AND INTO THE STREETS

AND INTO THE STREETS was a public art project by artist Rami George that ran from June through August 2023.

Project description (from a text panel at the exhibition):

The project 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 were 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 opened during Pride month as a call to foreground politics in the year’s celebrations. Many of the political issues that emerged in the installation remain hurdles, such as affordable housing, disability rights, and the health and well-being of trans and gender nonconforming people. Recurring individuals make appearances in the featured images 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 time. 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.

Location Note: Project no longer on view at this location (temporary project).