Big cities give you a culture shock as much as calorie shock. After an exciting three days in Boston and NYC, I am retreating to Elmwood avenue, Providence, Rhode Island where I will chew the cud and ponder over what I've seen and heard. People and experiences can be electric(k)!
FYI: pondering helps you neutralize both kinds of shocks though zooming in and out of a city can consume your resources: memory and charge.
Two acts that's I witnessed in NYC drowned the noise from speeding police cars, honking taxis, and loud sirens from fire trucks. The first one that I witnessed was at the end of Brooklyn Bridge where a bunch of young, and ribbed black men were busy entertaining the tourist crowd. I thought this was pretty similar to the song and dance that I've seen on Champs-Élysées and almost walked away from them, but one of my friends decided to watch the show and got us hooked on to them.
In a city were the rich paid money to watch glamorously choreographed shows on the Broadway, the jobless black youth often looked down upon as trouble makers brilliantly engaging the audience. They passionately narrated their story with wit and pun and through song, dance and dialogue. And by drawing a representative from every nationality from the surrounding crowd they highlighted the minority status and need to acknowledge diversity. Though one may argue that this is all organized and choreographed, but to keep a 500 strong audience engaged on the banks of East Side River needed passion and persuasion. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWwghTckkY0
The second act was on metro line 4 during my travel from Brooklyn Bridge to Union Station. A short black man with a plastic basket boarded the train in one of the in between stations. Though he was drowned in a clean shirt, a few sizes bigger than him, but then his loud voice and persuasive speech drowned people around him. I know you may quickly jump in to call this an organized racket, but then let's hear his call out.
Given that America is in the middle of the presidential debate season and to hear unpolitical and passionate speech was rare. The man carried a few packed deli sandwiches and bottles of iced tea with him and asked those who are hungry to come forward and help themselves. He further kept their attention by announcing that he was not hungry and homeless anymore. What helped make this transformation and why is he an advocate supporting basic human needs.
The man excused himself for raising his voice, didn't budge to his nagging cough and made a plea heard to a larger audience. He represented a Soup Kitchen from one of NYC Burroughs and pulled out a photocopied brochure to explain about the organization that provides food, shelter, vocational training, placement and counseling services, etc. and asked his co-passengers to look them up on the web and make some donations. What a passionate sales guy asking people to open their hearts and wallets and what a voice and face spreading the philosophy of Soup Kitchen on the metro where manspreading is a menace.
While almost all of us work for money and most of us forget our struggles and values that we represent and believe in, the short black man standing tall genuinely and passionately made a call to end hunger pangs in NYC and group of young black men narrated their struggles against white supremacy through a street play. Where did the rich and fair skinned go astray in the journey of mankind?
It is time for you to chew cud now. Let's touch base in a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment