Grid Magazine

On a June Monday evening, the loudest sound in the South Philadelphia Library was the clicking of computer keyboards. Behind the busy island of computers, another group of people filtered into a classroom filled with green plastic chairs and soft ambient music: a space of quiet resistance.

“I’m tired of AI being shoved down my throat,” one woman said, puncturing the stillness.

She’d come to the right place: a workshop called “How to Not Use AI” led by librarian Charlie Bailey.

The Free Library of Philadelphia hosts hundreds of free workshops each year, many of which focus on digital literacy. Until now, those workshops have taught participants how to use programs such as Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks. Bailey’s workshops are the first to teach people how not to use technology. This may sound counterintuitive, but Bailey believes that showing people how to disable artificial intelligence features from common apps and websites aligns with the library’s mission of advancing digital literacy.

“We’re constantly helping people navigate technology,” he says, “I see this as part of that in that it’s helping people reclaim their autonomy over the technology they use and decide if they want to use certain tools.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/south-philly-librarian-teaches-people-how-to-not-use-ai/

✍️ + 📸 Kathryn Rice

Anou Vongbandith, 51, the chef at Germantown’s Das Good Café, was driving to work on the sweltering morning of July 26, 2025, when masked men from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) boxed in his car, then abducted him. They soon sent Vongbandith to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, a facility equipped with the barbed wire and other features of the federal prison it once was.

Detainees have sickened and died at Moshannon, and the clock was ticking for Vongbandith. Due to a bout with COVID-19, “[his] heart pumps only 27 percent of the normal volume of blood, and he didn’t have his medications,” says Anh Vongbandith, his wife of 25 years and owner of Das Good. “Also, ICE aims to deport people within 30 days of detaining them.” There was talk of returning Anou to Laos, his birthplace, though he has lived in the U.S. since the age of 5.

Anou’s arrest incensed many Northwest Philly residents. The Vongbandiths have become beloved members of that community, first through Tipsy Café and Catering, a takeout spot at 5227 Germantown Ave., then with Das Good, a spacious café on the West Chelten Avenue corridor that offers breakfast and brunch classics, often with an Asian twist.

“Anh never says no,” says Michael Lazrus, a longtime Germantown peace activist. “She provides food and a meeting place, even after ICE detained Anou,” he says, adding that the Vongbandiths give their food overages to nearby pantries. The family also serves up hundreds of free Thanksgiving dinners each year, Lazrus says.

Anh’s community involvement extends even further. “I can’t see animals put to sleep,” she says. “Right now we’re fostering four kittens and one puppy at home.”

People took Anou’s arrest personally, Anh believes. “It was as if they said, ‘No way are you going to keep our chef!’”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/northwest-neighbors-save-chef-from-ice-detention-and-deportation/

✍️ Constance Garcia-Barrio
📸 Taylor Ecker

In retrospect, it’s possible to reconstruct a recipe that enabled Catie Gainor to create her South Philly cookbook store, Binding Agents. Start with a family connection to the food business and a mother who loved cooking for friends and family. Add a high school summer spent working at a bookstore, early exposure to classic TV cooking shows hosted by Julia Child and Lidia Bastianich and nostalgia for the camaraderie of restaurant work. Fold in a desire to honor her mother’s legacy, a growing realization that Gainor wanted more from her career in public relations and a 2018 move to the Italian Market neighborhood. An idea that formed in 2022 became, by the fall of 2024, Binding Agents: a welcoming shop Gainor describes as “the size of a sardine can.”

With millions of recipes and cooking videos available online, opening a brick-and-mortar store selling cookbooks and fiction and nonfiction books about food and eating might seem foolhardy. But Gainor found reassurance in the fact that similar stores were thriving in cities across the U.S. She sees Philly as a great food city where interest in cooking and eating runs strong. Since the Cook Book Stall in the Reading Terminal Market closed in 2017, she says the city has lacked a hub for food authors, cooks and eaters to gather.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/cookbook-shop-owner-celebrates-heirloom-recipe-traditions/

✍️ Marilyn Anthony
📸 Taylor Ecker

Throughout July 18 and 19, visitors arrived at South Philadelphia’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park with a unique task — to perform for a tree.

The production, “Arborlogues,” is a touring piece developed by Other Forms Of (OFO) Theater, a company led by set designer Dan Daly that emphasizes theatrical experimentation through unorthodox sets. Billed as a “botanical recital,” “Arborlogues” was born during the COVID-19 lockdown, when companies like OFO were forced to reimagine the definitions of theater under quarantine.

“I came with this idea of a play you perform for yourself ... and it developed into the idea of performing for a tree, using the tree as a mirror for the self,” Daly says.

The result is a 15-minute monologue performed from the confines of a thick velvet curtain that encircles a tree’s trunk. Within the intimate space, theatergoers address their arboreal audience through a personalized script composed by playwright Lee LeBreton.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/arborlogues-comes-to-philadelphias-fdr-park/

✍️ Sophie Aanerud
📸 Tracie Van Auken

On May 4, following the unanimous passing of the “ICE Out” legislative package by Philadelphia City Council, a series of letters were sent by the federal government to City officials demanding they turn over years worth of materials concerning “far-left” immigrant activist groups. Among the groups singled out was Asian Americans United (AAU), a community outreach group supporting people of Asian ancestry in the Philadelphia area with leadership development and immigrant justice action.

