Homemade, illuminated lanterns will float above Morningside Heights
Photo from 2018’s Morningside Lights festival by Michael Seto via Flickr
The sky above Morningside Heights will soon come alive with illuminated, handmade lanterns. The Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts next month will host its annual “Morningside Lights” festival, which allows community members to make their own lanterns and float them in a procession through Morningside Park to Columbia’s campus. Free workshops will be hosted each day at the Miller Theatre leading up to the event from Sept. 14-20, with the magical march happening on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Photo from 2018’s Morningside Lights festival by Michael Seto via Flickr
This year’s theme is “Island,” meant to “remind us that, in the end, none of us is an island,” according to a press release. Last year, the festival focused on the idea of “Flight,” celebrating the “vitality and diversity that migrations” have brought to the city. This is the eighth year of the Morningside Lights event.
“I can’t wait to see the glowing island lanterns float through Morningside Park, conveying the complex and poetic relationships between humans and the natural world, individuals and the larger community,” Melissa Smey, the executive director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre, said. “It is going to be spectacular.”
Afternoon and evening workshop sessions will be available from Saturday, Sept. 14 through Friday, Sept. 20 at Miller Theatre, located on Broadway at 116th Street. Sign up for a workshop, which entails learning how to make the lanterns, here.
The procession kicks off at 8 p.m. in the park at 116th Street and Morningside Avenue and takes about 45 minutes to travel the one mile to Columbia. Rehearsal for those who want to carry a lantern in the procession begins at 7 p.m. at 120th Street.
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