The Eye's Gallery features a facade painted with vibrant, swirling patterns and eclectic folk art, signaling the transition from a traditional storefront to an immersive display of international crafts. Julia Zagar founded this space in…
South Street Counterculture Walk
This walk takes you down South Philly's bohemian corridor to see Isaiah Zagar's glittering mosaic murals, legendary punk music venues, and radical bookstores. It's the ultimate introduction to the neighborhood's rebellious 1970s artistic soul.
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1. Eye's Gallery
2. Theatre of The Living Arts
The Theatre of the Living Arts features a marquee with red neon letters against a dark facade on South Street. It began as the Palace Theatre in nineteen oh eight, showing silent films to neighborhood crowds. By the mid-sixties, the space…
3. Repo Records
The front of Repo Records features a distinct yellow sign with bold, black lettering that cuts through the visual clutter of South Street. Since nineteen eighty-six, this shop has served as a primary destination for independent music and…
4. Philly AIDS Thrift
The storefront on South Fifth Street wears a vibrant mural of a rainbow-colored bird, but the real marker is the constant stream of people carrying bags of clothes toward the loading dock. This building houses Philly AIDS Thrift, a…
5. Wooden Shoe Books
The front window of Wooden Shoe Books is plastered with layers of event flyers, protest notices, and community announcements that change with the seasons. Since the late nineteen seventies, this space has operated as an anarchist…
6. Alley of Murals (Isaiah Zagar)
The Alley of Murals is defined by thousands of uneven, jagged shards of glass, ceramic tiles, and mirror fragments cemented directly onto the brick walls. Isaiah Zagar began covering these surfaces in nineteen ninety-four to rescue the…
7. Philadelphia's Magic Gardens
The walls of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens are covered in a dense, swirling mosaic of bicycle wheels, glass bottles, mirrors, and hand-painted tiles. Isaiah Zagar began building this labyrinthine environment in the mid-nineteen nineties,…