The BroadsheetDAILY – 6/10/22 – River to River Festival Offers Free Dance, Music, Theater and Open-Door Museums

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Between the Waters

River to River Festival Offers Free Dance, Music, Theater, and Open-Door Museums

Artist Gregory Corbino, who will kick off this year’s River to River Festival on Sunday in Teardrop Park, pictured with his piece, “Whale,” constructed (like all of his work) entirely from recycled material and trash.

The 21st annual River to River Festival, Lower Manhattan’s annual, free summer arts celebration, begins Sunday, June 12, and will continue through Sunday, June 26. The 15 days of live dance, music, theater and visual arts will present nine separate performances and events, at venues spread across the length and breadth of Lower Manhattan venues, to an audience of tens of thousands spectators.

“We are thrilled to bring artists’ vision and energy to different sites across Lower Manhattan for everyone to enjoy,” says Jess Van Nostrand, director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), which organizes the festival. “We look forward to seeing visitors of all ages celebrate creativity with us.”

The River to River Festival, which originated as a strategy for helping to revive the community after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, conceptualizes Lower Manhattan as a site for human connection. This year’s edition emphasizes the sense that gathering together is a means of healing, in the wake of the pandemic.

The 2022 River to River Festival opens with “Murmurations,” by Gregory Corbino, a queer artist who creates immersive installations, sculptures, and performances, using only recycled materials.

Mr. Corbino describes “Mumurations” as “a visual symphony, a puppet poem in public space, a performative conversation with New York Harbor.” Through puppetry, participants are invited to experience the wonder, fragility and history of New York’s waterways from multiple viewpoints—as puppeteer, as audience, as fish, as micro-plastic trash—to experience human impact on the earth through a non-human lens and inspire connection and stewardship through “murmuration,” the term used to describe the mysterious (and visually striking) phenomenon of very large groups of birds, fish or insects moving together, while forming non-random patterns and shapes. Materials for the performance are being sourced directly from New York City waterways.

“In this time of climate change and extinction, ‘Mumurations’ looks to the wonder hidden beneath the surface of the river as an invitation to take collective action, to listen, to radically love, and to murmurate, Mr. Corbin explains. “By activating public space with sound, movement and pageantry, what was once trash becomes living sculpture and offers a pathway into a universe of joy, justice and queer possibility.”

“Mumurations” is presented in partnership with the Battery Park City Authority, and will be held in Teardrop Park on Sunday, June 12.

For information about all of the events and performances featured in this year’s River to River Festival, please browse lmcc.net/river-to-river-festival/

Matthew Fenton

Wagnerian Vigilance

Public Comment Period for BPCA’s Plans to Build Flood Walls and Elevated Landscaping

Concludes today, Friday, June 10, 2022

For several years, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has been working on a plan to rebuild and elevate Wagner Park and the areas to its north and south, from First Place and the Museum of Jewish Heritage to Pier A Plaza. This is the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, currently in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) phase. Now through June 10, the public may submit comments on the design. To read more…

They Plan to Pave Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot

Highly Regarded Park on Lower East Side Awaits Demolition, as Protestors Push for New Plan

A coalition of Lower Manhattan residents is mobilizing to fight the planned destruction of a much-loved local park. In the Two Bridges community on the Lower East Side, Rutgers Park (bounded by South Street, Cherry Slip, and Rutgers Slip, in the shadow of the FDR Drive) is slated to be demolished and repurposed as a parking lot, for up to five years, while construction for a pair of controversial, super-tall high rises proceeds nearby.

‘Stop Abusing the Legal Process’

Newly Formed Union Stages Walkout at Private School in Seaport

Teachers and staff at a prestigious private school in Lower Manhattan, the Blue School, mounted a one-day strike on May 24, to protest what they see as the school’s “unlawful refusal to recognize and bargain with our union.”

Not for a Lack of Interest

Trinity Underwrites Benevo-Lending Initiative for Public-Service Groups

Trinity Church’s grant program has funded a Lower Manhattan public service organization that provides zero-interest loans and consulting services to other not-for-profits, as they continue to struggle with pandemic-related resource deficits.

This Week’s Calendar

Friday

10am

National Museum of the American Indian, Diker Pavilion

Join contemporary artist Keith BraveHeart (Oglala Lakota) as he discusses Oscar Howe and his influence on both his journey as an artist as well as his art, which draws strongly from his Lakota background. This talk is related to the exhibition Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe. Sketch pads and pencils will be available for sketch-along opportunities let by Keith. Also at 1pm. Free.

11am-5pm

Take a self guided tour of the tall ship Wavertree, and visit the 12 Fulton Street galleries to view the exhibitions “South Street and the Rise of New York” and “Millions: Migrants and Millionares aboard the Great Liners.” Free. Also Saturday and Sunday.

7PM

Wagner Park

Singer/songwriter Terre Roche leads this weekly singing program with the beautiful backdrop of the setting sun in NY Harbor. Open to all.

