Embedded Files
Concept: Tieshka SmithLogo Refresh & Additional Graphic Design: Beth MinerOriginal Logo Design: Angela Miles
About the Residency
About the Residency
Eleven years after launching #RacismIsASickness at G-Town Radio, photographer, writer, and community-engaged artist Tieshka K. Smith returns to the place where the project began to kickoff a four-month artist residency that revisits the original project through the lens of time, place, memory, and community.
Eleven years after launching #RacismIsASickness at G-Town Radio, photographer, writer, and community-engaged artist Tieshka K. Smith returns to the place where the project began to kickoff a four-month artist residency that revisits the original project through the lens of time, place, memory, and community.
An Ongoing Inquiry
An Ongoing Inquiry
Rather than presenting the original project as a historical artifact, this residency invites visitors to encounter its creation, its public life, and its return to G-Town Radio more than ten years later.
The timeline below traces the development and public life of the original #RacismIsASickness project, providing historical context for the work revisited through #10YearsofRacismIsASickness.
Through installation, photography, mapping, archival material, and community participation, the residency creates multiple opportunities to reflect on the enduring questions that first gave rise to the project and the conversations that continue today. Like much of Smith's work, the residency draws on multiple creative disciplines to create spaces where people can move beyond immediate reaction toward deeper interpretation, shared inquiry, and community dialogue.
It also marks the beginning of a broader effort to revisit #RacismIsASickness through writing, scholarship, and public dialogue, extending the work beyond the walls of G-Town Radio.
All Roads Lead Back to G-Town Radio: The Window Installation
All Roads Lead Back to G-Town Radio: The Window Installation
Anchoring the residency is a window installation titled "All Roads Lead Back to G-Town Radio."
Anchoring the residency is a window installation titled "All Roads Lead Back to G-Town Radio."
This installation shows the distance—and, in some cases, the surprising proximity—between the participants' home neighborhoods and G-Town Radio. The map also surfaces a selection of nearby sites of Black presence, history, and resistance. Together, they reveal a dynamic geography shaped by generations of Black Philadelphians whose everyday lives, institutions, organizing, and resistance have left an enduring imprint on the city.
More than a decade later, this installation invites us to consider how place shapes memory, how communities shape public conversation, and why returning to where a story began can reveal new ways of understanding the present.
Watch a short video of the artist Tieshka Smith sharing her thoughts about the installation.
Watch a short video of the artist Tieshka Smith sharing her thoughts about the installation.
10RIAS window installation video 7-23-2026.mp4
Facing Maplewood Mall, All Roads Lead Back to G-Town Radio extends the residency into public space, inviting anyone passing by to pause and notice.
Flowing bands of color—echoing the red, white, and blue stripes of the American flag—connect the three windows into a continuous visual landscape, suggesting that memory, like community, does not exist in isolation. Embedded within white stars are the original fourteen masked portraits, returning the co-creators to the place where the project first began and reminding us that the work of forming a more perfect union remains unfinished. Throughout the composition, Black fists mark sites of Black presence, history, and resistance across Philadelphia, symbolizing solidarity, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of racial justice.
Inside the Green Room
Inside the Green Room
An Uneasy Dialogue
A series of 14 images representing a mashup of one half of the original masked born-digital portraits, and one half that was intentionally aged to reflect the passage of more than a decade, invites visitors to encounter the same faces through the lens of elapsed time and to reflect on what has changed, what has endured, and how conversations about racial healing continue to evolve.
Concept and Original Photography: Tieshka SmithDesign: Beth Miner
The Journey Continued In 2016...
Three additional maps chronicle the project's journey after its completion, tracing its 2016 exhibition at three venues across Philadelphia. Paired with archival photographic collages documenting community engagement at each location, these installations invite visitors to consider how the work moved through distinct social and geographic contexts as it entered public life.
Creative Direction: Tieshka SmithDesign: Beth Miner
Community Engagement Throughout the Residency
Community Engagement Throughout the Residency
Throughout the residency, the space will be activated through opportunities for both personal reflection and community dialogue. Visitors will be invited to contribute written responses, create commemorative buttons inspired by their experience of the work, participate in Chat & Chew conversations, and engage with the project during Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (October 10-11, 2026).
