Project Description
Overview
Nearly 40 years ago, Village founder Lily Yeh invited children, community leaders, artists, and educators to take a bold leap with her and reimagine their shared environment.
At that time, 75% of The Village’s current area consisted of vacant lots and abandoned properties. Over the years, Lily, Jojo, Big Man and countless neighbors transformed over 100 lots into art parks and gardens. Ten dilapidated buildings became studios and education centers.
These vibrant, awe-inspiring spaces declared the neighborhood’s inner beauty could become its external reality. The Village learned that people and place work in concert to help young people in our neighborhood imagine and pursue limitless possibilities.
Today, we are stabilizing and activating our existing parks and gardens, and embarking on exciting plans to renovate our buildings to serve for the next 100 years.
Gallery
The Village’s art parks, murals and buildings endure as a point of deep pride and inspiration in the neighborhood, and serve to impart and energize The Village’s lessons in self-actualization and creation. Each year, hundreds of students and community members work with artist teachers and mentors, as their elders did with The Village’s founders, to design and actualize their visions for a positive, thriving future. Here are few of those stories.
“We The Women”: A Film For Queen Bees
This original short film was designed and directed by the PPC Fellows. Watch as they perform an original poem, “We the Women,” written collectively with Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher. Film by Wren René.