What Democracy Looks Like
Artists Paint the Boarded-Up Storefronts to Bring Back the Bowery
Already on lockdown from the Pandemic, New York City reeled after the murder of George Floyd.
Protestors hit the streets. Black Lives Matter protests grew daily.
Looters also went to work -- organized gangs smashed windows and raided stores.
On the fabled Bowery, stores boarded up. The looting stopped, but the boards stayed up.
Local artists came out to Bring Back the Bowery on these wooden “canvases.”
City Lore photographer Tom Pich took the Pictures. Bob Holman wrote the poem. Sono Kuwayama organized the artists. Lee Eaton edited the video, a testament to the power of art to bring back New York.
In a human response to the frightening and sometimes deadly virus, City Lore is continuing to collect and archive creative responses to the pandemic. We have started a group poem - It Takes a Pandemic.Click HERE to read the full ongoing poem. If you'd like to contribute, send your lines to [email protected] with the heading It Takes a Pandemic. By submitting lines, you agree to let us share them. Lines may be minimally edited for consistency. Youth responses to the pandemic are welcome, and appear towards the end of the piece. If you are a youth responder, please include your age.
Please send other poems, videos, images or screen shots created by you or others about the virus with the heading Touching Hearts, Not Hands also to [email protected]. If you send materials by others let us know whom you received it from and, if possible, let us know if you have permission to share.
City Lore, Urban Folklore, Corona Chronicles 8, video 303