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Friday, April 6, 2012

Zoe Strauss

A couple months ago I saw that Zoe Strauss was having an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The content of the show definitely intrigued me, and the more I found out about Zoe, the more interested I became.

Born in Philadelphia, Strauss was given a camera for her 30th birthday and started taking pictures of life in the city’s marginal neighborhoods. She is a photo-based installation artist who uses Philadelphia as a primary setting and subject for her work. Out in the streets, Strauss typically photographs whatever strikes her interest, paying particular attention to the overlooked (or purposefully avoided) details of life.

In 1995, she started the Philadelphia Public Art Project, a one-woman organization whose mission is to give the citizens of Philadelphia access to art in their everyday lives. Strauss’s photographic work culminates in a yearly “Under I-95” show, which takes place beneath the Interstate highway in South Philadelphia. She displays her photographs on concrete pillars under the highway and sells photocopied prints of her work for $5 each. Strauss now calls the Philadelphia Public Art Project an “epic narrative” of her own neighborhood. “When I started shooting, it was as if somewhere hidden in my head I had been waiting for this,” she says.

In 2002, she received a Seedling Award in photography from the Leeway Foundation. In 2005, she received a Pew Fellowship. In 2006, her work was included in the Whitney Biennial; she also mounted a solo exhibition, “Ramp Project: Zoe Strauss” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.

Zoe Strauss was named a 2007 USA Gund Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America’s top living artists.

The first member of her immediate family to graduate from high school, Strauss is deeply connected to her roots and her surroundings. She frequently shoots near her grandparents’ former home at 16th and Susquehanna, and her mother lives a few blocks from Strauss’ rowhouse (her father died when she was 6). Three younger siblings – there are three surnames between them – are artistic, “super smart and engaging.” Brother Cosmo Baker is a noted DJ in Philadelphia and New York.

Strauss’s photos of shuttered buildings, empty parking lots and vacant meeting halls illuminate her South Philly neighborhood’s grim character. Her intimate portraits capture the dignified resignation of its residents. Strauss says her work is “a narrative about the beauty and difficulty of everyday life.”[2]

Zoe Strauss is the author of America, published November 2008 by AMMO Books.

- (Wikipedia)

I know her brother Cosmo. I painted with him a few times and we did pieces on him for both Foundation magazine and Jump magazine. Cos is one of the nicest, most humble and gracious dudes I have ever met.

There is a lot to say about Zoe’s path to get where she is. There is a good amount of articles on and interviews with her. They are all worth reading. (As is the book about the current exhibit, full not only of pictures but also super insightful and explanatory information.) But what I really wanted to focus on was her 10 Years retrospective.

I wish I could say I have known about her for years. I haven’t. But when I started learning about her history, her previous exhibits and installations, her philosophic approach to what she photographs, I was pretty blown away. And then there are the photos themselves.

This is a small sampling, small cross-section, of some of the images Zoe has captured. They do not do do her work justice. These small images do not represent or capture her work, or convey or evoke the same emotion as seeing them in person. (You can see all the photos she takes on her Flickr. Or follow her blog or on Facebook.) But they give a taste of her subject matter. The juxtapositions of signage against a background that often gives you the opposite message. Portraits of people who are struggling, that give them unflinching dignity, and despite the often gritty reality, come across as tender. And photos that are beautiful, and it takes a minute to discern what exactly you are looking at. (Often accomplished through capturing reflections in windows, or close-ups of objects that you get lost in, and force yourself to pull away from to understand what it is.)

I went with Jona for the opening day of the exhibit. I have gone back with Gas and Rob, and will probably go back at least once more before the exhibit ends on April 22nd. (Oddly enough, or not, Jona and her family is close with Zoe’s family. And Rob has known Zoe since she was a little girl.) I went again yesterday and doing a blog post about Zoe has been on my to-do list, but I have struggled with how to accurately describe the exhibit or my experiences there. But seeing how the showing is coming to an end, I wanted to try, in case someone wanted to go see it for themself.

One of the great things about going is seeing the diversity of people who are there to see it. There is the photography crowd, the graff heads, art school girls, and everything in between. There is something for everyone. And watching as people are confronted with worlds they don’t usually come across, watching them exposed to other walks of life, is pretty incredible.

One of those moments was watching to bougie women in their late 60s, look at this picture:

I watched as one of the women leaned in close and out loud read, “IF YOU READING THIS FUCK YOU”. She turned in horror to the other woman, who she didn’t know, and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t usually use that word.” She had become so lost in the picture, she didn’t realize what she was doing. Or saying. It was great. I witnessed these type of interactions time and time again.

