Archive for November, 2011

Text by Niesha Miller. Portraits by Gomillion & Leupold. With a financially imperiled school district and funding for after-school programs being cut, finding a learning sanctuary for a young Philadelphia student can be difficult. Jill Scott, the Grammy Award-winning artist who has starred in movies and on television shows, knows how difficult it can be. She grew up here, surrounded by the poverty and drug dealing of North Philadelphia. She went to school in the city, graduating from Girl’s High School, and thrived because of the support that she found along the way. When she found out that her former sanctuary, the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center at 22nd and Lehigh, was slated to close, she stepped in. “It’s where I played safely,” Scott remembers. “It’s where I learned to swim and not drown, where I did my first fashion show and my first talent show.” She lip-synced “Kiss,” the classic track by Prince while sporting a pink shirt and pink paisley jeans. “I played the air guitar and I tore the house down,” Scott recalls. Jill Scott keeps it local from Sarah Hoye on Vimeo. But by the mid-2000s, not long after Scott’s debut album went double platinum, the building needed a new roof. The basketball court and the pool needed to be repaired. Rather than fix the problems, the city was going to shutter the center. So Scott donated money, saving the facility