Selections from Philadelphia’s LGBT Archives

In Selections from Philadelphia’s LGBT Archives, Rami George weaves together an extensive collection of images and printed material within the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center. George presented their exhibition Selections from the Archives at the Center this past January/February 2023, featuring snapshots of everyday life and fragmented moments of political action, as well as exploring the history of the Center itself. The exhibition also included an installation of watercolors and drawings by the late Roberta Dickinson (1916 – 1982), a local trans artist and activist who documented her own transition in the 1970s. For Art at Noon, George will present their work and research, including content that did not make its way into the exhibition, as well as how this project has evolved into their current public art exhibition, AND INTO THE STREETS, at Louis Khan Park, with Mural Arts Philadelphia.

Rami George (b. 1989, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based on Lenape land in what is now called Philadelphia. Their work—spanning photo, video, installation, text, and (recently) music and sound—has been presented in exhibitions and screenings at the William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Anthology Film Archives, New York; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Grand Union, Birmingham; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; LUX, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and elsewhere. They continue to be influenced and motivated by political struggles and fractured narratives.

Art At Noon lectures are supported by the Leftkoe family,  in memory of a beloved member of the docent corps, Mildred T. Leftkoe.

Image: Portrait of the Rami George in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center. Photo by Ryan Collerd, courtesy of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.