Friday May 1 (May Day!)—”Hallelujah, I’m a Bum!
Friday May 1 (May Day!)—”Hallelujah, I’m a Bum!”
First Friday at the Main Street Museum.
Opening Reception for our Summer Series 6 - 8 p.m.!
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me
"Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune
Here a great personal deed has room ... The road is before us! —Whitman
I'm a man of means, by no means - King of the Road —Miller
“Tramps, Hobos, and Transients at the Edge” Our opening reception features readings and discussion of museum artifacts, displays, jazz with the Goog Smith Trio! Cupcakes, champagne and snacks!
Plus “Mopey Dick and the Duke,” original artwork by Denys Wortman showing tramps on the loose in America in the 1930s, from the archives of the Center for Cartoon Studies.
See their website here!
Exhibits of artifacts, photos and artwork on display until August, 2009. Free admission.
The Artifacts
- Shoes cast off by a street band from New Orleans
- An old can of hash found on the railroad tracks
- A decrepit straight razor collected from Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina
- And a Trajectory of Tramp Headgear from the Costumes and Textiles Category
These are just some of the artifacts from the permanent collection on display through the summer in our vitrines. Each item is displayed in dim, but reverent cabinet and accompanied by profuse an effusive labeling material. Interns are numbering, cataloging and photographing the collection for our wiki as we speak. Come and witness the process.
And don't be afraid to bring us your own Tramp (or Hobo) artifacts, if you have found any. The Main Street Museum has never met an artifact that it didnt like.
Overview
What is a hobo? We're all familiar with the ragged figure with a bundle on a stick, traveling by freight train. But a more interesting question might be, "who is a hobo, and why?"
Our Tramp and Hobo Symposium begins this Friday, May 1st in a groundbreaking series of special events and special exhibits this May through August,. The Main Street Museum will investigate and celebrate the American wanderer with readings, movies, concerts, cookouts, lectures and more.
The tramp, the hobo, the wanderer - the unemployed, uprooted American, or simply anyone who can't rest easy without knowing what's around the next bend in the road - have a social pedigree that runs from the wilderness and Walt Whitman's "Open Road," right through to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, and today's news headlines about migrant workers, homelessness and economic upheaval.
