My god it's full of mermaids!
Summer has hit Brooklyn, oddly enough summer is not marked by the summer solstice. Oh heavens no. It is marked when a slew of people dress up like mermaids and pirates and parade down Surf Ave in Coney Island (at least this is what Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, exclaimed as he traveled on a tropical float). This was my first exposure to the Mermaid Parade and exposure is a pretty apt word choice oh the bosoms! Oh the semi-clad men and women!
So part of me wants to give the whole parade a performance studies go over, but then a large part of me just wants to revel in the fact that I spent the better part of an afternoon engulfed by a world of weirdly beautiful individuals. Yes there were stereotypical costumes and there were some costumes I ended up getting mildly ill about but then you have to take most things with a grain of salt and a shot of tequila with a twist of lime and maybe a hula girl (or hula boy depending on your preference) by your side. Most notably there was a Steve Irwin costume complete with sting ray sticking out of his heart, I mean ok firstly the joke (what little of one there was) died about three weeks after Irwin, and secondly it's not all that interesting or original of an idea. But c'est la vie, n'est pas?
There was a great over arching theme to the whole parade and that was, Coney Island is dead (or more aptly dieing, which it semi-is and semi-isn't). You see Coney Island is soon to begin project uber gentrification. Some land developers bought up a large quantity of land and will soon be building condos and tearing down some or all of AstroLand and replacing it with a more "family friendly" (read Disney/Las Vegasesque) theme park and resort area. This will bring more money and thus glory to Coney Island and Brooklyn BUT it will also end up 1) pushing the current residents out of the area (mainly due to the raise in the cost of living) and 2) it will destroy the image of what Coney Island is, well currently. What is Coney Island? Coney Island is a seedy area, however, it also is an area that has a lot of community spirit. It's seedy, it can be dangerous at night, but there's a sort of essence to the place and energy that makes it seem like it could really be a paradise for the underground art scene.
Now when I say underground I don't mean avant garde, ruled by the privileged, intelligentsia, oh no. I mean something along the lines of a DIY aesthetic, much like the Ideat Village in New Haven, only year round. Something community based that supports those that actually live there (so you know something that pays attention to the fact Coney Island and its neighbor Brighton Beach has a rather large Slavic community). What I noticed in past neighborhoods, where the arts decided to stake a creative claim to the space, is that the artists tend to ignore those that live in the area. Oh not initially. Like in Wicker Park in Chicago. When the art-folk first started to populate out there (in the late 1980s early 1990s) they were drawn there by the community (and the prices of housing). It had that certain seedy charm that all artist thirst for (think La Bohem). However, as more artsy folk entered the area their focus went from collaborating with the already present community to establishing themselves as a separate and dominant community. Perhaps this is inevitable for all art districts. Perhaps if Coney became an art haven then it would end up becoming just as gentrified as it soon will be.
Whatever the fate of Coney Island in the near future, some things will remain. Such as the Mermaid Parade. Also the Coney Island Museum (which also operates the Sideshow) will remain, so some bastions of freakishness will persevere.
To see all the photos I took at the Mermaid Parade, click here!
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