Ep 13: The War for Self-Representation Meets the Drug War

Four months before G & N arrived on The Hill, the New York Post came out with an article about the community entitled, “Squatter War Coming to ‘The Hill’.” The article turned out to be prescient.

The initial war to be fought was one for self-representation. As scores of print media, films, commercials, music videos, photographers and others mostly looking to exploit the encampment descended, G & N fought back by arming the residents themselves with disposable cameras to sneak up on and capture clandestine photographers. They also sought to make their own film and planned a theatrical performance that would take place in the tipi. While the ideal was to facilitate unmediated, personal interactions – “to build a bridge between us and them” (the tipi’s mission) – the extent to which that wasn’t possible required at least controlling the narrative through self-representation.

Yet there were, in fact, numerous fruitful personal interactions. The tipi made it easier for people to enter The Hill and get to know their fellow citizens. Even school groups visited with their teachers to meet the residents, to learn about tipis, and about the history of the landscape. Celebrities such as Peter Jennings, a long-time supporter of the Coalition for the Homeless, visited often, sometimes bringing other celebrities like his boss Roone Arledge, and Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, to sit inside the tipi and chat.

But there was a second war developing. It began on a specific date on which The Hill changed irrevocably. On June 16, 1991, nearly seven months after G & N arrived with their tipi, drugs began to be sold on The Hill. Until then there was a hard and fast rule that you could use but you could absolutely not sell drugs on the Hill.

G & N highlight a few of the incidents of violence. These types of events were now to become commonplace on The Hill. The question was, how do you fight back?

#conceptualart #guerrillaart #homelessencampment #homeless #home #media #mediarepresentation #nychistory #addiction

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