8
Dec/19

MUSEUM OF THE STREET

8
Dec/19
2628 Maple Ave., LA, April 1997

“2628 Maple Ave., LA, April 1997” (photo courtesy Camilo José Vergara / Museum of the Street)

Who: Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Lawrence Hubbard, Camilo José Vergara, Ben Katchor
What: Slideshow presentation and panel discussion about “religious visions, public memorials, political effigies, historical tableaux, and commercial signage found in the Black and Latinx neighborhoods of America”
Where: The New School, 66 West Twelfth St., Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
When: Wednesday, December 11, free, 7:00
Why: “For more than four decades I have devoted myself to photographing and documenting the poorest and most segregated communities in urban America,” Chilean-born, New York-based writer and photographer Camilo José Vergara notes about his ongoing project “Tracking Time,” part of his Museum of the Street. He continues, “I feel that a people’s past, including their accomplishments, aspirations, and failures, are reflected less in the faces of those who live in these neighborhoods than in the material, built environment in which they move and modify over time. Photography for me is a tool for continuously asking questions, for understanding the spirit of a place, and, as I have discovered over time, for loving and appreciating cities.”

Mrs. Ada Marshall, Martin Luther King Drive at Bostwick, Jersey City, 2004.

“Mrs. Ada Marshall, Martin Luther King Drive at Bostwick, Jersey City, 2004” (photo courtesy Camilo José Vergara / Museum of the Street)

In conjunction with “The Other Street Art,” architecture editor and writer Cynthia Davidson’s recent interview with Vergara, the New School is hosting an illustrated discussion on December 11 at 7:00 with Vergara, Rutgers associate professor Naa Oyo A. Kwate, PhD, South LA comics artist Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard, and Parsons associate professor and Julius Knipl creator Ben Katchor. “When my friend, the cartoonist Ben Katchor, saw my photos, he said, these institutions only want diversity that fits their narrow definitions of art,” Vergara says in the interview, which can be read in full here. “If the nature of the work challenges the economic basis of their institutions, they won’t recognize it, including street muralists, who work for little money in poor neighborhoods. Their work is meant to be ephemeral and would undermine the economic existence of major art institutions. Unlike the artists selected by the Getty, the largely unrecognized street artists have not enjoyed a privileged upbringing, nor have they had any training beyond high school art classes.” Be prepared for a lively and eye-opening evening.