Philly Street Artist YOMI Underscores the Ineffectiveness of U.S. Gun Policy with New “Dear America” Stencil Series

June 22, 2019

1 minute

Thank you, YOMI… Really appreciate the directness and urgency in this new stencil series.

The two new Dear America stencil installations documented in this post by Philly-based street artist YOMI are located at Jefferson street and Frankford avenue in Fishtown and on Hope street between Hancock street and Girard avenue in Northern Liberties. They both read: “Dear America, gun violence in our country is so frequent that people are becoming repeat customers.”

A sad, disheartening truth.

See pervious work from YOMI around Philly here, including this 2018 installation about school shootings.

3 responses to “Philly Street Artist YOMI Underscores the Ineffectiveness of U.S. Gun Policy with New “Dear America” Stencil Series”

Alan Stanton

June 22, 2019 at 3:25 am

I’m from London (UK). So I speak a different variety of English. Conrad, could you please tell me what Yomi means by:
“Dear America, gun violence in our country is so frequent that people are becoming repeat customers.”

Reply
1. Conrad
  
  June 22, 2019 at 9:11 am
  
  I can’t speak for the artist, but I see it as a comment on the proliferation of guns in the U.S. along with relatively lax, uneven gun control throughout the country. “Repeat customers” reads to me like there’s so much gun violence here that many people are now experiencing that violence multiple times in a lifetime.
  
  Reply
  1. Alan Stanton
    
    June 23, 2019 at 5:29 am
    
    Thanks, Conrad, for taking the time to reply with your take on Yomi’s line.
    Your reading makes complete sense. So I asked myself why I’d been puzzled.
    To me a “repeat customer” suggests a happy satisfied buyer and user.
    A deliberately false note to make the viewer stop and think?
    
    Then I followed your link to this page.
    
    Powerful New Installation by Street Artist Outside Philly High School: ‘Lives Over Guns’