Chickinman returns to Governors Island and Figment for his fourth year in a row. Rolando Vega, the Chickinman, has been performing and creating things for the past 40 years in the New York City area all for free in parades, fairs, Mars Bar and many other venues, none of which have been a repeat show. His performances involve dancing, games, and laughs - so come on down and enjoy this festival of love, love, love, love, love!
If* you were a superhero, how would your cape look? Design your own cape at FIGMENT! We will have fabric, fabric paint, brushes, spray paint, markers, glitter, bedazzlers, etc. Everyone and their cousins will be walking around with a custom cape during FIGMENT!!! Also, take a photo in our photo booth with your cape blowing in the wind!
*The word “If” was used to protect secret identities.
Peace Museum NY in conjunction with Where Peace Lives and MePeace.Org will host “PEACE CAFÉ”. They invite children, families, and kids of all ages to engage in conversations/discussions on the topic of PEACE and then create their own vision of peace using recycled postcards, markers, crayons, color pencils, stickers and other crafty materials. The peace art will be a part of a collaborative display. Additionally, to provide inspiration, they will display peace murals from the Where Peace Lives’ Kids International Peace Mural Exchange Project (www.wherepeacelives.org) and Peace Cards (created at Figment 2010) from Peace Museum NY (www.peacemuseumnewyork.org).
New Yorkers are an alienated and isolated breed in one of the most densely populated places in the world. The idea that we are a community is somewhat of a paradox, especially in our everyday encounters. To stop and, unknowingly, write a fortune for someone else, a fortune that is unexpected and emerges spontaneously, is a way to overcome the isolation. To give another the gift of words, that seem to wash up in their hands, reminds people of how beautiful it is to connect – in the briefest of ways. What the future holds is for us to create.
Begun by artist Frau Fiber in 2006, Sewing Rebellion NYC is a protest in the form of a skill share. Participants are invited to emancipate themselves from the global garment industry by learning the skills to produce, alter, and mend their own garments. Sewing Rebellion NYC and the Textile Arts Center launched "The Mending Circle", a monthly gathering specifically focused on developing and sharing mending skills. Visitors (and at least one SR staff) share their knowledge of sewing, tailoring and patching, and encourage reuse, renovation and recycling of existing garments.
Create a "Crazy Hat" suitable to wear while enjoying your day at FIGMENT! Use the provided recycled materials or bring your own to create a toilet paper roll top hat, a soda can cap or a bottle cap bonnet!
Come learn American Sign Language through children's songs with Brooklyn Mini Hands artist/teacher Michelle Marwitz. Learn the signs to well known songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and then perform your signs/songs as a group at the end of the session. Sessions will begin every half hour and conclude with the group performance.
NYC is a city of transplants that have taken hold in often difficult conditions and made something that’s often beautiful and wonderful. CORE Project invites you to help them create a tree by creating leaves, writing and drawing on them. Tree of Heaven will be a storytelling about how various people have found and created their own small niches in the city, many of which will grow into great things in the future.
Dagorhir is a medieval style martial arts game where the players battle one another with safe padded weapons. Using their innate skill and honor, warriors of all kinds are given the chance to release their inner fighter and challenge others. It’s a great exercise and a tremendous outlet for the violent urges we must all normally repress. All participation is consensual and supervised.
A party isn't a party without a pinata! Join Llaves Designs for some serious pinata fun and give a good fun summer themed pinata a whack. Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 4, "Pinata Party" every hour on the hour!
Rush Education Programs will present an exhibition of Rush Student and Teaching Artist artwork, filling a whole house on Governors Island for FIGMENT 2011. On Saturday and Sunday (11:30am to 3:30pm), Rush Kids and Teens will lead tours, conduct hands-on art making sessions and invite viewers to participate in Rush art activities. Also on Saturday and Sunday, wearing costumes created by our students, Rush Education partner Opera On Tap will sing hourly, from noon to 3pm. On Friday, the exhibition will be open to the public for viewing and Rush staff will be present.
Come sing, dance, and be transformed by the healing power of "Kirtanarama" - a 3 day world chant experience. Outdoors, under the magnificent shade trees of Governors Island, our hearts sing out in a cornucopia of global traditions, accompanied by harmoniums, drums, guitars and more. Satya Franche, Sahaja, Joelle Danant, Dennis Wing, Trudy Sita Dasi and many, many more. No stage. No sound system. All heart and soul. http://www.modernsacred.com/kirtanarama
Originally composed and performed in Spring 2010 at SUNY Purchase College, this composition combines both graphic and text based notation, rather than manuscript paper. This style of notation is based solely on personal interpretation; the performer can do no wrong as part of the large “ensemble.” By using these alternative methods, Max Alper has created a sound world in which audience participation is the key component to the piece. In fact, the audience is also the key performer – the larger the crowd, the greater the sound.
You are an artist, and Jerise Fogel will prove it to you! Come and create your own tiny artworks and exhibit them. You and the artist will paint, letter, collage, stencil, and decorate with papercut art hundreds of separate paper squares. You will hang the miniature artworks on strings attached to lovely tree branches set up for this purpose and supported by sugar cane poles, slowly but surely creating a gigantic art exhibition of colorful paper artwork, as you enjoy one another's creativity, and play! All ages! Free!
Explore the horticultural peculiarities of Governors Island with popular arborist Chorish Greene. This walk will exercise both the leg and the imagination, as we find unexpected inspiration in the lively, quirky results of hundreds of years of evolutionary isolation experienced by unique Governors Island species, among them Choorish himself -- we’re joking of course. Dress ruggedly. Wear sunscreen. Bring water. And throw out your state certified tree identification manuals as Chooorish teaches you the ropes and ladders of being your own state certified tree identifier. Please send questions to DocksmanDocksman@gmail.com.
“Come and play in my art!” “Cocoon Playground” is a fully-enclosed sheer, stretchy fabric creation with a zipper designed for playing inside. A collection of them together, for pairs or small groups, create the interactive “Cocoon Playground.” Each one is different in its size, opacity, subtle texture and smells (essential oils.) Most importantly, the performance is about the visitor’s experience inside and how it releases your imagination and allows you to react with your body. Movement is a part of the design and creation of the piece, as each person’s interaction makes the “Cocoon Playground” a living, morphing entity.
BALL TODAY (READING) is a workshop reading of the "screenplay" for the film BALL TODAY (2010), a short documentary about pick-up basketball in New York City. This will involve a small group of actors performing variations on the script in front of the public. There will not be a final or official performance during the festival: the process of working through it, making mistakes and discoveries along the way, is the work itself, including opportunities for viewers to participate in the reading process, in a kind of "pick-up theater."
FIGMENT attendees are invited to share their life story in 5 minutes at "The 5-Minute Autobiography". The storyteller may share his/her story with an audience of 1 (me); a group of friends, a crowd of strangers. What do we choose to recount in five minutes? Does the time fly or does five minutes seem like forever? What is highlighted? What is omitted? Do we concentrate on our victories and accomplishments or less celebrated moments? On family life or on careers? On a pivotal childhood anecdote or what happened today? It is always a surprise, especially for the storyteller.
Saturday:
10:30am to 10:35am, 11:45am to 11:50am, 1:00pm to 1:05pm,
Sunday:
10:30am to 10:35am, 11:45am to 11:50am, 1:00pm to 1:05pm,
“The Hero's Journey” is a roaming, interactive performance starring an "unprepared" child participant as the Hero of an Epic Adventure. (Know a young hero age 10-16? Contact us for submissions/information: arts.animus@gmail.com.) Influenced by Joseph Campbell's “Monomyth” – the archetypal "One Quest" -- the show will immerse the Hero in a fantastical odyssey. He or she will pull a sword from its cursed magical scabbard, win the favor of supernatural beings, free the royal princess from her dungeon bonds, and lead an army of 50 (foam) sword-wielding participants in a battle against the evil wizard. With snacks and punch to follow.
Come reset your pleasure index at “Imaginary Picnic”, the Push Pops’ second official performative installation on Governors Island. A Victorian themed outdoor tea time with liberal helpings of drama, magic and Dyonisian madness in a participatory emotional “outward bound” nestled under a big friendly sky. Food is love and imagination is contagious. “Imaginary Picnic” is a cathartic spectacle in which Mistresses Minty, Pinky and Frosty guide visitors to indulge in invisible delicacies and let their personality armor melt away.
“Hit The Mat!” uses the physical vocabulary of the grappling arts (wrestling, jiu jitsu, judo, etc.) as a performance medium. At FIGMENT, Captain Zorikh presents a performance that incorporates the grappling and theatrical arts, followed by workshops in which attendees will learn grappling moves and use them to create short scenes with each other. All action will be cooperative (no actual fighting, only staged movements!). Mats are provided, and Captain Zorikh carefully leads and monitors the activity for safety.
Collidascope- an interactive series of short plays, written by professional playwrights starring the audience. Ever wonder what it would be like to be on stage? Come take a site specific tour lead by a rotating group of New York directors who will cast and direct you in a play. All ages and character types welcome! Pro headshot photographer Anna Flores will take actors headshots. Brought to you by Floating Train Productions in collaboration with The New York Theater Review.
