By Gus Saltonstall
Morningside Lights will return for its 14th year later this month as a procession of handmade lanterns will float through Morningside Park to Columbia University’s campus.
The event, which this year will feature lanterns inspired by images, icons, and influences of the year 1965, will take place on September 20 at 8 p.m.
Starting on September 13, though, free daily lantern-building workshops are set to take place at Miller Theatre within Columbia’s campus on 116th Street and Broadway.
“Presented in collaboration with the Friends of Morningside Park, each of the 30+ community-built lanterns will focus on specific images from that time as a reminder of how creative thinkers have always helped to illuminate a path to meet the challenges ahead,” the Morningside Lights website reads.
Morningside Lights was founded in 2012 as a way to connect Columbia’s campus and the neighborhood, and to also, “quite literally,” shine a light on Morningside Park. Columbia University also relates to the choice of honoring 1965, as it was the year that its School of the Arts was founded.
The registration for the free lantern building workshops opened on September 3, which you can find out more about — HERE.
For those who want to carry a lantern during the procession, you can arrive on September 20 at 7 p.m. for a rehearsal at 120th Street and Morningside Avenue, and the lanterns will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis.
And here is the map of the procession route this year.
You can find out more about the event — HERE.
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I’m curious about how this great event, meant to “connect Columbia’s campus and the neighborhood” works now that Columbia’s campus is a locked down guarded castle. This would be a great day for them to finally reopen.
The fortress that is Columbia will grace us peasants with a parade? How generous.
Why does Columbia owe you anything? Maybe a better question is what are you doing for Columbia, our largest employer? Do you donate, are you supporting the school? But you want them to blindly support you.
I wonder if pro-Hamas protesters will disrupt this lovely event.
That is why the gates are close.
No, the gates are closed because Columbia does not welcome the neighborhood, and because they think anyone who supports Palestinians is an anti-Semitic terrorist.
That, of course, is not true. But you probably think that supporting Palestinians means supporting rather than rejecting Hamas.
I don’t know. Hundreds of “neighborhood” residents and non students were sleeping on campus and building sheds and harassing students two years ago. Maybe that is why they are not welcome.
Wrong. The gates are closed because nonstudents were coming on to campus and protesting and destroying property.
Thank you, Columbia, for this beautiful event.
And how exactly are we supposed to get onto the locked-down Columbia campus for these lantern-making workshops?
Miller Theater is on Broadway to the left of the entrance gate / security line. Last time I went to a concert, I preregistered, had confirmation and ID, and was on a separate theater line, checked in by theater staff. The campus entrance line was much longer.
50-50 chance that it’s crashed by protestors and ruined for everyone.
Columbia can only protect its campus. It is up to the NYPD to protect the other 95% of the parade route.
Maybe they can actually open the gates at 116th street and let local folks walk through the campus….