Our Not-so-Italian Market

Executive Producers: Tom Grahsler
Producer: John Myers
Associate Producer: Bibiana Correa
Engineers: Charlie Kaier, Al Banks, Tina Kalikay, Adam Staniszewski
Sound Design and Mixing: Rowhome Productions
Tile Art: Justin Nagtalon
Theme Song: SNACKMFTIME by SNACKTIME

Special thanks to Michaela Winberg, Michael Olcott, Sarah Moses, Mike Shiffler, and Kayla Watkins.

Art Outside is a production of WHYY.

\MICHELLA ANGELA ORTIZ: Hola Julio!

[CARS HONKING]

MAO: Hey Mikey how are ya?
MAO: Hola Israel como estas? Hola, hola. How you doing, como estan?
MAO: Hola Juan! Como estas?
MAO: This is Claudia, ay mi amor como estas?
MAO: That’s my mom! And my dad. (Laughter)
MAO: There goes my neighbor Phillip.
MAO: I’m here with my friends from WHYY, doing a podcast. Este es Conrad

[STREET CHATTER]

CONRAD BENNER, HOST: I’m walking down Ninth Street in South Philly with Michelle Angela Ortiz. She’s an artist who’s lived in this neighborhood for over 40 years. She can’t go a block without seeing someone she knows.

CB: Everywhere we go, Michelle is waving. Michelle is the Italian… See, it’s so ingrained in me, I can’t not call it the Italian Market. You’re the mayor of the market

MAO: No, It’s okay if you say Italian Market. I say my mom’s really the mayor. Everybody knows her first.

CB: I was born and raised in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. I’ve lived in this city my whole life. And to me, this strip of Ninth Street just above Washington Avenue has always been known as the Italian Market. But that’s not completely accurate. The official name is the South Ninth Street Curb Market. At least according to the historical marker we’re heading to at Ninth and Christian.

[CAR HONKS]

MAO: Oops, sorry. Sorry! He’s like, what are you doing?

CB: You’re not the mayor to the cars. [Laughter]

[THEME MUSIC]

CB: This is Art Outside, a podcast from WHYY about the art of our public spaces and the people who create it.

I’m your host Conrad Benner. Today, we’re talking with Michelle Angela Ortiz. She’s a local artist who’s just hit her 25th anniversary of creating art in the public space. Much of which is located in Philly.

Michelle’s created permanent murals, temporary installations, and is leading a multi–year project to support one of Philly’s most culturally significant corridors, which also happens to be exactly where she grew up. She found her path to public art from the roof of her childhood rowhome.

MAO: I would just escape and I would climb out from my brother’s bedroom and sit on top of my kitchen roof and just draw for hours and hours and hours until, like, it just became a place of just that solitude. And being on top of a roof in the open air, being able to see the sky and just disconnect from whatever conflict or drama that was happening in my house. I always like to draw on hard surfaces. There were always like these little scrap pieces of wood that I would just collect in the house and just start drawing. I tell people that my first sketchbooks were actually the papers that my father and my mother would collect when they were cleaning offices in Center City because they had multiple jobs. So it was basically whatever I had available.

CB: Michelle kept making art. She drew inspiration from what she saw around her.

MAO I remember when we would drive up to North Philly and even in parts of South Philly to like visit family, I would see these graffiti memorials, right? And unfortunately, you know, they represent the impact of violence, specifically within Latino communities. And on the other end, these memorials were just so beautifully made, right, and how the community collectively came together to place different objects in honor of the person that was a victim to this violence. And so, I was very much aware of these things and these spaces, so it was my own inclination to move into the public space. I actually started doing mosaics. I was an assistant. I started doing, my actually my first mural was when I was 17.

CB: We talked about this. [Laughing] It was in a church, right?

MAO: It was at my high school, at Goretti. I don’t know if it’s still up there anymore.

CB: God said you’re going to be an artist. [Laughs]

[MUSIC]

CB: After high school, Michelle went to Moore College of Art & Design.

MAO What I was taught during that time was your success is based on representation of a gallery or being in a museum. And so I felt that my own experience was that I gravitated towards the public space because it felt the most familiar to me

CB: Michelle went on to design and create more than 50 large scale public art works including “Aqui y Alla” on Sixth Street in South Philly and “Familias Separadas / Eres Mi Todo (You are My Everything)” in Philadelphia City Hall’s courtyard.

