April 9 – June 27, 2026
TILT Main Gallery
On-View: April 9 – June 27, 2026
Artists: Mike Arrison, Harvey Finkle, Joe Piette, and Sunny Singh
Collaborator: Christopher R. Rogers
Opening Reception: April 9, 2026, 6-9 PM
Following the widely publicized murders of George Floyd and other Black citizens by police, an unprecedented wave of public outcry swept the nation. Despite the pervasive uncertainty and restrictions imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, Philadelphians organized and sustained mass protests, taking to the streets to emphatically demand racial justice, police accountability, and structural reform. Later that same year, the tragic shooting death of Walter Wallace Jr. by police officers in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Cobbs Creek further underscored these systemic issues. His family had called 911 seeking assistance for a mental health crisis, only for the encounter to escalate fatally, tragically illustrating the severe gaps in the community’s support and emergency response systems.
Inspired by the energy generated from these events, West Philadelphia residents Fajr Muhammad and Christopher Rogers published How We Stay Free: Notes On A Black Uprising. This project is not merely a book but a dynamic, living archive of community resistance, featuring powerful, multi-modal contributions from a diverse coalition of artists, writers, poets, and scholars who were active participants in the struggle. This exhibition, which shares the same title, serves as an essential visual and experiential archive. It documents the work initiated by the authors, alongside the tireless efforts of local organizations, grassroots collectives, and community-based activists. Philadelphia’s legacy of civil disobedience is both deep and enduring, stretching from the national Black Lives Matter protests to localized calls for Palestinian liberation and the No Arena fight against a proposed sports complex in the historic Chinatown neighborhood.
The visceral imagery and compelling narratives presented on the gallery walls emphasize a crucial point, a collective and sustained response is necessary to ensure meaningful and lasting progress is achieved. This philosophical approach—that change requires unity and shared purpose—serves as the foundational connective tissue binding both the publication and the exhibition. Spanning several decades of resistance and activism, the collection functions as a series of time capsules. These suspended moments deliberately position the artist not as detached photojournalists, but as participant-observers—marching alongside a broad and diverse coalition of revolutionaries united by the inalienable right of all people to be truly free.
Mike Arrison is an activist and photographer born and raised in Philadelphia. He descends from Irish and Puerto Rican heritage with a family lineage rooted in the City dating back to the 17th Century. His interest in art developed from a young age, largely as a means of self-care from debilitating episodes of Tourette’s Syndrome. His passion for art deepened while he attended Roman Catholic High School for Boys, where he studied art with the late Joe Deissroth and took after-school fine arts classes with Al Gury at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. After graduating from Roman in 2008, Arrison enrolled in the Photography program at Drexel University, mentored by Andrea Modica, Mike Froio, and Jason Varney. The first protest he photographed was the Occupy movement in 2011. Throughout his career Arrison has been dedicated to showcasing the beauty found in truth, especially when that truth is told to power.
Born in 1934 into a working-class Jewish family, Harvey Finkle grew up in Oxford Circle, known as the northeastern edge of Philadelphia at that time. Shortly after matriculating to Temple University, he was drafted into the army. When his military duty ended, he returned to complete his studies at Temple, and received a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Finkle worked at the Pennsylvania State Board of Assistance, exposing him to the systemic racism, poverty, and injustice that would shape his activism. His interest in photography developed after viewing a Harry Callahan exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1962. Concurrently, his interest in social change and organizing grew, leading him and a group of social workers to form the People’s Fund, which later became the Bread and Roses Community Fund. Over time, Finkle established lasting relationships with various social justice organizations, including Disabled in Action, Project HOME, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against The Death Penalty. In the 1980s, he began documenting the experiences of Philadelphia’s newly arriving immigrant communities. Following the birth of his two children, who were born deaf, he became an activist for the deaf community, often photographing the fullness of their daily lives.
Photojournalist Joe Piette‘s life has been dedicated to progressive activism, which is vividly documented through nearly 35,000 photos of protests, demonstrations, and political gatherings. His photography serves as a visual tool against capitalism and imperialism for anti-racist, anti-war, pro-labor, environmental, and social justice causes—including the Free Palestine movement, which he has supported since the 1970s. Born in Canada to Quebecois parents, Piette moved to the United States as a child. He was reluctantly drafted into the Vietnam War, completing his military service for a cause he considered unjust. After returning from his tour of duty, he established a long-term career as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service, retiring after 30 years. Beyond his photojournalism, Piette has actively collaborated with numerous local activist groups, such as Mobilization4Mumia and the Workers World Party.
Born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, Christopher R. Rogers has more than a decade of experience working for justice-oriented arts, advancing Black culture, and building community ties in the Greater Philadelphia area. In addition to his role as faculty at Haverford College, he currently coordinates Friends of The Tanner House, incubating a revitalized Henry Ossawa Tanner House at the intersection of Black heritage preservation and community-based cultural organizing. He is also a facilitator with The W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction. He has been a fervent supporter of aspiring movement leaders who serve communities most impacted by poverty, policing, and mass incarceration. Rogers recently released a collaborative book, My City Need Something: Portraits and Prose for Black Existence, with documentary photographer Karim Brown. The publication is an extension of the themes present in How We Stay Free.
Image by Marcus Maddox
Sunny Singh is a filmmaker and computer scientist who worked on AI systems in the defense sector before abandoning the industry in 2017. He pivoted to run his childhood project hate5six, a YouTube channel focused on producing and archiving live music recordings. To date, he has filmed over 7,300 performances. Singh deploys culture jamming to strategically leverage his channel’s massive algorithmic reach. Instead of offering entertainment and escapism, he subverts the platform to amplify marginalized voices and images from the front lines of various movements. Creating digital bridges between communities is reflected in his work and the installation he created for the exhibition titled Threads of Resistance. He regularly produces short films in solidarity with different indigenous liberation groups. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone and The New Yorker, and his project with Rage Against the Machine was recognized by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.