It’s not exactly prom season—and we’re not exactly 16—but Mural Arts Philadelphia invites you to get in the spirit for a prom-themed bash they’re throwing to celebrate their latest citywide arts project Monument Lab.
Called Promument (get it?), the party takes place in the Rotunda of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) on Friday, October 6 from 7 to 11pm. There will be music all night long from a rotating selection of DJs—including Philly son, hip-hop superstar and The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon house band drummer Questlove.
He’ll take his turn on the turntables along with other DJs who you may recognize from around town, folks like Steve Farrell, a staple at Johnny Brenda’s; rapper Spank Rock; and Gun$ Garcia, the lady DJ extraordinaire who plays regularly at Saint Lazarus Bar. Muralist Steve Powers (who did those awesome Love Letter murals along the Market-Frankford Line) will also be on site leading a sign-making workshop, and of course there will be a photographer in the house taking awkward prom photos.
Tickets are $25, and that includes access to the PAFA exhibition space, and a selection food and cocktails. You can purchase those here. Attendees are encouraged to come sporting their best prom attire—you know big hair, stiff tuxedos, corsages, boutonnières, the whole shebang. You might as well do it up right, huh?
If you don’t know about Monument Lab, the project tasked 20 local and national artists with creating monuments to Philadelphia that you can now find all around the city through November 19. The works are totally worth seeking out. They come in all shapes, sizes and formats—from a giant Afro pick at Thomas Paine Plaza to a collection of stoops in Washington Square—and are meant to give voice to overlooked communities and address current social issues facing this city. Here are five projects we’re excited about and where to find them.
Questlove was particularly taken by that aforementioned Afro pick sculpture. Check out these posts he made about it on Instagram: