LES CITIZENS PARADE (2018)

The LES Citizens Parade is an activist processional and series of performances connecting community members of NYC’s Lower East Side. Co-created with choreographer Naomi Goldberg Haas. Performed by neighborhood senior citizens and legendary senior dancers, the work creates a celebratory, visual journey that honors the experience of long-term residents as part of the River to River festival on June 22 and 24, 2018. Playing with the “migration” trope: we literally transform residents and dancers alike into a “moving company” - one which carries boxes bearing double-edged slogans like “fragile.” The procession culminates in a stage performance in the middle of Seward Park, the oldest municipal park in the
United States and the living room of the
Lower East Side.

LES CITIZENS PARADE BOX (2021)

Designed by the artist Laura Nova at The Center for Book Arts to commemorate the LES Citizens Parade, and provide a toolkit for activism. The public art project honored the experience of long-term residents as part of the River to River Festival on June 22 and 24, 2018. The box is a cloth-covered clamshell box, with plexi frame, and cardboard enclosure sealed with Velcro, rubber stamped with shipping symbols. On one side it holds a blue cotton-polyester blend unisex coverall with silk screened LES Citizens Parade logo on front pocket and backside. On the other side, there is a set of 13, 11” x 14” prints documenting the event, photographed by Laura Nova, digitally printed on Epson matter paper.