Eugene Martin: Beirut, Philadelphia

The multi-media exhibition, Beirut, Philadelphia, is a survey of an ongoing transmedia project that Eugene Martin has been working on since 2006 in North Philadelphia. This show features 120 fine art photographic prints, 30 hours of film and video, and two completed documentary films. In 2007 Martin received a commission to create an oral history of women in an area of North Philadelphia known to its residents as “Beirut”. This name was coined during the time when Beirut, Lebanon was on the nightly news during the war. After a two-week gun battle around 2000 the name Beirut began to be used. The area of Beirut, Philadelphia is just 3 square blocks. From 2006 to 2012, Martin got to know and work with residents and community members in this neighborhood. Three projects have now emerged from this work. The first project was a theatrical play entitled, Shot!, which was co-conceived by Martin, Doug Wager, and Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon. The play went on the win the Kennedy Center National College Theater Award and was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in April, 2010. Martin won two awards for Video Direction and Co-Conception from the Kennedy Center. The second part of this project is a documentary film entitled, Beirut, Philadelphia, (50 mins, HD video and 35mm film, 2013) which will screen during this exhibit. The third part of the project is this multi-media exhibit, which combines still photographs, films, and oral histories to create Martin’s interpretation of Beirut, Philadelphia.