June 9, 2021 • 58 mins
Tonight we talked with author Thom Nickels about his recently published book From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia: his interview with Mother Divine, experiences with Scientology, Bishop John the society tarot card reader, what keeps Philadelphians in Philadelphia, and his early fixation with eyebrows.
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Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including: Out in History (2005), Philadelphia Architecture (2005) and Spore (2010). Nickels was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for, Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This (1990) and awarded the Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism in 2005. His poetry has appeared in Van Gogh’s Ear anthology (Paris). His column, Different Strokes in the Philadelphia Welcomat in the 1980s, was the first out gay column in a mainstream newspaper in the nation.
He has written for a variety of national and regional publications, including the Huffington Post, Passport Magazine (New York), Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia City Paper, The Philadelphia Bulletin (2003-2005), The Philadelphia Inquirer, Travel Weekly, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine. His essay on his years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War was published by The New Oxford Review and reprinted in the Oklahoma Humanities Magazine, Vietnam issue, Fall/Winter 2017. He was the theater critic for ICON Magazine, the architecture critic for Metro Philadelphia and has been a columnist for PJ Media (Los Angeles), The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine.
Thom currently writes a weekly column for the Philadelphia Free Press and The Philadelphia Irish Edition. He is a regular contributor to City Journal, New York, the Delaware Valley Journal and Philadelphia’s Broad + Liberty.
Literary Philadelphia: A History of Prose & Poetry in the City of Brotherly Love was published by The History Press in 2015 and was featured as the main book review in the Sunday edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. His scholarly essay on Philadelphia essayist Agnes Repplier was the cover feature essay in the Winter issue of The American Catholic Studies Journal (Villanova University), 2015.
His book, Philadelphia Mansions: Stories and Characters Behind the Walls was published by The History Press in March 2018.
His book, From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia (Fonthill Media, UK) was published in October 2020.
Nickels was the featured speaker at the Walt Whitman Annual Birthday Party, Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at the Walt Whitman House in Camden.
Nickels co-founded the Arts Defense League (later renamed the Coalition for Philadelphia Art), a grassroots organization instrumental in keeping Maxfield Parrish’s ‘The Dream Garden’ in Philadelphia’s Curtis Building after an attempted buy-out in the mid-1990’s by Las Vegas casino mogul, Steve Wynn. This grassroots campaign brought media attention to the issue and served to galvanize state and city support to keep “Dream Garden’ in Philadelphia after a photograph of Nickels with a colleague picketing the Curtis Center was published on page one of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nickels was interviewed and photographed extensively by People Magazine for his efforts. Numerous interviews in the local press followed in the weeks following the founding of the Arts Defense League.
Nickels, a native of Malvern, Pennsylvania, attended Eastern College, Baltimore, Maryland (now part of the University of Maryland), Immaculata University, and the Charles Morris Price School in Philadelphia where he was editor of the school magazine and where he was awarded The Carrie May Price Award for Best Student Work in Journalism.
List of Published Works (Books):
The Cliffs of Aries (Aegina Press) 1988
Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This, (Banned Books), 1989
The Boy on the Bicycle (Starbooks Press), 1992, 1993
Manayunk (Arcadia Publishing), 1996
Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia (Arcadia Publishing), 1999
Tropic of Libra (Starbooks Press), 2002
Philadelphia Architecture (Arcadia Publishing), 2005
Out in History (Starbooks Press), 2005
Spore (Starbooks Press), 2009
Walking on Water & After All This (Revised edition; Starbooks Press) 2011
Legendary Locals of Center City Philadelphia (Arcadia Publishing), 2014
Literary Philadelphia: A History of Poetry & Prose in the City of Brotherly Love (The History Press), 2015
Learn to Do a Bad Thing Well: Looking for Johnny Bobbitt, Amazon Books, 2019.
Philadelphia Mansions: Stories and Characters behind the Walls
(The History Press), 2018
The Perils of Homelessness, (Amazon, 2019).
