Between cold weather, mental illness, break ups, and just a general lack of inspiration, I haven’t been doing a lot of guerrilla art and I miss it. I haven’t had that many original ideas lately, but I decided that didn’t mean I couldn’t still do something… I could recreate a project! And what better to recreate than my first one ever? I can’t believe it was SIX YEARS ago, but that’s when I first put on a bright yellow T-shirt and handed out lemons to strangers coming out of a mall. Almost no one got it, but it made me so happy. It was also the beginning of my blog, documenting, etc. so there’s not too much to see from that project, and I’ve always wished there was.

I figured if I was going to recreate it, I was going to do it bigger and better. So I asked Maura, April, and Cristen to please join me and took the stunt a step further by having a table set up where people could actually turn their lemon into lemonade! We had lemon squeezers and all the ingredients, as well as some pre-made lemonade in case people just wanted to exchange their lemon for a glass of lemonade. It was so much fun!

We were all wearing matching yellow T-shirts, hanging out in the Square in Fells Point. April was amazing at going up to strangers and getting down on one knee, presenting them with a lemon as she said, “I am LIFE! And I give you lemons!” People seemed to understand a little better when we would motion to the table and they at least developed curiosity that led them to wander up. Some people just wanted to take the lemon home with them, but a ton of people actually made their own glass of lemonade!

At one point, a woman walked near our table and April tried to give her a lemon and she got really aggressive and kept asking what our deal was, what the catch was, what this was for. Cristen and I explained that it was just free, for fun, etc. and she finally believed us. Apparently she was tipsy and saw the fact that our shirts said “LIFE” and assumed we were promoting the pro-life agenda and was ready to “fight us”. Politically, I may be pro-choice, but I thought that was really aggressive behavior. I don’t really understand why people can’t just let everyone else live their lives. Same with guerrilla art like this! If you don’t want lemonade, just keep walking. There’s no reason to get into a debate about how we spend our “free time”.

It was a great time, and I couldn’t have asked for better babes to do it with. Stay tuned for more guerrilla art! And if you have any suggestions for things you’d like to see me try/recreate, let me know! I’m all ears.

I also caught some video footage for you to check out to Chumped’s “Something About Lemons”. And there’s some extra photos for you to scroll through below as well!

Don’t let them shame you, dear
For trying to make lemonade
From shit they deal you every day
And you need some change this year
Go make decisions for yourself
Instead of everybody else

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Main Photography: Maura Housley