A new mural was dedicated on Maplewood Mall on August 6. We Still Here!  is by artist Jetsonorama featuring Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker and her work. The central image of Rucker shouting through a megaphone represents the raised voices of Germantown residents who often feel overlooked. The mural features Rucker’s work, but also the work of community members and students. The work was produced by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Project and features the input of high school students who worked with Rucker and Jetsonorama and “studied our society’s built-in inequities and asked that they could do to make it more just.”

The mural is visible from Germantown Avenue, painted on the side of the mall buildings between the mall and Armat Street.

Ursula Rucker has been an active voice on the Philadelphia poetry and performance scene since the mid-nineties, both on her own and collaborating with such groups as the Roots, Jazzanova and Josh Wink.  

The event included food, music and poetry and distribution of a ‘zine created by the high school students.

It marks the latest phase of a transition to the Mall that began with renovations last year and continued with the city’s Percent for Art program. There is also art along the mall courtesy the iMPeRFeCT Gallery, 5539 Germantown Avenue, and Germantown Espresso, 26 Maplewood Mall, which usually has an exhibit of local artists on its inside walls as well.