InLiquid Gallery

The Voice of the People is a juried open-call exhibition featuring 12  InLiquid Member Artists. This exhibition invited current InLiquid artist members to submit works that explore American Politics. Each artist brings a unique artistic perspective on the political choices we make, the systems we exist within, and portrayed security within our political environment. 

Florence Weisz and Deanna Mclaughlin bring back pieces that were shown in InLiquid’s 2020 exhibition, Satirical Candidacy. Florence reworked her interactive collaged portraits of Joe Biden and Donald Trump to now feature Kamala Harris alongside Donald Trump. Deanna’s interactive Operation USA invites audience members to pull indicators from a large-scale replication of the classic board game Operation. Each piece is a symbol of a national crisis that persisted through our history, and is still relevant today. Both artists show the similarities between the political choices we made 4 years ago, and the ones we are faced with this year. 

As audience members are interacting with Florence’s collage portraits, they’re facing a gallery wall in which Geoffrey Stein’s large scale collages of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are sitting on either side of E. Sherman Haymans L’Amer-EEK! — an American flag pieced together with quotes by political figure heads that seemingly disintegrates at the ends. Geoffrey’s portraits are made of clippings from pivotal speeches, court documents, and images that defined each figurehead's career. Each artwork shows that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, each small piece alone is easy to look over but standing together creates a clear picture. 

Peter Sparber’s American Elegy series looms over audience members as they sit faced with portraits of our current presidential candidates. His five large-scale drawings display the myths of the American Political archetypes; Liberty, Property, Authority, Equality, and Insurrection. Seemingly hopeless, heartbroken, and hypocritical. 

When facing Peter’s dominating imagery, Carol Taylor-Kearney’s flag series offers a glimpse of hope. Her large, colorful pieces are amalgamations of the American Flag and Tibetan Prayer flags. By overlaying the naturally symbolic colors of Tibetan flags and imagery of joy over the worn American flag, she is reimagining them as vessels of an optimistic future in which children are agents of nature, compassion, and peace. 

As audience members make their way to the last section in the gallery, they are met with the byproducts of existing within the current American Political landscape. Imagery from protests, propaganda-style posters, and direct responses to the seemingly never-ending fight for reproductive rights. Each artist in this section is using their voice and artistic expression to cope with the hardships that we endure when faced with moments of oppression, opposition, and nation-wide hardships. 

‍Kathleen Greco creates portraits in which a frayed American flag is seemingly unraveling around a female figure, hinting at the stronghold that the American government has over reproductive freedom. Printmaker and Activist, Rhodna Babb, creates reimagined propaganda-style posters that encourage viewers to think about the impact they have on their own future. Sandra Benhaim and Gary Grissom show composite images of protests and movements, a hopeful display of country-wide mobilization at times of distress. Dolores Poacelli’s piece is a direct reference to voices collecting under one message - the imagery indicative of viewing swaths of protest signs when looking over a crowd. Carole Loeffler shows us the voices of the unheard, with embroidered messages from women imagined.

About the Artists

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Carol Taylor-Kearney (She/Her)

Carol Taylor-Kearney is a life-long resident of southern New Jersey. She creates in series, painting on canvas as well as on unique objects such as windows, doors, flags, blankets, and carved-wood panels. These pieces are then put together to form a themed environment.

A graduate of Rowan University (BA in Art Education) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (MFA), she worked as the Coordinator of Graduate Studies at PAFA, taught Studio Art at Rowan University, was the curator at StrataSphere, an exhibition space in Philadelphia, and organized exhibitions at Cerulean Arts, Iona College, Art Fair 14C, and Gloucester County College. Currently. she is the artistic director and part owner of Powell Lane Arts (www.PowellLaneArts.com ), a gallery in Collingswood, NJ.

Taylor-Kearney has been exhibited nationally and her art is part of both public and private collections. Art Fairs she has participated in are the Parallax Art Fair, the Clio Art Fair, and Art Fair 14C. Support includes grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Artist Fellowship, Inc., and artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Peters Valley Craft Center, and the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland. She is represented by Atlantic Gallery, an artist co-op in Chelsea, NYC and Cerulean Arts Collective in Philadelphia. She had written an art blog, presents the #OneMinuteCrit and Powell Lane Arts/Artists’ Talks on Instagram, and YouTube.

Statement: 

Flags are vessels of ideology. The American flag is a symbol of pride, protection, and identity for those who live under it. Tibetan Prayer flags are emblematic representing one of the five Elements of Nature with their colors: blue is sky and space, white is air, red is fire, green is water, yellow is earth. Their purpose is to spread wishes of peace, compassion, strength, wisdom, and health to the surrounding area as they disintegrate. I combine American flags and Tibetan Prayer flags to communicate an idea.

The idea is to restore the intent of the flag as a messenger rather than an object representing a singular will. I employ worn flags because they demonstrate their participation in the world. I paint the American flag with a color of the Prayer flag then add scenes of children interacting, suggesting the symbolism of the Prayer flag color and the wish to be sent out to the world. On smaller American flags, I feature children’s hands working in actions related to the Prayer flag color on them. These are mounted to painted canvas. Boxes, made from broken windows, contain American flag decals cut into cookie-shapes and arranged between glass panes. In all, I am joining children to Nature and hopes for the future. Ultimately, aren't children our projection into the future?

My plan is that these works, hybrids of the American flag and Prayer flags, communicate to each other and create an encompassing experience of spreading positive voices into the world.

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Carole Loeffler  (She/Her) 

Carole Loeffler is an artist, mother, and educator based in Philadelphia. She imbues vintage textiles with the spirit of nameless foremothers to create a variety of narratives that reflect her lived experience. She holds a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Carole has exhibited her work in over 100 group and solo exhibitions across the US.

Statement: 

My work utilizes found objects and textiles often donated by from women across the US and found in the “buy by the pound” goodwill bins and other charity shops. I am interested in vintage photos, suitcases, quilts, greeting cards, pillowcases, clothing and ephemera from everyday life. Of particular excitement and interest to me is discovering evidence from the previous owner…handwriting on the back of a photograph or greeting card, stitches in a quilt, or on a handmade garment. I feel a strong connection to an anonymous person from an unknown time and place. The power of mark-making and stitches bind us together in humanity and suggest imagined narratives and a renewed purpose. Our stories matter. Our lives are intertwined in the objects we use and own. I am interested in excavating, amplifying, and embellishing the stories of women before me – to bear witness and learn from the matriarchs of the past. How can these objects and the work I create help light a path forward?

Through my hands, domestic textiles become imbued with the spirit of my imagined foremothers – emblazoned with positive affirmations – as if the spirit of the maker comes to life and offers solace and support. I connect with the women contained in vintage photographs and contemplate how best to share their stories. Greeting cards offer examples of long-ago friendships and connections and they become pattern, color, and material for collages. Suitcases display stickers of the places they’ve been and serve as functional storage, installation props, and literal reminders of the baggage we carry. I am the caretaker of these thrifted and found objects and the messenger from which their stories flow.  We are stronger together and I aim to find ways to break down hierarchy and reimagine a world of support and connection. 

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Deanna Mclaughlin (She/Her) 

Deanna McLaughlin’s artwork is not bound to one type of material or technique. She derives pleasure through the design challenge. Her sculptural work has been developed from found objects, metal, epoxy resin, fabric, wood, and objects that inspire new design ideas. Mostly she loves to consider how to connect irony in a quirky, fun, and playful way. Problem-solving how to manipulate a single object in multiple ways underscores my love of design.

Deanna has won numerous awards with her artwork and has been granted residency and exhibition opportunities  Nationally, and Internationally. Her work is in permanent collections in Museums, Universities, and private collections. She has exhibited at The Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal A, CraftNow, Craftforms International exhibit, Design Philadelphia, and "Spring Break" in New York City, among others.   An insatiable thirst to learn new skills while working with a variety of media sustains her never-ending inspiration to create.  Experiencing people from other places and cultures has greatly influenced her approach to looking at life with an ever-fresh perspective.  Academic achievements include M.A./M.A.T., University of The Arts.  B.S. Art Therapy, Cognate: Psychology, Bowling Green State University. She is also an ERYT500 yoga educator &qi gong teacher.

Statement: 

While I do not limit myself to working with one type of media,  I fully embrace the qualities each material challenge brings. Working with many kinds of materials to create the desired outcome is invigorating. I am inspired by the insatiable desire to experiment, explore, and continually learn new processes while experimenting with 2-D or 3-D design. These political works offer a reflection of the world around us.  Historically artist have integrated politics through their artwork through covert and overt symbolism. In these works, the desire to educate is expressed in "Operation USA". Each piece in the game has an accompanying card educating individuals about the history of current events. Some reach back to the 1600's. History repeats.  Nothing is new.  I honor that I am of the single generation of women who were the only generation to have fluid reproductive rights. "The Right To Bear Arms "reflects the absurdity that teachers have "the right" - and burden to carry firearms in the classroom in many States now. . As critical thinking skills are eliminated in school curriculums and select Universities teaching only the Arts close across the nation, consider the many interpretations of "bearing arms".

