The Pyramid Club, a legendary North Philadelphia social hub, once connected Black Philadelphia to cultural and social movements nationwide. Guests included Martin Luther King Jr. and Josephine Baker. Now, a new art exhibit asks what it would’ve meant had the space remained open today.

In this episode, exhibit co-curators Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta and Shawn Theodore are guides to the history, its doors open from 1937 to 1963. Through paintings, photographs and new works of Afrofuturist art, they connect past and present, revealing how Black creativity enabled perseverance through racist American policies and defined the neighborhood today.

Kenyatta asks guests to consider: “What happens when a place like the Pyramid Club closes and what would’ve happened if it hadn’t? That’s not just about nostalgia, but an invitation for community world building.”

“We are doing things in its absence, and that’s the most astounding part of its legacy — that it’s still living around us, not in us, but around us,” says Theodore. “It’s really shaped the way that we’ve approached Black museum-making, Black curation and Black creativity in this city.”

This episode was recorded at Temple Contemporary Gallery, inside the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, as part of Next City’s Vanguard Conference. The exhibition, “Pyramid Club: 1937–2035,” remains on view through Dec. 19.

Listen to the episode below or subscribe to the Next City podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods.

This post was originally published on Next City.