Middle: designer Jonai Gibson-Selix with co-curators Molly Gross and Ryan Strand Greenberg.
Heart On Your Sleeve, a winter long public art and poetry initiative focused on the themes of care and renewal, was active from November 2022 - April 2023. This six-month project brought together Philadelphia Poets and Artists to co-create compassionate works that appeared on insulated take-out coffee sleeves and in public artworks at Elixr Coffee. The project aimed to bring the perspectives of poets and artists to the public in small and meaningful ways during the winter through an uplifting poem, an inspiring piece of public art, or a new piece of clothing. Heart On Your Sleeve was organized by Molly Gross & Ryan Strand Greenberg with support by Elixr Coffee and The Poetry Project.
Poems by Sojourner Ahebee, Dilruba Ahmed, Husnaa Haajarah Hashim, Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Ursula Rucker, and Eleanor Wilner were the centerpiece of the six sleeve series created by designer Jonai Gibson-Selix and printmaker Hester Stinnett. Each month, from November 2022 to April 2023, a new poetry sleeve was available with the purchase of a beverage at Elixr Coffee's four area-locations.
Heart On Your Sleeve launched with unveiling a newly commissioned public artwork by Destiny Palmer at Elixr Coffee's Center City location. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Printworks, the project also uplifted the poets and their work via a long-sleeve T-shirt.
PRESS: 6abc, WHYY, and Streets Dept.
