Street Art 215

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Street Art 215

Copyright © Temple University Photojournalism 2014All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means.

Street Art215

Authors

LeaderShipjoe schaefer and Ed nEwton

contributorsmaggiE andrEsEn, harrison brink, jEssica jia, robErt kennEdy, matthEw lEistEr, matt Mcgraw, marissa pina, brianna spausE,

kathryn stellato, aaron windhorst

photo by brianna spausecovEr photo by joE schaEfErback photo by brianna spausE

contEntintroduction...........................................................................6......

history........................................................................................ ....8......

thE good........................................................................................14....

thE bad...............................................................................................28...

Mural arts program............................................................56...

6 Temple University PhotojoUrnalism

from the congestEd strEets of centEr city on first friday to the cruMbling warEhouses and dilapidated factories to the north, art is alivE in philadelphia.

large scale paintings wrap Entire building sides and decorate subway arteriEs. art’s distribution as a public coMmodity is practicE as old as civilization, but it’s synonymous with our city’s brand. known not only for its colorful walls, but also its colorful personalities, philly’s creativity and struggle is apparent in our own idEa of aesthetic beauty. although not classically refined as most piEcEs in thE westErn canon, wE like it that way. many detractors claim our art as vandalisM and it’s not the first timE we’vE beEn passed off as unsophisticatEd. but the truth is that wE valuE our authenticity More than practical skill and ExEcution and we’rE proud in finding bEauty whErE it’s lEast expEcted.

it’s all just relative, right?

- ed newton

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historyphoto by joE schaEfErtExt by yuxuan jia

Philadelphia is the birthplace of street art now referred to as Graffiti. It once was used by street gangs to mark their territories but began to turn into a form of street art during the 1960s. The earliest Graffiti artist in Philadelphia was Darryl “Cornbread” McCray. His name dptrsf was all over the city because the media falsely declared McCray dead by a gang-related shooting. In an effort to clarify that he was indeed still alive, “Cornbread” recruited a group of friends who then began tagging their name on public walls all over the city.

“Cornbread” rose to fame internationally after he allegedly wrote his name on an elephant at the Philadelphia Zoo, as well as on the side of the Jackson 5’s private jet. In the 1970s, the graffiti movement began to spread to New York, and then hit Europe after the 1980s.

Former Mayor Wilson Goode founded the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network in 1984, and he asked McCray and muralist Jane Golden to help him to stop the youth from tagging the constructive mural art paintings. The talents of graffiti writers impressed Golden, and she began to provide opportunities for them to break into mural-making, an opportinity

that would go on to change many young people’s lives.

The Anti-Graffiti Network was reorganized into the Mural Arts Program in 1996, and Golden became the directort. She also established the Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates, in order to provide support to the nationally recognized programs. The Mural Arts Program has given Philadelphia it’s own moniker of the “City of Murals”.

Despite the “Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Laws,” established by City Council, graffiti has never ceased to exist. According to Philadelphia Code 10-501(1) (Property Damaging, defacing and interfering With), drawing or painting without a permission on a public place, can result in a fine of up to $300, or imprisonment for no more than 90 days.

However, this law is not going to stop people from doing graffiti, because there are so many people who love graffiti, and think it is the best way to spread their feeling and thoughts.

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Hip-hop is not simply a type of music; it is a culture. Inner-city African-Americans in the early 1970s were just coming out of the civil rights movement. The times, they were a-changin.’ With this, another change needed to take place to bring them one step closer to equality. They needed their own culture - something that was undeniably theirs. Hip-hop is that culture; an expression of music and arts that originated in the melting pot that is New York City.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four main pillars, or elements, of hip-hop. The oral element is “MCing”, or rapping. This was seen as passing on truth through oral tradition and poetry with a strong rhythmic background. The oral can be broken into many parts such as content and flow. The aural element is “DJing”; the ability to create music by any means necessary. This generally involved turntables and manipulating sounds by created beats by either creating or sampling from sections of songs that simply relied on the beat. This requires a mixer and a strong knowledge of musical history. The physical element is “Breaking” or “B-Boying.” This is the dance that combined traditional tribal dances with martial arts, funk dancing, and free flow interpretive dance. Other pillars exist such as beatboxing (vocal percussion) and knowledge, but the final major element is the visual: the graffiti.

Graffiti is about creating something you can feel with your eyes. It is the definitive example of inner-city self-expression through fine art. It comes from the Greek word, “Graphein” which means, “to write.” Graffiti is the scribe that documents the history of the culture.

Graffiti was born in Philadelphia and initially used by political activists and rival gangs marking territory. Eventually, signatures or “tags”

began appearing with Top Cat, Cool Earl, and Cornbread being the pioneers. “Bombing” became a phenomenon that spread like wildfire through Philadelphia and eventually spread to New York City in the late 60s/early 70s.

Aerosol paint cans and magic markers became the weapons as the first form of hip-hop communication between rival crews in lieu of physical violence. “Tagging” eventually morphed into “writing” as people began creating more elaborate “pieces,” short for masterpieces, and “writers” became to appear all over the world. Law enforcement and people outside the movement saw graffiti as nothing more than vandalism while the writers saw it as art. As per usual, the truth lays in the grey areas that habitat the middle.

Today, just as hip-hop music has started to become accepted by the mainstream and is now seen as a massive cultural force, graffiti has also become accepted by the fine art community. The question is whether hip-hop culture as a whole has been simply accepted or stolen by the mainstream. Is the acceptance a good thing? Or is it in turn negating the original culture that inner city African-Americans created for themselves?

ElEmEnts of hip-hoptExt by matthEw lEistErphoto by joE schaEfEr

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Former Mayor Wilson Goode established the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network in January of 1984. The program’s original goal was to eradicate the uncouth spread of graffiti in Philadelphia. Two years later a branch-off organization termed the Mural Arts Program began within the Anti-Graffiti Network, lead by mural artist Jane Golden. “The number one problem, in my opinion, facing the city was graffiti,” Goode described the situation he faced during his time in office. “No one could build a new building without someone spraying graffiti on.” During this time period the city government issued a series of anti-graffiti regulations; including increased penalties and the prohibiting of selling spray paint to minors, as well as displaying unlocked cans of paint in stores. In January of 1984, Goode invited wall writers hailing from all parts of the city came to the mayor’s office and turned in their spray cans as a symbolic gesture of consent. “[Graffiti] was a scar on the neighborhood, it was ugly, it was not done in an artistic way.” Goode said. “It had to be removed.” In order to deter the city’s graffiti artists from further violating Philadelphia’s infrastructure, many were trained by Golden and invited to participate in the Mural Arts Program where their creative minds could flourish.There are two other divisions within the Anti-Graffiti Network; the Graffiti Abatement Team, and Paint Voucher Program. Together they work in cleaning up Philadelphia’s graffiti, helping the Anti-Graffiti Network earn the 1991 Innovations in American Government Award. This is the Anti-Graffiti Network’s 30th year of existence. Goode maintains that the Anti-Graffiti Network, coupled with the Mural Arts Program, successfully kept a lot of young people at bay from writing graffiti. To Goode, it’s really all about keeping the community intact.“We have to stay on, making sure the message from graffiti artists remain positive, we can not allow negative forces in the community to come back and start defacing walls again.” Goode said.

a goodE starttExt by jEssica jiaphoto by Matthew leister

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“I do not believe that because someone wants to make a name for themselves, they can use a negative standard in order to do that.

I don’t believe that a name made out of a negative behavior should be something that we embrace and cheer. We should reject it. Yes, we know your name. And because we know your name, we want you to stop doing what you’re doing in a negative way. And if you want to make a name for yourself that will be permanent in the history books, then we can show you how to do that.

But I don’t think that any one name is ever going to be in the history

books. Because they wrote something on a bridge, or a building, or on a sign, or

because they climb up fifteen stories to put their name up

there. I don’t believe that anyone is ever going

to recognize them, or cheer them, or embrace them for what they did. You may know who they are, but that’s all. That’s empty. There’s no substance there,

nothing there that will lead them anywhere

in the future. Will they spend the

rest of their lives writing on walls? Is that what they want

to do in a negative way? I don’t thinks so. “ - Wilson Goode

phot

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Andr

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the badtExt by harrison brink

photo by brianna spausEIt is hard to deny that there is a lot of good that comes

from graffiti and related forms of art, it is also plain to see that there is some bad that comes from it.

On one hand, you have people creating beautiful works of art. On the other, there are people sporadically tagging businesses and privately owned buildings without just cause or permission. As with everything in this world, there are two sides to the story when it comes to graffiti. The art of the medium can easily be lost when the paint is in the wrong hands and it can quickly dissolve from something that adds beauty to a building or neighborhood to something that is annoying at best or terrifying at worse.

Take, for example, the Beury Building—better known as the “Boner Forever” building to many. Located at 3701 North Broad Street, the Beury Building was at one time the National Bank of North Philadelphia but has long since been abandoned and gutted. Since it’s abandonment, two graffiti artists, known as “Boner” and “Forever,” have gone to the building and tagged their names on either side running vertically down a significant length of the building. On the south side of the building, “Boner 4ever” is spelled while on the north it simply says “Forever Boner.” The building has become a landmark of sorts within the city, known better for the graffiti than for its history as a bank. Some respect the ambition of the Boner and Forever while many others find the work offensive and unwelcome. Due to the nature of the


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art, graffiti is created where the independent artists want it to go, not necessarily where it is wanted by the public, who must look at it.

While it can give people a creative outlet to release their stress and frustrations, graffiti can also promote gang activity in neighborhoods. The reality of it is that it is a street art and being on the street in certain parts of the city isn’t always such a good thing. Gangs are formed as a necessity of sorts for some and tagging can easily become a way for these gangs to mark their territory. Feuding artists often resort to violent tactics to prove themselves. Two feuding artists recently pulled guns on one another at the B-Boy BBQ, an event celebrating hip-hop culture in Philadelphia. Tension often builds between artists when their work is covered by one another and bad feelings can ensue. This is part of a gang mentality that can develop when artists feel that the area that they tag is their territory and that those who come in and tag there are disrespecting them.

For every good thing that graffiti produces, there is an opposite effect on society that is produced. The problem that the city faces isn’t getting rid of graffiti altogether, but rather making it safer for those who create graffiti to produce their art to reduce the crime that can arise from the secrecy of it in its present state.

(Left) An alleyway in Center City is a hotbed for graffiti actiivity. Some of the tags have been painted over by the surrounding businesses while others have been left alone.

Photo by Briana Spause

18 teMple university photojournalisM

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kensington, covered

photos by brianna spause


a daily strugglE

tExt by briana spause There is an epidemic

that plagues the Kensington Neighborhood of Philadelphia. It emerges at night, sprayed, drawn and etched upon the city’s surfaces. Authors stake their claim on the area through small tags, branding the businesses, street signs and sidewalks.

im Imbrenda is the original owner of Phil’s Appliance Repair, located at 2802 Kensington Avenue. The store is lined with pristine white appliances – untouched washers, dryers and refrigerator models create a stark juxtaposition to the windows that lie just behind them.

“It’s illegible,” Imbrenda shouted, clearly exhibiting frustration at the graffiti that plasters his storefront. Each of the five window panels is either tagged, or shiftily repaired with duct tape from a late-night fight that had broken out on the Avenue.

For 39 years, Imbrenda has been cleaning graffiti off his storefront at least twice a week. The idea of removing the windows entirely has been floated, but isn’t a feasible option.

“I get disgusted, that’s why I ain’t doing nothing to my windows,” Imbrenda said. “If I get rid of the windows and I put up boards, no one would be able to see in and I would get robbed. This way they can look in here and don’t bother us.”

As a business owner and member of the community, Imbrenda has noticed a change in the area. Under the pale blue steel of the elevated Market-Franford Line, shadows are cast onto the avenue. In its cool darkness illegal activity runs rampant; horror stories of prostitution, gun violence and drug abuse paint the media portrayal of Kensington.

“This area was good 20 years ago, but now they got all kinds of people,” Imbrenda said. “The junkies – they sell drugs so [the city] has cops standing all around here. That don’t bother me. If they come on my corner, I chase them. They get mad but I figure I don’t care.”

“They’re degenerates!” Imbrenda’s daughter and business partner Susan

called out from the other side of the store while assisting a customer.The storefront that lies in a constant state of destruction doesn’t affect

business, Imbrenda said, but he is tired of it. Regular customers keep the business running, but newcomers may be discouraged by the daunting appearance of the building.

“If they were artists and they did pictures on the wall that would be different but they just scribble. But they don’t know any better and they follow the leader,” Imbrenda observed.

“That’s not art, they don’t even spell it right. I clean it up all the time but you can’t clean that stuff off. I just replaced the window over here and they graffitied on it,” Imbrenda said, pointing towards a brand new window panel that had been replaced earlier that week. “They get drunk and they fight. Two girls and a guy were fighting [outside], he put her head right through the window. “

phil’s appliances, on kensington avenuE fights a losing battle with graffiti. l, bottoM r | marrissa pina, top r brianna spausE


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As the light grows dim, an opportunity presents itself for vandals to leave their mark on the city of Philadelphia. Most of the graffiti that lines street corners, businesses and private properties occurs under the cloak of darkness and with a blatant disregard for the law.

Graffiti is the unauthorized writing or drawing on a surface in a public place. Whether it is painted or scratched, scribbled or artfully drawn, these pieces of vandalism serve as a challenge to the city. While disagreements between city officials and vandals may arise, there is one thing they can both agree on – the war can be fought, but graffiti will never end.

Philadelphia has a longstanding record of employing temporary solutions to the permanent graffiti problem that plagues the city. The Anti-graffiti Network was founded in 1984 to combat graffiti, and currently operates on a $1.125 million annual budget to keep Philadelphia beautiful.

The most recent data published by AGN estimates that anywhere from 50 to 250 requests for graffiti removal are processed per week. The Center City District alone removes an average of 12 tags per week. The number of requests has increased significantly in recent years due to the release of a Philly 311 app, where community members can report vandalism from any mobile device. Request for removal forms can also be found online at Phila.gov.

The Graffiti Abatement Team, a partnership between AGN and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, employs 38 workers to remove tags on the street level. In the past 10 years, the organization has removed graffiti from over 1.4 million properties and street fixtures with the exception of newspaper honor boxes and BigBelly Solar trash cans, which are the responsibility of their respective owners.

Recorded numbers of graffiti removal have skyrocketed over the past decade. In 1995, the graffiti abatement team cleaned a total of 3,634 properties and street fixtures. The number of vandalized properties that require city attention has rose tremendously, topping out at 122,000 in 2013, an increase of 14,366 over 18 years.

This free service has historically been extended to community members whose homes and businesses had been vandalized, but the Philadelphia City Council passed a law in Dec. 2013, shifting that responsibility onto the property owners. The new law states that the owner has 10 days to remove graffiti from their property, or they will be subject to a $100 fine. Council member Bobby Hennon explained at the time of the law’s induction that leaving graffiti sit will encourage crime in the area, and was not meant to target business owners. The “Broken Windows Theory” is the social theory of urban decline that encouraged this law, claiming that an area that has been vandalized will encourage criminal behavior whereas an area that is well kempt will discourage

waging warphotos and tExt by briana spause


criminal behavior.As a city of neighborhoods, some of Philadelphia’s

sections are hit harder by graffiti vandalism than others. The 19134 zip code which contains parts of the Port Richmond and Kensington neighborhoods receives the brunt of the abuse. According to a report published by PlanPhilly.com, 18 percent of the AGN’s efforts are concentrated in this zip code where 22,696 properties were cleaned in 2012.

Bordering neighborhoods see proportional abuse. In 2012, North Philadelphia required 9,522 cleanups, Fairhill required 8,166 and Fishtown required 6,804.

These neighborhoods serve as an illustration for AGN Managing Director Thomas Conway’s theory that once an area is tagged once it is more likely to be tagged again. In his tenure, Conway has found that a specific area is typically cleaned three times before vandals are discouraged and move on to a new surface.

Philadelphia efforts have focused mainly on cleaning up the city since the induction of the AGN in 1984, but the concentration does not detract from the nature of graffiti crime in the category of vandalism. Within the city limits, an individual caught vandalizing property is subject to a $300 fine and/or community service. Service options are

community ratification based, and will assign the individual to work with either the Mural Arts Program or the Graffiti Abatement Team on, “Restoring the property to the condition it was prior to its destruction, damage or defacement,” according to Philadelphia Code 10.51.

Repeat offenders will immediately be charged a $300 fine and are more likely to receive jail time. In 2008, approximately 107,300 minors were arrested

on charges of vandalism nationally, despite the illegality of selling spray paint containers, indelible markets and etching acid to minors. Vendors are required by Pennsylvania law to keep the aforementioned items in a sealed container in order to restrict free access to the public. Vendors caught selling to minors are subject to fines of $50 up to $300.

These laws are in place in order to discourage the visual

pollution that graffiti creates in Philadelphia. As an individual paints on the surface of public property they do so with the passion to be seen, the security of being noticed. Is the effort effective? Philadelphia officials will continue to paint over the vandalism in attempts to keep the city clean, and the war over graffiti will continue to wage on.

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photos by brianna spause

thE brokEn windows thEory is Easily illustratEd

on the strEets of philadelphia

whErE onE tag is sEldoM found. artists

cover arEas wholEhEartEdly, , encouraged by

past artists.

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“The Broken Windows Theory” is the theory of urban decline that suggests that when people see something done in their community, they will feel more at ease doing the same thing.

The example used in the name of the theory is a broken window. Say a group of youths came across an abandoned building. The Broken Windows Theory would state that the children would be more likely to leave the building alone if it was previously untouched. However, if something such as a window were broken, the people who come across the building would be more likely to continue breaking the windows of the building.

It is essentially a case of monkey see/monkey do, but it extends beyond simply breaking windows and single buildings. The same concept can apply to graffiti and tagging. If a person is constantly exposed to graffiti in their life, there is a better chance that they will feel that it is fine to produce graffiti themselves. It can be constrained to a single building, but where there is one tagged building, there are bound to be more. Neighborhoods where graffiti is prominent are like this because of the fact that it has become so commonplace there. People are comfortable tagging the same places and stick to these areas rather than expanding because it has come to be accepted as a part of life.

To increase police activity would be effective in preventing further vandalism or crimes because the area would be monitored consistently. There is typically a strong resistance against this method of crime prevention for the inherent fear of corruption within the police force affecting the area.

Assuming that the theory is accurate, the answer to the solving graffiti as a problem is keeping the city of Philadelphia clean so that individuals are discouraged from tagging a public surface in the first place. There are areas of the city where this would be nearly impossible due to the massive amount of graffiti within them, but in areas like Center City, graffiti is less prominent and easier to manage.

Despite the resistance to graffiti, it will never end. In areas that are historically saturated with paint, tagging has been adapted as an essence of culture, and the foundations of a movement.

brokEn windows theorytExt by harrison brinkphoto by maggiE andrEsEn


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the goodtExt by ed newtonphoto by matt Mcgraw

We met at an abandoned reservoir in Northeast Philly. The sun sat in the trees above, its warmth diffused by the high hanging leaves and the wind whistled through. Armed with just the camera equipment on our backs, we followed our subjects into the wooded area. Our guides led us to a system of eroded concrete caves: this was their studio.

“It’s not summer anymore,” the artist known as Besc remarked as he through down a bag of spray cans fifteen feet to the floor of the embankment. The wind ripped through the cement ducts and against our faces.

We shimmied down the metal rungs until we were reunited with the bag of cans.

Dodging puddles filled with empty beer containers and dead leaves, we scouted along the canal searching for a spot that attracted the artists’ eyes. Older pieces done by friends and colleagues painted its walls, mostly all weathered by elements and time.

“How about here?”Zippers released cans and cans of

different color. Atop of a milk crate sat an aluminum palette ready to make creative

concept into reality.Their hands streaked streams of brilliant

paints, harshly contrasting the dull browns of autumn. As each top was popped, we witnessed art as it happened. Pinks met with greens, which met with yellows, which met with blacks: the repetitious sound of the can’s ricocheting pea followed by the escaping aerosol air became our afternoon’s soundtrack.

Some would have you believe that those who identify with this subculture are nothing but vandals: experiencing joy at the cost of other’s property, but for me, it seems disingenuous to describe what I witnessed that day as anything criminal. Just as a guitarist plucks his strings, as the dancer harnesses her balance, the graffiti writer has crafted a special skill and uses it to better express their humanity. Rather than the canvas or concert hall, the writer chooses the dilapidated and forgotten structures of civilization. Their only crime to the community is their anonymity.


caribbEan delightphotos and tExt by matt Mcgraw

Caribbean Delight, a quaint yet popular eating establishment located at 1124 South Street, Philadelphia is, from the front, not a particularly exciting building. The view from the lot to the right of the restaurant, however, is another story entirely. On this large white wall, a graffiti mural has been painted that both adds an attention getter to the building, as well as advertising the restaurant itself.

The restaurant’s owner is a Jamaican immigrant who started his business on South Street in 1994 and has been cooking up authentic island food ever since. According to Percy, the mural done on the side of his building was not something that he had either asked for or expected. “I really don’t know that much about it,” says Percy. “A man came by one day and he asked if he could use my wall for a mural. He said he’d also advertise my store for me in return for using the wall. I said ‘why not!’” Zeso, the artist who painted the wall is a resident of New York City and travels around to lots of locations across the eastern United States tagging walls from consenting shop owners.

After a few days of work, Caribbean Delight, already a very colorful and mural-filled building inside, now had yet another vibrant reason for people to stop in and eat. When asked what he thought of the mural outside his store, Percy enthusiastically stated, “It is ten out of ten!”

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caribbEan delight


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In Philadelphia, one of the most colorful cities in the United States, it’s impossible to say that street art doesn’t have a place in its culture. Murals and graffiti dot locations spanning almost every street and neighborhood. It’s nearly impossible to travel through the city without seeing some form of expression. What then, is the difference between murals and graffiti? Why do the terms ‘mural’ and ‘graffiti’ have such different associations in our minds? To help explain, graffiti artist “Brock” agreed to talk about the subject.

“I’ve been a part of Philly’s graffiti culture for about two years now,” says Brock, who’s real name he preferred to keep anonymous. “I’ve lived in South Philly for four years and got inspired by all the stuff I see up on the walls when I walk around.” Brock, who is also a major part of Philadelphia skating culture, describes his first piece that he did at FDR Skatepark in South Philadelphia. “It wasn’t great, in fact it kinda sucked, but there was something about it, just being there under the overpass and doing something like that. Just leaving my mark on the world, you know? Made me want to do it more and better.”

Since then, Brock has certainly been doing just that, putting up his marks throughout South Philly and in other parts of the city as well, particularly in skating locations. “The more I do it, the better I get. I use outlines now and multiple colors and the big thing is I get quicker too. Most of the time I pick a safe place where the cops won’t stop in for a visit. I scope a spot out and get in and out quick so I don’t get caught.”

Making your Markphotos and tExt by matt Mcgraw

In Philadelphia, the law says that for a first-time graffiti offense, the offender can be fined up to $300, with possible additional charges incurred in restoration of the property and/or possible community service—which may include restoring the property graffitied on to its original state. For repeat offenders, an additional $300 or jail time up to 90 days may be incurred for each incident. When asked about how he felt about this, Brock laughed “that’s not really something I want to deal with but if it happens it happens. The places I go aren’t usually cop zones so I play it safe and haven’t had any run-ins. I just think if they spent more

time catching murderers and rapists and shit instead of hassling someone who’s painting on a wall the city would be in better shape.”

Brock’s strongest opinion came on the subject of why people see graffiti as a bad thing. “There’s a big difference between what I do and tagging. When you’re tagging there’s no expression, you’re just throwing up a gang symbol of some shit. It doesn’t really have any thought put into it.” Brock stated that while many taggers will put up their marks anywhere,

he tries to pick secluded places or spots where no one will mind. “I’m not trying to put up graffiti on someone’s house or store window, I’m just trying to put something up.” In Brock’s opinion, the stigma against graffiti comes from people grouping graffiti artists and taggers into the same word. The distinction between the two in the public eye is what would make people see graffiti differently. “I wish we could get recognition like muralists do, but in some ways that would ruin it. I picked my name cause I loved Pokémon as a kid cause they were always out on an adventure, and that’s what it is for me, an adventure.”

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fdr parkphotos and text by aaron windhorst

In 1994, the construction of a new park began with the hope of giving skateboarders, bikers, roller-skaters and taggers a place to express their creativity in a city which was increasingly treating them as treating them as vandals and attempting to banish them. Underneath the Interstate 95 overpass and on property operated by the Fairmount Park committee, the City of Philadelphia and thousands of volunteers founded the FDR Skatepark.

With lax regulations and a laissez-faire policy regarding modifications, FDR Skatepark went from what Transworld termed a “sad excuse for a skatepark built by the city” into an “East Coast skate mecca built by skaters.”

Open to the public from noon to midnight with little-to-no security, the park operates largely on an honor system and functions appropriately due to its continuous popularity with skateboarders, bikers, and artists.

FDR Skatepark has become a bona fide cultural landmark due to its distinct acceptance of graffiti and its DIY aesthetic, even breaching the confines of skater culture. FDR has been notably featured in dozens of skate videos since its inception in the ‘90s such as Toy Machine’s Jump Off a Building and Transworld’s IE and in video games such as Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds.

As a response to the park’s long history and importance

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within the city of Philadelphia-not only to skaters, but to graffiti artists--Nick Orso, Scott Kmiec, and photographer Phil Jackson set out to release a photo book documenting the park’s current status. In an interview with ESPN, Jackson deemed FDR Skatepark to be among the best in the world.

“I have traveled through most of this country and I honestly think it’s the best park in the United States, maybe the world. It’s raw. There might be broken glass in the flat-bottom, paramedics wheeling somebody away or a graffiti kid pulling a crowbar on someone -- it’s gnarly but it’s a fully unique experience.”

“I don’t know what’s impressive, or what I’m looking at,” says Van, 35, of Palmyra, New Jersey. “But when you see parks with graffiti, it just adds character

to the park. When you got this glistening white skate park, with no trees or anything around it, sometimes it just doesn’t have the same vibe as when you have something tucked back.”

Van, a BMX biker for over 20 years, has been coming to FDR Skatepark frequently since 1995. “There’s nothing else like it.”

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thE raMps of fdr skatepark are covErEd in a coat of graffiti that consistEntly changes. dylan frEquently visits thE park with his bike

photos by aaron windhorst

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graffiti pierphotos and text by brianna spause

Just a short ride down Cumberland Street lies Graffiti Pier, a haven for artists, taggers and street racers to culminate.

Beach Street is just a tease - a truck warehouse operated full of life in the afternoon sun, covered in fresh tags.

The entereacne is tucked away in the corner of the littered lot - barred off by a measley barrier. The abandoned coal pier is frequented by arists who are practicing their craft or aiming to leave their mark on the city. Located in Olde Richmond, the area has quite a reputation.

“It’s definitely a place that shows different “arts”, Patricia Wakely, a casual visitor said. “Obviously there are just tags of peoples names or doodles like I did, but the areas where elaborate pieces exist are super rad and creative. The atmosphere of the bigger, more detailed pieces really make it cool and the fact that people an add on or layer their art with other artists definitely makes it a living, collaborative canvas.”

The walls of the piers are consistently re-adorned with new graffiti, as artists traverse the area at all times of the day.

“The good thing about the area is the beauty of it,” Wakely said. “It takes an otherwise forgotten, abandoned pier and makes it a fun,

sort of secret spot where rad art can be viewed and appreciated. OFten this form of art is looked down upon and negatively recieved if done in more public areas, but the sanctity of this areas abandonment makes graffiti a more celebrated style, I think.”

The consistent tagging lends itself as an illustration of the broken windows theory. the trail that leads to the pier is trashed - childrens toys, beer cans and emptied spray paint containers are tossed haphazardly across the area.

“I think it could potentially encourage other crime, like underage drinking or drug use, but for some reason I don’t feel like the area would spark any “harsher” crimes,” Wakely said. “I think anyone who goes there generally goes there to appreciate it or add to it, I think it can act almost as a sanctuary of some sort for people. Plus the fact that it is sort of a “secret spot” makes it almost more like a privilege in a way there....plus since you are technically trespassing I don’t think people would participate in any serious crimes there since like I said before often at night there are cops around.”

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‘EMDE’ a twenty-something-year-old graffiti artist originally from the Kensington / Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, shares his story of how graffiti became a part of his life. ‘EMDE’ explained how he actually began in elementary school. “My dad taught me straight letters because he used to write back in the day in the 70’s.” His father was a big inspiration, the imagination behind cryptic writings caught his attention from a young age and from then on he wanted to control, understand and improve upon the craft. He said though that he really “got into the ‘graff ‘ world in 2008-2010”. Not long after, in 2011, he was writing on the streets, “running around the city with paint markers and home-made mops.” “It didn’t matter day or night, I was doing it all day... I was young.” Now living in Virginia, he said he’s “out the hood”. But that didn’t mean his passion for graffiti subsided. ‘EMDE’ said he still goes out to paint or tag once a week. He said that he likes, and casually

goes to paint, a freight yard by a house in Richmond, Virginia. He can recall good memories related to graffiti, smoking dutch masters on the Lehigh tracks with groups

of friends tagging freight cars. Though he noted respectfully that one of these friends had recently passed away last month, a member of the graffiti crew ESC... And he said most of the bad memories basically boil down to cops. ‘EMDE’ is a graffiti artist who has done “over 100 freights” and is still going. His art is of great quality and if you look hard you might be able to find some of it on a passing by train or in a nook or cranny of the city.

But when asking for an exact number on his public pieces, I feel his freely expressive attitude matches that of many graffiti artists. “I really don’t count, I just do.”

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The Mural Arts Program has turned Philadelphia into a city of color, known around the globe for the impressive large-scale paintings that decorate the landscape of the nation’s most prominent home for public art. That identifier alone is owed completely to Jane Golden, who brought mural painting to the city after honing her own skills in Los Angeles. An offshoot of former Mayor Wilson Goode’s Anti-Graffiti Network, the Mural Arts Program was originally intended to clean up Philadelphia’s graffiti epidemic. It’s mission included helping to bridge the gap between community and local artists. In 1996, Mayor Ed Rendell combined the Mural Arts Program and the Anti-Graffiti Network, which Golden has since established as a nonprofit organization. Funding for the program comes from grants, private donors, artist and donations.

As the Mural Arts Program began working with city artists formally vilified for their graffiti, it became intensely clear that this was a different type of artistic reconstruction. Golden, impressed with the knowledge and talent owned by the artists, began teaching the creation of art in a non-disruptive way. The murals created were dynamic and bold, changing the lives of those who painted them by

tExt by maggiE andrEsEn & kathryn stellatophotos by maggiE andrEsEn

city of Murals

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adding structure to their communities, and prompting outside change. As the Mural Arts Program successfully labored with city artists formally vilified for their graffiti, it became intensely clear that this was a different type of artistic reconstruction.

Working with groups such as at-risk-youths, returning veterans, incarcerated citizens, and the differently abled, the Mural Arts Program has made a name for itself by using art as a healing tool in communities across the city. Jane Golden, executive director of the Mural Arts Program, says she’s proud of what they’ve accomplished, but imagines much more for the program. “I’d like to think about how we can work more broadly with the school district,” Golden said in a phone interview.

“I also love working with the Department of Human Services, and would love to expand to working with kids in placement and with their social workers to make sure we don’t lose touch with them.” With exhibits such the Mural Mile, psychylustro, Love Letters to Philadelphia and more, the Mural Arts Program continues adding to Philadelphia’s old city charm.

With more than 3,000 murals in the city, to this end Jane Golden describes Philadelphia as an outdoor gallery, a museum. With art in nearly every corner of the City of Brotherly Love, Golden may not be very far off.

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painting thE wallsphotos and text by Maggie andresen

She’s been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. After graduating with a degree in English from Penn State University and a minor in Art, she studied with French tapestry weaver Jean Pierre Larochette and lived in Paris as an artist-in-resident. Following her studies in France, she moved to Hachioji, Japan through the Japan Foundation as their artist-in-resident. She has worked as the former director of Philadelphia’s DaVinci Art Alliance, continues working with disadvantaged populations through art, and is still in recovery from a pyro-attack that eventually destroyed four of her shag pieces on display throughout the city of Philadelphia.

She is Kathryn Pannepacker, muralist responsible for helping create the Wall of Textiles, Nan’s Blankets, and Coming Home, among other pieces of public art.

Pannepacker love of art began in college, when her academic advisor told her that credits she had taken in jewelry making, ceramics, and paper-making stacked high enough for a minor if Pannepacker took one more class in the arts. That last one-credit course was in textile weaving, Pannepacker has incorporated the practice in every mural she has ever worked on.

“Though I have learned the traditional art of tapestry, I also weave with unusual materials,” understandable after learning from third-generation weaver Larochette. Pannepacker’s alternative weaving tools have included matches and q-tips.

The route to the Mural Arts Program was paved in passion for Pannepacker, who began apprenticing artists around 1995 working on large-scale pieces while dreaming of being at the head of such a project.

“I was living by the Italian Market, and was noticing a bunch of kids playing in this empty parking lot that was surrounded by a large, gray wall that wasn’t really play-friendly. So I rounded up my neighbors and got some paints donated to do a long mural along the parking lot with the neighborhood kids. I had to find out who was responsible for commissions of the murals through the Mural Arts Program, and asked if I could apprentice with her, thinking of

the mural I so badly wanted to paint. I worked side by side with great artists for a long time, learning my craft and slowly worked from there.”

Many murals found in Philadelphia are made in a grid formation, so an artist can work from home or send the empty canvases to schools and prisons to work on separately. Pannepacker prefers a more intimate approach, she works on-site as much as possible in order to engage the community where the mural is being put up. Members of the community are welcome to help Pannepacker weave and paint sections of her murals; she establishes herself as a temporary fixture long enough to engage the people around her in a genuine way.

“I also like to bring on assistants and interns to the team, these are individuals in transition from shelters who I can pay small stipends for the opportunity to have a mentor to help them in the situations they are in.”

Pannepacker has also done projects within homeless shelters, methadone clinics, and other places often stereotyped for the residents living there.

“I think art is healing, it’s narrative, and it reflects the community it is in.” Her welcoming nature, however is not shared by all. Pannepacker was hurt this summer in a pyromaniac’s successful attempt at burning several of her ‘Adopt a Fence’ shag instillations across the city. The project mirrors what graffiti artists call ‘tagging,’ Pannepacker weaves what she calls “guerilla weavings” and hangs them on bridges and walls in random areas of Philadelphia. This summer saw the genesis of the project, and when four pieces had been finished three of them were torched. Another two were weaved to replace the burnt tapestries, and another one went up in flames.

“I’ve been through two surgeries, a few months ago my doctor brought me in to suggest another one, but I’d already

signed a contract for another mural! I completed it on crutches. The torching of the shag was pretty awful, they were community pieces and we were making all these beautiful connections with neighbors, doing interviews and having food together, and suddenly the community work would be torched. It was heartbreaking to see.”

No matter the trial, Pannepacker seems up to the task of continuing her art and filling the city with color. In addition to her Adopt a Fence project, she has been weaving for her ongoing Healing Blanket project, similar in its random distribution through the city but inspired by the neighborhoods she weaves the blankets for. Pannepacker is currently working on what she calls a peace vigil weaving project, she is in the process of designing the United States and Iraqi flags with mixed materials, including matches.

Pannepacker’s art has changed lives and communities, it shifts perspectives every day, particularly in her Finding Home mural that represents the city’s homeless. Her resilience and fortitude reflects in all the work she creates, Philadelphia is blessed to have her as a fixture in its artistic environment.

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Getting InvolvedI am a person who has always been drawn to painting murals; I

had an opportunity to paint a mural for the city of Los Angeles and ended up working with kids on probation in Los Angeles for a number of years. Then I came back to the East Coast because I was very sick [and] to be with my family.

I read about the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network that was beginning under Wilson Goode. I was really taken with the way he wanted to deal with graffiti in an alternative way, that he wanted to work with kids who write on walls. Goode made it clear that he wanted to bring someone in with an art background to work with the organization because he felt that these kids were lacking art. I was then hired to run the artistic part of the Anti-Graffiti Network and stayed for many years because I loved working with the graffiti writers. They had incredible talent and gifts that had really just gone unrecognized. I had also fallen in love with mural painting in Los

Angeles and wanted to do it here in Philadelphia, and was given a lot of support to try it.