Michelle is also the creator of one of my favorite murals to ever be painted in Philadelphia. It was in honor of LGBTQ+ and worker’s rights icon, Gloria Casarez, who we lost way too soon to cancer. It was painted on the side of the 12th Street Gym in Philly’s Gayborhood. And it was significant not only because of it’s power and beauty, but because it was one of only a few murals in the “mural capital of the world” that celebrated real queer history. When the mural was destroyed just a few years after its creation for a development project, its loss was felt deeply by many Philadelphians.

MAO: So it was 2019 into 2020. Midwood developers purchased the 12th Street Gym, and there was already plans for development. And I immediately started conversations with Mural Arts and Midwood in order to find ways to salvage the mural or not necessarily replace it, but find other ways to honor Gloria still in this space, right?

What people don’t know is that Jane Golden and I, and Midwood, with their lawyers and representatives, spent close to five to six months having conversations, of which none of this went public. I didn’t announce anything. It was just literally trying to advocate for the community members, trying to remind the people in this conversation that we were speaking about a human being that fought so fiercely for our communities and was deeply loved. This is not just a mural. This is not just an image on the wall.

So, I was tasked to present a proposal, which has not made the light of day. No one publicly has seen this full on proposal. But one of the main gates in the now new building. So we were understanding that they were going to demolish the mural. And the gate itself, I wanted to create kind of like a bust of Gloria out of metal, right? This new proposal wasn’t like a replacement of this, it was literally picking up the broken pieces and seeing what we could do.

So this gate would have been made out of metal, a more solid, sustainable material. And in Camac Street, we would have a number of light and sound installations, of not just Gloria’s story and using the William Way archives to listen to the stories of several LGBTQ ancestors, like Gloria, that would illuminate your path as you would walk and you would be able to hear it. Whether it would be through audio recordings or poets like Denise Froman being able to share a poem and then you can actually hear it in response.

So then this proposal was made. Midwood had $1.2 million for the Percent for Public Art Program, which I’m very grateful that it exists in Philadelphia. And I asked for the full amount. And included in this proposal was to, I asked Midwood, to reserve an apartment for a visiting artist within the LGBTQ community, whether it’s national, globally, to come and actually do residencies and offer workshops so that their new tenants coming into the Gayborhood would be engaged in a way of understanding and knowing the history, and then the current community that’s there could also be a part of that process. We also proposed in this proposal was that the Camac Street building, there was another building behind the 12th Street Gym, to be a space for LGBTQ artists to have their studios. And they accepted the proposal, half of, which was about $600,000.

And I said, great, we will accept this, but we will be asking for more, right? And then a few days later that was Thursday. And then on Monday, I start getting text messages of photographs of the mural being whitewashed. And so imagine months and months and months of negotiating a full on proposal. And then this, the wall is being whitewashed.

CB: And for those who might not get the context, this is just not how murals come down. If you’re going to tear the wall down, why are you going to whitewash the mural before you do it?
MAO: It doesn’t make any sense.
CB: And for those, what is whitewashing too, painting it white?
MAO: Painting it white, but it’s also like the symbolism of painting it white over an image in a mural that represented someone like Gloria, who was descended of Mexican immigrants, who fought for people of color, right? That in itself was just the whitewashing of that and the whitewashing of her legacy and her image.

[RADIO TURNING ON]

[NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT]

TOM MCDONALD: Good morning, it’s 5:31, I’m Tom McDonald WHYY News. LGBTQ activists in Philadelphia say their history was literally whitewashed on Wednesday when an iconic mural was painted over on 12th Street.

PETER CRIMMINS: Gloria Casarez was a Latina LGBTQ activist who died of cancer in 2014 at the age of 42. She was memorialized with a mural on the side of what used to be the 12th Street Gym. It was made by Mural Arts Philadelphia and the artist Michelle Angela Ortiz. That building has been sold to a company called Midwood, which plans to demolish it. In October, Mural Arts began talks with Midwood that led to a tentative agreement to create a new memorial to Casarez. However, Mural Arts Executive Director Jane Golden was blindsided by the unannounced removal of the mural.

JANE GOLDEN: Michelle Ortiz and Mural Arts were working in good faith. We thought that something positive could come from this. Waking up today and seeing the images of the mural being whited out was, I mean I was just crestfallen.

