The Last Billboard is an art installation atop a Pittsburgh building; it features changing text on a giant billboard. Founder and curator Jon Rubin describes it as "almost a speech bubble for the building."
Unfortunately, that speech was recently erased thanks to the building's landlord, who removed the text "over objections to the content," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The project's most recent message read: “There Are Black People in the Future.” That message was removed by We Do Property based on a clause that gives the landlord the right to approve the text on the building. According to Rubin, that clause hadn't been evoked until now.
Interesting …
The artist behind the powerful message is Alisha Wormsley. Wormsley is a 2016 Mayor’s Award for Public Art winner and has had her recent work, The People Are the Light, profiled in a recent issue of Carnegie Magazine.
"I believe in the power, poetry and relevance of Alisha’s text, and see absolutely no reason it should have been taken down," wrote Rubin in a statement on his project's site. "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."
THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE
imagine white gentrifiers calling this statement—displayed as part of a public art series—racist, and then complaining until it was removed. ya know, same way Black folk have been systematically scrubbed from the neighborhood in question.— huny young (@huny) April 5, 2018
This billboard by Pittsburgh artist Alisha Wormsley was recently taken down in East Liberty over complaints about the content. All it says is "There are Black people in the future," and some folks were offended. What the actual fuck.
Photo: @Romanw3 pic.twitter.com/0FRvNxyyT4— Brandon Getz (@brandon_getz) April 4, 2018
A landlord in a gentrifying area of Pittsburgh is forcing artist Alisha Wormsley to take down this “There Are Black People In the Future” billboard. We all know why this is threatening, but surprise, we’re not going anywhere. https://t.co/kTfxkwrAW4 (h/t @huny)— Evette Dionne ????????♀️ (@freeblackgirl) April 5, 2018
Wormsley posted text from Rubin's public statement on her Facebook page:
We Do Property is owned by Eve Picker, and the company has not responded to the any requests for an official comment.
A public discussion regarding this matter will be held at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty on April 18 at 4 p.m.
