Bike Fetish Day Street Party
Havemeyer (between Hope and Grand) in Brooklyn
Sponsored by the City Reliquary Museum, this laid-back block party celebrated all things bicycle, Brooklyn-style. After some impromptu jamming on the sidewalk, the RMO took center stage.
Still We Speak Rally
Union Square South, NYC
Again, the RMO supported the pre-Critical Mass rally. This month, the RMO led an impromptu parade through the streets of Manhattan to St. Mark’s Church, a location central to the long history of NYC activism, and more recently to Critical Mass.
Reverend Billy’s Critical Mass Afterparty
Saint Mark’s Church, East Village
While the good reverend held court inside, Critical Mass bikers poured in from all directions. At the end of the evening, the RMO blasted out some songs in the front courtyard of the church, attracting dancers, onlookers and fire spinners.
Garden Party / Spring Parade
Lower East Side community gardens
Every year, the intrepid gardeners of the LES organize a ritual parade complete with hundreds of people, puppets, children dressed as insects, and this year, a marching band.
First Warm Night
Red Hook, Brooklyn
This roving street / subway party is the kind of thing that only happens in New York. The RMO began the evening by meeting the expectant crowds as they disembarked the F train at Smith and 9th Street. The marching band pit that was created later in the park when the RMO slammed headlong into the Hungry March Band, who was already mixing it up with Kenny Wolleson’s group SLAM, was transcendent. You can see our photos here. I’ll defer to the organizer’s summary of the event:
“On Saturday, May 14th, two dozen guerrilla art and event making organization came together to produce the renegade street carnival: First Warm Night. The night was gorgeous, from the warmth of the sky to the thousands in the streets. Three marching bands, three mobile sound system, one pier extending toward the statue of liberty, dozens of fireworks, one police helicopter, hundred of artists and mischief makers creating art and infamy together through the epic streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn.”
Bicycle Film Fest
May 12th and 13th
Anthology Film Archives, NYC
As a celebration of bike culture, this NYC-based festival screens films about bikes every year for four days of nearly sold-out showings. The RMO entertained the crowd in line for the opening night and the following night of messenger films. Both nights, we led a short parade through the theater itself.
Mayday Anti-War March
UN to Central Park, NYC
On May Day, the international celebration of worker’s rights (see the basic history of the holiday), the anti-war coalition UFPJ staged a massive march past the UN and into Central Park to remind the US government and the world that NYC was and is against the war in Iraq. The RMO lined up behind some incredible Korean groups with drums and mixed with a large delegation of Japanese peace groups from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We bonded instantly over music, as Japanese teenagers showered us with gifts, danced and took pictures with us. A brief mention of us in the New York Times write up of the march said, “The somberness was at times leavened by carnivalesque episodes that included ‘a marching band featuring a banjo and led by a majorette with green hair and lug-sole boots’”
