A portrait taken in North Philly in the 1980s reconnects poet with cherished memories of her own beloved father

Local residents sitting on the steps in the shade at 3106 N. Broad St. in North Philadelphia in 1986. Joseph V. Labolito/Philadelphia Collections

To celebrate Father’s Day, The Conversation U.S. asked Philadelphia anthropologist, playwright and poetic ethnographer Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon to reflect on a poem she recently performed to accompany a 1986 photograph by Philadelphia photographer Joseph V. Labolito.

Williams-Witherspoon, who also serves as senior associate dean of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts at Temple University, shares how the collaboration came about, and why one of Labolito’s photos in particular brought back a rush of cherished memories of being a little girl hanging out with her dad.