Philadelphia History | Scene Through the Lens

The one-sentence bio I include at the bottom of my column each week says it all about my work: “an emphasis on politics, history, and art.”

Everything about politics has been a historic event over the past few weeks, and covering it has certainly allowed me to highlight its art.

The day President Biden dropped out of the reelection race, I went to the campaign office I had been to a few weeks earlier. I had no idea what I would find there, and (as you might expect) they wouldn’t let me in.

So I waited outside where I met Dale Pearlstein who lives nearby and I went over, wanting to get in on the anticipated campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris. Neither of us knew it at the time, but she was at the forefront of the upcoming augment in volunteers and donations to Democratic campaigns.

From there, it was time for former President Donald Trump’s first appearance in Pennsylvania following the failed assassination attempt on his life in Butler while his supporters gathered at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.

» READ MORE: See photos of former President Trump’s return to Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania continued to be in the spotlight as Philadelphia hosted Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, to introduce her vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

» READ MORE: See photos of Kamala Harris introducing her running mate Tim Walz

Political week wasn’t narrow to presidential candidates. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker unveiled the first citywide property reassessment in two years.

And more at City Hall. City Council hearings on the sudden, unexpected closing of the University of the Arts.

Christina Mattei, an interdisciplinary artist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and single mother, testified about how she invested her life savings to move here to teach music business, entrepreneurship, and technology. “There’s a very real financial catastrophe happening right now,” Council said.

I returned to my seat and watched her as other livid UArts faculty, students, and staff discussed the implications of the university’s closure.

Mattei takes her 8-year-old son with her everywhere she goes because childcare is too pricey for her to afford in her current state of unemployment. She sleeps on a couch in her studio, offering free assist to her former students.

Since 1998, the black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here’s the latest, in color: