October 29, 2025 • 32 mins
Join Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta and artist Shawn Theodore for PYRAMID CLUB: 1937—2035, a reimagining of the legendary North Philadelphia social club as a blueprint for today’s North Broad renaissance. Together, they’ll explore how Afrofuturist and arts-driven approaches can turn scarcity into abundance while centering Black joy and cultural heritage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I do believe that we are living in our own myth.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I think it's a very interesting place to be in
a quantum space, in looking back at yourself making the
myths that are going to live around you and surround you.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is Lucas Quinley from Next City, a show about
change makers and their stories. Truth is, there are solutions
to the problems oppressing people in cities. If you're listening,
I hope it's because you want to spread good ideas
from one city to the next city. Across every city,
there are places that change how people imagine themselves and
what their community can be. And in Philadelphia, the Pyramid
Club was one of those places. From nineteen thirty seven
(00:49):
to nineteen sixty three, the original Pyramid Club on Westererard
Avenue was a center of black art, culture and social life.
It hosted artists and welcome visitors like Martin Luther King Junior,
and Josephine Baker. A new exhibition at Temple Contemporary asked
the question what if the Pyramid Club had never closed.
We got to view the exhibit during this year's Vanguard
(01:09):
Conference in Philly, and we were in awe. The exhibit
Pyramid Club nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five, honors
its legacy while considering its place in what's happening right now.
It features thirty four paintings from the William A. Dodd Collection,
photographs by John W. Moseley from Temple's Charles L. Blox
and Afro American Collection, and a new work by Philadelphia
(01:30):
artist and co curator Sean Theodore. The exhibit, Pyramid Club
nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five, honors its legacy
while considering its place in what's happening right now. It
features thirty four paintings from the William A. Dodd Collection,
photographs by John W. Moseley from Temple's Charles L. Bloxon,
Afro American Collection, and a new work by Philadelphia artist
(01:50):
and co curator Sean Theodore. The show is on view
now through December nineteenth at the Tyler School of Art
and Architecture. Today we hear from the exhibition's co curators,
Artist Shawn Theodore and doctor Matthew Jordan Miller Kenyatta as
they literally walk us through the gallery. Here's doctor matt
to begin.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
This is a beacon for art, architecture, and community imagination.
We're proudly a part of the North Broad cultural Corridor
of Philadelphia, and this show, I think is a great
representation of that mission.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
So I want to also say.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
That this show is a really a collaborative endeavor with
somebody who is a thought leader, is an artist and
a co curator of this project, Seawan Theodore, and we're
really looking forward to telling you a lot about what
not only went into this show, but what questions it
raises for the work that you all do, the work
(02:49):
that I've done. Also it you know, from a very
similar background. I'm a little bit of an atypical curator
coming from an architecture and urban planning background.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
So this koh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, So this show really represents a lot of what
that unlocks, you know, for both art and architecture. I'll
say that the thesis of this show is a question
that really continues to reverberate beyond the show, and I
think we'll we'll reverberate and for time immemorial, which is
what happens when a place like the Pyramid Club closes,
(03:22):
and is what would have happened if it hadn't. That's
a question that is not just about nostalgia, but is
an invitation for community world building. I often call this
and a sort of demonstration of black lighting. Black Lighting
is a term that I use that represents a sort
of mixed method approach to one sort of witnessing hidden histories,
(03:46):
two to wordsmith around new narratives, and three to use
that to world make around often black spaces. So black lighting,
I think also is a philosophy that is meant to
help us understand how now history is still a part
of the cultural DNA of this neighborhood. The way that
I often think about it is what bell Hooks caused
(04:07):
sort of acts of concrete reclamation. This is us really
looking to sort of physical markers as those symbols of
what was lost, but also what can be reclaimed. This
is a constellation of black cultural workers that have come
together to declare the importance of this not just for
the art world, but again for neighborhoods and neighborhood dignity.
(04:28):
When I say Pyramid Club, Philadelphians might think that I'm
talking about the one in Center City, which absolutely not.
New Yorkers might think of this nightclub that existed, so
we might think that we're talking with those places, and
we're now we're talking about the original Pyramid Club that
existed on fifteen seventeen West Gerard Avenue. It currently has
(04:50):
an historic marker on there that was erected in twenty
twenty one, and that space was it was architecturally significant.
It was built in nineteen oh one by William Lightfoot
Price and it was but it was vacant for about
a decade before the Pyramid Club members who were meeting
in the basement of of the Christian Street YMCA. Shawn's
(05:11):
not because the story is amazing. So they met there
for I think about a year or maybe longer than that.
It was about years two years, okay, so for two
years and raised money and found a location.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And then also the young folk in the Pyramid Club
organization went back to that same location to sort of
conspire and figure out how to make.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It better as well. So that's something you need to know.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah, Sean's done incredible research on this. And Christian Street
YMCA was the origin and they found this location on
Gerard Avenue and it was abandoned for about ten years.
In nineteen forty dollars, they assembled nine thousand dollars to
take this building and apply the strategy that you all
weare familiar with of adaptive reuse and introduced, which was
(05:59):
very popular at the time revivalists architecture from Egyptian Revival,
but also our deco and their floors and things looked
a lot like this.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
It was guilt. It was hardwood floors.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
We didn't try to necessarily reconstruct exactly what we did.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
We can't.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
You know, it's one of a kind, but it is
echoing that sort of legacy. So this is a room
that represents a liveness in a time that was the.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
Height of legalized racial segregation.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
These members of the Pyramid Club created a space that
refused that and said that we have dignity, our creativity,
and our genius matters, and we need a space for it.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
The Pyramid Club was a local institution and gathering place.
It connected Philadelphia's Black community to each other and to
national movements and art, science and civil rights. Imagine walls
filled with art, imagine, a lecture space, and intellectual hub
and more.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It was a cultural ending see I mean it welcomed
members who were on the rolls, even though they weren't Philadelphians.
From Martin Luther King to Jay Rope Oppenheimer, to their
good Marshal like it was.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
It was a cultural embassy for Philadelphia.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
So it was a who's who, no matter where you
were from, and they would assemble in these rooms for
those talks, for those events.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Will Doctor Mantt approaches the Pyramid Club through history and architecture.
He leans on co curator Sean Theodore to show its
legacy through the lens of art making. Today.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I met Sean about gosh, this is three years ago,
three years ago, and he was commissioned by the Mural
Arts to Philadelphia to blow up these photographs.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Here into murals.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
And when I saw that, you know, I was like, okay,
Like that's it. That's that for me, a blueprint, you know,
for a way to use art to dignify historic spaces.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
And it was being.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Commissioned for the Freedom Theater, which is right on Broad Street.
And so for me it was like, okay, I have
to find someone when this idea came about, of who
could really understand the power of art to you know,
not only dignify a historic space, but I think also
to really dive deeper into and decolonize our eye. Like
(08:13):
it's not just any art that you see on the
on the Freedom Theater. It's art that challenges your eye
to see the layers and complexities within blackness. And so
with that being said, I want to turn it over
to Sean and talk through some of just what his
thought process was.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
This this project is truly been a labor of love.
I'm a Philadelphian, like a real Philadelphian. I'm nobody's transplant.
So when things happen here in the city that drive history,
rebuilding the archive, understanding our agency, and understanding our identities,
we cannot talk about that without including the Pyramid Club
(08:54):
in its absence, it.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Is still great.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We are doing things in its absence, and that's the
thing that for me is the most astounding part of
its legacy, that it's still living around us.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Not in us, but around us.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's really sort of shaped the way that we've approached
black museum, making black curation, Black creativity in this city
comes from not only its presence, but it's equal.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Weight in absence.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
We are here because of their intent, and I don't
know if they would have had the.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Same sort of zeal.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
About the way things have gone in the city that
I have, because they're a very conservative bunch. Like I've
done a lot of research on them.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It's an interesting bunch of folks.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
But I do believe that what we're doing with the
arts and how we are looking forward as a community,
a community of multiple identities. I think they would have
supported everything that's happening in the city now, and we
were probably be better for it if they were here
first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I like to acknowledge that.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Just their desire to make things that stepped outside of
the colonial clock won their exhibition schedules. It did not
follow any kind of rhythm that fit into the contemporary
rhythm of its time. How they decided to make sure
that work made sense for their membership. These are folks
(10:33):
who quite frankly, had jobs that they wanted to have
and traveled to have. These are the folks of the migration,
of the Great Migration. Their purpose for being here is
way greater than just we're going to occupy a space.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
They were occupying their futures.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
After the break, doctor Matt Kenyatta and John Theodore described
some of the paintings and photographs on display that connect
the club's pasted to its present and how the legacy
of the Pyramid Club continues to live on through the
art itself. Welcome back today, we're exploring how creative spaces
(11:17):
can carry communities memory forward, and how one place in Philadelphia,
the Pyramid Club, became a beacon for black artistry and
community life in the mid twentieth century. Now co curators
doctor Matt Kenyata and Sean Theodore take us deeper into
the exhibition, starting with the artist who shaped the club's
earliest shows. Here's doctor Matt.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Jacob Lawrence was a part of the very first Pyramid
Club show and I think the very.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
Last one and the very last, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
He was.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
This was two years before he had emerged on the
New York art scene. He had a solo exhibition at
MoMA nineteen forty three. I believe, which you know the
lts of this Migration series that he became really well
known for and had this.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Whole six us for solo career.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
But I would venture to say my thesis is is
like after his first show and the way that this
debonair gentleman, but over there Hubert Howard, the curator and
a painter.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
Who's also over here. His works are here.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
He was very adept at curating people and putting them
in conversation. He was, you know, the only art black
student in some of his art sort of programs. By day,
he was a postal office worker actually and kept that
job his entire career.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
And on the weekends would go.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Right, so he would he would go and travel on
the weekends over to the Barnes Foundation and when it
was still Lower Marion and then would come back and
you know, he was soaking up all that any of
these institutions would would offer him. So Papa, he was
crucial and desegregating their collection, leading to some of the
first black artists.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
So it was just he was a super connector.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
And so for me when I think about Jacob Lawrence
and what he represents, was like, wow, he was able
to get him on the radar of a lot of
these galleries of Philadelphia, which is you know, if you're
here doing that, you probably are connected to people in
New York as well. And this is why I mean,
we need our historians, honestly to do more work on
the Pyramid Club because we need to know that definitively.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
But I would venture.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
To say that was how he got his start and
him coming back even after two decades of being successful
to do another solo show with the Pyramid Club spoke
to the impact it had on him and that was
his community. Another crucial element of this exhibition is the
works here by John W. Moseley. And again I'm gonna
turn it over to Sean because this was like a
(13:44):
really big labor of love for you too.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
John W.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Moseley.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I see him in a lot of ways as being
the Gordon Parks of Philadelphia. He was able to create
some of the most lasting images of black elegance, black excellence.
And if I could channel the curators and the archivists
of the blocks and collection, they would say he was
a cultural warrior.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
He was able by being.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So prolific, like he walked around everywhere. He was able
to see everyday life, and he was being invited to things,
and so he you know, these two walls here I
think just represent that spectrum, you know, again, that complexity
of black life that when people wonder like, how did
these folks get through these times? You know, those times
(14:29):
of in the mid century of just you know, oppression
and racial segregation, like the Jim Crow, you know, how
do they do it?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well?
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Some of these I think as answers to that, they
continue to forge faces of black ease, of joy, of pleasure,
of leisure, of dignity, of achievement.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So I'm going to talk to you about mister Moseley
from the point of view of a street photographer, and
that's me. Moseley walked this city, but his reach was international.
And the one thing I have to say about mister
Mosley's work is that not only is he prolific, he's
(15:15):
accidentally incredibly grand with his compositions.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
The way that he takes a photo.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
As a photographer, I could tell the speed that he
puts it together in his head. It's about getting that
moment every single time without missing the really key.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Moment that's necessary to tell the story.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
It's in the eyes, it's in the posture, it's in
the gaze, in the sort of open mouth, and to
have that moment to be a photographic artist to understand
that that's necessary in that moment, but being fast enough
to get it, but also giving the people their grace.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You know, there's something to be said.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And Cardier Brisson is like everybody calls them like, oh,
your first ten thousand photos are the worst.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I don't believe that right.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I think there's some accidental beauty in those first ten thousand,
because I can't tell you looking through his entire database.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That's what I did this summer.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I did not see a first ten thousand that I
could call faulty. I saw a man who was driven
by the desire to make work that captured what Philly
was experiencing at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Because to the.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Greater point of the Harlem Renaissance, the Renaissance moved to Philly.
It began in Philly with doctor Allen Locke, and he
went to New York, and when Locke decided to bring
it back, we are experiencing this now in this art.
It doesn't get named in the way that it ought to.
It doesn't get the credit that it deserves, because again,
(16:58):
once the institution is gone, the responsibility was left up
to other institutions that did not have the practice in
mind to lift up other artists or movements.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Frankly, mostly was a real character.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
He would do these doodles in the corner of most
of his photos. Now, I know I'm not saying that
they need something directly, but I saw a pattern, and
the pattern was this character that's like a trench coat guy,
but he's taking a photo of a pig. Sometimes you
(17:34):
would find that on some of the photos that are
kind of like questionable, attitudes are being thrown back at him.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Now, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Claiming that's what it is, because I want to get
into reading his diaries, but there's a series of doodles
that he constantly projects into the language of his photos,
and I find that to be really unique because most
photographers do not wish to have themselves visible or present.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
In the moment, but it's a lens.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
He's giving you a tiny lens of his personality. Plus
also pretty damn talented, you know artist To do these
little doodles on a negative you know, that's not easy.
But it also says that there's a sense of humor
or some duality to his work. The work outside of
the Pyramid Club was about the leisure of the members,
(18:24):
or their academic.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Prowess, or their social sort.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Of climbing, because that was really what was going on
a lot. There was, yes, the Pyramid Club as an
artist organization, but there was a great deal of social
climbing that was happening, and access to certain things dictate.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Where you are in that social strata.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Boats little yachts, vacations and things. There's a lot of
photos that show you lifestyle. But I found it to
be interesting with the photos of what's going on by
the water because these are folks who came up from
the South.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
These are folks who came from some of them.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
The Deep South, so they have Hoodo roots. And there's
a lot of things that happened spiritually when you get
to the water. And there's a spot in Atlantic City
called Chicken Bone Beach right now. First it was cast
on them, the name was cast on them by the
white neighbors and the community. But what wasn't seen at
(19:29):
the time is that those bones were being cast back
into the Atlantic as gratitude, as a spiritual thank you
for getting to this point of leisure, even under duress
of Jim Crow and segregation and all the nonsense that
comes with it. It's massed in the beauty of the photos.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
After the break, we turned from what was to what
could be, exploring how the exhibition uses afrofuturism to bridge
the past and future.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
We've heard how the Pyramid Club's influence continues through the artists, collectors,
and archives that keep its legacy alive. It's a story
about preservation but also about placemaking and how art can
anchor a neighborhood's identity. That through line between past and
present isn't just conceptual for Sean Theodore, it's personal.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Fun fact, I feel super connected to John Moseley.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Monday was my birthday, right.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I ain't asked for all that. Mosley died five days
before I was born, right October. First, he passes away
and then.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I show up. There is a super spirit connection I
have because of this handoff. I feel when I look.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
At the things, like I look at photos in parts
of Philadelphia that he took, that it looks exactly the
same to me. And then I wonder, am I looking
through my own eyes right? Or is this just an
ancestral connection or spiritually and also a responsibility right? Because
(21:24):
I could have, you know, gone off and continue doing
for photography wherever I want. But this is home and
I really loved that there was someone that felt as
passionate about Philadelphia and taking photos of Philadelphians as I am.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So some of Sean Theodore's work that's on display is
a work of photographics, Silent Protest. The images appear like
close up portraits with faces that stare back at you,
but the story of what those figures are looking at
says a lot more.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
The first time that it was done, I had two
hundred folks meet me in Rittenhouse Square. I had five
or six other photographers with me, and we staged a
silent protest, everyone wearing variations of brown, dark brown, and
tans and creams right. And we marched into the space
coming from two different locations.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
One was Broaden Walnut, the other one.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Was coming down from City Hall, coming down broad Street
and then over And as we arrived into the space
Rittenhouse Square, the park, everyone just lined up in their
spaces and we sat silently. Too much disruption of many
and folk because they couldn't understand what we were doing
(22:43):
or what would be the outcome of our presence. So
there was taunting, people throwing bottles at us, people throwing
water at us, people antagonizing to see if this would
become a thing, you know, but the thing was already happening,
and they had no power or no agency.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And part of what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Is remove people's agencies so they could feel what it's
like to be on the other side of it all.
Sometimes you need to have your power taken from you
don't understand what your neighbor goes through. And after about
we stood up there. We still out there for about
an hour and it was hot. It was a summer,
bad timing on my part. It should have been spring.
(23:24):
But after about an hour of being out there, conversations
started to move around. We started to have some fluid
conversations happening around, and we had some young folks that
were there that we called them docents at the time
to kind of fend.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Off whatever what was going on. But it then continued.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
After I did this one, I wanted to do smaller
activations and just keep it going.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So I kept doing it and to do it maybe
every two.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Years, just to see how people react, just to see
if society has kind of softened itself a bit, and no,
it has actually gotten harder. The last time I did it,
I only had ten people, but we put ourselves in
this star shape and was recording out Rather than having
(24:14):
the recording the gaze happened inward. We pointed it outward
this time, and that was probably one of the worst
ones I've done because of reaction and heightened tension, and
there was not a lot of conversation to be had,
but I do feel as though it's still valuable to
know that this antagonized strangers in such a way.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
From that act of protest comes a larger idea that
the art in this exhibit isn't only about looking back,
but about envisioning what could be. It's here that afrofuturism
and afro mythology under the story linking creativity to possibility.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
This space begins to really engage with belief, mythology and
what Shawn's practice afromathology means for Philadelphia, but I think
for particularly North Philadelphia, a lot of what I was
drawn to with his work, and also just this show
(25:18):
was really sitting with what Sunra often poses through his music,
You're not someone's myth and whose reality are you living?
