Megawords Made Flesh

How — and why — a free arts magazine will become a storefront in Chinatown.

by A.D. Amorosi

Jessica Kourkounis GET REAL: Founders Daniel Murphy (left) and Anthony Smyrski will bring Megawords' artsy DIY aesthetic into the physical world for one month only. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

When Megawords announced it was hosting a monthlong storefront project on Cherry Street, a silly notion came to mind.

I got the idea that publishers Anthony Smyrski and Daniel Murphy's avant-garde, graphic-heavy, free newspaper was having some sort of sale — not just of haunting images by photo staffers Zoe Strauss, Chris Regiani and Rebekah Maysles, or even its smarmily smart texts courtesy Mattathias Schwartz.

My oddball thought was that Megawords — in some Being John Malkovich-ian twist — was, after eight provocative issues and three years, selling off its mind-set. Its inner thought process, its ideals, all for sale in bits and pieces.

I was nearly right.

For 30 days, Megawords' frequent contributors and like-minded friends will take over a burnt-orange storefront in Chinatown to allow the mag's playful personality to "come to life," according to co-founder Smyrski. "What we're doing is providing a space for these people to do what they wish," he says. The schedule includes workshops, screenings, lectures, performance art and musical exhibitions. "Like the magazine, we think that these people are indicative of what is going on in the world."

What Megawords does in print comes directly from Smyrski's conversations with Murphy, their fellow artists and their shared experiences. "Some issues are more directly from our lives and the lives of its contributors; others are more imaginative and offer chances to exercise sides of our alter egos that we may not flex as much as we'd like in our personal and professional lives," says Smyrski. So why put on events in a makeshift shop when you've got a handy oversized publication to do that for you? "We haven't yet figured out a way to have a party inside the magazine itself, so we'll have one at a storefront," says Smyrski.

Participants like Kensington Welfare Rights Union will facilitate discussions about how artists can work with community programs and nonprofit organizations focused on social and economic change. Wesley Eisold and Max Morton of Heartworm Press will put on lovely music and light shows. William Pym — whose The Mutation is a zine about zines and the adolescent male psyche — will do a lecture and slide show before his DJ buds take over.

Buffalo Stance, Chris Powell and Marshall Allen will play music. There'll be potato chip tastings, displays of Smiths memorabila and sales of Di Martini messenger bags and Campagnolo sports gear.

Megawords made it a priority to choose a location accessible to many kinds of people in Center City, a place where foot traffic was heavy. Their storefront is close to art galleries, Chinatown's bus station, Reading Terminal Market and the El.

"All events and participants will leave traces behind, and change and interact with each other," says Smyrski. Though you can understand what residual effects might come from Megawords' storefront presentation with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, one can only guess — save for a smart manicure — what'll be gleaned from singer Amanda Blank and pal Rose Luardo's "Nail Me" performance piece.

And what makes Smyrski, 28, and Murphy, 31, think the monthlong storefront series will go beyond this city's usual arts crowd and into the community at large?

Probably because, like Megawords' photo spreads and essays — about extended families in Germantown or the travails of travel throughout the Middle East — Smyrski and Murphy have strived long and hard to reach beyond Philly's preached-to-the-arts choir. Megawords can be viewed as a steadied journalistic enterprise in a niftily ornate frame or a delicious art curio crafted with a documentarian's eye.

As Smyrski Creative, the two have designed tony projects as wide-ranging as local stained-glass artisan Judith Schaechter's Extra Virgin book and slick ad campaign stuff for the W hotel chain. However, they say there is no clash between their cultural and commercial enterprises.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

"What Smyrski Creative offer its clients is true sensitivity to the nature of the material we're working with, be it an artists monograph or an annual report," says Smyrski. It's that same sensitivity that allows those two to publish a semi-regular free experimental paper that inspires and provokes thought and do a weekly Sunday radio show on gtownradio.com that does likewise.

Smyrski likes to think that everything the duo does goes beyond Philly's arts crowd and into the community at large. "It's quite a challenge," notes Smyrski. "But the most insightful and spot-on feedback we've received about Megawords is often from people who have no connection to the art world whatsoever." Smyrski brings up old friends who've never left the Germantown neighborhood he grew up in, and the mother of one of his best friends who's so in love with Megawords she insists on paying for a subscription. "I make sure she gets a copy for free each issue," says Smyrksi.

"I'm not going to pretend we have mass appeal. We present our work and observations in a straightforward manner, and we think this event'll help us be approachable. We've taken a lot of influence from magazines such as Benetton's Colors and it's been in our minds since day one that we've wanted to make something that is accessible to anyone."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Megawords storefront project and exhibition, Sept. 1-30, Tue.-Sat., noon-9 p.m. (or by appointment); opening event Fri., Sept. 5, 6 p.m.; 1125 N. Cherry St., 215-300-7391, megawordsmagazine.com.