The residency will culminate in a live convening that reunites voices connected to the project's earlier history while inviting the broader community into one final conversation about the ongoing work of racial healing.
Calendar of Events/Community Activations
Calendar of Events/Community Activations
August 2026
August 2026
Opening reception: August 8, 2026, 6-9 pm EDT
September 2026
September 2026
And Now What? | Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 6-8 PM| Use this link to RSVP by September 8, 2026 | Space is limited
Join us as we kick off the first of three chat and chew gatherings. What do we carry inside ourselves about race? What responsibility do we have for what we carry? And what are we willing to do about it? Through conversation, reflection, and a participatory mask-making and portrait exercise, we'll consider what it means to move from awareness toward action.
Follow the Facebook event page for more information.
October 2026
October 2026
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours | October 10-11, 2026 (Noon-6pm both days)
Step inside the residency during Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) for an up-close look at #10YearsofRacismIsASickness, conversation, and a glimpse into the ongoing work taking shape at G-Town Radio. Come see the installation, explore the space, and experience the residency in progress.
Follow the POST event page on Facebook for more information.
Routes & Roots | Saturday, October 24, 2026, 2-4 PM | Use this link to RSVP by October 17, 2026 | Space is limited
Join us as we continue with the second of three chat and chew gatherings. Where have we come from, how did we get here, and what do we carry with us? Using movement as a springboard, we'll share stories of immigration, migration, relocation, arrival, and belonging through conversation, maps, other visual materials—and food. Participants are invited to bring a dish and a map that connects in some way to their own movement story.
Follow the Facebook event page for more information.
November 2026
November 2026
Unmasking the Vote | Sunday, November 8, 2026, 2-4 PM | Use this link to RSVP by November 1, 2026 | Space is limited
Join us for our final chat and chew gathering. After the ballots have been cast, we'll take a closer look at some of the familiar beliefs, assumptions, and competing ideas we carry about voting. Rather than debating which side is right, we'll ask: Can opposing ideas coexist? In what ways might each be true? And where does each begin to break down?
Follow the Facebook event page for more information.
Photos: Opening Reception, August 8, 2026
Photos: Opening Reception, August 8, 2026
Thanks to each and every person who attended the opening reception! To have my work acknowledged and remembered, questioned and supported really touched my heart. Here are some snaps from the event along with installation photos.
Photos: And Now What? September 15, 2026
Photos: And Now What? September 15, 2026
The first Chat & Chew gathering, And Now What?, was small but mighty. Together, we explored what we carry inside ourselves about race, what responsibility we have for what we carry, and what we are willing to do about it.
The conversation culminated in three words: DREAM. EXPLORE. REFLECT. Each reflected a different way of thinking about personal responsibility, agency, and how we continue engaging with racial justice without losing ourselves in the process.
When the masks and markers planned for the portrait-making exercise didn't arrive in time, I improvised. Participants wrote their words on paper and for their portraits, held them close to their faces in lieu of a mask. This created an unexpected visual dialogue with the reimagined 2015 portraits behind them.
Thank you to everyone who brought their candor, vulnerability, curiosity, and willingness to engage to the Green Room—and for making my 54th birthday one I won't soon forget.
Here are the portraits from the evening.
Recap Video, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, October 10-11, 2026
Recap Video, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, October 10-11, 2026
On October 10–11, 2026, I welcomed visitors to G-Town Radio for the 2026 Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) as part of the 10 Years of Racism Is a Sickness artist residency.
Over two days, visitors gathered in the Green Room to experience the artwork, share personal histories, reflect on race and belonging, and engage in conversations about memory, identity, and the beliefs we inherit. These encounters offered another opportunity to explore the evolving role of art as a catalyst for dialogue, connection, and community engagement.
The weekend also brought together artists, neighbors, longtime supporters, and young creatives, demonstrating what becomes possible when an exhibition becomes an inhabitable space for gathering and reflection.
Special thanks to the POST team at CFEVA, G-Town Radio, participating artists and collaborators, and everyone who helped make the weekend possible.
Watch the video for highlights from POST weekend and a glimpse into the conversations and connections that continue to shape this residency.
10RIAS POST recap video 10-12-2026.mp4Page updated
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