A Silent Message
By Rachel Sokol/Greenwich Village Gazette
 live, eat, sleep,
dream and love in New York City. Both my parents are Manhattanities
and even my great-grandparents are native Yorkers. So, it breaks my
heart when non-New Yorkers ask me if I'm scared to be here, because
of 9/11 and the current war in the Mid-East. A New Yorkers has just
as much state pride as a Texan. In fact, I firmly believe that New
York's not just a state--it's an attitude, a way of life. It's home.
Luckily, the peace rallies in Union Square (that's downtown, for
the curious) and in Times Square have been pretty, well, peaceful.
Just a lot of citizens stepping up to their soapboxes and passing
out stickers and fliers. These rallies are heavily protected by the
NYPD. If you can't stand in the middle of a courtyard and scream out
your anti-war/homeless/abortion/PETA beliefs in New York City, than
why bother doing so anywhere else?
Recently, some students from New York University decided to make
a different type of statement. Feeling like a lost generation with
something to say in the midst of economic and political chaos, a
class of approximately 50 NYU drama students decided they wanted to
pass out a message to NY'ers, too! Not in the form of a button or a
sticker, or a pamphlet...they wanted to give out a more meaningful
message to the city where they attend school. Something you couldn't
throw out and would remember forever.
The students decided to make an artistic, peaceful statement
using themselves-their physical bodies-to spread a message of love.
Gathering in a group in Washington Square Park, the students paired
off into two's. Each group of two embraced each other, and froze.
Like a statute, even refusing to cough, each student hugged a
classmate in a different way, and just stood stoic in that pose as
if someone cast a spell over them and left them frozen like
gargoyles. Some students hugged seductively, adding a leg cross to
the mix. Some hugged with cheesy, wide smiles plastered on their
faces. Others decided to hug with their noses buried into each other
shoulders, as if they were crying. No one spoke. Their eyes barely
shifted. They looked so believably frozen, pedestrians stopped in
their tracks and did double-takes.
Five students decided not to hug. Instead, they stood frozen with
their arms out like ballerinas hugging the air. They were allowed to
speak. To the passerby's--who ranged from students, to Wall Street
executives to hot dog vendors, the unpaired students kindly asked,
"Would you like a hug?"
Slightly caught off guard, the first questioned man approached by
the NYU student, just shrugged. "Okay, sure." And the student hugged
the stranger. The stranger shook his hand, eyed the 'frozen hug
circle,' smiled and walked away.
The five solo students gave out hugs to pedestrians all day long.
Some tourists even stopped to snap pictures of the frozen huggers,
but of course smiling would defeat the message.
Wonderfully, almost everyone approached wanted a hug. Men hugged
men. Women hugged women. One student hugged both a mother and baby
simultaneously. A tourist from Britain hugged all 5 students. The
pretzel vendor accepted a hug. The NYPD officer who came by to
question the occurrence took a hug. A Labrador retriever was hugged
"because dogs are people, too," the student explained. The tourists
with cameras all wanted hugs from the strangers. "Hey!" one called
out to a friend. "They're giving out hugs over here!"
One twenty something woman shook her head when asked if she
wanted a hug. "I'm not in a hugging mood today" she grumbled as she
zoomed past the hug display. As the student relented, she gave him a
tiny smile and softened. "But, thank you."
The students hugged and passed out hugs for over an hour. Most
people who walked by happily accepted a hug and commented on the
effectiveness of the NYU hug display. It was working. The hug circle
was magic. Some people even asked if they can join the frozen
huggers, and stood alongside the frozen huggers and embraced their
loved ones. They wanted to join in on the silent message.
But a few students, even though they were enrolled in a school
for theatre, just couldn't hold their frozen poses for an hour. They
still had their physical hug in place, but now tears were streaming
from their eyes. People sitting in the park started hugging each
other and mouthing, "I love you" as they walked away from their
friends. Pairs sitting on benches or on the grass took note of the
students affections of kindness, and passed on the hugs.
The student's professor was carefully monitoring each student.
When he noticed that each one had tears in their eyes, and were
sobbing so uncontrollably from witnessing the embraces around them,
he solemnly announced, "It's time to go."
No one let go of their physical hug for another 10 minutes. Their
faces shiny and wet, their hearts full of love, they had gone into
shock.
Got something to say? Contact Rachel at:
Rachel@nycny.net
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