The city of Philadelphia, for some time, has hired men to walk around the area near Independence Hall and play the roles of revolutionary characters. In this regard, colonial revolutionaries - knee high britches, and tri-corner hats. Certainly when most Americans are asked about Revolutionary Americans, these are the people that come to mind; Franklin, Paine, Washington, Adams, et al. Though, with this in mind, you would be hard pressed to find people expanding the individuals within this timeline. Does this mean that persons such as Emma Goldman, or Fredrick Douglas were not revolutionaries, or revolutionary within their ideas and ideals? Where does this leave people such as Allen Ginsberg or David Dillenger? Sun Ra? Abbie Hoffman? Louis Kahn? Fred Hampton? Or Philadelphia's own Voltairine de Cleyre? All Americans, though all – compared to the semi-fictitious realities that we have created for our founding fathers – all problematic within the eyes of what it means to be an American Revolutionary.
For Revolutionary Days we asked the public in the know – who were informed through posters, websites, e-mail lists, and word of mouth – to look around their neighborhood on January 20th and asked themselves if they saw anything different. They were asked, for all intents and purposes, to play a game of sorts; the game of "Spot the Revolutionary." But how does one do that? What are the visual characteristics of a revolutionary, if any at all? I myself chose to be Allen Ginsberg that day. I didn't look much different, except for the fact that I did a lot of chanting. So I suppose I acted a bit different. I bought a dove from a market off of South St. and released it in front of Independence Hall. My friend Adam was Leon Trotsky. He wore small wire framed glass and a burly red coat. Zefrey was Ian Mackaye from the band Fugzai, among others. Zefrey didn't look too much different than he normal does, though he kind of looks like Mackaye anyhow. We all broke in and out of character. Talked about our lives as Beat Hippy Avitars and Red Army commanders. We ate breakfast. Trotsky and Mackaye discussed the finer points of the early eighties Washington D.C. Hardcore scene. Did we stand out from the crowd? If so, why?
- Sam Gould (of Red76)
