Why do we love the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby so much?

The annual parade of human-powered vehicles teams up May 16 with the Trenton Street arts festival. 

Photo courtesy of Architect Joel Spivak on Instagram

Architect Joel Spivak in his South Philly workshop, attaches pinwheels to this year’s derby entry.
Hillary Petrozziello

Few public spectacles in Philadelphia match the awe and fascination generated by the Kinetic Sculpture Derby, scheduled this year for May 16.

Elaborately designed, conceptually guided and human-powered, the vehicles that take part attest to something impressively willful or perseverant in the spirit of our city. The folks at the New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), which has organized the event for just shy of a decade — along with other community-driven efforts aimed at revitalizing the long-beleaguered neighborhood — certainly agree.

"We're a city that supports itself, a very D.I.Y. city. You can't find that anywhere else," says Karina Ambartsoumian, NKCDC's communications coordinator.

This assessment of the city and the neighborhood is part of why the NKCDC took a few notable steps to bridge the derby with the rest of the city this year. For starters, they now have "arts festival" in their official name, acknowledging the derby's long-standing collaboration with the popular, concurrent Trenton Avenue Arts Festival, a project of the East Kensington Neighbors Association.

They also have a new title sponsor, which is reflected in the new name, "Philadelphia Federal Credit Union Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby & Arts Festival."

Maybe the most important decision, though, was to host a series of workshops on sculpture design and mechanics throughout the spring. In one of the more hands-on workshops, at Point Breeze's NextFab workshop space, about two dozen attendees learned the physics behind welding — a skill set that, the NKCDC hopes, will inspire new sculptures that will make the derby even more vibrant.

And what of those sculptures? These homemade testaments to human achievement, careening every year through Kensington streets filled with obstacles like a mud pit and cobblestones, run the gamut from bike-based minimalist architecture to facsimiles of actual motor vehicles. Last year's

People's Choice award winner, "Game of Cones," featured a medieval-style wagon bed attached to what looked like an ice cream truck.

But this doesn't fully answer why people keep coming back to the derby, year after year.

Perhaps the best way to explain it is through the eyes of those who elect to participate. Varying in age, ethnicity and gender, they embody the complex tapestry of modern Kensington in all its nuance — even when they're not from the neighborhood. For Joel Spivak, the derby is a testament to how an eccentric public spectacle can create sustainable change in an area. The 75-year-old South Philly resident is a pioneer of modern regional street fairs, having helped create festivals on South Street in the '60s and '70s and having been involved with the junk artist community ever since.

"I knew about the original kinetic sculpture race out in California, many years ago," he says.

Spivak was among the first people to enter the local derby, and he's used his 75-year-old bike in all but two derbies since the first.

For Dana Pavlichko, Claire Folkman, and Stephanie Davis (only Davis is a Kensington resident), their four-year-running participation in the derby is about mixing spectacle with statement. "Our inspiration each year comes from taking the 'all pilots must wear helmets' rule very seriously," says Pavlichko, a graphic designer. "We build each costume by starting with an exaggerated whimsical helmet, adding in a drag queen theme, and going from there.

"For our second year, we wanted to become glamazons and referenced dragons, creating green glittering scales over black biketards," adds Davis. "Our shoes were kind of like the armadillo shoes created by Alexander McQueen for Lady Gaga in 'Bad Romance,' but more bulbous, dark and with claws."

So what can we expect at this year's derby? It's difficult to say, since the teams keep their designs under lock-and-key until their grand unveiling. But with all the changes that the NKCDC has put into place, you can expect it to grow even bigger and crazier.

The Philadelphia Federal Credit Union Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby & Arts Festival begins at noon on Saturday, May 16, at Trenton Avenue and Norris Streets and winds through the neighborhood. Visit kinetickensington.org for route information.