They Are Their Own Monuments In two North Philadelphia neighborhoods, many hands create homegrown art tributes to local heroes. “On the Day They Come Home,” a sculpture by Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist in the exhibition “Staying Power,” featuring five women who are fighting to end life sentences in Pennsylvania. The women are Tamika Bell, Paulette Carrington, Starr Granger, Ivy Johnson and Yvonne Newkirk.Credit...Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times By Tess Thackara May 3, 2021 PHILADELPHIA — In a section of North Philadelphia, near an underpass and up a soaring stoop painted sky blue, Ms. Nandi’s home is decorated with pictures of civil rights heroes and political icons — Malcolm X, Queen Nefertiti, Lenin. Here, for some 20 years, Denise Muhammad, known by everyone as Ms. Nandi, and her husband, Khalid, ran an afternoon penny candy store for the neighborhood’s children out of their front living room, but it did much more than sell Tootsie Rolls.