PC: In a statement Midwood said it would still honor the agreement it made with Mural Arts and Ortiz to create a new memorial, but both Golden and Ortiz are removing themselves from any future public art project with the developer. Peter Crimmins, WHYY News.

[MUSIC]
CB: So as of the publishing of this episode, there is still no arts program in place at the site of the former mural that specifically honors Gloria Casarez.

Looking back on the experience, Michelle says that it was frustrating for everyone.

MAO: I was hoping that we would come out of this as an example of how developers can be mindful of community, can hear community. I literally was placing a beautiful solution for them. It wasn’t the most perfect one, but it was a step to kind of heal and move forward. And the fact that they threw it all away, (finger snaps) in that split second, was just so disrespectful, not just to Gloria, not just to people that fought for that mural to remain. It was disrespectful to me and to Jane at Mural Arts and to all the people that were fighting…

CB: Your months of work
MAO: Months and months of work and I just couldn’t move on.
CB: That contract got tore up.
MAO: I said, no, I am no longer a part of this anymore. And I truly believe that by saying no to this situation that was not aligned with my values, right, that not only was it an affirmation of my own values and where I stand, but I also knew that another opportunity would happen and shortly after we were able to get more support to then expand and develop more of the Our Market project

[MUSIC]

CB: From one community project to another, much closer to home. After the break Michelle tells us the story of Our Market.

MIDROLL

CB: “Our Market” that’s the name of Michelle Angela Ortiz’s multi-layered public art project. It’s focused on supporting the immigrant vendors, business owners, and neighbors of the Ninth Street Market. The project includes new murals, billboards, a digital story archive and the revitalization of vendor stands.

[CARS DRIVING PAST]

MAO: We use the term Ninth Street, not just because historically that’s what it’s, you know, South Ninth Street Curb Market, but also it encompasses and includes everyone, right? And it’s also acknowledging before the arrival of Italian immigrants, there was already Jewish and Irish and also African-American laborers that have not been included in the conversations around the history of the market.

CB: I’ve only ever heard it, the Italian market.

MAI: Yes.

CB: That’s interesting. You’re returning it back to its roots. [Laughter]

[MOTORCYCLES DRIVING PAST]

CB: At this point we’re under the Ninth Street Curb Market historical marker when one of the market’s longtime business owners, pops out to add his two cents.

DEWEY: My mother was mad when they put it up because she’s been here for 80 years and they only called it….

MAO: the Italian market. Exactly.

DEWEY: So she’s like, “What is Ninth Street Curb market? I don’t know what that is!”

MAO: There’s a, I was just sharing with Conrad…

CB: As they talk, I look up at the sign: the South Ninth Street Curb Market historical marker. It’s a tall metal pole painted in dark blue with yellow lettering that reads “One of several curb markets established in the early 20th century to counter high prices and food shortages during WWI. The 9th St. Market has survived despite anti-immigrant sentiments and criticisms regarding sanitary conditions and traffic congestions. It has evolved from a local community market to become a popular Philadelphia icon.”

[MUSIC]

[CARS DRIVING OFF]

CB: There are so many immigrant stories that make up the history of this corridor. And collecting and archiving some of them is one aspect of Our Market. For Michelle, its personal. Her mother immigrated to the United States from Colombia. Her Father is from Puerto Rico. They met in Philadelphia and raised Michelle just off the Ninth Street Market. It’s why this project has become her focus over the last five years.

MAO: Wanting to do something in the market literally just sat on my shoulder all this time because I knew that it would require a large investment of time and energy and resources. And I also wanted it to make sure that it was something that was sustainable and that was building on the existing work that has already been happening in the market.

CB: But things changed in 2018 when Michelle was awarded a PEW fellowship. She used some of that money to start having conversations with community members.

MAO: My mother cooked dinners. Everything was really around food and gathering and those conversations with select community members, whether they were produce vendors or neighbors, or business owners, it’s like a, about seven people. And so, I had this idea that eventually developed in what we, what is now known as Our Market Project. And the idea was to really find ways and creative strategies to support the people of the market, to support the market. And it’s a different approach because it really does have to have a function and, a reason and a deep connection to this work rather than it just looking beautiful.

[CARS DRIVING PAST, PEOPLE CHATTING]

CB: As we head down Ninth Street, we pause in front of one of the Market’s iconic produce stands.

MAO: We are here at Ramos produce. This is one of the stands that we revitalized.