If you're not someone's reality, then whose myth are you living?
And this space the way I love the way this
came together because it hits on this sort of sort
of sacred function that we that the Pyramid Club two
(25:39):
point zero or beyond you know, would have functioned for
people that needed that refuge, and particularly in this area
that's witnessing a lot of the some people think of
as renaissance, other people see as displacement, And how do
you reckon with that and address that? And also, you know,
honor the fact that there are a lot of these
(26:01):
sort of ancestors' wildest dreams that are starting to come
true for some people, but not for everybody.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
You know.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
As planners, I'll just say, art is often relegated to
the side and seen as an instrumental tool, not something
that's intrinsically valuable.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
And that's going to occur one way or the other.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Artists are going to be there, you know, and so
how do we work it into the process and actually
see that as a variable that's worthy of attention. And
so the show Pyramid Club nineteen thirty seven to twenty
thirty five, it's not a sort of end date, it's
a time horizon. It's the year that actually is used
by the City of Philadelphia and by the North Broad
(26:42):
Renaissance as part of their plans for this area and
thinking for the first time actually this year embarking on
a cultural plan process. And so how do you know
those plans that the community has raised for how to
make this into an arts and cultural district overlap with
that broader sort of set of forces that are reshaping Philadelphia.
(27:04):
For me, I see this sort of history, this art history,
this art cultural history, as part of that future. So
some of how we were asked to be a part
of this conversation was to think about after futurism.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
So I have a couple of notes on that front,
and I want to leave you with them.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
One, afrofuturism is not merely about fantasy. It is part
of a black speculative art movement. It is one definition.
It's one term that we used to think about speculative futures,
but it's.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Not the only one. But even still, the idea that.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
We should think about the future from a space of
awe and wonder is our strategies. They are strategies for
people for sustaining themselves in times of duress. And I
will say, even the sort of assemblage of bodies and
a place where there's a lot of inequality, there's a
(28:04):
lot of displacement, is an impossibility to a lot of
people who wish.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
To see them erased.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
That to me is every day afrofuturism, every day utopianism.
To actually seek to protect those spaces and to exist
and honor what their sort of visions are for how
to remain in place. And so for me, after futurism
isn't about fantasy. It's actually about black urbanism. It's about
how to get them to witness what I think of
(28:33):
as the policies, practices, placemaking, precedence, and preservation strategies that
exist within Afro disporg life worlds all the time. And
so I just want to put that into the atmosphere
that afrofuturism is not just about aliens and.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Spaceships and stuff.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I love that shit too, but like it is about
everyday visions and acts of utopian resistance seeks to still
claim our joy, claim our victories, witness our wonder So
that's where I'm really coming from with this, and I
want to see, I want to see the plans for
(29:11):
this city include that type of art history, that type
of cultural history.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
That is waiting to be witnessed.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I'm going to say I'm not much of an afrofuturist, right.
I am an Afro theorist, I'll say that, And the
biggest part of my practice is Afro mythology. I do
believe that we are living in our own myth. I
think it's a very interesting place to be in a
quantum space and looking back at yourself making the myths
(29:42):
that are going to live around you and surround you.
I feel very sort of emboldened by the fact that
more black scientific minds or academic minds and creative minds
are discovering a deeper sense of connection to our culture
through quantum mechanics, because quite frankly, our bodies are expressions
(30:05):
of quantum being.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
We code switch in all sorts of ways. We code switch.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We exist in and out of different communities differently. You
can be the self that finds yourself one place code
switching and having a ball, but then the next you
are playing it safe because you are hearing the residence
of a Jim Crow sort of feeling the vibe.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's one of my things that I've been working on,
is how Black folks are so attuned to vibe and frequency.
We do vibe checks on each other all the time.
If you don't pass the vibe check, all right, are
quantum matter?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Ain't rocket?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And it's been a real sort of cool understanding that
everyone's tapping into a quantum view of what it is.
But also I'm gonna say, you know, afro theory is
like cheese.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
How many different types of cheese can you get? Right?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's you can be very well versed in afrofuturism and
then miss all the other cool stuff that supports it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Like I'm a huge Afro pessimist. I love that shit, right, love.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I just love the pessimistic African view of things.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It's like, man, yeah, that makes sense. I do that
all the time.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
It's hard to read find all the ways of expression
because it is a spectrum, which is part of the
reason why you'll see throughout their spectrum spectrum being repeated
over and over again. It serves multiple uses. It's speaking
to all of our various ways we identify ourselves and
each other, but it also is identifying the way that
(31:45):
we think and feel in these spaces.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Next City Show
about change makers and their stories. Together we can spread
good ideas from one city to the next city. Thank
you for listening this week. Thank you to our guests
Sean Theodore and doctor Matt Kenyatta. The exhibition Pyramid Club
nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five is on view
now through December nineteenth at the Tyler School of Art
and Architecture in Philadelphia. If you loved hearing about it,
(32:25):
trust me you're going to love seeing it. Our audio
producer is Savona Alcala, Our show producer is Maggie Bowles,
our executive producer is Ryan Tillotson, and I'm Lucas Gridley,
executive director for Next City. By the way, Next City
is a news organization with a nonprofit model. If you
like what we're doing here, please consider pitching in to
support our work. Visit nextcity dot org slash membership to
make a donation. We'd love to hear any feedback from
(32:46):
our listeners. Please feel free to email us at info
at nexcity dot org and if you haven't already, subscribed
to the show on Apple, Spotify, good Pods, or anywhere
you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
In the second opera
Speaker 5 (33:04):
S
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I do believe that we are living in our own myth.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I think it's a very interesting place to be in
a quantum space, in looking back at yourself making the
myths that are going to live around you and surround you.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is Lucas Quinley from Next City, a show about
change makers and their stories. Truth is, there are solutions
to the problems oppressing people in cities. If you're listening,
I hope it's because you want to spread good ideas
from one city to the next city. Across every city,
there are places that change how people imagine themselves and
what their community can be. And in Philadelphia, the Pyramid
Club was one of those places. From nineteen thirty seven
(00:49):
to nineteen sixty three, the original Pyramid Club on Westererard
Avenue was a center of black art, culture and social life.
