Oct16
Friday Cypher: Psalms night
8:00 PM · Main room
Pick a psalm, flip it into a verse. Three-minute limit.
North Philly · Sundays at 4 PM
Church that sounds like the block it meets on.
- Grace found me on the 23 bus
- Came for the beat, stayed for the Word
- Mercy louder than my mixtape
- Psalm 40 on repeat
- Kensington to the King
- New song, same God
- Not the same kid from Dauphin Street
- Broke but not broken
- He heard me before I had the words
Cipher meets in a converted tire shop on Germantown Avenue. A DJ opens, the sermon sticks to the text, and anybody can take the mic in the cypher after. Doors at 3:30, done by about 5:30.
Who we are
A church built around the circle.
In hip-hop, the cypher is the circle where everybody gets a turn. Nobody stands above it and nobody watches from outside. That's how we try to do church.
Pastor Dorian Whitlock started Cipher in 2017 with eleven people, one turntable and a borrowed basement on Lehigh Avenue. Now about 260 of us fill the old Germantown Tire building every Sunday afternoon. Some came up in church. Most of us didn't.
- Sundays at 4 PM, doors at 3:30, done by about 5:30
- Kids 4 to 11 get their own room, with a beat-making corner
- Tacos from the truck out front most weeks
- No dress code. Hoodies outnumber blazers about forty to one
All week
Four ways into the circle
Sunday SessionSundays · 4:00 PMEverybody
DJ set from 3:45, worship, a 35-minute sermon and a short open cypher to close. Tacos from the truck out front most weeks.
Get connectedFriday CypherFridays · 8:00 PMAges 16 and up on the mic
Open mic for rap, spoken word and song. Put your name on the list by 7:45. Clean bars, real talk, everybody claps.
Get connectedThe BoothWednesdays · 4–7 PMTeens 13 to 19
A free recording studio for teens 13 to 19. Learn to write, record and mix, with a mentor who has done it for real.
Get connectedBreakfast on LehighSaturdays · 9:00 AMAnybody on the block
Eggs, grits and turkey sausage for anybody on the block. About 90 plates a week, cooked by the Saturday crew.
Get connectedHeard in the room
Why people keep pulling up
I came to Friday to battle somebody. Pastor D let me go first, then asked me what I was really mad about.
My grandson brought me. I didn't know the songs. By the third week I knew the DJ's name.
Nobody here talks down to you. They talk to you.
I recorded my first verse in The Booth at fourteen. I'm nineteen and I mentor there now.
It's the only church where I've heard the sermon quoted back in a rap the same night.
They fed me before they asked me anything.
Roll 14
A month on Germantown Ave
Shot by Booth kids on a borrowed camera. Every face here said yes first.
Key
- 1Freeze at the summer block party on 5th Street
- 2Sunday Session, the last song before the sermon
- 3Dance team rehearsal, Thursday night
- 4The recap mic in the Booth, Thursday night
- 5Outside the old tire shop doors
- 6Easter at the Met on Broad Street
- 7Under the El at Huntingdon
- 8Saturday breakfast, 9:20 AM
Want a photo down, or a copy for your mom? Text the office.
Coming up
On the calendar
Add to calendar
Oct18
Baptisms at Sunday Session
4:00 PM · Main room
Seven people going under the water. Bring a towel for the front row.
Oct24
Block cleanup on Cumberland
10:00 AM · Meet at the doors
Gloves, bags and lunch provided. Two hours.
Nov7
Booth showcase
7:00 PM · Main room
Twelve teens play the tracks they made this fall. Families get the front.
Nov26
Thanksgiving plates
1:00 PM · Main room
Turkey, mac and greens for anybody who walks in.
Nothing in that category this month.
Sunday, 4 PM. Doors at 3:30.
Sit anywhere. Nobody's going to put you on the spot.