We started doing murals in different parts of the city almost as a city service, and that inspired other people so much that they started thinking about other changes they could start in their community. We started to see art take on an almost catalytic purpose, enlivening the space and inspiring people to think about the potential of the community. I think the reason I stayed from ‘97 to today is because it’s really a creative and entrepreneurial endeavor that merges art and social change; that is something that is really a thrill and a privilege.

breaching the gapIt was tricky at first because the kids couldn’t use spray paint.

My attitude was always looking at the fact that they had a lot of talent, and that I could teach them all these other things aside from spray painting. I wasn’t working with art school kids who were writing graffiti on the side, these were kids who had dropped out of high school and clearly didn’t have much direction though. I asked them what were they were going to do at twenty-five as high school dropouts; told them that this program pays you to work on murals and learn other skills, said we’d provide support to get a GED and that we had a scholarship program to get kids back into college. A lot of them were were skeptical at first, but once they started to make their mark on the city in these big, bold, beautiful ways through their murals, they sort of fell in love with mural painting much in the same way I did.

It became a lifeline for them to think about other things beyond graffiti, really opened up their world in a way that was really critical. Our bigger obligation is to support them as the whole person, simply to support their murals or graffiti seems very narrow to me, and quite frankly irresponsible. I think we have a larger obligation to the kids in this city to offer them every opportunity possible.

creating changeThere’s a reason we go to galleries and museums, why we

hang art on our walls. We want beauty and meaning, murals give us both. There’s something about the boldness of them in our environment that leads to other kinds of changes.

The process is key in a way that is almost as important as the art object; it’s the process that engages, connects, and brings people together in ways that’s liberating. It’s mobilizing, inspiring, evocative, challenging, and it’s pretty extraordinary.

Breaking the CycleThe creative process is where I think the real power is. That’s

where the individual and community transformations occur at the same time, one without the other isn’t as strong.

This is a very profound way of making amend and a way to support them that is both life-affirming and life-changing. They can do things that are positive, they can be rewarded, and there’s a pathway out of the cycle for them. Many people caught in cycles of crime and violence and poverty feel that they are in a sense doomed.

The question for us and our program is how we can creatively break that cycle; it’s these interventions that ultimately make a big difference. The role that innovation and creativity play in opening people up is imperative; because coming in the front door doesn’t always work. Sometimes we need to go in the back door and the side door, repeatedly and creatively, in order to make that difference.

For further questions, contact Jane Golden at [email protected]

Mural Arts ProgramQ&a withjane golden,director of M.a.p.

interview byMaggie andresen

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For the future

I would love to see the programs we have now grow more to scale.

• MuralArtsProgramonlyserves1,500children.“It’s really a drop in the bucket when you think about you many young people in Philly don’t have access to the arts.

• BroadenworkwithPhiladelphiaSchoolDistrictandDepartmentofHumanResources.“Would love to expand to working with kids in placement and with their social workers to make sure we don’t lose touch with them.”

• StrengthenStateandLocalprisonprograms “Our program for peaaople coming out of prison is hugely successful; our recidivism rate is really low.”

• Warehousespace, “To develop a workforce development program where our teams are renovating community and recreational centers all over the city.

• Behavioralhealthprogram,Porchlight. “Catalytic in helping to overcome stigma and making people feel whole again. To be able to sign up for public art-making programs has been really life changing for a lot of these people.”

Maggie andresen

Maggie andresen Maggie andresen

Maggie andresen

brianna spause


psychylustro

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The colors are stretched across five-miles of desolate, disintegrating train track. Painted along the Northeast Rail Corridor between 30th Street Station and the North Philadelphia Station, Katharina Grosse, a German contemporary artist was brought in by the Mural Arts Program, chaired by Jane Golden. Grosse began work on her creation psychylustro in the spring of 2014, ending in May of 2014. In seven installments, that represent the exploration of scale, perspective and the passage of time, psychylustro

was intended to be a temporary installation. Grosse believed that psychylustro would evoke strong feelings in Philadelphians.

“I need the brilliance of color to get close to people, to stir up a sense of life experience and heighten their sense of presence,” says Grosse to the Mural Arts Program.

In a bold magenta, a bright orange and a vibrant green, psychylustro can be seen by train on three separate train lines; Amtrak, SEPTA (Chestnut Hill West

and Trenton lines) and the NJ Transit (Atlantic City Line). Spread across the grass, wooden structures and buildings, colors swirl with splotches of white interwoven. Environmentalist were skeptical of the use of paint on the ground, however, Grosse and crew used water-based paint that was approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The Mural Arts Program extensively looked into the environmental effects on the trees and the grass. Results from environmental researchers and foresters said the paint would be fine to use on the foliage.

Grosse designed psychylustro, however, two assistants and six Philadelphia artists actually painted the instillation. While painting, sound artist Jesse Kudler created an audio interpretation of psychylustro at 8 minutes and 23 seconds for people to listen to as they pass the colorful passages.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that psychylustro cost nearly $300,000 to execute. However, funding came from various grants and private donors.

psychylustro had its criticisms. General consensus among the graffiti community is that the instillation was insulting, bringing in an artist to create something that Philadelphia graffiti artists could do. Graffiti appeared within 24 hours of the installation being finished.

Regardless of the negative opinions, psychylustro has been an extremely popular and roaring success

articlE by kathryn stellatophotos by joE schaEfEr.

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photo by Matt mcgraw

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