Wingohocking Neighbors Day to celebrate Nicetown this weekend

Thirteen blocks in Nicetown will be closed to traffic Saturday for the third annual Wingohocking Neighbors Day.

During the free event, two stages will be set up for performances, and attendees will also be able to take advantage of job fairs for teenagers and adults; dozens of resource tables; and activities for children.

Six years ago, Kendra Brooks, prior to her time as an at-large member of City Council, helped to organize neighbors following a spate of gun violence near where she lived, in the area of 17th and Wingohocking streets.

Brooks, who still resides near the corner, and her neighbors gathered for a prayer circle and decided to hold subsequent meetings to flood Nicetown with resources, taking a non-police approach to reducing the gunfire, her office said. The effort developed into Wingohocking Neighbors Day.

In 2018, there were four homicides and seven other shootings in the immediate blocks; this year, there have been two non-fatal shootings, according to data collected by Brooks’s office. Residents plan to celebrate that progress Saturday.

Philadelphia has seen a sharp drop in gun violence overall in 2024. Ten people were killed in September – the city’s lowest monthly homicide total in nearly a decade – and shootings as a whole are down 38% compared to last year.

Wingohocking Neighbors Day will run from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, with the stages and resource fair spread out from the 1500 to the 1700 blocks of Wingohocking Street. The job fair will be set up on the 4400 block of N. 16th Street, and a designated play area will occupy an adjacent block.

The event will also feature resources for people returning home from prison, free haircuts, food giveaways, Black and women-owned food trucks, bounce houses, free books and the dedication of a new “Little Free Library,” according to Brooks’ office.

R&B artist Suzann Christine, Expressions of Soul, comedian Erik Terrell and singer Carla Gamble are among the acts scheduled to perform.