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Welcome Stranger Welcome Stranger Welcome Stranger Welcome Stranger For Harriet Tubman and Paul Robeson — 15 April 2015, New York citizens and are living here temporarily, but this demonstration was about equality and We’re sitting in the train on our way to equal human values Peekskill. George and I have been living in for everyone, and that transcends nationality. New York since the start of the year and today The demonstration made a big impression we are leaving the city for the first time. The on us. We walked from Union Square along Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art Broadway to the Brooklyn Bridge, where the (HVCCA) has invited us to make a proposal situation on the bridge became grisly and for a contribution to their biennial art festival. almost got out of hand. Hemmed in by police They are looking for artists who can conceive on both sides, we were kettled in the middle a temporary work in public space, preferably of the bridge while police helicopters circled in cooperation with Peekskill’s inhabitants, in the sky overhead and demonstrators tried something that is loosely based on the town’s to occupy the road beneath us while officers social or geographical history when it comes intervened. I was shocked by the situation, to the subject matter. now in 2016, where a fanatical but peaceful demonstration against police brutality was We’ve never been to Peekskill before and we being halted by the police. have no idea what kind of place it is, and know We had just seen the film Selma in the nothing whatsoever about its history. It turns cinema, with original footage of Martin Luther out Peekskill is named after a Dutchman, King, who held a non-violent demonstration Jan Peeck. In the mid-17th century he was on the bridge near Selma, a demonstration the first European to arrive in this region in that was violently suppressed by the police. order to trade with the original inhabitants: Exactly 50 years later we are standing on a the Lenape tribe. He bartered with them, bridge in New York City, to protest against trading weapons and alcohol for animal pelts police violence and are surrounded by police. and food. Being Dutch, it feels strange to be We decide to take part in all the demonstrations heading to Peekskill some 400 years after this against police brutality and racism here, and Jan Peeck. We’re not coming to exchange wherever possible to make our voices heard goods with strangers, but to create something about this subject. for people we don’t know. Not with weapons or alcohol, but with art. The New Yorkers who we’ve met here are all Because we don’t know much about against the police brutality towards African Peekskill’s history, we absorb the information Americans, but none of them takes part in the the HVCCA supplied us with and study what demonstrations and we wonder why they don’t. we can find in the archives of the local library. They want to but don’t actually do it is the There are two major chapters in the town’s answer when we ask. Perhaps they’re already history that immediately stick in our minds: so accustomed to race relations here, but we’re the Peekskill Riots and the Underground shocked because we’re seeing it with fresh eyes Railroad. They are both part of Peekskill’s as Europeans? African-American history, but seem to be We weren’t born and raised in the USA, diametrically opposed—a painful chapter and so we don’t have the details of African-American Protestors against police brutality march from Union Square to NYPD headquarters a heroic chapter. We continue searching for history at our fingertips, which makes us poor in lower Manhattan, before heading for Brooklyn Bridge, 14 April 2015. other topics, but we know right away that we discussion partners when it comes to debating won’t find anything that will be more important the technical aspects. Yet when it comes to for us. This is what we want to address here, our inner convictions about equality, which this is a subject that fits with the situation in cuts across history and every national boundary the here and now, what we as foreigners have the message is the same: Equality, Now, Here, ended up in the middle of here in the USA, Everywhere and for Everyone. Period. and what we as Dutch people are connected with via the colonial history of our ancestors. A clear-cut division is palpable here. We feel much whiter than we do in Amsterdam, and Yesterday, on 14 April, we marched with we’re not used to thinking in terms of ‘black full conviction in a major demonstration people’ and ‘white people’. It also feels strange against the police brutality towards African and unnatural to be characterizing it like this. Americans. We might not be American — 20 April it’s all the more reason for us to honour this ‘Safe House’ with a work of art. We decide to create a work that is inspired by The Peekskill Riots were of a totally both the Peekskill Riots and the Underground different order. When we ask about them we Railroad. For us they represent the sweet are told a few times that technically speaking and sour history of Peekskill that we want to these riots didn’t break out in Peekskill but address in our work. in Van Cortlandville. It’s as if the people of Peekskill are embarrassed by it. The Underground Railroad consisted of secret The Peekskill Riots were violent, anti- routes and hiding places—the safe houses— communist riots with anti-black and anti- that were used to help escaped slaves flee semitic overtones that erupted in Peekskill to free states and Canada in the middle of the in 1949. The announced open-air concert by 18th century. We found the best description the African-American singer and civil rights of the Underground Railroad in John Curran’s activist Paul Robeson was the catalyst for book, Peekskill’s African American History. this. Robeson was unable to reach the stage A Hudson Valley Community’s Untold Story: because of a violent mob throwing rocks and screaming racist chants. A second attempt The famed underground railroad was not to hold a concert was undertaken nine days really a rail system, nor was it under the later and on this occasion Robeson was able ground. It was an organized national to perform. network of like-minded individuals with The nature of these two moments in strong personalities living in cities, small history was very different, but they do share towns and farms. These people not common themes, such as racism, tolerance only thought that owning human beings and welcoming ‘the other’ in the community. as property was a morally corrupt and These are issues that are relevant always and inhumane practice, but they also did everywhere, especially now in the modern-day something about it. They went looking Europe we come from. for “passengers to take on a train ride to freedom.” […] We’re planning to return to Peekskill a few People with black, brown and white more times to take in the local vibe and simply skin tones, mostly people with religious chat with locals on the street. We start faith, were able to link together, producing sketches and a scale model in our communicate and physically time arrivals, studio, in order to present a proposal to the departures and layovers through several HVCCA. states and into Canada with amazing In the evening we hear the shocking efficiency. news of the death of Freddie Gray, who died The underground railroad was a yesterday as a consequence of his violent humane transportation conspiracy. This arrest in Baltimore. There are fierce riots in support system was known as a “Freedom Baltimore, where a furious crowd is setting Line,” “Emancipation Car,” “Gospel cars alight and pelting police officers with Train” and by other names. The secret stones. There’s a big rally planned at Union train to freedom was invisible, magical Square on 28 April, which we definitely want and effective. […] to join. It’s really horrible to read about the It was mostly about people taking Peekskill Riots of 1949, then read about the risks to help other people, intentionally Baltimore protests that very same evening. breaking laws in the service of Americans What has changed over the last 65 years, and being denied their rights and freedoms. what hasn’t? The Underground Railroad had an important ‘station’ in Peekskill, namely the house of Hawley and Harriet Green at 1112 Main Street. We wonder why this building hasn’t Flyer announcing a demonstration against police brutality been turned into a museum or some kind of in New York on 28 April. memorial. Someone explained to us that this was because of politics and real estate, but — 25 April local residents and us, and yes, you could call it the unknown, or the cosmos? The whole We have two ideas for the festival in Peekskill: process of throwing dice and painting will take a sculptural structure in a residential about three days per apartment, so we will neighbourhood and various paintings on the be spending 15 days in unfamiliar homes in walls of local residents’ apartments. Our Peekskill. We have no idea whether they want provisional working title is Welcome Stranger, us there, and whether they will even want a which fits well with the Underground Railroad, wall painting in their homes? the Peekskill Riots, and our own situation as artists here.
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