On May 11, 2019 a community-built wearable-art parade transforms the streets of Hudson, NY. Anyone can join our retinue of aspiring artists, agile absurdists, and ambulatory agitators to create an open-source work of mobile performance art. Hats and headdresses, body-extensions and puppets, and wearable assemblages in any form are all welcome. Drawing inspiration from global Carnival masquerades and Hudson’s evolving history as a city of makers, the Mad Hatters’ Parade brings together Hudson’s diverse communities in a collective act of creativity and shared spectacle of the nonsensical.

Parade organizers Sophia Michahelles and Alex Kahn of Processional Arts Workshop (PAW), are leading free costume and puppetry workshops with the city’s under-served youth, teaming up with local after-school programs and Perfect 10, a girls empowerment organization, to allow young artists to showcase their creations side-by-side with Hudson’s growing population of established artists, makers, and entrepreneurs. In addition, a free, drop-in Mad Hat Slam will take place on May 5 at Basilica Hudson, a local avant-garde art space, providing materials and instruction in creating wearable artworks. The Parade steps off from the Hudson Area Library wending its way to a final Grand Sashay down the aisles of Basilica’s annual Farm and Flea artisans’ market.