AND INTO THE STREETS brings politics back to LGBTQ Pride

An Interview with the Artist 

Mural Arts’ Curator of Public Practice Jameson Paige sat down with Philadelphia-based artist Rami George to discuss their upcoming public art project AND INTO THE STREETS, a temporary installation running from June through August 2023 at Louis Kahn Park at 11th and Pine Streets in Philadelphia. Representing archival images and materials from the now-defunct LBGTQ news publication, Au Courant (1982–2000), George threads together underrepresented histories that depict a queer cultural memory of Philadelphia life that opens during Pride month. 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. 

Jameson Paige (JP): Rami, we have known each other for a while now and I’ve always admired the tenderness and care that’s integral to your artistic practice. Your new project AND INTO THE STREETS represents some of that ethos. It’s been commissioned by Mural Arts in its current shape but also represents years of research you’ve done in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center. What is this new project diving into?

Rami George (RG): I’ve always felt tethered to queer history and archives. When I was finishing graduate school I worked on a project where I paid attention to the blue historical markers throughout Philly, specifically those marking LGBTQ events, and I was wondering what’s missing and who’s not named? A few years ago I reached out to John Anderies, the director of the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, and proposed that I spend a lot of time in the archives and see what comes out of it. I knew that I wanted to go in and look for underrepresented voices and people, specifically those of women, lesbians, trans, non binary, disabled, and folks of color.

That project turned into an exhibition called Selections from the Archives, which was shown at the William Way Center earlier this year. I brought physical materials down from the archives into the lobby and I reproduced a whole bunch of material. I found these incredible different collections in the archives that really guided a vision for finding those less represented folks that I know are in the archives. We are everywhere, it can just be harder to find us. And so I was trying to do that work and also hoping it would then allow other people to continue finding and uplifting that representation in their own ways. That’s where AND INTO THE STREETS comes from, it’s a continuation and expansion of that exhibition, but also more focused. With this project, I’m looking specifically at the defunct weekly paper Au Courant (1982–2000) with the same goals of pronouncing what’s underrepresented, and literally bringing the archives out into the streets.

JP: I remember that phrase “And into the Streets!,” came directly from a protest sign you found in the archives. Its resonances feel fitting going into LGBTQ Pride month. This project is a bit different for Mural Arts and marks new efforts the organization is making to work with artists who have not worked in public space before. My new role at Mural Arts is Curator of Public Practice, where I’m focused specifically on engaging the many artists whose practices might not neatly fit into Mural Arts’ portfolio and yet still have ambitious ideas for addressing the public outside of gallery and museum contexts. Your work speaks so specifically to people who are not well-represented in history, and you endeavor toward representation in such poetic ways. I’m glad this is one of the first projects we’re producing in this vein. 

We’ve been thinking critically about the viewing experience for this work, and what being in Louis Kahn Park means. It’s the only public space in the Gayborhood and is the starting point for Dyke March each year. Could you tell viewers about your process for selecting and grouping images, as well as how they’ll encounter them?