Hipsters Get Some History

Cripplebush Tour graphic by Candy Chang

Stickers and stencils of ghosts have been croppping up throughout Williamsburg this week. It’s the work of the always interesting Candy Chang and a fine team of people dedicated to explaining how names like Driggs, Lorimer, and Bedford came to define the neighborhood. The names of our streets are so ingrained they become invisible, but this Sunday, as part of the Conflux Festival, there’s a walking tour that will introduce us to the men and women who live behind the green traffic signs, schools, and local fixtures.

Or you can walk about on your own schedule, punch in the number on a sticker, and zip the history to your cellphone. But walking around with a bunch of curious strangers will probably be more fun. They call themselves the Cripplebush Group (which certainly demands an explanation) and there’s a nice write-up about the project in AM New York.

Cripplebush Tour sticker by Candy Chang

Nicholas Bayard and John Lorimer Grahm never met in real life, but their ghosts meet everyday as the streets named after them intersect in Williamsburg. All around us are streets and public spaces named after local landowners, real estate speculators, politicians, artists, and activists – people we aspire to be, people we forgot long ago. What does it mean to be surrounded by all these names, these stories, these ghosts?

Sunday, 9/16, 6-8pm.
Meet at The Change We Want to See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer Street.
More info
Map of sticker locations

* * *

Quarks – I Walk (Superpitcher Schaffel Mix)
(from the Speicher 6 12″. Kompakt, 2002)
After a few grey years of serious minimal and academic glitchy-noise experiments, this track bounced onto the scene and made techno fun again, bringing a bunch of new people into the Kompakt tent. Perfect slinky future-pop that will get stuck in your head for ages. I first heard it at a house party in trendsetting Williamsburg, so there’s your connection.

09.15.07  |  Notebook  |  design, events, NYC  |  Share on Facebook  |  Tweet It
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James A. Reeves is a writer, designer, teacher, and patriot. He's currently finishing a big book about America called The Awful Making of an Optimist.

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