores that we all know and love.

The arts at Rowan is really a cultural destination for individuals throughout the region that are looking for something close to home to do that might show them the world.

And I hope that to audiences of the Marie Rader Series, each event feels like a gift and like an invitation to gather in a very special way.

- The century's old game of mahjong is experiencing a renaissance, and now, there's a new clubhouse where you can play mahjong and build community one tile at a time.

(light music) Philly Mah-Jawn Mahjong Club started out with a handful of members meeting wherever they could.

They didn't have a permanent space until March 2025 when they opened this clubhouse in Old City.

(light music) - We don't have enough third spaces in the community.

Just a place for people to hang out and make friends, build community.

We talk about it a lot, but we just don't have that place.

And here, it doesn't matter who you are, whatever your race, ethnicity, age, and everything, you just come and play.

(upbeat music) - It is been great because we can now play when we want, as long as we want.

It's been fantastic.

I'm not the best player here, but I keep coming back because it's really, you come here for the friends, to see people, to talk, to get out of the house.

- [Shirley] Philly Mah-Jawn meets twice a week in two locations, here in Old City and in King of Prussia.

On this night, some of the club's OG members got to sign the mural, really making the space their own.

(upbeat music) Mahjong is a four player strategic game using tiles.

It requires skill and luck.

- I grew up playing the Hong Kong version.

There's a lot of different versions out there.

There's a bunch of different Chinese versions.

There's the Japanese version, there's even like a Filipino version, as well as its own American version.

- [Shirley] Club President Mike Lee tells me they play the Japanese version at Philly Mah-Jawn, as he attempts to teach me the game.

- The other set of tiles are currently being shuffled.

- Oh, okay.

- And start playing right away.

- This is so cool.

(laughs) - It helps speed up the game.

- Yeah.

- So much.

So ultimately, your goal in the game, and this is the same between a lot of the different East Asian mahjongs is you're trying to form sets of three.

- Okay.

- A set can either consist of a sequence: 3, 4, 5 or 5, 6, 7 or a three of a kind.

And everything has to be in its same suit.

So over the course of the game, you're just trying to collect these sets of three, along with one matching pair.

- [Shirley] Mahjong originated in China in the 1800s.

Often compared to a mix of rummy and poker, this centuries old game is experiencing a surge in popularity across the country and worldwide.

The game was played in the popular movie "Crazy Rich Asians," after which mahjong clubs everywhere saw a bump.

And then there was COVID.

- A lot of people found mahjong from online sources.

There was video games that had these mahjong mini-games embedded in it.

And when people were playing the games, they seemed to enjoy it.

So after COVID lifted, people would seek us out and say, "Hey, I played this game online, and I wanted to learn how to play it now."

So right after COVID, our membership grew fairly exponentially.

- [Shirley] Mike says 150 members have visited the clubhouse in the past five months, but adds, there's still a lot of room to grow.

- [Mike] I love to see the different types of people, and everyone has their own goals, right?

Some people just want to just wanna play with friends, and some people want to be the very best.

It's really nice to see these kind of people mix and match.

I love seeing community grow.

(upbeat music) - If you're a beginner, you can learn how to play mahjong between 12:00and 2:00 on Saturdays.

And Philly Mahjong is holding a national tournament in November for their serious players.

Our next story combines education, culture, and athletics as an empowerment tool for all.

(upbeat music) - I had this idea that I could use martial arts to have a higher role in society.

Zhang Sah offers an umbrella of educational opportunities, and all of our education programs include martial art training.

(upbeat music) The word "zhang sah" was dubbed by my teacher, Grandmaster Soon-ho Chang.

We later met with a monk in Insadong, South Korea, and he created the square logo in the center of that for the school.

And we translated it to mean "brave scholar."

Look, between fighting in a ring or fighting in a tournament, saving somebody when they're in distress, or being in the military, what's the utility of martial arts in peace time in a civil society?

And my answer was to use it to support the positive development of youth and help people achieve living up to their fullest potential.

And it turns out that that idea is kind of in alignment with what some of the old great masters had in mind when they started creating these systems in China, in Japan, and in South Korea over 100 years ago.

(upbeat music) We're a multidisciplinary martial art program.

We do judo, taekwondo, karate, aikido.

And what we did was we started the first martial art-themed school-aged childcare program.

So there was plenty of kids that could benefit not only the intrinsic values that we teach in the martial art, but their families could benefit because we can support them.

We continue to do it at work.

We've been a partner with the school district of Philadelphia.

We're serving about 10 schools throughout the city, including our community-based locations.

We're a part of PHLpreK.

So as you know, we help kids get ready for school as well.

Last year, we served approximately 1100 students during the school year, unreplicated, children in the program aged between 3 and 14.

And then teenagers and adults, all inclusive.

Our tenets are benevolence, courtesy, humility, integrity, self-control, perseverance, indomitable spirit, and stewardship.

