The Last Billboard

04/07/2018

The billboard designed by artist Alisha Wormsley was removed and then reinstated after fierce backlash from locals.

04/06/2018

There are Black People in the Future

Alisha Wormsley’s contribution to The Last Billboard, an eight year public art project created and curated by artist Jon Rubin, has been removed at the request of the landlord. Jon invites people to present temporary texts on the billboard. Alisha’s project was installed on March 3 and removed last week.

The removal is the result of objections that were presented to the landlord by unidentified community members over the text, “There are Black People in the Future.”

The landlord announced this morning that artwork can be reinstalled after the outcry of strong support for the work from the community.

While we welcome the opportunity to see the powerful and resonant artwork reinstalled, it is deeply disappointing that the first reaction to a handful of objections raised was to remove it rather than take the moment to stand in support of the artist’s message and intent.

Alisha’s text, a recurring message in her rich body of work, is a positive affirmation that there is a place for Black people in our community, past, present, and, yes, in the future. This message is particularly poignant in the context of ongoing cultural and societal erasure and denial that communities of color experience on a daily basis. Placed in East Liberty, amid the rapid transformational changes that the neighborhood has undergone in the past ten years, her work takes on new meaning and challenges us as citizens to think deeply about what is happening in our gentrifying communities.

Artists who engage in creating works in the public realm have many intentions. They are not required to create projects that make us feel comfortable. At its best, public art can shape our civic space, our civic dialogue, and our civic responsibilities.

The Office of Public Art strongly supports Alisha Wormsley’s text and Jon Rubin’s project. The removal of this project and the subsequent outcry are further calls from the community to challenge ourselves to have conversations about race, power, and neighborhood change – no matter how uncomfortable it may be. The Office of Public Art encourages everyone to participate, and to challenge themselves to be inspired by the artists at work across our city.

The Kelly Strayhorn Theater is hosting an open conversation about art, public space, and how we talk about art as a community on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 4:00 pm. This conversation will be an opportunity for East Liberty to examine the different aesthetic and cultural values in our uniquely diverse neighborhood. We encourage you to attend this event, but this meeting should not and cannot be the only opportunity for this critical conversation. This is a dialogue that must continue.

Kahmeela Friedson, Program Coordinator
Rachel Klipa, Manager of Community Engagement
Sallyann Kluz, Director
Derek Reese, Project Manager

Office of Public Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

04/06/2018

Please read this powerful statement by artist Alisha Wormsley on her text, "There Are Black People in the Future."

It started out as a black nerd sci-fi joke. A response to the absence of non-white faces in science fiction films and TV. Very much a response to many Afrofuturist writings, like Florence Oyeke’s: “After all, to quote musician Gabriel Teodros : “If we don’t write ourselves into the future, w...

04/05/2018

Kelly Strayhorn Theater to Host Forum On Community Values in East Liberty.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Kelly Strayhorn Theater KST Event Contact: Duane Binion [email protected] 412-363-3000 X312

04/04/2018

For the past month The Last Billboard has been exhibiting Alisha Wormsley’s text “There are Black People in the Future.“ Alisha is a celebrated Pittsburgh-based artist and cultural producer (winner of the 2016 City of Pittsburgh Mayor’s Award for Public Art) whose work explores collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color. Alisha’s text for the billboard comes from her ongoing art practice, particularly her interest in Afrofuturism.

Last week, The Last Billboard’s landlord, We Do Property, forced Alisha’s text to be taken down over objections to the content (through a never-before evoked clause in the lease that gives the landlord the right to approve text).

I believe in the power, poetry, and relevance of Alisha’s text and see absolutely no reason it should have been taken down. I find it tragically ironic, given East Liberty’s history and recent gentrification, that a text by an African American artist affirming a place in the future for black people is seen as unacceptable in the present.

The artist will be part of a public panel discussion about the text and its removal hosted by the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in the next few weeks. More information to come.

- Jon Rubin, Founder and Curator of The Last Billboard

For the past month The Last Billboard has been exhibiting Alisha Wormsley’s text “There are Black People in the Future.“ Alisha is a celebrated Pittsburgh-based artist and cultural producer (winner of...

03/04/2018

Honored to have artist Alisha Wormsley on The Last Billboard this month!

11/18/2017

Excited to have Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost provide this month's text for The Last Billboard.

09/21/2017

Designer Brett Yasko is on the Lat Billboard this month.

07/18/2017

New text on The Last Billboard by the amazing author, designer, illustrator and chef Tamara Shopsin.

06/21/2017

The Last Billboard with text by Joseph Del Pesco
PART 1

A poem from Eugen Gomringer’s book CONSTELLATIONS, 1953 (via Susan Howe’s The Quarry).

PART 2
A line from Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues, 1965

Referenced by radical left-wing offshoot of the SDS, the Weather Underground. (modified due to available letters, replacing KNOW with TELL)