Following the official opening of the new Canal Park last Friday, a concert was held next to the park featuring local artists who live nearby and supported its creation. A portable stage was brought in and a block of eastbound Canal Street was closed and seats were put in the street, opposite page, bottom. Others watched while standing outside the park’s fence or from inside the park. Among the performers were Laurie Anderson, who did a spoken-word piece with a yellow glowing object in mouth, above left. Anderson, who also accompanied herself on fiddle, told a story about her rat terrier Lolabelle’s anxiously scanning the sky for circling hawks while they were on vacation in a remote spot, drawing a parallel with how New Yorkers looked up into the sky after 9/11. Anderson’s partner, Lou Reed, above right, sang about Baton Rouge, perhaps inspired by the Katrina disaster, and also did one of his 1980s songs with its chorus of “I’m going to go out on the dirty boulevard,” seemingly apropos of performing on Canal Street. Below left, a member of the Citizens Band vamped cabaret style. Opposite page, top, Prica Ouya, left, performed a Congolese dance to the beat of drumming group Heyna Second Sons, as Jana Haimsohn narrated and danced with Ouya. In between acts, Nathaniel Lieb launched a total of seven gossamer hot-air balloons in the park, some coming down into the crowd, others soaring off and landing on top of nearby buildings.
