Philly history | Scene Through the Lens

The one sentence bio at the bottom of my column every week says it all about my work: “an emphasis on politics, history, and the arts.”

These past few weeks everything about politics has been historic, and covering it has certainly allowed me to emphasize some artistry.

The day President Biden dropped out of his re-election race I headed to a campaign office I had been at a few weeks earlier. I didn’t know what I would find there, and (as you’d expect) they didn’t let me inside.

So I waited outside where I met Dale Pearlstein, who lives nearby and walked over wanting to be part of the expected campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris. Neither of us knew it at the time, but she was on the very front of a coming surge of Democratic campaign volunteers and donations.

From there it was on to former President Donald Trump’s first appearance in Pennsylvania after the assassination attempt in Butler, as supporters rallied for him at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.

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

Pennsylvania’s time in the presidential spotlight continued as Philadelphia hosted the campaign appearance by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, to introduce her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

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

The political week was not limited only to presidential candidates. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker unveiled the first citywide real estate reassessment in two years.

And, more at City Hall. Hearings were held by City Council on the sudden, unexpected closure of the University of the Arts.

Christina Mattei, an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, and single mom testified how she sunk her life savings into moving here to teach music business, entrepreneurship, and technology. “There’s a very real financial devastation happening right now,” She told Council.

Back in her seat, I kept an eye on her as other angry UArts faculty, students and staff took their turns discussing the fallout of the university’s shutdown.

Mattei takes her 8-year-old son with her everywhere she goes because childcare is too expensive to afford in her current jobless state. She’s sleeping on a couch in her studio, offering free help to her former students.

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 Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: