In Philly, Graffiti Goes Mainstream

EXIT OF THE DAY: EXIT 4; NJ Tpke S:  To Philadelphia, Camden, mm 34
Hear this here:

"Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps. The City of Brotherly Love is also the home of many American firsts including the first library (1731), first hospital (1751) and first medical school (1765), first Capitol (1777), first stock exchange (1790), first zoo (1874), and first business school (1881) which is the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.   


In the 1790’s, its large free black community founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church the first independent black denomination in the country, and the first black Episcopal Church. ​

Fifty years later new immigrants, mostly Irish and German, settled in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts. These immigrants were responsible for another first, the first general strike -- which won them the reduction on the average hours of the typical work day. Work days were reduced from 12 to 14 hours a day  to 10 hours per day -- another first. ​

A final first:  thanks to the 1984 creation of the Department of Recreation's Mural Arts Program which seeks to  provide an outlet for graffiti artists, Philadelphia has more spray painted murals than any other city.


For over 35 years, Philly’s Mural Arts Program has united artists and communities. It is a collaborative process rooted in the street tradition of criminal taggers who spray paint graffiti. ​

​But by providing empty walls as brick and mortar canvases, the Mural Arts initiative transforms public spaces and individual lives through rebellious acts of creation. Plus it elevates art out of crime.


Petty crime, as is plain to see, can become beautiful art!"


#WhartonSchool #UniversityofPennsylvania #Philadelphia #AMEChurch #MarineCorps #MuralArtsProgram #Grafitti #Tagging

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