7PM

6 River Terrace

Based on a Hungarian folktale, Son of the White Mare (Marcell Jankovics,1981), is a swirling, color-mad epic journey to save the universe. Reminiscent of the hallucinatory palette of “Yellow Submarine” and the rich visual storytelling of “Fantasia,” critics have deemed it one of the greatest psychedelic animated movies ever made. Free popcorn will be served, and a discussion will follow the screenings. This film is rated PG 13.

Saturday

9am

Professional development workshop. This online workshop will be conducted in Mandarin Chinese and is free for all K-12 teachers. Hosted by China Institue.

3pm

Pier 17

Concert.

10am-12pm

South Cove

Paint in watercolor or use pastels and other drawing materials to capture the magical vistas of the Hudson River and the unique landscape of South Cove. An artist/educator will help participants of all levels with instruction and critique. Materials provided, and artists are encouraged to bring their own favorite media.

11am-5pm

Governors Island

Break out your best flapper dresses, linen jackets, straw hats and spats, and 100-year-old Gatsby-inspired attire! New York’s favorite throwback party is back this June for its 16th anniversary. The Jazz Age Lawn Party returns to Governors Island with live music, retro cocktails, and 20s Prohibition era entertainment. Explore the park and join dance lessons, take a vintage portrait, check out the antique 1920s cars, play croquet, enjoy a gourmet picnic, and more. Also on Sunday, June 12. $50.

2pm

Teardrop Park

Murmurations is a collective puppetry performance in public space where humans of all ages are invited to shed their human bodies and become a murmuration of plastic bottle fish. Puppets, sound and movement will transform Battery Park City into a seascape of androgenous oysters, stunning sturgeon and captivating cetaceans. Inspired by the impact of climate change and plastic pollution in the ocean, the puppets of this performance are crafted of plastic waste removed from New York City waterways and beaches. The practice that informs Murmurations is rooted in Bread and Puppet pageantry, carnival, circus parade, and direct action where large performing objects activate public spaces with collective action. The performance is composed of two movements. The first movement will occur in the grass lawn of Teardrop Park. Here, participants will learn the puppetry art of fish murmuration. The second movement will begin as the murmuration parades to Rockefeller Park. There, giant puppets inspired by biodiversity of New York Harbor will join the murmuration, creating a cacophonous confluence of city and sea, a puppet poem that seeks a new relationship to our blue planet. Those who wish to participate in Murmurations are invited to gather at 2pm. Please note that participants will move together in a close group. All are welcome to enjoy the performance at 3pm.

7pm

Pier 17

Concert.

Sunday

12pm-1pm

China Institute, 40 Rector Street

Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Music Ensemble in New York (CMENY). Students of Chinese instruments are invited to join this master workshop led by Maestros Jindong Cai to learn and practice the fundamentals of Chinese ensembles with the Chinese Orchestra musicians. Students will get the opportunity to observe on site the CMENY orchestral rehearsal onsite to further their experiences from the workshop. Free for students ages 12 to 20.

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Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am-3pm (compost program: Saturdays, 8am-1pm)

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall St

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-5pm (compost program: 8am-11am)

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South Street, between Fulton & John Streets

Indoor market: Monday through Saturday,11:30am-5pm

CSA pick-up: Thursday, 4pm-6pm; Friday, 11:30-5pm

Outdoor market: Saturday 11:30am-5pm, May through Thanksgiving

Today in History: June 10

This is the first color image of the Mars landscape, compiled by photos from the Spirit rover, launched on this day in 2003. This was the beginning of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission, which continued for more than 14 years until this day in 2018, when contact ceased with Spirit’s twin Opportunity.

671 – Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku, which measures time and indicates hours.

1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries.”

1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China.

1898 – Spanish–American War: U.S. Marines land on the island of Cuba.

1916 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.

1935 – Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson.

1940 – World War II: Norway surrenders to German forces.

1940 – World War II: Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.

1977 – James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee, but is recaptured on June 13.

2003 – Spirit rover is launched, start of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

2018 – A planetary dust storm causes NASA’s Opportunity Rover to cease communication from Mars

2021 – European Space Agency announces new Venus mission, the probe EnVision to study Venus’ tesserae (its continent-like terrains)

Births

940 – Abū al-Wafā’ Būzjānī, Persian mathematician and astronomer (d. 998)

1859 – Emanuel Nobel, Swedish-Russian businessman (d. 1932)

1907 – Fairfield Porter, American painter and critic (d. 1975)

1915 – Saul Bellow, Author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

1922 – Judy Garland, American singer, actress, and vaudevillian (d. 1969)

1923 – Robert Maxwell, Czech-English captain, publisher, politician (d. 1991)

1928 – Maurice Sendak, American author and illustrator (d. 2012)

1932 – Pierre Cartier, French mathematician and academic

Deaths

323 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (b. 356 BC)

1776 – Leopold Widhalm, Austrian instrument maker (b. 1722)

1836 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1775)

1926 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect, designed the Park Güell (b. 1852)

1967 – Spencer Tracy, American actor (b. 1900)

2002 – John Gotti, American mobster (b. 1940)

2003 – Donald Regan, American colonel and politician, 11th White House Chief of Staff (b. 1918)

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