New York City can seem like an overwhelming place only because it is one. For every definition of overwhelming, this city fits all of them many times over, and in many variations. But there is something that happens to people when they’ve been here for awhile. At first, the overwhelming parts of the city come from its infrastructure, and a sense that there’s nothing anyone can do about the incredible speed at which things move. Like the subway cars, forward is an inevitable motion, and it’s impossible to stop. Eventually, this comes to reveal itself as the creation of human intelligence, and you start to see the way this city works.
People, masses of people, masses of individual people, are present here, and were present in the past, to make these things. What happens is, to a large degree, a collective choice. And every day is a series of choices where individuals are free to respond however they choose to the situations in front of them. This often comes as a great relief, offering a keen sense of liberation. This is, in part, the lessons of the works of Melvin Van Peebles, where we can all make a difference once we realize and are willing to take responsibility for the fact that we are somebody.
New York Broadway Tickets is an excellent resource for seeing shows here, and when Van Peeble’s new production of Sweetback gets out of the reading and revision stage, it will be something to catch here. This original blaxploitation film changed cinema for a whole demographic, and black representation was suddenly possible in Hollywood. Four decades later, with a revival of the story on stage, the game has changed, and the stakes are a bit different, but the struggle is still very much the same.
Related posts: