Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta is ideally suited to his job. He is the curator and director of exhibitions and public programs at Temple Contemporary, an exhibition space and public programming site located on the first floor of Tyler School of Art and Architecture on Temple University’s Main Campus. The 3,400-square-foot gallery is open to the public as befits its mission to “serve as a beacon for art, architecture, and community imagination.”
Kenyatta, who goes by “Dr. Matt,” has a unique and impressive resume that includes a B.A. in urban studies with an African/African American studies minor from Stanford, a M.A. in city planning from M.I.T, and a Ph.D. in urban planning from USC. Fortunately for Philadelphia, he came to the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at that University of Pennsylvania in 2018 where he served in a variety of roles and became a member of the Philadelphia Arts Commission.
Pyramid Club: 1937-2035 is currently on view at Temple Contemporary until December 19. | Photos courtesy of Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
In taking on his new position at Temple Contemporary in 2024, Dr. Matt brought with him his multidisciplinary academic background, his expertise in urban placemaking, and his passion for Afro-futurism, a movement based on the interplay between Black history, culture, and science fiction. Think Wakanda in the Black Panther movie series. In making the decision to leave Penn for Temple, it didn’t hurt that he would be significantly reducing his commute time. Dr. Matt and his husband Malcolm Kenyatta, North Central Philadelphia’s representative in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, call the neighborhood home.
The first exhibition at Temple Contemporary under Dr. Matt’s leadership, Pyramid Club: 1937-2035, opened in September of this year. The Pyramid Club was a social club for Philadelphia’s Black elite that opened in 1937, a time of widespread segregation in the city. Initially meeting in the basement of the Christian Street YMCA, the club was founded for “the cultural civic and social advancement of Negroes in Philadelphia.” In 1940, the club moved to 1517 W. Girard Avenue where the building remains and a historical marker attests to its past glory.
A photograph by John W. Mosley of artist Samuel J. Brown at a Pyramid Club cookout circa 1950s. | Photo courtesy of Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries
The first room of the exhibition highlights the prestigious Pyramid Club art shows that were organized by artist and curator Humbert Howard from 1941 to 1957. These juried exhibitions displayed the works of artists both white and Black and helped catapult the careers of African American artists such as Romare Beardon, Jacob Lawrence, and Dox Thrash. The pieces on display at Temple Contemporary come from the collection of Dr. William Dodd, a dentist who has acquired numerous works from mid-20th century Black artists. Dodd spent 20 years collecting these works and used to run a gallery in Center City called Art Around.
The middle room contains photographs by John W. Mosley, the official photographer of the Pyramid Club and a prolific chronicler of Philadelphia’s Black experience. The display was curated by Leslie Willis Lowry, an archivist with the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection in collaboration with Philadelphia artist Shawn Theodore. It features images of fashionable Black people engaged in leisure pursuits as well as portraits of many of the celebrities who visited the Pyramid Club including Marian Anderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Sidney Poitier, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Eartha Kitt, and Mahalia Jackson.
Woman With a Green Hat, 1940, by Dox Thrash and Trap Saint, 2017, by Shawn Theodore. | Photos courtesy of Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
The final room is dedicated to Shawn Theodore’s avant-garde photography and several of his multi-media installations. Theodore, who is represented by Paradigm Gallery + Studio, is interested in “Afromythology,” a term he coined to encapsulate his exploration of Black cultural identity and community.
Although the exhibition is divided into three distinct spaces, there are several common threads. One is the Egyptian motifs designed by Theodore that were inspired by the décor of the Pyramid Club. Another is that each of these spaces poses different aspects of the same question about the Pyramid Club that guided the development of the exhibition, “What if Philadelphia’s legendary cultural space had never closed.” This question is crucial to Dr. Matt who sees Temple Contemporary as playing a vital role in a revival of the North Broad Street corridor as an arts and culture hub.
Dr. Matt’s language often reflects his numerous degrees and his visionary inclinations. He uses words like “Afroprismatic” and “speculative timeline” in casual conversation. Toward the end of our tour, however, he shared a succinct summary of the exhibition’s aims. “It is an exploration of how art can help make history a blueprint for the future.” For me, this simple explanation made all the beautiful paintings, historical photographs, and exemplars of Afromythology come together in a cohesive whole.
Pyramid Club: 1937-2035 is on view at Temple Contemporary until December 19. See the gallery’s website for more information: https://tyler.temple.edu/happening-tyler/temple-contemporary-gallery
A community forum will be held on Wednesday, November 12 at Temple Contemporary from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event will feature living descendants of Pyramid Club members and people connected to the art exhibited at the Pyramid Club.