All of these are anchors, and it transfers from the dojo into the educational group.

(upbeat music) - I've been here for 20 years.

There's no other school that I know of that runs anything remotely like this.

I teach Chinese medicine through movement.

This particular form is called qing long gim, and it's the green dragon water form.

So it moves a lot like water.

- We've been able to demonstrate the utility of martial art in this educational and social setting.

And I believe that there's room for it to become a full-blown academic program.

Maybe K to 12, maybe secondary.

It would be great if we could develop something like that here in the U.S.

And I'm not saying that it's going to be us, but I think that we're a voice that might lead others down this path.

Quality is something to be aspired towards.

(dramatic music) There's an old saying, "The master puts their finger in the water just to enjoy the ripples."

And I will never refer to myself as a master.

I'm a student of martial arts, but I see so many ripples.

- Zhang Sah!

- A community formed over 20 years ago is keeping the Afro-Brazilian martial art form, known as capoeira, alive in Philadelphia.

Producer Kayla Watkins and videographer Sarah Moses from our digital studio bring us the story.

- Capoeira is an expression of life, with soul, with style, with attitude, with determination, tenacity, and humility.

Practitioners of capoeira play in orders.

That's what we do.

- [Shirley] FICA Philadelphia is one par of an international organization, dedicated to preserving the tradition of Capoeira Angola.

- So I get a lot of inspiration to teach from watching my students move, watching my students sing, play, watching a new learner pick things up.

And you're like, "Wow."

The way that they picked that up, I could pursue that way of passing it a little bit more.

Or the way that they didn't pick it up.

- [Shirley] Capoeira Angola is a manifestation of the African diaspora, influenced by rituals from a variety of African cultures.

Enslaved people in Brazil were banned from playing capoeira in the 19th century.

But the movement persisted, until capoeira schools were finally legalized in the 1930s.

- Brazil was more challenging, 'cause they're last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery, all the way up to roughly 1890, 1889.

And then shortly after that, there were laws that prohibited people of color, people African descent from gathering, you're not allowed to gather.

And gathering means have a birthday celebration, a funeral, a wedding.

It become educated, you know, attend school.

So this need to be able to operate under oppression and move in a certain way without kind of getting the alarm sounded.

And also, just moving in a, in a certain way, where people have their guard down.

Most folks come into capoeira is we have three main elements.

Three main aspects, right?

So we have our movement, we have our music, and we have our song.

Being able to talk and express and share what capoeira is, that's also part of it.

We're in North Philadelphia at the MLK Community Center.

We've been here for probably more than 20 years.

We are able to teach classes for our community.

We're able to provide workshops for groups of all ages.

The berimbau is extremely important.

(indistinct) even mentioned that the berimbau is the primitive or the first mastery of the capoeira.

To play this instrument, to be able to connect with this instrument, whether you're playing it or whether it's being played for you, if it's being played for you, can you connect your movement?

Can you connect your body?

Can you connect your thoughts?

If you're playing it, can you be supportive?

Can you be guiding, right?

All these things happen when you play this instrument, okay?

Right, so we have quite a bit responsibility when we play biding berimbau.

Quite a bit responsibility, alright?

Alright, so that breaks over.

Pick that berimbau up.

Open tone, I'm not gonna use the dobrao, open tone.

(berimbau playing) Y'all missing something.

Show the attitude.

All right, you're here, you see?

Okay, all right, so let's try it.

(instruments playing continues) Yay!

We start with trust, and then Brazilian-Portuguese word that we have here with people that care about each other, but I guess like a strong representation, carino, right?

So we have this way that you connect with people.

We have that strong connection.

This sweat equity, you know?

I was here when you started.

You were here when I started.

That type of thing.

Okay, make that V. Way over there, and way over there.

More over there, more over there.

Yes.

Yeah, that matters.

Meia lua.

Okay.

Meia lua.

Okay, so you wanna do our cross and then armada.

Okay, do your cross, armada.

So capoeira, there's a need, especially for marginalized folk, people who unfortunately do not have resources or power.

You cannot always approach things in the direct way that folks that do have all the resources in power tend to approach things, right?

Maybe I could adapt something.

And then there are moments where you can see that there's a struggle.

And one of the definitions of capoeira could include the word 'struggle.'

And it's all right.

It's all right to not be so confident right away in everything.

- I think in this world, it's difficult for people to make connections with people around them, with things that are really meaningful and real.

It can be the fabric of your world, your family, your community.

And it's important to maintain that.

It's important to keep making sure it's available for the youth, for the children that are coming up, that they know, "Hey, we have this really welcoming and really supportive world around us."

And also, this option to make ourselves better by learning these activities, these traditions that are still really valid and very empowering.

I think it's important to maintain it, to continue the legacy of capoeira.

- Yay!

(instruments playing) (pupils singing indistinctly) - And that is our show.

Have a good night, everyone.

(upbeat music)