CB: Ramos Produce is run by Lidia Mendez and Joel Ramos. They immigrated from Mexico and have been in the market for over 14 years.

MAO: The produce stands are what aesthetically makes the market, right? It’s like the produce vendors are the most under resourced. and vulnerable groups because they’re out here on the coldest days and the hottest days, right? We still have our cans of fire.

CB: Those barrel fires. I know!

MAO: Right? That’s what defines the market. And so we tackled the three stands that were the most vulnerable, that were like falling apart, that had rotting wood and rusty metal.

CB: In a sea of stands made of beat up wood, the first thing that stands out about the new Ramos Produce stand is how well these are made –and how good they look too.

MAO: So these were all hand painted panels.
CB: Oh wow, oh they’re beautiful Michelle!
MAO: Yes. So these were all hand painted panels that were done epoxy to be food safe.
CB: I was going to say, what is this, glass?
MAO: And so if you could see has like new castors, and these are all custom-made welded pieces. So that was a design…
CB: So Our Market is like reinforcing the market, like you’re building a better infrastructure for the market.
MAO: Exactly!

CB: Functionality aside, they are colorful works of art. Bold, saturated purple, pink, orange, and red hues accentuate a lively floral pattern.

MAO: And they’re based on flowers and patterns of the festivities of St. Lucas Puebla, which is where Lydia and Joel are originally from. Lydia used to work in the market, La Sonora, in Mexico before coming to here at the market.

CB: The revitalized carts also include phrases. These are quotes taken from Michelle’s conversations with the stand’s owners

MAO: This is one of the phrases. “My people are the ones that tend to the land.” And so this comes from, this comes from the interview with Lydia and Joel and speaking to who their people are.

[MOTORCYCLE DRIVING BY]

CB: Next door to Ramos Produce is Gargano Produce which was also revitalized through Michelle’s Our Market project. John Gargano is the 3rd generation to run his family’s produce stand, which was started by Italian immigrants.

MAO: So, he obviously chose the colors of the Italian flag.
CB: Oh this is him as a kid!
MAO: That’s him as a child. That’s John as a child. It’s a hand painted portrait.
CB: Oh my god!

CB: Their sturdy, their beautiful, they mirror the communities in the market, but perhaps most importantly, they are an investment in the future of the market and its people.

MAO: Investing in these stands is a way of battling against displacement, right? Because the moment that these stands don’t exist the person loses their business and it’s hard to recapture that.

[CARS DRIVING PAST, HONKING]

CB: We continue to stroll down Ninth Street and Michelle draws my attention to a south facing wall on the side of a building

CB: All right, what are we walking up on now?
MAO: Okay, so we’re walking up on Martha Rich’s mural, which we’re still in the midst of working on.
CB: Okay. Martha!

CB: Martha Rich is a Philly-based artist and muralist. She’s well known for her many get out the vote efforts. In fact, you’ve likely seen her recent vote poster in a South Philly window by you. Her style is playful, illustrative, and often aims to reflect a slice of life. This Ninth Street mural does just that, referencing the various cultures that make up the neighborhood. Martha has incorporated phrases she’s heard people say in the market.

MAO: Phrases like “Los imigrantes son valientes” which translates to “Immigrants are valiant and courageous.” These were all coming from whether the story circles or messages that Martha would hear. She would walk through the market and then there’s all these different symbols. There’s a little heart that says, “Mariella and Lee.” Lee Esposito is the owner of Esposito Meats and Mariella is the owner of Fante’s, which is across the street. And they’re both, have been married for many, many years.
CB: Oh, cute!
MAO: Yeah. So there’s these, there’s also this focus and emphasis on these love stories, right? And these connections.
CB: I know we’re really like romanticizing this street right now, but I really feel like I’m on Sesame Street where it’s like, small town, everyone knows each other, everyone’s supportive, everyone’s showing up.
MAO: It definitely does feel that way.
CB: You know?
MAO: Yeah.
CB: There’s a cast of characters.
MAO: Exactly, there is! But, I feel like, it’s like that, and then it’s also just, there’s gossip, And then there’s stories. And so, Hey, Josephine, how are you? How are you? Good.
JOSEPHINE: How’s your mami?
MAO: She’s good. She’s good. Doing an interview. This is Conrad. So, Josephine, used to work in the kitchen with my mom at Giordano’s, yes, yes.
CB: I love your glasses by the way!