It hosted artists and welcome visitors like Martin Luther King Junior,
and Josephine Baker. A new exhibition at Temple Contemporary asked
the question what if the Pyramid Club had never closed.
We got to view the exhibit during this year's Vanguard
(01:09):
Conference in Philly, and we were in awe. The exhibit
Pyramid Club nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five, honors
its legacy while considering its place in what's happening right now.
It features thirty four paintings from the William A. Dodd Collection,
photographs by John W. Moseley from Temple's Charles L. Blox
and Afro American Collection, and a new work by Philadelphia
(01:30):
artist and co curator Sean Theodore. The exhibit, Pyramid Club
nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five, honors its legacy
while considering its place in what's happening right now. It
features thirty four paintings from the William A. Dodd Collection,
photographs by John W. Moseley from Temple's Charles L. Bloxon,
Afro American Collection, and a new work by Philadelphia artist
(01:50):
and co curator Sean Theodore. The show is on view
now through December nineteenth at the Tyler School of Art
and Architecture. Today we hear from the exhibition's co curators,
Artist Shawn Theodore and doctor Matthew Jordan Miller Kenyatta as
they literally walk us through the gallery. Here's doctor matt
to begin.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
This is a beacon for art, architecture, and community imagination.
We're proudly a part of the North Broad cultural Corridor
of Philadelphia, and this show, I think is a great
representation of that mission.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
So I want to also say.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
That this show is a really a collaborative endeavor with
somebody who is a thought leader, is an artist and
a co curator of this project, Seawan Theodore, and we're
really looking forward to telling you a lot about what
not only went into this show, but what questions it
raises for the work that you all do, the work
(02:49):
that I've done. Also it you know, from a very
similar background. I'm a little bit of an atypical curator
coming from an architecture and urban planning background.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
So this koh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, So this show really represents a lot of what
that unlocks, you know, for both art and architecture. I'll
say that the thesis of this show is a question
that really continues to reverberate beyond the show, and I
think we'll we'll reverberate and for time immemorial, which is
what happens when a place like the Pyramid Club closes,
(03:22):
and is what would have happened if it hadn't. That's
a question that is not just about nostalgia, but is
an invitation for community world building. I often call this
and a sort of demonstration of black lighting. Black Lighting
is a term that I use that represents a sort
of mixed method approach to one sort of witnessing hidden histories,
(03:46):
two to wordsmith around new narratives, and three to use
that to world make around often black spaces. So black lighting,
I think also is a philosophy that is meant to
help us understand how now history is still a part
of the cultural DNA of this neighborhood. The way that
I often think about it is what bell Hooks caused
(04:07):
sort of acts of concrete reclamation. This is us really
looking to sort of physical markers as those symbols of
what was lost, but also what can be reclaimed. This
is a constellation of black cultural workers that have come
together to declare the importance of this not just for
the art world, but again for neighborhoods and neighborhood dignity.
(04:28):
When I say Pyramid Club, Philadelphians might think that I'm
talking about the one in Center City, which absolutely not.
New Yorkers might think of this nightclub that existed, so
we might think that we're talking with those places, and
we're now we're talking about the original Pyramid Club that
existed on fifteen seventeen West Gerard Avenue. It currently has
(04:50):
an historic marker on there that was erected in twenty
twenty one, and that space was it was architecturally significant.
It was built in nineteen oh one by William Lightfoot
Price and it was but it was vacant for about
a decade before the Pyramid Club members who were meeting
in the basement of of the Christian Street YMCA. Shawn's
(05:11):
not because the story is amazing. So they met there
for I think about a year or maybe longer than that.
It was about years two years, okay, so for two
years and raised money and found a location.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And then also the young folk in the Pyramid Club
organization went back to that same location to sort of
conspire and figure out how to make.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It better as well. So that's something you need to know.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah, Sean's done incredible research on this. And Christian Street
YMCA was the origin and they found this location on
Gerard Avenue and it was abandoned for about ten years.
In nineteen forty dollars, they assembled nine thousand dollars to
take this building and apply the strategy that you all
weare familiar with of adaptive reuse and introduced, which was
(05:59):
very popular at the time revivalists architecture from Egyptian Revival,
but also our deco and their floors and things looked
a lot like this.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
It was guilt. It was hardwood floors.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
We didn't try to necessarily reconstruct exactly what we did.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
We can't.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
You know, it's one of a kind, but it is
echoing that sort of legacy. So this is a room
that represents a liveness in a time that was the.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
Height of legalized racial segregation.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
These members of the Pyramid Club created a space that
refused that and said that we have dignity, our creativity,
and our genius matters, and we need a space for it.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
The Pyramid Club was a local institution and gathering place.
It connected Philadelphia's Black community to each other and to
national movements and art, science and civil rights. Imagine walls
filled with art, imagine, a lecture space, and intellectual hub
and more.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It was a cultural ending see I mean it welcomed
members who were on the rolls, even though they weren't Philadelphians.
From Martin Luther King to Jay Rope Oppenheimer, to their
good Marshal like it was.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
It was a cultural embassy for Philadelphia.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
So it was a who's who, no matter where you
were from, and they would assemble in these rooms for
those talks, for those events.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Will Doctor Mantt approaches the Pyramid Club through history and architecture.
