MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia
This article reflects on how street art helps to “queer” the city of Philadelphia. America’s sixth largest city has come to be known as the “City of Murals” following the initiative started by Mural Arts Philadelphia’s (MAP) Executive Director Jane Golden in 1987. It has also in recent years been re...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Transatlantica |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/21839 |
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| author | Lara Cox |
| author_facet | Lara Cox |
| author_sort | Lara Cox |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article reflects on how street art helps to “queer” the city of Philadelphia. America’s sixth largest city has come to be known as the “City of Murals” following the initiative started by Mural Arts Philadelphia’s (MAP) Executive Director Jane Golden in 1987. It has also in recent years been re-branded as a queer city. Firstly, I consider how street art represents queer communities, drawing on human geographer Felix Driver’s paradigm of image-centred or “imaginative geography.” Based on a non-representational model of geography, I also reflect on how street art allows the queer community to constitute spaces for LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Philadelphia’s street art enables individual self-determination, as well as congregation, contestation, and conversation among queer people of colour, and between the queer and wider communities, in Philadelphia today. Following recent work on digital geographies of sexuality, a number of examples considered in this article focus on the power of digital media to re-purpose MAP’s murals and Philadelphia’s street art for queer purposes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2882851f705c4f3baf61b06d6c80184e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1765-2766 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Association Française d'Etudes Américaines |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transatlantica |
| spelling | doaj-art-2882851f705c4f3baf61b06d6c80184e2025-01-30T10:43:33ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662023-11-01210.4000/transatlantica.21839MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in PhiladelphiaLara CoxThis article reflects on how street art helps to “queer” the city of Philadelphia. America’s sixth largest city has come to be known as the “City of Murals” following the initiative started by Mural Arts Philadelphia’s (MAP) Executive Director Jane Golden in 1987. It has also in recent years been re-branded as a queer city. Firstly, I consider how street art represents queer communities, drawing on human geographer Felix Driver’s paradigm of image-centred or “imaginative geography.” Based on a non-representational model of geography, I also reflect on how street art allows the queer community to constitute spaces for LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Philadelphia’s street art enables individual self-determination, as well as congregation, contestation, and conversation among queer people of colour, and between the queer and wider communities, in Philadelphia today. Following recent work on digital geographies of sexuality, a number of examples considered in this article focus on the power of digital media to re-purpose MAP’s murals and Philadelphia’s street art for queer purposes.https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/21839muralsgraffitistreet artPhiladelphiaimaginative geographiesnon-representational geographies |
| spellingShingle | Lara Cox MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia Transatlantica murals graffiti street art Philadelphia imaginative geographies non-representational geographies |
| title | MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia |
| title_full | MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia |
| title_fullStr | MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia |
| title_full_unstemmed | MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia |
| title_short | MAP-ping Queerness? Street Art in Philadelphia |
| title_sort | map ping queerness street art in philadelphia |
| topic | murals graffiti street art Philadelphia imaginative geographies non-representational geographies |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/21839 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laracox mappingqueernessstreetartinphiladelphia |