My North Philly
Three years ago the Mural Arts Program began a new odyssey as we kicked off an ambitious three year project. The My North Philly project aimed to collect the stories that residents of North Philadelphia told about their neighborhoods and to give those words a lasting life through a series of murals. Four North Philadelphia communities—two east and two west of Broad Street—were chosen with an eye to the history and diverse experiences of the area. The Mural Arts Program established partnerships with neighborhood churches, libraries, resident associations and community groups. Over the next three years, artists and oral historians from the Mural Arts Program reached out to individuals in these communities, taped and transcribed oral histories and group discussions, and pored over the themes, images and events that interviewees described. By the project's completion in 2008, eight murals had been painted and more than 90 North Philadelphians had told their stories—the stories of their North Philly.
Community engagement and participation have always been essential to the Mural Arts Program, so in some ways there was nothing new about the My North Philly project. However, My North Philly turned the usual process inside-out. Generally, community-based mural-making begins by asking people what themes and images they would like to see in a mural. My North Philly asked them to simply tell stories of life in their neighborhood, without thinking about what the mural design might turn out to be.
The muralists immersed themselves in the tapes and transcripts of these oral histories and then brought ideas and questions to group discussions, speaking informally with both people who had already been interviewed and with newcomers to the project. This led to even more memories and stories, which were incorporated into the final design.
In the interviews, older North Philadelphians of all backgrounds remembered the era when residents scrubbed their front steps every Saturday and the milkman delivered milk to their doors.
Both east and west of Broad Street, people spoke of increasing crime that drove residents into their houses and of the community activism that is bringing them back out onto their front porches and stoops. Though each person told deeply personal stories, there emerged from the interviews common hopes, struggles and memories. Though neither the people who told their stories nor the murals that those stories inspired speak for all of North Philly, they capture, in a personal way, some lived experiences of the place that many Philadelphians just call "home."
NOW AVAILABLE!
A full-color coffee table book celebrating the culmination of a three-year mural project that traced the stories of four neighborhoods in North Philadelphia through the photographs and interviews that inspired the creation of seven landmark murals.
My North Philly: Neighborhoods. Murals. Stories.
Maria Möller with Photography by Sabina Louise Pierce
To order your copy, please contact Lindsey Rosenberg at 215.685.0729 or lindsey.rosenberg@muralarts.org, or visit our shop.
For an in-depth look at the making of the murals, please visit:
The My North Philly project was made possible through a generous grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Community Partners in Arts Access (CPAA) initiative. CPAA-funded programs are working together to increase cultural programming and participation in North Philadelphia and Camden neighborhoods.
The groups are involved in a wide range of arts and cultural activities, including mural and puppet making, dance, jazz music, ceramics, playwriting and painting.