He leans on co curator Sean Theodore to show its
legacy through the lens of art making. Today.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I met Sean about gosh, this is three years ago,
three years ago, and he was commissioned by the Mural
Arts to Philadelphia to blow up these photographs.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Here into murals.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
And when I saw that, you know, I was like, okay,
Like that's it. That's that for me, a blueprint, you know,
for a way to use art to dignify historic spaces.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
And it was being.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Commissioned for the Freedom Theater, which is right on Broad Street.
And so for me it was like, okay, I have
to find someone when this idea came about, of who
could really understand the power of art to you know,
not only dignify a historic space, but I think also
to really dive deeper into and decolonize our eye. Like
(08:13):
it's not just any art that you see on the
on the Freedom Theater. It's art that challenges your eye
to see the layers and complexities within blackness. And so
with that being said, I want to turn it over
to Sean and talk through some of just what his
thought process was.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
This this project is truly been a labor of love.
I'm a Philadelphian, like a real Philadelphian. I'm nobody's transplant.
So when things happen here in the city that drive history,
rebuilding the archive, understanding our agency, and understanding our identities,
we cannot talk about that without including the Pyramid Club
(08:54):
in its absence, it.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Is still great.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We are doing things in its absence, and that's the
thing that for me is the most astounding part of
its legacy, that it's still living around us.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Not in us, but around us.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's really sort of shaped the way that we've approached
black museum, making black curation, Black creativity in this city
comes from not only its presence, but it's equal.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Weight in absence.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
We are here because of their intent, and I don't
know if they would have had the.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Same sort of zeal.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
About the way things have gone in the city that
I have, because they're a very conservative bunch. Like I've
done a lot of research on them.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It's an interesting bunch of folks.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
But I do believe that what we're doing with the
arts and how we are looking forward as a community,
a community of multiple identities. I think they would have
supported everything that's happening in the city now, and we
were probably be better for it if they were here
first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I like to acknowledge that.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Just their desire to make things that stepped outside of
the colonial clock won their exhibition schedules. It did not
follow any kind of rhythm that fit into the contemporary
rhythm of its time. How they decided to make sure
that work made sense for their membership. These are folks
(10:33):
who quite frankly, had jobs that they wanted to have
and traveled to have. These are the folks of the migration,
of the Great Migration. Their purpose for being here is
way greater than just we're going to occupy a space.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
They were occupying their futures.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
After the break, doctor Matt Kenyatta and John Theodore described
some of the paintings and photographs on display that connect
the club's pasted to its present and how the legacy
of the Pyramid Club continues to live on through the
art itself. Welcome back today, we're exploring how creative spaces
(11:17):
can carry communities memory forward, and how one place in Philadelphia,
the Pyramid Club, became a beacon for black artistry and
community life in the mid twentieth century. Now co curators
doctor Matt Kenyata and Sean Theodore take us deeper into
the exhibition, starting with the artist who shaped the club's
earliest shows. Here's doctor Matt.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Jacob Lawrence was a part of the very first Pyramid
Club show and I think the very.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
Last one and the very last, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
He was.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
This was two years before he had emerged on the
New York art scene. He had a solo exhibition at
MoMA nineteen forty three. I believe, which you know the
lts of this Migration series that he became really well
known for and had this.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Whole six us for solo career.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
But I would venture to say my thesis is is
like after his first show and the way that this
debonair gentleman, but over there Hubert Howard, the curator and
a painter.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
Who's also over here. His works are here.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
He was very adept at curating people and putting them
in conversation. He was, you know, the only art black
student in some of his art sort of programs. By day,
he was a postal office worker actually and kept that
job his entire career.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
And on the weekends would go.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Right, so he would he would go and travel on
the weekends over to the Barnes Foundation and when it
was still Lower Marion and then would come back and
you know, he was soaking up all that any of
these institutions would would offer him. So Papa, he was
crucial and desegregating their collection, leading to some of the
first black artists.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
So it was just he was a super connector.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
And so for me when I think about Jacob Lawrence
and what he represents, was like, wow, he was able
to get him on the radar of a lot of
these galleries of Philadelphia, which is you know, if you're
here doing that, you probably are connected to people in
New York as well. And this is why I mean,
we need our historians, honestly to do more work on
the Pyramid Club because we need to know that definitively.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
But I would venture.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
To say that was how he got his start and
him coming back even after two decades of being successful
to do another solo show with the Pyramid Club spoke
to the impact it had on him and that was
his community. Another crucial element of this exhibition is the
works here by John W. Moseley. And again I'm gonna
turn it over to Sean because this was like a
(13:44):
really big labor of love for you too.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
John W.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Moseley.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I see him in a lot of ways as being
the Gordon Parks of Philadelphia. He was able to create
some of the most lasting images of black elegance, black excellence.
And if I could channel the curators and the archivists
of the blocks and collection, they would say he was
a cultural warrior.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
He was able by being.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So prolific, like he walked around everywhere. He was able
to see everyday life, and he was being invited to things,
and so he you know, these two walls here I
think just represent that spectrum, you know, again, that complexity
of black life that when people wonder like, how did
these folks get through these times? You know, those times
(14:29):
of in the mid century of just you know, oppression
and racial segregation, like the Jim Crow, you know, how
do they do it?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well?
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Some of these I think as answers to that, they
continue to forge faces of black ease, of joy, of pleasure,
of leisure, of dignity, of achievement.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So I'm going to talk to you about mister Moseley
from the point of view of a street photographer, and
that's me. Moseley walked this city, but his reach was international.