Vivian Chang, AAU’s executive director, spoke with Grid about the aftermath of the “ICE Out” ruling and the coalition of more than 60 organizations that it recently joined, urging Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration to implement the legislation.

➡️ Read the full interview at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/asian-americans-united-discusses-next-steps-for-philly-immigrant-activist-groups/

✍️ Elijah Fischer
📸 Photo courtesy of Vivian Chang

How much do you love your park?

Maybe enough to organize or participate in a cleanup, raise or donate money to make an improvement, or lead an educational walk. Or maybe you don’t have the time or money to donate, but simply find your local park to be a refuge — and appreciate the work other people are doing to keep it that way.

But no matter how deep your affection goes for your favorite park, it’s unlikely you’d want to get sued for it.

That, unfortunately, is the fork in the road that the people behind the Friends of Pennypack Park confronted in 2020. In early 2021, Bernard Brown reported on how their organization — which conducted park cleanups and educational walks — was forced to disband because, despite having no connection to two tragic deaths that occurred at Pennypack, the group was named in lawsuits.

Kyle Bagenstose returns to that topic this month, but only to say that nothing has been done yet to protect groups like this. And they are afraid.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/publishers-notes-with-friends-like-the-city/

✍️ Alex Mulcahy

There is a surprising truth about the affordability of solar panels that few people understand: despite all the headlines, solar has never been more affordable.

It’s easy to see why people might think otherwise. If you’ve been following the news about cuts to solar incentives — and to just about anything perceived as “green” — you might reasonably assume that the marketplace has turned against solar. You might also think it’s best to wait a few years on your solar plans and see what the next administration brings.

But from where I sit, the reality is almost exactly the opposite. Despite the political climate, there has never been a better time to go solar.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/despite-a-shifting-political-landscape-new-financing-options-are-making-solar-more-affordable-than-ever/

✍️ Micah Gold-Markel

Will Ryan faces a half-dead (yet half-alive) ash tree deep in the woods of Tyler Arboretum and ties a plastic pill bottle around its trunk. Inside is a folded white paper dotted with tiny black specks that look like poppy seeds. He ties the bottle to the tree and takes off the cap. Those tiny specks are emerald ash borer (EAB) eggs containing parasitoid wasp pupae.

The invasive bright green beetles have devastated the region’s ash trees. Scientists have pinned their hopes on what they’ve dubbed “Oobinators,” pill bottles containing miniscule, stingless wasps (Oobius agrili). Once the wasps emerge from the Oobinators and find their beetle hosts, they could kill enough of them to save this ash tree and the next generation sprouting from seeds left behind.

“They have to be placed near where emerald ash borers likely will be, which means they’re no good after all the trees are dead,” says Ryan, the arboretum’s director of horticulture and land stewardship. The arboretum has cut down about 1,600 dead and dying ash trees in Tyler’s 550 acres of natural areas. Ryan’s team flagged about 25 of the dying trees to serve as release sites for the tiny, stingless wasps.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/tyler-arboretum-uses-parasitoid-wasps-to-save-ash-trees/

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Tracie Van Auken

Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend!

FRIDAY, 9.11
Parks on Tap at Borski Park: Philly’s traveling beer garden returns to Borski Park! Enjoy food, drink, live music, good company, and more along the beautiful Delaware Riverfront.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/parks-on-tap-at-borski-park/2026-09-11/

SATURDAY, 9.12
All Abilities “RAMble” Farm Visit: Join us for a FREE nature-based therapy program. The All Abilities Ramble is a gentle, joyful space created especially for children, teens, and adults with special needs — along with the people who love them. This is your time to explore, connect, move at your own pace, and enjoy our goats in a calm and supportive environment.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/all-abilities-special-needs-ramble-farm-visit/

SUNDAY, 9.13
Trees for a Changing Climate: As trees face increasing threats from climate change and novel pests and diseases, it is essential to adapt our practices to protect and sustain our landscapes. Join the Mt. Cuba Center’s director of horticulture for an insightful discussion on strategies to safeguard their garden’s tree canopy. George Coombs will explain their strategic approach to choosing resilient species, including the models and thought processes behind it, their list of recommendations, and the methods that will be used to track tree resilience over the coming decades.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/trees-for-a-changing-climate/

Since May, the 13th Street bike lane has sported some new protective infrastructure: a series of plastic modular curbs. Between Locust and Chestnut streets, 18 of these curbs have been installed along the bike lane, stationed between existing flex posts, which have lined many of the city’s bike lanes for years.

The new protectors were inspired by a trip to Mexico City. When Prema Katari Gupta, president and CEO of Center City District (CCD), vacationed in Mexico’s capital, she noticed bike lanes protected by small, sturdy plastic modular curbs.

“Seeing this really simple curb product they installed, it seemed like something that Philadelphia could do and scale quickly and maybe save some lives,” Gupta says.

CCD bought and donated the curbs to the City, and after working with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems and the Department of Streets, they began a pilot phase ahead of potential wider use throughout the city. With just anchor bolts required to secure them to the pavement, the curbs are easy to install, says Andrew Jacobs, the vice president of planning and public realm at CCD.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/09/01/new-13th-street-bike-lane-barriers-are-an-upgrade-from-flimsy-flex-posts/

✍️ Rusty Gorelick
📸 Julia Lowe