From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia (Fonthill Media, UK), 2020
Anthologies:<
~~~~~~~
Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including: Out in History (2005), Philadelphia Architecture (2005) and Spore (2010). Nickels was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for, Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This (1990) and awarded the Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism in 2005. His poetry has appeared in Van Gogh’s Ear anthology (Paris). His column, Different Strokes in the Philadelphia Welcomat in the 1980s, was the first out gay column in a mainstream newspaper in the nation.
He has written for a variety of national and regional publications, including the Huffington Post, Passport Magazine (New York), Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia City Paper, The Philadelphia Bulletin (2003-2005), The Philadelphia Inquirer, Travel Weekly, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine. His essay on his years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War was published by The New Oxford Review and reprinted in the Oklahoma Humanities Magazine, Vietnam issue, Fall/Winter 2017. He was the theater critic for ICON Magazine, the architecture critic for Metro Philadelphia and has been a columnist for PJ Media (Los Angeles), The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine.
Thom currently writes a weekly column for the Philadelphia Free Press and The Philadelphia Irish Edition. He is a regular contributor to City Journal, New York, the Delaware Valley Journal and Philadelphia’s Broad + Liberty.
Literary Philadelphia: A History of Prose & Poetry in the City of Brotherly Love was published by The History Press in 2015 and was featured as the main book review in the Sunday edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. His scholarly essay on Philadelphia essayist Agnes Repplier was the cover feature essay in the Winter issue of The American Catholic Studies Journal (Villanova University), 2015.
His book, Philadelphia Mansions: Stories and Characters Behind the Walls was published by The History Press in March 2018.
His book, From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia (Fonthill Media, UK) was published in October 2020.
Nickels was the featured speaker at the Walt Whitman Annual Birthday Party, Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at the Walt Whitman House in Camden.
Nickels co-founded the Arts Defense League (later renamed the Coalition for Philadelphia Art), a grassroots organization instrumental in keeping Maxfield Parrish’s ‘The Dream Garden’ in Philadelphia’s Curtis Building after an attempted buy-out in the mid-1990’s by Las Vegas casino mogul, Steve Wynn. This grassroots campaign brought media attention to the issue and served to galvanize state and city support to keep “Dream Garden’ in Philadelphia after a photograph of Nickels with a colleague picketing the Curtis Center was published on page one of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nickels was interviewed and photographed extensively by People Magazine for his efforts. Numerous interviews in the local press followed in the weeks following the founding of the Arts Defense League.
Nickels, a native of Malvern, Pennsylvania, attended Eastern College, Baltimore, Maryland (now part of the University of Maryland), Immaculata University, and the Charles Morris Price School in Philadelphia where he was editor of the school magazine and where he was awarded The Carrie May Price Award for Best Student Work in Journalism.
List of Published Works (Books):
The Cliffs of Aries (Aegina Press) 1988
Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This, (Banned Books), 1989
The Boy on the Bicycle (Starbooks Press), 1992, 1993
Manayunk (Arcadia Publishing), 1996
Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia (Arcadia Publishing), 1999
Tropic of Libra (Starbooks Press), 2002
Philadelphia Architecture (Arcadia Publishing), 2005
Out in History (Starbooks Press), 2005
Spore (Starbooks Press), 2009
Walking on Water & After All This (Revised edition; Starbooks Press) 2011
Legendary Locals of Center City Philadelphia (Arcadia Publishing), 2014
Literary Philadelphia: A History of Poetry & Prose in the City of Brotherly Love (The History Press), 2015
Learn to Do a Bad Thing Well: Looking for Johnny Bobbitt, Amazon Books, 2019.
Philadelphia Mansions: Stories and Characters behind the Walls
(The History Press), 2018
The Perils of Homelessness, (Amazon, 2019).
From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia (Fonthill Media, UK), 2020
Anthologies:<
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