concern: street performance

Midnight on Wall Street. Alexander Hamilton appears on a red carpet, saunters past the Stock Exchange, and approaches the Federal Building steps.  In the center of the square is a cardboard box inhabited by The Common Man. “Who is here that distrurbs my slumber?” “It is I who have some to see/if there is anything I can do for thee…”And thus ensues a performance in rhyme, a modern day Faust which, like Goethe’s great story, tells the tale of ambition, wealth, and ultimately, folly, and chilling horror.

Midnight on Wall Street. Alexander Hamilton appears on a red carpet, saunters past the Stock Exchange, and approaches the Federal Building steps.  In the center of the square is a cardboard box inhabited by The Common Man. “Who is here that distrurbs my slumber?” “It is I who have some to see/if there is anything I can do for thee…”And thus ensues a performance in rhyme, a modern day Faust which, like Goethe’s great story, tells the tale of ambition, wealth, and ultimately, folly, and chilling horror. This is the fifth disribution of money to Wall Street and as in the other performances, the visage of the coin embodied, Thomas  Jefferson, appears in his silver numismatic mask, shining in the streetlights of midnight Wall Street, to ring in the shower of 2000 nickels.

At high noon September 13, a man rolls onto Wall Street in a wheelchair, dismounts, and painfully makes his way up the steps of the Federal Building to speak to the American people:

“It is high time we speak frankly/ Of the current crisis threatening our Democracy/ The very state of the world today is a summons for us to stand together/ And to Act against injustice/ For this very spot, my friends/Is the site of a heinous crime…”

What heinous crime was committed on Wall Street?  Come to the performance to find out!  You’ll meet the Common Man and hear of his anger, hopes, and dreams for the future.  And, of course,  this will be followed by the usual showering of coins on Wall Street that you have come to know as the Summer of Change. Please join us for the fourth performance of the Summer of Change: the Distribution of 1000 Dimes.

…”progressive government by its very terms, must be a living and growing thing, that the battle for it is never ending and that if we let up for one single moment or one single year, not merely do we stand still but we fall back in the march of civilization.”

–FDR