As I walked around judging people and watching people take Zoe’s work in, I noticed another what I guessed was a well to do, suburban soccer mom, with what I guessed was her 17 year old-ish daughter. I judged. It’s what I do. I imagined what it was like for them to see images like this, from what I guessed was an unfamiliar world, far from their own. I wondered what it was like for them to see some of the raw images. Then I overheard the mother talking to someone saying she and her daughter had been following Zoe for years, and had been to every single one of Zoe’s exhibits under 95. I appreciated the fact even I was confronted with my own preconceived notions and assumptions, forced to reexamine my own judgmental nature.

It’s great walking out of there too. It is inevitable to talk about the pieces that stuck out, left a lasting impression, the ones people find unforgettable, and why. Everyone experiences it different and has their own favorites. Methodology, motivation, exploitation, technique, etc. are also inevitable topics.

In conjunction with the exhibit is the Billboard Project.

The Billboard Project is a series of 54 billboards featuring photographs by Zoe Strauss, installed as part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition Zoe Strauss: Ten Years. Installed throughout Philadelphia, the project is loosely structured around the themes of the Odyssey, presenting an epic story about journey and homecoming. For ten years Strauss installed her annual I-95 exhibition in South Philadelphia which she describes as an “epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life.” The Billboard Project represents another telling of that narrative. Displaying photographs from Strauss’s travels around the country including Grand Isle Beach in the Gulf of Mexico, Venice Beach, CA, Rosedale, MS, and Fairbanks, AK, the Billboard Project is designed for both residents and visitors, encouraging each to construct their own narrative and journey around these images. In addition to underscoring the themes of journey and homecoming, the billboards will also touch upon the subjects of migration and immigration, fortune, hospitality, conflict and resolution, decision-making and mystery. Special thanks to Clear Channel Outdoor and Krain Outdoor Advertising for their generous donation of the billboards to extend the reach of the exhibition into the city of Philadelphia. Extra special thanks to Gary Turner.

I can’t see I have made it a point to catch them all, but it is inevitable not to have come across some of them. (Even though they have started taking them down.) What I wonder every time are the people that have seen them that have no idea what is behind the project. I am sure they have sparked many a conversation in their own right.

I feel like there is still so much to say, but would have no idea where to begin. Like I have talked about with certain films and books, to see the exhibit is really an experience. I hope people check it out, and like it or not, let me know what you think.

Some video slideshows of her work:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

MAD vs. Cancer

So a few months ago I learned a friend has cancer.

I first met him when he started to work for our magazine doing layout. He was a beast and won an award from the Society of Publication Designers in 2009 for this layouts in one of our issues:

He had worked for us for a few issues when in his quiet demeanor sort of way, asked if I painted graffiti. This is hard to answer because while I dabbled in it for years, I don’t know if I would of called myself a real writer. If you say you are and you aren’t, you look like a chump. So I told him I had messed with it for years, then asked if he wrote. He humbly said yes, I asked what he wrote, he said MAD. Uhm, wait… that MAD? Yup.

Dude is a fucking monster.

Recently, he has been a force behind The Infamous magazine. I actually did an interview with him for one of my classes, and I wasn’t surprised to see his passion, drive and sacrifice for the magazine come through.

But fuck all that.

He is an all around nice dude, super humble, a husband and a father.

He has stage 4 cancer.

What he doesn’t have is health insurance or workman’s comp. He has racked up over a quarter million in medical bills. So far.

I’m not the dude to really ask people for much, but if anyone can relate, could give no matter how big or small, it would really make a difference to him and his family as he battles cancer.

You can go to the website Mad vs. Cancer to cop a t-shirt or make a donation.

This website represents an effort by the friends and family of MAD (ESC KD WH NSF crews; co-founder of the INFAMOUS MAG; respected Philadelphia artist; and all-around good dude) to raise funds to help him support himself and his family during his battle with CANCER.

MAD was rushed to the hospital just after the 2012 new year with severe pain and discovered his spleen had ruptured. During the operation to remove his spleen, Stage 4 cancer was found in a few locations in his body.

MAD had no insurance nor workman’s compensation, and, accordingly, he is in major financial distress. While his medical bills are astronomical, the immediate need os for financial support for his basic costs of living. MAD has two beautiful children to support, his home and family to care for, and with week-to-week inpatient Chemotherapy, can not work a normal job, even IF his weakness and nausea weren’t a factor. SO, he needs HELP.

