The Rocky steps pilgrimage

Last year it seemed I was at City Hall a lot; lately it’s been the President’s House. I work for a newspaper so I go where news happens.

But I am surprised at how often I’ve ended up at the rebranded, and now un-rebranded, Philadelphia Museum of Art over the past six months. Here, here and here.

Last weekend I photographed members of the group Philly Iranians at the museum steps calling for a “free, secular, democratic Iran — united for human rights and against gender apartheid.” (They used cigarettes to burn a sheet of paper representing the Islamic Republic. The smoking symbolized and celebrated the “power of women” they told me, as under Iran’s Islamic penal code, women’s rights are severely restricted.)

I even mentioned the art museum in this space in January.

Being there so often, I knew exactly what was going on as I saw three adults and a kid changing clothes next to the Rocky statue. I didn’t have to ask, as I knew exactly what was coming next as they got decked out in gray cotton sweats, black stocking watch caps, and high-top black Converse All-Star Chuck Taylors.

Mariusz Sliwa, his wife Magdalena, and their six year-old son Tymek came from Poznan, Poland. Marcin Danych, a friend now living in Chicago, joined them for what is now a classic pilgrimage.

When he was a boy, Mariusz’s father was “a typical factory worker … worked seven days a week,” he told me. But when he was with his father at night they would watch Rocky — “Playing it over and over, in the VHS.” It was just a part of Mariusz’s childhood, so he wanted his own son to experience it.

I see it every time I am at the steps, people of all ages, from all over sprinting up those 72 steps, “Gonna Fly Now” playing in their heads. It’s why writer Michael Vitez asked me to join him, to spend a year at the steps meeting people just like Mariusz, seeking a tangible way to inhabit a universal story of hope. As Michael often says, “It’s like the ocean; the waves keep crashing on the beach, they never stop.”

Mariusz wanted to bring his father with him from Poland, but he is unable to travel. With his friend Danych’s help, he recorded video — over and over — running up the steps with Magdalena and Tymek. And with just Tymek. And only Magdalena and Tymek together. Finally, Tymek alone. He was making his own Rocky movie. Recasting the scene, as it is etched in his mind.

I hope he sends me a copy. After he shares it back home with his dad.

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