Dolores Poacelli (She/Her) 

Among many awards, in 2024 and in 2011, I was the recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting, and in 2000 awarded the Samuel Fleisher Challenge Exhibit in Philadelphia. My work has been exhibited widely and is part of many public and private collections such as

• SAP Software in Germany

• Bank of American in Delaware

• Cooper Anderson Hospital in Camden NJ

• New York Presbyterian Children's Hospital in NY • Park Towne Place in   Philadelphia

• Liberty Properties in Malvern PA

• Murano Condominiums in Philadelphia

• Psychology Dept. of Princeton University in NJ • and the State of New Jersey

I have studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial, and have worked for many years as a graphic designer. I have been teaching art for 14 years. 

Statement: 

As we worm our way past the pandemic, these PANDEMIC DIARIES collages remain relevant. They are personal feelings about universal and political events steeped in satire. Each of the sayings is created from cutout letters glued to 14"x11" heavy paper. This series of 102 pieces evolved into the CHATTER series (still using cutout letters this time on wood panels) expressing the constant drone of "news" producing a wordless din.

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E. Sherman Hayman (She/Her)

E. (Mur) Sherman Hayman is a Philadelphia-based mixed media artist who specializes in the technique of sgraffito: multi-layering of wax/oil crayons and iridescent oil pastels, then using various tools to scratch through, thus creating texture, pattern, and some  pretty innovative colors.  She uses black museum board as a base, and often incorporates manipulated balsa wood for added dimension.

Hayman was born in Newport News, VA, attended Hollins College (now Hollins University), and studied art in Paris, where she lived for two years. She then moved to Philadelphia to attend The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Major exhibitions over the past years include those at Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia; Goggleworks, Reading, PA: Lake Eustis Museum of Art, Florida; Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia; James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia; Franz Bader Gallery, Washington D.C; and Arlington Arts Center, Virginia. Selected group shows and invitationals include “Nursery Rhymes for Questionable Times” at InLiquid-Crane Arts, Philadelphia; “Deconstructing Bowie” and “Philadelphia Freedom”, The National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia; “One Nation”, The Heller Museum, NYC; Art in City Hall, Philadelphia), Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia; and The Philadelphia Foundation (with the Philadelphia Art Alliance).

Statement:

For the past 30 years my studio practice has focused mainly on social issues important to me- gun violence, politics, death customs - but has also covered certain subjects, based on a variety of academic research, that might be described under the category “Cabinet of Curiosities”.

Most all of my series have embraced TEXT as IMAGE. As a lapsed English major, I not only incorporate text and illuminate words, but also commemorate odd adages and quotations.

My work is known for its unique and quirky approach, with an encyclopedic mindset, and is always about MESSAGING. Working with a bright, textured palette, combined with sometimes controversial subject matter, there is a purposeful seductive/repellent aspect at play.

My sgraffito technique, involving multi-layers of media scratched through with various tools, invites close-up inspection.

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Florence Weisz (She/Her) 

Florence Weisz is a collage artist who explores diverse visual ideas and seeks distinctive materials and innovative ways to express herself. She earned a degree in Fine Art from Douglass College, Rutgers University, has studied, lived and created art in New York, Paris, and Jerusalem. Since moving to Pennsylvania in 2018, Florence has exhibited her art with InLiquid (40 Year Retrospective), DaVinci Art Alliance, ARTsisters, MCGOPA, Tri-State Artists Equity and CFEVA. In 2023 she created a site-specific installation, "Stripes Escape" for The Delaware Contemporary Museum. Her artworks are in private, corporate and public collections including The New Jersey State Museum, Citibank, IBM and the Port Authority of NY and NJ. She is a recipient of a NJ State Council Fine Arts Fellowship Award. She has been gridding and rearranging political faces since the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. She has published four catalog booklets about her “Presidential Manipulations” series which includes Reaganart, Bushart (Senior), Clintonart, Bushart (Junior), Obamart, and finally Trumpart.

Statement: 

As we examine the candidates during the 2024 presidential campaign, I offer an artwork which lets us go beyond the barrage of media analyses and give our personal input. We are invited to participate in the electoral process by engaging both candidates in a kind of visual debate...an interaction using the politicians’ own features.

The installation consists of 5 parts – Three framed collages: a photo of the Democratic candidate with blue background on the left, and a photo of the Republican candidate with red background on the right. The center collage displays 3 Harris and 3 Trump empty face frames with Velcro loops centered on each blank square of the grid where their features belong. Two compartmentalized trays provide square Velcro backed printouts of their nine individual facial features.