There are three prongs to our effort to generate support:

ONE – an art auction, where we will need ART donated that can be sold/auctioned with all proceeds going to the charity. The date for this auction is TBD. There will be a Silent Auction held in Philadelphia, and possibly other cities, as we hope to find people willing to help us set that up. There will also be an online portion to the auction, for those who would like to purchase donated art as a donation, but cannot attend the live silent auction. Dates, Times, URLs, and Locations for these events will be updated as they are set.

TWO – we are selling small packs of stickers in a “grab bag” format on this site. There will be printed vinyl stickers, and a mix of some of the best writers in the US and abroad who are donating custom stickers specifically for this cause. Like a public television drive, essentially you will be getting an “incentive gift” for different donation levels. These will be clearly listed as products to purchase on the main page. There is also going to be sketches, a zine, and possibly T-Shirts and some custom “fuck cancer” jewelry for the ladies.

THREE – straight donations. there is a big red DONATE! button on the site here where you can skip the shopping cart and specific amounts and just donate whatever you can afford or manage. This is perfect for smaller donations.

You can help the cause in one (or more) of several ways:

-Donate ART (email madvscancer@gmail.com for details on shipping art)

-Donate STICKERS made by you, your crew that can be added to grab bags

-Donate SKETCHES made by you, your crew that can be added to grab bags

-Donate $$$ directly using the donate button on the website

-Donate SERVICES (currently looking for anyone with a tshirt hookup than can donate the cost of printing up tshirts – if you have a screenprinting connection that might be interested, please hit us up!!)

-SPREAD THE WORD!! This may be the biggest help aside from money, please repost the link to this site on your blogs, your tumblrs, your flickrs, tweet it, text it, email it, hell, post it on your Friendster page if you still roll like that. PLEASE TRY TO MOTIVATE YOUR PEOPLE AND YOUR PEOPLE’S PEOPLE – ITS A GOOD LOOK

THANKS FROM THE MAD vs CANCER TEAM, and from MAD himself

Even if you can’t give financially, if you can re-post this, or the website http://madvscancer.bigcartel.com, it would be super appreciated.

And if you pray, please pray for my man.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Fun Fact About Chris Malo: One of my apartments can be seen in the intro of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

I had been meaning to post this for a while, and the Ni**as in Philly remix video below reminded me to do it.

I had an apartment in Philly at 18th and Wallace and at some point I was told or realized that you could actually see it in the intro of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. (Click the screengrab below to see the intro.)

The giveaway is the eagle you can see in the background painted on the Roberto Clemente playground wall.

The interesting thing is that despite the theme song which says:

“In West Philadelphia, born and raised/ On the playground is where I spent most of my days…”

is actually in North Philadelphia.

The small rec center used to be one of the most notorious dope spots in the city. They served out of the building and there was a long line of addicts waiting to be served. Security was guys in long leather trench coats, packing shottys underneath. You could score works from the grandmothers that sat on their stoops around the park.

And the remix that inspired this post:

Sunday, December 11, 2011

West Philly Tool Library

Need an adjustable dado blade for a day? No problem. How about a squirrel trap, just for the weekend? Got it. Or a 40? aluminum extension ladder for a few hours? It might be checked out.

Tool librarian Mimi Cheng.

Nestled in a nondescript warehouse space at 1314 South 47th Street is the new home of the West Philadelphia Tool Library, a concept simple, smart, and just as it sounds. The library loans out tools to it’s members to maintain their properties, complete projects, take care of their yards or gardens, or any other reason they may have for borrowing one of the 2,500 plus tools in the collection.

Its concept is not unique to Philadelphia, with various tool libraries in over twenty cities across the country, such as Atlanta, Oakland, Buffalo and Portland. But the West Philly Tool Library is the first of its kind here. Started informally in 2007 by Michael Froelich, an attorney at Community Legal Services, the library officially opened on March 15, 2008. The West Philadelphia resident had first heard of the idea while elsewhere in the country, but upon his return to Philadelphia, thought it would be a great idea to begin here.

Each member pays a yearly fee, between $25 and $50, based on a sliding scale according to income. There is also a lifetime membership option for $200. Then they are allowed to take out tools as needed, for up to one week. As with traditional book libraries, there are late fees. The cost is $1 for each day each tool is kept past the due date.

