So what exactly is that a photo of? We're not really so sure (a Van Eyck reference?) but we can think we like it. In any event, it was certainly interesting enough to warrant us clicking on it when it popped into Contribute this morning. And now that we've clicked we're still a little confuzzed. It seems to be related to some sort of "Dueling Re-Enactments" event being put on by the Madagascar Institute, whose motto is "Fear is Never Boring." From their description:
On this Saturday, July 23rd at 3pm the Madagascar Institute will premiere Dueling Re-Enactments, presenting the wide and varied, and often complicated history of Washington Square Park in easy to follow, bite-sized nuggets. A cast of two dozen, marginally trained re-enactors, outfitted in period attire that is close enough to accurate, will travel throughout the park making history come alive. The broad range of Washington Square Park's history will be covered, including the pirate execution ground at the Hanging Tree, the Surrealist declaration of an independent republic in 1917, filthy,lazy 1950s Beatniks reciting poetry, the 1906 assassination of Stanford White, the marauding Dead Rabbit gang of the Gilded Age, and high school students from New Jersey drinking beer and getting sold fake pot in the summer of 1990.
Over the course of the event the re-enactors will move closer and closer together, until they are infringing on one another's space and confusing the crowd as to what, if any, is the true history of the park. Luckily, history is written by the victors, so the issue will be settled by a maelstrom of violence- skateboarder against Victorian gentry, Beatnik against bridge and tunnel teen, Surrealist against Dead Rabbit. hangman against pirate, a flurry of baguettes, skateboards, light sabers and water balloons.
Triumphant, the true history of the park will emerge.
The event is free, and, while we acknowledge no distinction between history that actually happened and things we just felt like making up, educational. Bring the kids!
We hope the weather works out for them, sounds like a pretty fun time to us. The show is at 3 P.M. today, and if anybody goes, we'd love to hear about it. Kind of.
in the monster's eye by pixietart via Contribute.