Gallery visitors are encouraged to use these “face-parts” to express their attitudes toward the politicians: love ‘em or hate ‘em or something in between. Simple instructions invite us to manipulate, rotate and combine the features to create funny, sad, creepy faces in endless permutations.

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Gary Grissom (He/Him)

I studied art and the history of art at Community College of Philadelphia. Philadelphia College of Art and the University of Pennsylvania. During the 1970s I was a founding member of the Bricolage art collective and Wilma Theater writing, directing and designing performances. I was fortunate to receive a 1990 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship.

I’ve exhibited painting and photography at galleries, art centers, universities and museums including: Abington Art Center, Art Association of Harrisburg, Art in City Hall (Philadelphia), Laurie W. and Irvin J. Borowsky Gallery at the YMHA, Cerulean Arts, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Community College of Philadelphia, Convergence Gallery, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Deming Center for the Arts (Deming, NM), Everhart Museum, InLiquid Gallery, Johnstown Art Museum, National Liberty Museum, Painted Bride Art Center, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, The Philadelphia Sketch Club, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Tripoli Gallery, University of the Arts, The University of Pittsburgh, Wayne Art Center, Westminister College & Woodmere Art Museum.

Statement: 

Currently my painting, drawing and photography is a response to what I see. There are biographical references, the inclusion of family members as subjects, depictions of the found and invented environments. I have a maximalist passion for the inclusion of patterning, surface detail and color variation.

I remember discovering and liking Faith Ringgold’s quote, “painting the world as it really is.” To me I’d describe my art as “rendering the world as I see it”, hopefully delivering a rewarding visual statement based on lived experiences.

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Geoffrey Stein

Geoffrey Stein is a recovering lawyer, who has been painting full-time since 2000.  He received a Certificate in Painting from the New York Studio School in 2004 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2007.  Stein has exhibited his artwork in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in London, Dublin, Paris, and Reykjavik.  He was the Artist-in-Residence at the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, NY  from 2022-23.  Stein lives and paints in New York City and Westport, CT. 

Statement: 

I draw, paint, and collage to discover the things for which I do not have words.  I savor the slips of the hand that express my unconscious feelings about the subject. My work explores the tension between what needs to be shown and what does not, the visible and the invisible.

In my studio practice I primarily use collage as a formal element, applying it to add tone or erase previous marks. Collage allows me to layer multiple images over the scaffolding of a drawing. The inherent randomness of collage brings secondary meanings from text or images, which becomes integral to the finished work. 

I use materials from the subjectís world to create their likeness. This is a modern take on the Renaissance tradition of including iconography in portraiture to illustrate the subjectís  attributes, such as books to signify education or tools to symbolize the subjectís trade or craft.  Instead of using symbols, as a Renaissance  painter would, I collage these portraits using  materials and text from the subjectís environment or the popular press.
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Kathleen Greco (She/Her) 

Kathleen Greco is a socio-political feminist artist. Her interdisciplinary studio practice comprises works on paper, photography, and sculpture. Greco received her MFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She pairs relationships of materials and techniques to conceptual themes in her artwork.

Her work has been featured in Artillery, Ginger, Hyperallergic, and the Washington Post. She has lectured at universities and colleges including, Lafayette College and the Royal College of Art London, England. Greco was awarded a residency from the Civita Institute in the Etruscan hilltop town of Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.

Greco's artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Museum of Art and Design New York, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., Hayward Gallery, England UK, Woodmere Art Museum, Pennsylvania, The Delaware Contemporary, Delaware, the Elisabet Ney Museum, Texas, the Mainline Art Center Gallery, Pennsylvania, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany, and (re)FOCUS City Hall Philadelphia. Her sculpture was included in the collaborative Coral Reef Pod World's installation in the Central Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019, Venice, Italy.

Statement: 

As a socio-political artist, my art is informed by issues that have impacted human history, past and present. I often use the female body as subject and object in my work examining the inside and outside space with the materiality formed between the surfaces, unsettling tension, and resilience. Choreographing relationships and materials I investigate the perception of the body with the intersection of social, feminist, and political themes.

American Flag series. Photographs of salvaged old worn American flags (circa 2016-2000) that were supposed to be burned. I photographed my frayed flag collection on a planked wood background, referencing the political party platform 'planks' from the women's suffragette movement to the present. Toes clench a torn shredded flag grasping for rights. Fabric strips of stars and stripes confine and bind ankles immobilizing and constricting. Reframing the flag, I align social struggles with unraveling human rights during this important timeline in our living history.
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Pete Sparber (He/Him)

Pete Sparber originally earned his MFA from Cornell, but then went on to a business career.  He continued to paint, draw and show occasionally over the years.  After living and working in China andJapan, he and his wife returned to the United States in 2020 and settled in Philadelphia.  In 2022 he left the corporate world and has since focused on writing about and making art.  He runs a small Instagram-based blog (www.instagram.com/the.current.blog) promoting the visual arts in Philadelphia and writes show reviews and conducts gallerist interviews for The Art Blog (www.theartblog.org). 

Statement: 

Series Title -- American Elegy.

America represents many things to the world ... from arrogant power and brutality to liberation, equality and freedom.  But inside, we have always been fraught with ideals half realized, heartbreak and hypocrisy.  The five pieces, taken together, are an elegy to the American political project during its moment of existential crisis and struggle.  Each drawing evokes a question about one of our myths and archetypes: liberty, property, authority, equality and insurrection.

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Rhonda Babb (She/Her) 

Rhonda Babb is a screen printer, graphic artist, and photographer. As a graphic designer, she focuses on brand identity and marketing communications for small businesses and non-profits.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rhonda received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, PA, where she majored in Fashion and Advertising Illustration. She returned to Moore for a Certification in Interior Decoration. Concern for the environment led Rhonda to earn a Master's Degree in Sustainable Design from Philadelphia University, now known as Thomas Jefferson University. She studied screen printing under Lisa Marie Hamilton and Tony Rosati at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in their Continuing Education Program. She is a member of a cooperative printmaking studio and artist collective, BYO Print.

Rhonda lives and works in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Statement: 

I spent my career in the professional arts working for clients as a brand marketer and graphic designer. Despite my relative success as a commercial artist, something was missing. I am here to do something else and have a more profound personal mission.

Though I didn't know it then, in 2005, I took the first steps on a journey that would change my life.

Somewhere between Hurricane Katrina and Al Gore, it became clear that our world was in trouble. In the mid-2000s, climate change was an imminent threat that we were only starting to recognize. A disquiet and an urge to use my skills for something more positive drove me to learn as much as possible about sustainability and living a life of meaning. I poured myself into my studies - enough to earn a Master's in Sustainable Design. Yet, it still felt like I needed more purpose. Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic. This pause gave me time to reflect and allow the artist within to emerge.

At last, I have regained my artistic voice through the joy of being a printmaker. Everything has led me here.

Printmaking is messy and precise. I could easily print my designs digitally, but I would lose the hands-on quality I crave. When my hands are inky, I feel alive and at my happiest. For inspiration, I draw on influences such as Corita Kent, Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey, Anthony Burrill, and Keith Haring. Printing allows me to experiment and learn. It is all at once scary, thrilling, and liberating.

I am deeply troubled by the inaction and political divides our world is experiencing. I feel a certain amount of powerlessness and know I am not alone. My art gives me back some sense of power and agency. I aspire to create work that engages viewers and asks them to see things differently. I want people to recognize that they have the capacity for change. It would be successful if my art could influence even one person to be a force for hope and positivity in the world.

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Sandra Benhaim (She/Her) 

Sandra Benhaim, a native Philadelphian, is a painter working in oil, mixed media, and collages on canvas, wood panels, and paper. After working representationally for years, she now creates mainly abstract images, often expressing these in unabashed, exuberant color. She has exhibited nationally from Washington state to New York to Florida, and has had 11 solo exhibitions.

In addition, she has participated in numerous juried group shows, earning awards along the way.

Sandra’s paintings are in public collections such as PNC Headquarters Tower in Pittsburgh, PA; Mondrian Investments, Philadelphia, PA office; Servier Pharmaceutical Labs, Boston, MA, among others.

Philadelphia’s Del Frisco’s Grille commissioned a 96”H x 78”W painting on stretched canvas, which was installed in November 2018.

Statement: 

I’m a visual artist who is fascinated with color, inviting viewers, via my paintings, to places they haven’t been.

My paintings and collages are an expression of my passion for nature: I’m striving to use an abstract visual language to express, in unabashed and exuberant color, my translation of nature. Through intuitive and improvisational activity and mark-making on various layers of myriad surfaces and supports, I will often incorporate collage elements into my artwork along with expressively painted areas.

My abstract paintings, collages, and works on paper take inspiration from landscape and my surroundings, from my hometown Philadelphia area to farther places like Arizona and New Mexico. These images express in exciting and spirited color my enthusiasm for, and translation of, the natural world.

My collage, Imagining Bella at the Women's March, imagines the late American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement, Bella Abzug, alongside, and in a collage of, images from Philadelphia Women's marches.

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