[TRUCK DRIVING, HONKING]

[MUSIC]

CB: We head further south down Ninth Street and cross over the busy intersection at Ninth and Washington. On this end of the market, the sidewalks are covered by awnings. That’s where Michelle’s project has installed lightboxes in front of some of the storefronts.

The lightboxes are mounted to the undersides of the awnings so that they provide lighting and safety. But they aren’t just functional — you should know that by now. Each lightbox is a unique design that tells the story of a different business owner. We stop in front of Andres Hernandez’s taqueria Adelita and look at the lightboxes above. There’s a picture of a woman and a Spanish phrase.

MAO: And this is the woman Adelita, which the restaurant is named after, but Adelita was a nurse that actually fought in the Mexican Revolution. And so the many women that fought in the revolution were known as Adelitas. So his beautiful quote is, “I come from women that are hardworking, that fight, and that are empowered.” And in the Latino culture where there exists a lot of chauvinism and machismo to have someone like Andres speak to the power of the women, right? And the women in his family was really beautiful.

[PEOPLE TALKING, CARS DRIVING PAST]

CB: We continue heading down Ninth Street and pause in front of Casa Mexico, the Mexican restaurant started by chef, Cristina Martínez. Cristina came to Philadelphia after a harrowing border crossing through the desert from Mexico. She’s no ordinary chef.

MAO: And Christina is a superstar and another treasure here because she’s a James Beard award winning chef. There goes Cristina! Oh my gosh, she’s not always here…Cómo estás? Hola [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
CRISTINA MARTINEZ: Nice to meet you
CB: Do you like the artwork?
CM: [TRANSLATING IN SPANISH]
CB: It’s beautiful.
MAO: She’s a poet! Other than an amazing chef.

CB: We look up at the lightbox in front of Cristina’s restaurant. You see two rectangular boxes projecting soft, pink color above you, both framed in florals with their centers the focal point. To the left, outstretched hands with palms facing you. On the right, a quote in Spanish.

MAO: And the phrase is, “Oh Philadelphia, my flesh and my blood run through your veins, like the waters of your rivers that flow around you.” And in Spanish, “O Filadelfia, mi carne y mi sangre corren por tus venas como las aguas de tus rios que fluyen alrededor.” The reference to “My blood and my flesh run through the rivers,” right, is also connected to the fact that her son, who she immigrated with, Isaias, unfortunately passed away here in Philadelphia. And so he is buried here. And so that’s her also deep connection to Philadelphia.

[MUSIC]

CB: You know, one of the frames for this season of Art Outside is the state of Philly’s art world. When Michelle was in college, success meant showing in galleries and museums. But instead she chose to focus on community. To bring her talents to projects like Our Market, that not only offer beauty and inspiration to the city in the form of public art, but which centers around building strong connections between people. And I can’t help but to think that that’s something we really need right now.

MAO: When we speak to the market, whether it’s through the artworks, whether it’s through the storytelling, or even it is about us as community members having the power and agency to lead a group through the space. And then we are determining how we want to be represented. For me, like this part of the story has not been told, in this way. And I think people want to walk through this and it’s like, “Oh, this is like the past,” but in reality, you know, there are still, like a lot of the issues and a lot of the lack of resources, the sometimes the disconnect when in reality what makes us more powerful is when we’re together, right? It makes us understand that we are not so different.

[BELL RINGING]

[MUSIC]

CB: Next time on Art Outside.

CB: You get an email that says Quinta Brunson chose you. What the fuck do you do after you get that email?

ATHENA SCOTT: Well you sit for a minute. [Both laughing] You sit for a minute and you just, listen, this journey has been crazy.

CB: That’s next, on Art Outside.

[THEME MUSIC]

This episode of Art Outside was produced by John Myers.

Our associate producer is Bibiana Correa.

Tom Grahsler is our executive producer.

Art Outside’s production, sound design and mixing is by Rowhome Productions. Rowhome’s Executive Producers are John Myers and Alex Lewis.

Our engineers are Charlie Kaier, Diana Martinez, Tina Kalakay, Adam Staniszewski and Al Banks.

Our theme song is SNACKMFTIME by SNACKTIME. Our tile art was created by El Toro, aka Justin Nagtalon.

Special thanks to Michaela Winberg, Michael Olcott, Sarah Moses, Mike Shiffler, and Kayla Watkins.

I’m your host, Conrad Benner.

Art Outside is a production of WHYY. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.