The Last Billboard in 2015 featuring a text by artist Kim Beck.
Coordinates : 40°27′37″N 79°55′31″W / 40.46038°N 79.92516°W / 40.46038; -79.92516 The Last Billboard is a public art billboard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The art piece consists of a 12-feet-by-36-feet steel frame billboard on which letters can be arranged.[1] Each month, artists are solicited to place a message on the billboard. It is curated by Jon Rubin . The billboard is located at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Baum Boulevard in the East Liberty neighborhood, above what was originally the building for Waffle Shop: A Reality Show , a restaurant that was also conceptualized by Jon Rubin.
Schedule of guest artists [ ]
2013 [ ]
Months
Artist
Message
January
Packard Jennings
these words hold / no power over you
March
Michael Crowe
intellect versus emotion / intellect wins / emotion starts crying
May
Anthony Discenza
think game of thrones / meets okcupid meets car / talk meets gertrude stein / meet duran duran
June
Maude Liotta
questions for my new blog: / who invented tape, / how were feelings discovered, / when did "skinny" become / fashionable.
July
Nina Katchadourian
the person standing / beside you, pointing at this / billboard, has brought you / here because it was too hard / to say "I am sorry" out loud.
August
Marc Horowitz
? / (323) 541 6361
November
Joshua Beckman
poem 206 427 7792
2014 [ ]
Months
Author
Message
January
Matt Shain
photo / food / beauty / liquor / rx
April
Charlie Humphrey
i wonder some days / if facebook isn't a broad / all encompassing / cry for help
May
Adam Frelin
let's put loudspeakers / on the roofs of hospitals // let's announce births / and deaths as they occur
June
Lenka Clayton
think about / all the hours / forgotten plays / were rehearsed
September
The Janks Archive
you're so ugly that / you should be in a / museum of modern art
December
Jason Fulford
S A T O R / A R E P O / T E N E T / O P E R A / R O T A
2015 [ ]
Months
Artist
Message
January - March
Kim Beck
today only / last chance! final day! / nothing held back / closing forever!
April
Sarah Keeling
ford & daughter / used tires / 704-370-3793 (varied by day)
May
Pablo Helguera
anulala a la luna
June
Milena Bonilla
the whole town's sleeping
July
Paul Ramirez Jonas
a i a / sky you sea / cloud crowd brook / hilltop company rivulet / highpoint multitude tributary
August
Taylor Shields
spry texts keep ducking up / ducking / duck / duck / nevermind
October
Jonn Herschend
close your eyes / and imagine that / i'm dancing so crazy fast
2016 [ ]
Months
Artist
Message
February
Jim Christensen
anything / but / this
April
Lenka Clayton
tragically, / the world's oldest person / keeps dying.
June
John Riegert
just saw a hipster with / big headphones on top of / a knit cap, wearing a coat / i had worn for 20 years / and gave to goodwill.
July
David Horvitz
rachel carson / is my hero
October
Micah Lexier
a. f. k. / b. g. / c. h. / d. i. / e. j.
August
Neil Farber and Michael Dumontier
you don't have to / open every door. / a door labelled hell, / for instance.
2017 [ ]
Months
Artist
Message
March
Jon Rubin
a man whose daily work / is rewriting history / tries to rebel / by falling in love
May
do not react to this.
June
Joseph Del Pesco
you don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows (following Part 1, a poem from Eugen Gomringer's book CONSTELLATIONS)
July
Tamara Shopsin
a tow truck / pulling / an ambulance
September
Brett Yasko
. / . / . . / . / . . / . / . / .
November
Laure Prouvost
ideally everything / will turn quiet / now
2018 [ ]
Months
Artist
Message
March
Alisha Wormsley
there / are / black people / in the / future
Controversy [ ]
In March 2018, The Last Billboard's landlord, We Do Property, in response to complaints from community members who felt the sign was racist, removed Alisha Wormsley's text from the billboard.[2] Jon Rubin, the billboard's founder and creator, responded in a statement in response to the removal:
I believe in the power, poetry, and relevance of Alisha’s text and see absolutely no reason it should have been taken down. I find it tragically ironic, given East Liberty’s history and recent gentrification, that a text by an African American artist affirming a place in the future for black people is seen as unacceptable in the present.
A public panel discussion about the text and its removal is expected to be hosted by the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in April or May 2018.
Early billboard messages [ ]
From mid-2009 to late 2012, while Waffle Shop was still operating, the billboard included content proposed and submitted by artists and regular people.[1] Unlike the version of the billboard from 2013 onward, this early version switched out messages several times a month. Below is an in-depth, but not comprehensive, list of those messages.[3]
2009 [ ]
Months
Contributor
Message
May
Lenka Clayton
number of people who have / looked at this sign: / 55 (as it suggest, the number was updated manually when people looked at it)
2010 [ ]
Months
Contributor
Message
February
Anonymous
community amateur radio / all weekend long / in our bathroom / inquire within / kf7nse
April
Anonymous ten-year-old boy
people think i'm a ghost. / i don't know, it's really / hard to tell. i'm kind of / like a ghost, and i might be invisible.
July
T. Foley
the airspace is public / property for the purposes / of sonic transmission.
July
Waffle Shop
things we need at the waffle shop / 1. a beautiful leafy plant / 2. three talk show hosts / 3. $75,000 / 4. a few 60 watt lightbulbs
August
Waffle Shop
things we need at the waffle shop / 1. a mostly leafy plant! / 2. one talk show host / $71,743 / 4. a new tv show idea
October
Waffle Shop
things we need at waffle shop / 1. a magician / 2. one talk show host / 3. animal masks / 4. a zookeeper
2011 [ ]
Months
Contributor
Message
March
Steve Lambert
it's time to fight! / and / it's time to stop fighting!
March
Anonymous
is night worth preserving / or is it too much to ask / a void to fill a light / let the vacuum of / a lightbulb answer
May
Anonymous
global vegan waffle party / be kind / be healthy / redd up our planet n'at
June
Anonymous
capitalism / is / over! // if you want it
June
Anonymous
tell me who / your friend is / and i can tell you who / you are not! / ferhat ozgur
July
Anonymous
i was hoping / you might be interested, / but didn't know how to ask.
July
Anonymous
bring home the / international / space station
August
Anthony Discenza
we've tried everything
August
Anonymous
because we are / playthings of the gods, / playing is the most serious / of our activities
September
Anonymous
you may leave the 'burgh / but the 'burgh will never / leave you. / farewell justin & kristy!
November
Black Male Leadership Development Institute (BMLDI)
attention boosters! / athletes are paid to play / but will you pay academics / to learn
November
Anonymous
pokarekare ana / nga wai o waiapu, / whiti atu koe hine / marino ana e. (lyrics from "Pokarekare Ana ", a traditional New Zealand love song)
November
Anonymous
empty every night.
December
Anonymous
facebook / hides in plain sight / nick yetsco state, / you cannot understand / unless you are in spy club.
December
Anonymous
shatter the chariots of kings
2012 [ ]
Months
Contributor
Message
January
Anonymous
capturing adolf eichmann / is one thing. / freeing people's minds / so there are no more like / him is quite another
February
Anonymous
contendo ad astra
February
Anonymous
grow wilder
March
Kari Marboe
i love you is such an / enormous gift that i need / to house it here for a / week so that we can / use the apartment.
April
Lautanen
fate / (making connections / where there are / no connections) / you are mine
April
Anonymous
"like a tragic comedy, the u.s. / gov's actions have actually / helped the iranian gov / hurt the people of iran" / iranian american
May
Anonymous
love come / save me / may 28 2011
May
Anonymous
we offer / complete detachment / from all your / material needs
Anonymous
nature will regulate us.
References [ ]
External links [ ]