In 2006, we were sponsored by Southern Tier Celebrates for a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Artists and Communities Grant. The grant enabled us to work in the Binghamton community for two months, developing site-specific pageant elements for the annual First Night procession. Working within the 2006 First Night theme, “Around the World and Home Again”, we collaborated with local residents to deisgn a procession that explored how the various ethnic traditions within the greater Binghamton community mark the passage of time and the New Year.
We gathered a broad array of stories, ideas and images, through our local research, interviews with Broome County residents, community brainstorming meetings, and informal conversations. Some represent ancestral traditions, now preserved primarily through oral histories. Others, especially among more recent immigrants, represent actively practiced traditions. We knew it would be impossible to adequately represent every ethnic group or ancestral legacy present in Binghamton and Broome County, and it was not our goal to do so. Rather, we see this project as a sampler – a interpretive round-the-world-ticket to bring us closer to a few of the myriad traditions that comprise Binghamton's local culture, and then bring us home again.
Download a full report of the project...
VIEW IMAGES OF THE WORKSHOP PROCESS AND FINAL PROCESSION,
Preparation and Puppetraising Workshops
First Night Procession 2007
Explore the a specific Binghamton ethnic tradition:
GERMAN (also Central European – Czech, Hungarian, Polish)
Chimney Sweeps and Lucky Mushrooms
IRISH / CELTIC: The Wren Boys' Revels
ITALIAN: 
DOMINICAN/PUERTO RICAN: Paranda!
EASTERN EUROPE (Ukrainian, Carpatho-Rusyn, and other Orthodox Christian cultures)
IROQUOIS (and other Native American): Dance of The Seven Sisters
CHINESE/VIETNAMESE: Enter the Dragon
AFRICAN-AMERIC
