The first interview I conducted was with Tim Dunn, someone who has been involved in West Philadelphia for almost two decades, and has worked with many nonprofits throughout his time here. He grew up in Darby, Pennsylvania, and left briefly for a year of college, but since then has maintained a steady presence in this neighborhood.
He started first volunteering at the soup kitchen at Saint Mary's Church and found community in non sectarian Buddhist practice in West Philadelphia. The time he spent in these spaces was an introduction to a greater understanding of the wide variety of religious practice that goes on in the neighborhood.
Later on, Tim became a social worker and found a job at Project Home, a Philadelphia based non profit that works to provide housing for families and individuals who are unsheltered. “They have brought people off of the street that I thought were never going to [make it]. It’s very powerful work. It’s changed a lot of lives, including my own.”
When asked how he would describe a community that practices mutual aid he said, “People who aren’t in a bubble. The dominance of capitalism isolates us from each other… The pressures of life tend to make us feel powerless, or just like everything is too hard. My favorite quote from Kafka is ‘there is a region between community and isolation, and that is where I have taken route.’ We are all isolated in different ways… but we can see what's going on, and we’re all pulled to do stuff: to make a difference. But, your work is not going to be productive unless you’re also cultivating yourself.”
My second interview was with Tony Larsen. He has worked with Food Not Bombs for over two decades. Food Not Bombs is an organization with chapters all over the country that provide home cooked meals and food to those in need. They are not a non-profit, just a nationwide collaborative effort. Tony says that at any Food Not Bombs chapter, “You’d get a meal and usually meet some people who were involved in radically-leaning things, often on a grassroots level.” He was born and raised in West Philadelphia, but was introduced to Food Not Bombs in San Francisco while working with high schoolers. “I got together with them [a Food Not Bombs chapter in San Francisco] and we cooked tons of food and served tens of thousands of people [at a rally against the Iraq war]. And I was just someone chopping garlic… I was this young person seeing the level of what they were doing on an all volunteer basis.”
After Tony ended up back in Philly he involved himself in the West Philadelphia Food Not Bombs chapter. “At demonstrations, when there’s food, it creates a feeling of community. It binds the people who are out there together: we’re not just reacting [to social justice issues] but we’re here because we're a community. The building of community is a crucial aspect of these singular struggles." He believes that, “A community that is engaged in mutual aid is one that is able to organize around what’s important to them. Mutual aid is a practice for being resilient.”
When asked why he believes neighborhood organizations are important he said, “When there are national emergencies, like covid, we had things in place and were organized enough to help a lot of people in the community… and it was great. It felt like all the little things we’d been doing for years that sometimes seem meaningless… it’s like oh, that’s why we’re doing this. When shit really hits the fan we can react well and we have a network of people.”
My last interviews were with kids from The Jubilee School that I have been working with for the past five months. First I talked about community with August and Bryce, who are both in kindergarten. They said, “A community is a place where people work and grow and live and play together. Every community needs a basketball court so kids can learn to work together.” And, “Helping each other in a community is good so that people don’t get hurt.”
Next I interviewed Nylaa and Malaiya, who are in third grade. Nylaa said, “Community means leadership and being a good sport,” and Malaiya said, “The world wouldn’t work if there was no community.”