AND INTO THE STREETS

Opening Reception: June 7th, 6–8pm
On Wednesday June 7th, from 6–8pm, Mural Arts will host the opening reception for AND INTO THE STREETS, which will include DJ sets by Lindo, DJ Cookie, DJ Kit, and DJ Andi, an intergenerational roster of local LGBTQ Latinx music producers. Ephemera by KYKY Archives and FORTUNE will be for sale by the artists, and light food and beverages will be provided for this exciting unveiling.

Queer Readings: June 28th, 6–8pm
Mural Arts partners with Blue Stoop to curate a night of readings by local LGBTQ writers on June 28th from 6–8pm. Poets and essayists will share work that departs from themes in the project such as kinship, time, memory, and representation. Light food and beverages will be served.

AND INTO THE STREETS is a public art project by artist Rami George running from June through August that represents archival images and materials from the now defunct LGBTQ news publication, Au Courant (1982–2000). George threads together photographs of underrepresented histories and voices that depict a queer cultural memory of Philadelphia life, many of which were never published. Displays of public and private intimacies, political protests, and joyful celebrations are arranged nonlinearly, opening potential for new resonances to emerge as the images leave the solitude of the archives and gain new life in the streets. The result is a complex portrait that foregrounds not just LGBTQ life, but more importantly its intersections with many other hopes and struggles for a world built on care and solidarity.

The project builds upon significant time George has spent in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia’s most extensive collection of historical LGBTQ materials and ephemera. It is also sited in Louis Kahn Park, the only public space in Philadelphia’s Gayborhood that has historically been a gathering place for the community. AND INTO THE STREETS opens during Pride month as a call to foreground politics in celebrating this year. Many of the political issues that emerge in this installation remain hurdles today, such as affordable housing, disability rights, and the health and well-being of trans and gender nonconforming people. Recurring individuals make appearances as well, some of whom have passed and others who remain stalwart activists and anchors in this community. There is a will for the images to speak on how the past is always with us, either in memory or in place, and how the livelihood of LGBTQ communities in particular rely on strong bonds forged across lines of difference and across generations. Grounded in time yet still able to speak, the lingering traces in these images breathe new life into the present, coalescing a joy and politics that calls us into the streets and into a world we are still becoming.