{"id":13035,"date":"2019-08-07T16:27:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=13035"},"modified":"2019-10-07T01:43:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T05:43:57","slug":"duckling-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/08\/07\/duckling-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Cages Duckling Statues In Boston Public Garden To Protest Abuse Of Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well before dawn last Friday morning, Karyn Alzayer snuck a group of miniature cages into Boston\u2019s Public Garden via \u201ca couple different vehicles.\u201d The Malden artist had fashioned the tiny jails from PVC pipe frames wrapped in chicken wire. She says, \u201cIt was still very dark out, somewhere between 2 and 3:30 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was aware of how people dress up the bronze \u201cMake Way for Ducklings\u201d statues by Nancy Schon, inspired by Robert McCloskey\u2019s 1941 Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book, putting the baby ducks in bonnets for Easter or in Red Sox jerseys when the professional baseball team is doing swell. \u201cI\u2019ve loved and enjoyed that watching that whimsy when it does happen,\u201d Alzayer says.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The “Make Way for Ducklings” statues in Boston’s Public Garden dressed up in “Pussy Hats” for the “Boston Women’s March,” Jan. 21, 2017. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Aug. 2, she put mini mylar blankets on the bronze birds and set the cages over them\u2014evoking the imprisonment of migrants by the U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement under the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story really is about an immigrant family. What would happen to them if they came now?\u201d Alzayer says. In \u201cMake Way for Ducklings,\u201d they\u2019re fed and given a police escort to their new Boston home. \u201cI don\u2019t think it would be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019m an artist, this is a means I have to speak out about this,\u201d says Alzayer, a henna artist who also does fine art inspired by henna designs. She lived in Everett for a dozen years before moving to Malden last November. She has founded a nonprofit called Integral Arts<\/a> to host an art walk in the Everett in October.<\/p>\n

\"Karyn<\/a>
Karyn Alzayer caged the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues In Boston’s Public Garden to protest abuse of immigrants, Aug. 2, 2019. (Photo: Daud Alzayer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important for us to be talking about how we\u2019re treating people at our southern border,\u201d Alzayer says. \u201cWe\u2019re hearing reports of people not getting the food and water they should have. We should not be treating people this way regardless of whether they came legally or illegally. This is not a way to treat another human. \u2026 This is being done to people at our southern border in our name with our tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alzayer says, \u201cI went back around 6:30 or 7 to see if it was still there. There was no trace of anything. They had already been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

WGBH reported<\/a> that \u201cthe cages were removed by a homeless man who lives in the park and often helps clean statues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alzayer saw this as a hopeful sign for our nation: \u201cWe as a society can quickly decide to free someone. We can take these cages down. \u2026 This is something we can do if we chose to put our minds to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Well before dawn last Friday morning, Karyn Alzayer snuck a group of miniature cages into Boston\u2019s Public Garden via \u201ca couple different vehicles.\u201d The Malden artist had fashioned the tiny jails from PVC pipe frames wrapped in chicken wire. She says, \u201cIt was still very dark out, somewhere between 2 and 3:30 in the morning.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,100,105,112],"tags":[37,594,41,595,121,596],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13035"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13046,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035\/revisions\/13046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}