Superior Concept Monsters
Encyclopedia
New York's Village Halloween Parade
New York's Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade and street pageant presented the night of every Halloween in New York City’s Greenwich Village...
. They are also known by the name Processional Arts Workshop, under which the group incorporated in 2005.
Founded by Halloween Parade designers Alex Kahn
Alex Kahn
Alex Kahn is an American visual and performance artist, best known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade each year.-Pageant Puppetry and Processional Art:...
and Sophia Michahelles
Sophia Michahelles
Sophia Michahelles is one of the two chief artists and puppeteers of Superior Concept Monsters, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in upstate New York. She works closely with co-director Alex Kahn...
in 1998, SCM creates original performance works specifically for the medium of procession, involving giant puppets, mobile scenography, shadow and projection, and other visual elements. These works generally involve hundreds of volunteers who build and rehearse in community workshops, and then perform in the final event. Beyond their work for the Halloween Parade, SCM has travelled to communities around the world to create site-specific processions and parades based on local themes. Drawing on regional cultures, oral history, and current sociopolitical concerns, the group encourages local residents to participate at every stage of production from initial design to final performance. thus empowering them to identify and preserve narratives that uniquely define “local” in their own community. To date they have created events in Italy, Trinidad, Maine, Texas, New York, and other locales.
In 2001, SCM's work achieved widespread notoriety when Michahelles
Sophia Michahelles
Sophia Michahelles is one of the two chief artists and puppeteers of Superior Concept Monsters, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in upstate New York. She works closely with co-director Alex Kahn...
designed a giant silk puppet of the Phoenix
Phoenix (mythology)
The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....
– the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes – for the NY Halloween Parade, as a hopeful tribute to New York's resilience after 9/11. The puppet was built and performed by witnesses to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and garnered national and international media attention.
SCM has received numerous awards and grants and residencies, including a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist in Communities Grant (2006), a Roman J Witt Visiting Artist Fellowship at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and an Artist Residency at Caribbean Contemporary Art in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
. In addition, SCM co-founder Alex Kahn
Alex Kahn
Alex Kahn is an American visual and performance artist, best known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade each year.-Pageant Puppetry and Processional Art:...
was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study the traditions and social structures of the Trinidad Carnival.