{"id":26108,"date":"2025-03-07T19:41:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T00:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=26108"},"modified":"2025-03-07T20:13:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T01:13:52","slug":"crankie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2025\/03\/07\/crankie\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: \u2018Crankies Take New York\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cA crankie is basic in concept: it is a scroll that provides the visual narration to a story or song,\u201d write the organizers of \u201cCrankies Take New York!,\u201d<\/a> a weekend-long performance festival at Flushing Town Hall, New York, from Feb. 28 to March 2, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, a crankie is a TV-like box with an illustrated scroll inside that unspools for viewers as the performer cranks the scroll from one side to the other. Nineteenth century versions were often called \u201cmoving panoramas.\u201d These days the viewing box is often back-lit, and sometimes incorporates puppetry (especially shadow puppets). Crankie performances seem to have especially blossomed over the past decade or so, accompanied by an increasing number of crankie festivals from Baltimore to Seattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-curator Josh Kohn performed an imagined origin story of crankies. Co-curator and host Emily Schubert and Ian Mansfield of Vermont performed a crankie about Schubert\u2019s great aunt\u2019s study of U.F.O.s. Schubert also performed a blobfish puppet between acts, urging the audience to not give up hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Lantern Sisters (Katherine Fahey and Dan Van Allen) perform at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Lantern Sisters (Katherine Fahey and Dan Van Allen) from Baltimore performed a murder ballad about a woman drowned by her sister and then a fiddle was made from her bones. Phoebe Potts of Gloucester, Massachusetts, performed an excerpt from her one-woman show \u201cToo Fat for China,\u201d about adopting a boy from Ethiopia. The Boxcutter Collective from New York City performed pieces about a haunted lighthouse and activist witches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, musically accompanied by Randy Chollette, told traditional \u201cduppy\u201d ghostly stories from her native Cayman Islands. The Binoculars (Chlo\u00eb Swantner and Kaethe Hostetter) from Brooklyn that life\u2019s various troubles\u2014from bills to a cheating husband\u2014are \u201cnot the end of the world.\u201d The goth-folk duo Charming Disaster (Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris) from Brooklyn accompanied some of the acts, and performed between them as they were setting up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 An Evening Of Crankies\u2014\u2018The Original Moving Pictures\u2019\u2014With Katherine Fahey And Friends<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Vermont Crankie Fest Showcases Old Time, Handcrafted Moving Pictures<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\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, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2025 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Josh
Josh Kohn performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Josh
Josh Kohn performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Boxcutter Collective performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Charming
Charming Disaster (Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris) performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Phoebe
Phoebe Potts performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Emily
Emily Schubert performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Boxcutter Collective performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Boxcutter Collective performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Binoculars (Chlo\u00eb Swantner and Kaethe Hostetter) perform at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Nasaria
Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, musically accompanied by Randy Chollette, performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Nasaria
Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, musically accompanied by Randy Chollette, performs at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Emily
Emily Schubert and Ian Mansfield perform at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Emily
Emily Schubert and Ian Mansfield perform at \u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cCrankies
\u201cCrankies Take New York!” at Flushing Town Hall, New York, March 1, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA crankie is basic in concept: it is a scroll that provides the visual narration to a story or song,\u201d write the organizers of \u201cCrankies Take New York!,\u201d a weekend-long performance festival at Flushing Town Hall, New York, from Feb. 28 to March 2, 2025. Generally, a crankie is a TV-like box with an illustrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,110],"tags":[1308,195,1305,1307,1099,1304,1306],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108"}],"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=26108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26114,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions\/26114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}