Two 1968 films — Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One and The Swimmer — set the stage for discussion about conflicting visions of the American Commons, with a focus on the history of Central Park.
Leader
Amanda Trager
Location
247 E. 2nd St New York, NY 10009
Le Petit Versailles — a GreenThumb/NYC Parks Department Garden managed by Allied Productions in downtown Manhattan — is the site of our two evening screening and panel discussion.
William Greaves’ 1968 an experimental narrative film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm will be featured in an outdoor screening — as an end in itself, but also as a way to foster a conversation about land and land use, public and private, and the myriad of issues arising from that focus. Information about Central Park and its origins, which involved the destruction of one of the earliest neighborhoods of black property-owners — Seneca Village — will be a focus.
Amplifying these considerations will be the screening of a related film, that of Frank Perry’s The Swimmer, also made in 1968.
The discussion will include writer and activist Kazembe Balagun, and Nan A. Rothschild, archaeologist, educator (Barnard/Columbia Departments of Anthropology) and co-director of Seneca Village Project. Other panelists to be announced shortly.
The event is scheduled for May 31 and June 1, so we need to act fast. With cash in hand, we’ll be able to offer the esteemed panelists an honorarium and include a Los Angeles colleague who’s been a co-conspirator with us in formulating this project, which has been incubating over the past year.
Funding will also allow us to record the event’s discussion and post it on a website which will be devoted to a similar series of events planned to unfold over the next three years.
The week of May 20th we’ll be busy printing out fliers across the East Village and the Lower East Side to reach neighborhood people without access to, or interest in social media.
The purpose of this series is to initiate discussion and revisioning of the ways in which humans interact with, and view the land — never a more urgent topic than now. An overarching focus of the project is to show how, throughout American history, different groups have historically experienced very different relationships to the land. And how dominant groups’ conceptions of land and land use have frequently, if not foundationally, been blinded by privilege, race, market forces, and other exclusionary practices.
The speakers on the panels will be those who can eloquently address the under-known histories, quandaries, and desires of groups not included in the dominant American narrative about the land. These include historically marginalized groups such as African Americans, women, and workers. The event, taking place near the settings of the films themselves, will be designed to sparkle discussions about local histories and people — where they have come from, and where they envision their communities going in the future.
Study and comprehension of history has profound power in opening people’s minds to present conditions, and therefore to improved, clear-eyed future possibilities. Our aim is to offer this study in the context of convivial, entertaining, but politically-informed events. Le Petit Versailles is an incredibly appropriate venue for this event in its proximity to, and engagement with, creative and socio-economically diverse communities. Your support and participation is deeply appreciated!