On June 5, I attended a fund-raiser for COCOON Goutte d’Or, Paris, a public space sculpture by the artist Kate Browne. Cocoon is a crowd-and locally-sourced outdoor sculpture performance project that Kate has produced in Cragsmoor, New York, Mexico City and in  Greenwood and Jackson, Mississippi.  Another has begun in the South Bronx, and the Paris Cocoon is planned for October 2014. Kate organizes local residents to build the cocoons, with the idea of promoting the interaction of people of various races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds within a neighborhood.  The Goutte d’Or is a working-class area in the 18th Arrondissement with a large North African and Sub-Saharan presence, along with Eastern Europeans and native Parisians.  It’s not the Paris most tourists would venture into, but if you have plans to be in Paris in the Fall, you might make it a destination.

The event was held at the home of Kate and her husband, photographer Eric Etheridge, in the West Village.  For more information about the Cocoon project, view this link:

http://brownebarnes.com/

The event also featured a talk by Bob Zellner, a civil rights activist and author of Wrong Side of Murder Creek, who shared his experiences of local organizing in the 1960s South and today with Moral Mondays.  Bob has been an inspiration to Kate in her efforts to organize communities to participate in the Cocoon projects.

 There were about 40 or 50 people in attendance, and it was a very lively and engaging crowd.