And the one thing I have to say about mister
Mosley's work is that not only is he prolific, he's
(15:15):
accidentally incredibly grand with his compositions.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
The way that he takes a photo.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
As a photographer, I could tell the speed that he
puts it together in his head. It's about getting that
moment every single time without missing the really key.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Moment that's necessary to tell the story.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
It's in the eyes, it's in the posture, it's in
the gaze, in the sort of open mouth, and to
have that moment to be a photographic artist to understand
that that's necessary in that moment, but being fast enough
to get it, but also giving the people their grace.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You know, there's something to be said.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And Cardier Brisson is like everybody calls them like, oh,
your first ten thousand photos are the worst.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I don't believe that right.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I think there's some accidental beauty in those first ten thousand,
because I can't tell you looking through his entire database.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That's what I did this summer.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I did not see a first ten thousand that I
could call faulty. I saw a man who was driven
by the desire to make work that captured what Philly
was experiencing at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Because to the.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Greater point of the Harlem Renaissance, the Renaissance moved to Philly.
It began in Philly with doctor Allen Locke, and he
went to New York, and when Locke decided to bring
it back, we are experiencing this now in this art.
It doesn't get named in the way that it ought to.
It doesn't get the credit that it deserves, because again,
(16:58):
once the institution is gone, the responsibility was left up
to other institutions that did not have the practice in
mind to lift up other artists or movements.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Frankly, mostly was a real character.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
He would do these doodles in the corner of most
of his photos. Now, I know I'm not saying that
they need something directly, but I saw a pattern, and
the pattern was this character that's like a trench coat guy,
but he's taking a photo of a pig. Sometimes you
(17:34):
would find that on some of the photos that are
kind of like questionable, attitudes are being thrown back at him.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Now, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Claiming that's what it is, because I want to get
into reading his diaries, but there's a series of doodles
that he constantly projects into the language of his photos,
and I find that to be really unique because most
photographers do not wish to have themselves visible or present.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
In the moment, but it's a lens.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
He's giving you a tiny lens of his personality. Plus
also pretty damn talented, you know artist To do these
little doodles on a negative you know, that's not easy.
But it also says that there's a sense of humor
or some duality to his work. The work outside of
the Pyramid Club was about the leisure of the members,
(18:24):
or their academic.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Prowess, or their social sort.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Of climbing, because that was really what was going on
a lot. There was, yes, the Pyramid Club as an
artist organization, but there was a great deal of social
climbing that was happening, and access to certain things dictate.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Where you are in that social strata.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Boats little yachts, vacations and things. There's a lot of
photos that show you lifestyle. But I found it to
be interesting with the photos of what's going on by
the water because these are folks who came up from
the South.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
These are folks who came from some of them.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
The Deep South, so they have Hoodo roots. And there's
a lot of things that happened spiritually when you get
to the water. And there's a spot in Atlantic City
called Chicken Bone Beach right now. First it was cast
on them, the name was cast on them by the
white neighbors and the community. But what wasn't seen at
(19:29):
the time is that those bones were being cast back
into the Atlantic as gratitude, as a spiritual thank you
for getting to this point of leisure, even under duress
of Jim Crow and segregation and all the nonsense that
comes with it. It's massed in the beauty of the photos.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
After the break, we turned from what was to what
could be, exploring how the exhibition uses afrofuturism to bridge
the past and future.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
We've heard how the Pyramid Club's influence continues through the artists, collectors,
and archives that keep its legacy alive. It's a story
about preservation but also about placemaking and how art can
anchor a neighborhood's identity. That through line between past and
present isn't just conceptual for Sean Theodore, it's personal.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Fun fact, I feel super connected to John Moseley.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Monday was my birthday, right.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I ain't asked for all that. Mosley died five days
before I was born, right October. First, he passes away
and then.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I show up. There is a super spirit connection I
have because of this handoff. I feel when I look.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
At the things, like I look at photos in parts
of Philadelphia that he took, that it looks exactly the
same to me. And then I wonder, am I looking
through my own eyes right? Or is this just an
ancestral connection or spiritually and also a responsibility right? Because
(21:24):
I could have, you know, gone off and continue doing
for photography wherever I want. But this is home and
I really loved that there was someone that felt as
passionate about Philadelphia and taking photos of Philadelphians as I am.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So some of Sean Theodore's work that's on display is
a work of photographics, Silent Protest. The images appear like
close up portraits with faces that stare back at you,
but the story of what those figures are looking at
says a lot more.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
The first time that it was done, I had two
hundred folks meet me in Rittenhouse Square. I had five
or six other photographers with me, and we staged a
silent protest, everyone wearing variations of brown, dark brown, and
tans and creams right. And we marched into the space
coming from two different locations.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
One was Broaden Walnut, the other one.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Was coming down from City Hall, coming down broad Street
and then over And as we arrived into the space
Rittenhouse Square, the park, everyone just lined up in their
spaces and we sat silently. Too much disruption of many
and folk because they couldn't understand what we were doing
(22:43):
or what would be the outcome of our presence. So
there was taunting, people throwing bottles at us, people throwing
water at us, people antagonizing to see if this would
become a thing, you know, but the thing was already happening,
and they had no power or no agency.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And part of what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Is remove people's agencies so they could feel what it's
like to be on the other side of it all.
Sometimes you need to have your power taken from you
don't understand what your neighbor goes through. And after about
we stood up there. We still out there for about
an hour and it was hot. It was a summer,
bad timing on my part. It should have been spring.
(23:24):
But after about an hour of being out there, conversations
started to move around. We started to have some fluid
conversations happening around, and we had some young folks that
were there that we called them docents at the time
to kind of fend.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Off whatever what was going on. But it then continued.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
After I did this one, I wanted to do smaller
activations and just keep it going.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So I kept doing it and to do it maybe
every two.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Years, just to see how people react, just to see
if society has kind of softened itself a bit, and no,
it has actually gotten harder. The last time I did it,
I only had ten people, but we put ourselves in
this star shape and was recording out Rather than having
(24:14):
the recording the gaze happened inward. We pointed it outward
this time, and that was probably one of the worst
ones I've done because of reaction and heightened tension, and
there was not a lot of conversation to be had,
but I do feel as though it's still valuable to
know that this antagonized strangers in such a way.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
From that act of protest comes a larger idea that
the art in this exhibit isn't only about looking back,
but about envisioning what could be. It's here that afrofuturism
and afro mythology under the story linking creativity to possibility.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
This space begins to really engage with belief, mythology and
what Shawn's practice afromathology means for Philadelphia, but I think
for particularly North Philadelphia, a lot of what I was
drawn to with his work, and also just this show
(25:18):
was really sitting with what Sunra often poses through his music,
You're not someone's myth and whose reality are you living?