If growth is the measure of success, the West Philadelphia Tool Library has been successful in its short three and a half year existence. What started in a small space donated by West Philadelphia real estate developer Guy Laren, with wood provided by Woodland Building Supply’s Larry Reese, and a fraction of the the number of tools the library now boasts, the library has grown to just shy of 1,000 members, with 351 different people borrowing tools this year alone. Over the summer, it also moved into a much larger space to accommodate it’s expanding collection of tools.

Even with the increase in membership, yearly fees alone aren’t enough for the library to sustain itself completely. Operating costs include the building rent, two tool librarians on staff, and the acquisition of new tools. Although at times tools are donated, as was a large collection recently gifted to the library from Gene and Patricia Woock, they are also purchased as needed with money from grants. The rest of the budget is comprised of grants and donations from such places as the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and the Philadelphia Activities Fund, PhillyCarShare, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the Sparkplug Foundation, SCI-West, the Spruce Hill Community Association, and others. The West Philly Tool Library also operates as a project of the Urban Affairs Coalition.

West Philly Tool Library Steering Committee member Jake Blanch.

: “They are our fiscal agent,” explains Jake Blanch, member of the tool library’s steering committee. “We, as an organization, don’t have non-profit status. What the UAC does is manage our paychecks for the librarians, taxes and other financial duties. It is a relationship we have been maintaining for a long time and the grants are separate.” According to Form 990 tax filings by the Urban Affairs Coalition for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, the coalition took in more than $30 million, which it uses to unite “government, business, neighborhoods, and individual initiatives to improve the quality of life in the region, build wealth in urban communities, and solve emerging issues.” The library relies on the coalition’s non-profit 501(c)(3) status for applying for their own grants. “We don’t actually get funding from the UAC, but we get grants because of their non-profit status, as a project of the UAC,” Blanch says.

He originally stopped by the tool library one day to check it out, and instead became a part of the steering committee, the six person decision making body for the library. Even after time, Blanch is still impressed by what the library accomplishes.

“It’s such a great resource, for a number of reasons,” he says. “You don’t have to buy all the tools you need to maintain your property. The other aspect is the community involvement. People meet there, people come together there, people share projects there. It’s become a real hub for all the people in the neighborhood. People coming from very different backgrounds, coming from very different places, that would of never struck up a conversation.”

There certainly seems to be a need, if not demand, in the neighborhood surrounding the library for the services it provides. According to the Board of Revision of Taxes, there are 3,362 properties in the Cedar Park and Walnut Hill neighborhoods, 73.44% of which are residential. In the Department of Licenses and Inspection’s 2000 survey, it found only 4.13% of these properties to be vacant. The 2000 U.S. Census reports that of those, 72.03% are renters and 27.97% are owner occupied. The census also lists the median year structures in the neighborhood were built as 1941, so it is only natural for some of the properties to need repair 70 years later. The Licenses and Inspection department found in 2005 that 30.96% of the houses in these two neighborhoods to have open housing code violations. But with 22.14% of the population in the area falling below the poverty line according to the 2000 Census, the idea of a community sharing resources makes sense.

From power tools, to carpentry and woodworking tolls, concrete and masonry tools, gardening tools and books, if you happen to need it, there is a good chance the library might have it. And the strangest tool he has come across in the collection? “The Super-painter Padomatic Painting Kit,” Blanch says without blinking.

It isn’t a painting kit that bring lifetime member and neighborhood resident Larry Lee in on a Monday evening. Lee is returning a wheelbarrow after borrowing it to move the chopped wood he split.

A member returns tools to the library.

“Mine broke three years ago, so I come here,” he explains. “It seemed like such a great idea to be able to share tools. I already had a house I was fixing for myself for eight years, so I had a lot of tools. If I were starting out I would do this anyway, so I donated a lot of tools, and for the tools I don’t have, I come here.”

Lee takes tools out a few times a month, except in the summer when he stops by weekly to checkout a weed-whacker to trim his lawn.

“I think its a tremendous service.”

The West Philly Tool Library continues to increase and expand it’s membership well past the borders of West Philadelphia. This year it won Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly prize for Best DIYers Secret. Anyone can stop in to become a member, not only West Philadelphia residents, during the library’s operating hours, Monday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

Friday, November 18, 2011

Music I like…

So one of the benefits of working for a magazine where I have never heard 99% of the music we cover is that I hear new stuff.
JUMP Magazine recently dropped their new issue and did/are doing a series of release parties. The first was at the Temple library this past Wednesday (It was the first time I had ever been to the library, weeks away from gradumatating…) where two bands played. I really liked the second band (Sorry Brandee), Turning violet Violet.