Streetopia: An Interview with Erick Lyle

Moe Bowstern interviews author Erick Lyle about Streetopia. Erick Lyle will be speaking about the art show, the book, Frankie Glitterdoll, and more tonight March 24th, 7pm, at the IPRC 1001 SE Division St, in Portland. The event also includes a panel of local arts groups, like Living Stages, CityRepair, and APANO, to learn more about anti-displacement arts initiatives in Portland.

Streetopia:
After San Francisco's new mayor announced imminent plans to "clean up" downtown with a new corporate "dot com corridor" and arts district--featuring the new headquarters of Twitter and Burning Man--curators Erick Lyle, Chris Johanson and Kal Spelletich brought over 100 artists and activists together with residents fearing displacement to consider utopian aspirations and plot alternative futures for the city. The resulting exhibition, Streetopia, was a massive anti-gentrification art fair that took place in venues throughout the city, featuring daily free talks, performances, skillshares and a free community kitchen out of the gallery. This book brings together all of the art and ephemera from the now-infamous show, featuring work by Swoon, Barry McGee, Emory Douglas, Monica Canilao, Rigo 23, Xara Thustra, Ryder Cooley and many more. Essays and interviews with key participants consider the effectiveness of Streetopia's projects while offering a deeper rumination on the continuing search for community in today's increasingly homogenous and gentrified cities.

Edited by Erick Lyle.

Text by Rebecca Solnit, Chris Kraus, Sarah Schulman, Chris Johanson, Sam Green, Daphne Gottlieb, A.C. Thompson, Renny Pritikin, Amy Franceschini, Antonio Roman-Alcala, Jesse Drew, V. Vale, Kal Spelletich, James Tracy, Isaac Jackson, Amos Gregory, Roxy Monoxide, Eve Ekman, Joey Alone, The Water Underground.
 Interviews with Ernest Callenbach, Ivy Jeanne McClelland, Sy Wagon.