If you're not someone's reality, then whose myth are you living?
And this space the way I love the way this
came together because it hits on this sort of sort
of sacred function that we that the Pyramid Club two
(25:39):
point zero or beyond you know, would have functioned for
people that needed that refuge, and particularly in this area
that's witnessing a lot of the some people think of
as renaissance, other people see as displacement, And how do
you reckon with that and address that? And also, you know,
honor the fact that there are a lot of these
(26:01):
sort of ancestors' wildest dreams that are starting to come
true for some people, but not for everybody.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
You know.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
As planners, I'll just say, art is often relegated to
the side and seen as an instrumental tool, not something
that's intrinsically valuable.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
And that's going to occur one way or the other.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Artists are going to be there, you know, and so
how do we work it into the process and actually
see that as a variable that's worthy of attention. And
so the show Pyramid Club nineteen thirty seven to twenty
thirty five, it's not a sort of end date, it's
a time horizon. It's the year that actually is used
by the City of Philadelphia and by the North Broad
(26:42):
Renaissance as part of their plans for this area and
thinking for the first time actually this year embarking on
a cultural plan process. And so how do you know
those plans that the community has raised for how to
make this into an arts and cultural district overlap with
that broader sort of set of forces that are reshaping Philadelphia.
(27:04):
For me, I see this sort of history, this art history,
this art cultural history, as part of that future. So
some of how we were asked to be a part
of this conversation was to think about after futurism.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
So I have a couple of notes on that front,
and I want to leave you with them.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
One, afrofuturism is not merely about fantasy. It is part
of a black speculative art movement. It is one definition.
It's one term that we used to think about speculative futures,
but it's.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Not the only one. But even still, the idea that.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
We should think about the future from a space of
awe and wonder is our strategies. They are strategies for
people for sustaining themselves in times of duress. And I
will say, even the sort of assemblage of bodies and
a place where there's a lot of inequality, there's a
(28:04):
lot of displacement, is an impossibility to a lot of
people who wish.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
To see them erased.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
That to me is every day afrofuturism, every day utopianism.
To actually seek to protect those spaces and to exist
and honor what their sort of visions are for how
to remain in place. And so for me, after futurism
isn't about fantasy. It's actually about black urbanism. It's about
how to get them to witness what I think of
(28:33):
as the policies, practices, placemaking, precedence, and preservation strategies that
exist within Afro disporg life worlds all the time. And
so I just want to put that into the atmosphere
that afrofuturism is not just about aliens and.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Spaceships and stuff.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I love that shit too, but like it is about
everyday visions and acts of utopian resistance seeks to still
claim our joy, claim our victories, witness our wonder So
that's where I'm really coming from with this, and I
want to see, I want to see the plans for
(29:11):
this city include that type of art history, that type
of cultural history.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
That is waiting to be witnessed.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I'm going to say I'm not much of an afrofuturist, right.
I am an Afro theorist, I'll say that, And the
biggest part of my practice is Afro mythology. I do
believe that we are living in our own myth. I
think it's a very interesting place to be in a
quantum space and looking back at yourself making the myths
(29:42):
that are going to live around you and surround you.
I feel very sort of emboldened by the fact that
more black scientific minds or academic minds and creative minds
are discovering a deeper sense of connection to our culture
through quantum mechanics, because quite frankly, our bodies are expressions
(30:05):
of quantum being.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
We code switch in all sorts of ways. We code switch.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We exist in and out of different communities differently. You
can be the self that finds yourself one place code
switching and having a ball, but then the next you
are playing it safe because you are hearing the residence
of a Jim Crow sort of feeling the vibe.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's one of my things that I've been working on,
is how Black folks are so attuned to vibe and frequency.
We do vibe checks on each other all the time.
If you don't pass the vibe check, all right, are
quantum matter?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Ain't rocket?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And it's been a real sort of cool understanding that
everyone's tapping into a quantum view of what it is.
But also I'm gonna say, you know, afro theory is
like cheese.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
How many different types of cheese can you get? Right?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's you can be very well versed in afrofuturism and
then miss all the other cool stuff that supports it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Like I'm a huge Afro pessimist. I love that shit, right, love.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I just love the pessimistic African view of things.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It's like, man, yeah, that makes sense. I do that
all the time.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
It's hard to read find all the ways of expression
because it is a spectrum, which is part of the
reason why you'll see throughout their spectrum spectrum being repeated
over and over again. It serves multiple uses. It's speaking
to all of our various ways we identify ourselves and
each other, but it also is identifying the way that
(31:45):
we think and feel in these spaces.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Next City Show
about change makers and their stories. Together we can spread
good ideas from one city to the next city. Thank
you for listening this week. Thank you to our guests
Sean Theodore and doctor Matt Kenyatta. The exhibition Pyramid Club
nineteen thirty seven to twenty thirty five is on view
now through December nineteenth at the Tyler School of Art
and Architecture in Philadelphia. If you loved hearing about it,
(32:25):
trust me you're going to love seeing it. Our audio
producer is Savona Alcala, Our show producer is Maggie Bowles,
our executive producer is Ryan Tillotson, and I'm Lucas Gridley,
executive director for Next City. By the way, Next City
is a news organization with a nonprofit model. If you
like what we're doing here, please consider pitching in to
support our work. Visit nextcity dot org slash membership to
make a donation. We'd love to hear any feedback from
(32:46):
our listeners. Please feel free to email us at info
at nexcity dot org and if you haven't already, subscribed
to the show on Apple, Spotify, good Pods, or anywhere
you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
In the second opera
Speaker 5 (33:04):
S
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