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Hot off the success of his Grammy-winning song “Old Town Road,” his chart-topping “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” and his pants-splitting performance on SNL, musical dynamo Lil Nas X just scored another win.
Fans in Philadelphia have honored the singer with a three-story mural outside the Writer’s Block Rehab bar in Philadelphia’s “Gayborhood.”
Ram Krishnan, owner of the Writer’s Block Rehab bar commissioned the painting from artist Ash Ryan.
“Three years back, we painted a mural on one side of the bar featuring Alan Rock, the great Harlem Renaissance leader, who also happened to be queer,” Krishnan told Variety.
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“One hundred years after Rock’s time, I wanted another mural of someone who had made an equal name for himself in Black gay culture — someone who meant something to our community. As we looked at characters in today’s media with similar import, Lil Nas X revealed himself as that artist, one who is living his best self, was also an innovator, and an artist who best represented Black culture and queer culture.”
The mural takes inspiration from the “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video, and features images of Lil Nas X painted in blue and pink.
At the time of this writing, Lil Nas X has yet to comment on the painting, though, at the very least, we hope he stops in for a drink next time he rolls through town.
Related: Lil Nas X gives all the details on his SNL wardrobe malfunction
justgeo
WHY/? FOR WHAT REASON?
LeBlevsez
Because three people named Ram Krishnan, Ash Ryan, and Lil Nas X each have more vision than one person named justgeo.
amanwithanedge
I AGREE, WHY.
Kangol2
I love the mural, but I also was a bit astonished by the bar owner’s comment, because the out gay “Harlem Renaissance leader’s” name was “ALAIN LOCKE,” not “Alan Rock” (?), which Mr. Krishnan appears to repeat twice in the article above. A brilliant biography of Locke, a philosopher who was a major intellectual figure for decades, received the National Book Award in Biography just a few years ago.
I think it’s great to honor public figures who are pioneers and pacesetters, but that doesn’t mean we should throw facts and accuracy out the window, because you essentially are erasing history and reality in doing so. Also, most of us have Wikipedia and various dictionaries, search engines, etc. at our fingertips, so if we are unsure, just look it up.
amanwithanedge
RIDICULOUS.