Artist/activists Nick Fracaro and Gabriele Schafer tell the story of their three years living in the “tipi on the hill,” by way of their radical alternative theater work leading up to it, their 40+ year creative partnership, and reflections on a life lived together at the intersection of art, culture, politics, and spirituality.
In the middle of the night in 1990, Nick and Gabriele covertly erected a replica of a Lakota tipi in the center of New York City’s longest-existing homeless encampment known as The Hill. The tipi was dedicated on the centenary of the Wounded Knee Massacre “in remembrance of the lives lost in 1890 and in recognition of the sovereignty and dignity of the most disenfranchised and forgotten members of our society a century later.
”The Hill traces the steps of how a shantytown went from the anonymity of waist-high huts hidden in the weeds to becoming a tour bus and celebrity stop; from addicts just getting by to a drug supermarket at the height of the AIDS crisis; from a close-knit community to a crime scene that entangles everyone when an arson fire kills the most innocent of them all.
Thieves Theatre has been described as conceptual, guerilla, site-specific, experimental, avant-garde… Gabriele and Nick mostly describe their work as paratheatrical. In 2007, Thieves Theatre was renamed International Culture Lab to more accurately reflect their evolved mission.
#counterculture #indietheater #tepee #newyorkcityhistory #1990s #activism #socialjustice
For extensive documentation and to purchase the book, "The Hill": thievestheatre.org
Contact Nick and Gabriele: podcast@thievestheatre.org
Follow at @tipionthehill
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