The Lair: Come on, Funk it Up!

Part of Collective Futures Programming

Location: Icebox Project Space,1400 N American St, Philadelphia, PA 19122 ‍

October 8 - November 12, 2026

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8‍ ‍

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The Lair is a sensory revival of Grendel’s Lair, a legendary theatre and music venue created by Phil Roy that became one of Philadelphia’s premier cultural hubs on South Street from 1972 to 1987. Curated by Peep Projects director Libby Rosa, the exhibition draws from both the venue’s cultural history and Rosa’s personal connection to it. Rosa’s uncle, Larry Goldfarb, alongside his partner Gary Delfiner, organized concerts and disco dance parties at the club. The venue was also where Goldfarb met Rosa’s aunt, Mary Ellen, his wife of 47 years. He asked her to dance, and the rest became family history.

Grendel’s Lair was a space in constant motion, transforming from day to night into a variety of entertainment worlds. It operated as a cabaret theater, improvisational jazz venue featuring legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, and Roy Ayers, and a stage for rock and punk acts including The Hooters, the Dead Boys, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and The Police. It also hosted the cosmic Afrofuturism of Sun Ra and the queer joy of musicals such as Let My People Come. The venue brought together disparate communities, genres, and forms of expression under one roof.

The Lair exhibition reimagines this history through a simplified architectural facade that suggests both interior and exterior space. Within it, Rosa invited a group of close artist friends to create work inspired by the club’s many identities and histories. The exhibition includes a Scopitone jukebox-inspired video installation, a reimagined Grendel’s Lair sign, Sun Ra-inspired architectural molding, and other works that transform fragments of the past into a new, collectively imagined environment.

Presented as part of the citywide Collective Futures project at the Icebox, The Lair is both a tribute and an act of reimagining. Echoing Larry Goldfarb’s invitation to “Come on, Funk it Up,” it celebrates the spaces that bring people together to create, connect, and express themselves freely. In a different time, the exhibition asks how we can keep that spirit of gathering, creativity, and shared humanity alive.

Participating Artists:

Alex Jackson
Katy Rosenthal Jackson
Mark Thomas Gibson
Kati Gegenheimer
Emily Wells
Samantha Nye
Cobi Moules
Jacob Todd Broussard

Image credits: Temple University Libraries, Urban Archive