Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Paul M Farber
The U.S. turns 250 in 2026. Let's celebrate — and confront our painful past. | Opinion
On July 4, 2026, the nation will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. How should we here in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, mark the occasion? This is the question we have been asking ourselves across civically engaged spaces for years now.
Analysis: Toppling racist statues makes space for radical change
There is glory in seeing monuments, once dedicated to colonisers, enslavers, and brutal leaders, removed from their pedestals and layered with new inscriptions for social justice. Whether statues are toppled, defaced, or thrown into rivers, those removed in the last week across the United States and Europe reflect the growing acceptance that, if we want to interrupt the status quo in the present, we have to reckon with the traumas of the past.
We finally removed a racist statue in Philly. What comes next for our public art? | Opinion
Now that the Frank Rizzo statue has come down, it is time to envision a long-awaited next chapter for our city. From the statue’s dedication in 1999, the larger-than-life bronze figure loomed over the civic spaces around City Hall.
Bearing Witness in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands with Conservationist Laiken Jordahl on Apple Podcasts
39 min This episode, we speak to Laiken Jordahl, during the time of self-isolation and quarantine for COVID-19, about the accelerated pace of construction of the border wall. He shares the devastating impacts on the land and residents of the region, the ecological outcomes on endangered species and water systems, and the importance of bearing witness in the borderlands. 39 min
The coronavirus meteor has hit Philly’s arts community | Opinion
Over the past week, the entire city of Philadelphia has come to a halt to flatten the curve and brace ourselves for the devastating impacts of COVID-19. Though unprecedented and shocking to comprehend, the stay-at-home shutdowns are essential measures. These official state and local orders are life saving, meant to keep our medical workers and others on the front lines of the pandemic safe. These actions remind us that we all have a stake in the collective care of our people and our city.
Confusion is the aim of Trump's executive order on anti-Semitism
In the final year of my grandmother's life, we found out that she was not born in the United States. The truth slipped out in a Jewish nursing home in Brooklyn, out in the far reaches of the borough. Throughout her life, she had claimed Brooklyn as her home, but in the rush of a moment in conversation with fellow residents, she accidentally revealed Romania as her place of birth. My grandmother had a way with words.
The Frank Rizzo statue’s future is bungled yet again | Opinion
It’s time for the Rizzo statue to go, again. After years of repeated public calls for its removal and, just this week, both another round of defacement and the news that the statue’s move has been delayed yet again, a city otherwise known as a world capital for public art still finds itself at a point of reckoning with its most notorious statue. A monument is a statement of power and presence in public.
Temple University Press
Creative Speculations for Philadelphia Edited by Paul M. Farber and Ken Lum HC: $35.00 EAN: 978-1-4399-1606-3 Publication: Nov 19 336 pages 6.75 x 9.375 160 color photos, 82 halftones What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? That was the question posed by the curators, artists, scholars, and students who comprise the Philadelphia-based public art and history studio Monument Lab .
A Wall of Our Own
View Inside 264 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 40 halftones, notes, bibl., index Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-5508-6 Published: March 2020 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-5507-9 Published: March 2020 eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-5509-3 Published: February 2020 Studies in United States Culture Buy this Book Paperback $29.95 Hardcover $90.00 E-Book $22.99 Apple iBookstore Amazon Kindle Barnes and Noble Ebooks For Professors: Free E-Exam Copies The Berlin Wall is arguably the most prominent symbol of the Cold War era.
Documenting American segregation at the Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, East German forces closed the borders of East Berlin and encircled the allied sectors of the city's western half. Two weeks later, American photographer Leonard Freed wandered along the internal edges of the divided city. In those uncertain days of the Berlin Crisis, each side was on high alert, as the potential for conflict between the super-powers seemed imminent.
How the Berlin wall became a monument to American racial division
Most Americans know the history of the Berlin Wall as a story of triumph over division. Cold War struggle poured into concrete, dividing Western freedom and Eastern repression. While the Wall divided Germany from 1961 to 1989, the US's relationship with Berlin resonated through landmark declarations including President John F Kennedy's 1963 phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" and President Ronald Reagan's 1987 declaration "Tear down this wall".
PlanPhilly | Filthy Rich: Finding art and utility in the waste stream
Cheery mural-painted dumpsters, trash-themed movie nights, and excavators dressed up as reindeer for the holidays aren’t normally found at an industrial waste management facility. But that’s all typical for Revolution Recovery, a company that’s entering its 13th year in Philadelphia’s waste recycling industry. Revolution Recovery’s aims to keep as much construction job site materials—like wood, metals, drywall, rubble and even carpet—out of landfills as possible.
'Herman Goering looked very thin'
Herman Schneider of Rantoul talked about his experiences after World War II, including attending the war crimes trials at Nuremberg, Germany. RANTOUL — He watched Nazis on trial and saw monsters like Hermann Goering humbled — sentenced to death, Adolf Hitler’s former right-hand man chose to commit suicide the night before he was supposed to be hanged.
Praxis Dialogues: Public art in an age of urban renewal
It is an important question for our current historical moment. In Philadelphia, we are living in the throes of a new period of urban renewal, with large flows of capital investment fueling a fast-paced redevelopment of the city’s civic landscapes. Previous eras of urban renewal produced widely uneven outcomes, relocating or removing entire communities in the name of progress.
On The Beat With The Chief: A fond and final farewell from The Beat
By PAUL FARBER Rantoul Press columnist For the final time I say, “Welcome to On The Beat with the Chief.” It has been a long time, and now here I come with the final, yes the last, On the Beat. I don’t know if someone will follow or not. I have enjoyed my Rantoul service and will miss every one of you. This is a great community with great people. From you I ask one thing. Continue your support of a great department and the new chief. All good things come to an end.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Paul M
Contact Paul M, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack