Don’t harbor grievances in the new year — burn them.
That’s what underground arts group Shadow Traffic aims to do Thursday night at its “Burning of Grievances: A Catharsis Parade and Effigy Burning.” The interactive event is set to snake from Manhattan to Brooklyn via ferry and L train — with brass band accompaniment — to a firey end in Bushwick, where attendees will set their worries ablaze.
Shadow Traffic co-founder Jonah Levy is jump-starting the action with a rant of of his own:
“Listen, I was born and raised here, but some New Yorkers got a real chip on their shoulder,” he says. “Loud, gregarious, they think you’re either my best friend or my worst enemy. Get outta my face for a minute.”
Levy’s fellow event organizers, Jaclyn Atkinson and Kathryn Sclavi, are mainly miffed by transit woes.
“I wish the MTA worked,” gripes Atkinson.
“I wish drivers would stop honking the second a light turns green,” says Sclavi.
The trafficking trio invites the general public to get a few things off its collective chest — all in hopes of starting 2019 with a fresh outlook on life.
Levy says revelers will gather tonight at a secret Dumbo location — revealed upon RSVP — for a healing “invocation,” during which time the public’s submitted grievances will be read aloud.
Revelers will then hop an NYC Ferry to Williamsburg, where they will march to the L train to reach another secret destination off the Halsey stop, where an effigy will be burned and DJs, puppets and performance artists will serenade attendees into the wee hours.
Judging by the perpetual state of the subway, however, it seems likely revelers might generate some fresh grievances by the time this “catharsis” is extinguished.