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On Resurrection, Re-enactment, Reclamation, and Revolution
What a cluster of symbolically weighted days we are in the midst of. The Revolutionary anniversaries of April 18 (Paul Revere’s Ride) and April 19 (Lexington and Concord) combined with yesterday’s protests (it was also World Circus Day, though this year the circus was the world). Today is a mind-blowing combination of Easter (a time of rebirth), and 420 Day (a day of blown minds), and Trump’s threatened invoking of the 1807 Insurrection Act, egregiously timed for Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Thankfully, the latest news is that this action is “paused”, but it still hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles. More happily, tomorrow (April 21) we have Patriot’s Day and the Boston Marathon, as well as the traditional date of the Founding of Rome. Which will be followed by Earth Day (April 22), then St. George’s Day (April 23) which is also the traditional date for Shakespeare’s birthday, bringing us full circle to English kings.
Anyway, midway through the gauntlet, some instant history, and history reverberated. Some images I liked from the last couple of days, and some I took.
The Old North Church in Boston really came through with the Paul Revere observances (though as we all know, and they were careful to remind us, Revere was far from the only rider). They had an art installation of projected quotes, chosen for maximum resonance in our own time, on the front of their tower. Pictures of it were widely shared in social media:
On the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride they had a special ceremony, with a terrific keynote by historian Heather Cox Richardson. It is very much worth watching both for it’s historical information and for its coded political messaging, deftly delivered. See it here.
For those impatient for a little show biz, our old friend Francine the Lucid Dream (Francine Daveta), a star of neo-burlesque who was in our production of I’ll Say She Is, was on the scene in Concord, which happens to be her hometown.
Meanwhile, Tamara Rose, Founder of Transcendental Concord, and a very good friend of Travalanche, recorded this terrific podcast for Concord250. She took this terrific snap of marching re-enactors yesterday:
There will be more ceremonies (and protest events) in Lexington, Concord, and Boston today and tomorrow.
Elsewhere, in cities and towns throughout the nation there were huge protests against the usurpations and violations committed by our would-be King.
With son Charlie by my side, I took some shots of our local one in New York, which started at the New York Public Library and wound up at Central Park.
We’ll be having our own historical re-enactments in New York this year to honor the Battle of Brooklyn a.k.a. the Battle of Long Island. We lost that one, unfortunately. I hope we don’t lose this one!
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