Surprise, surprise! Sunday rolls around, and it is still dreary and overcast with intermittent rain all day long. So my mom decided to audible from our scheduled walk through the NY Botanical Gardens to a walk through the Nova Festival exhibit down by Wall Street. Not your typically cheery Mother's Day activity, but it was mom's choice what to do on her special day, and this was her choice.
For those unaware, the Nova Music Festival was the joyous event on October 7, 2024, which went from happiness to horror as hundreds of festivalgoers were murdered by Hamas terrorists that infiltrated the area from Gaza. Mere blocks away from NYC's 9/11 memorial site, the Nova Festival exhibit told the story of the event through the stories and videos shared by its survivors and its casualties.
As someone who goes to music festivals all the time, this exhibit was a real shock to my system. Trying to imagine a festival cut short by sirens and emergency evacuation commands boggles my mind. What would I do if one of my festivals was befallen by rockets beating down around us while terrorist murderers lined the two escape roads to execute all the festivalgoers sitting in traffic trying to leave?! I would run like hell and hide as safely as I could.
The images and videos were gut-wrenching. The first-hand accounts of survival were shocking. Hiding in a dumpster and somehow managing to start quiet after taking 4 bullets. Laying still in a bomb shelter below piles of bloody corpses to avoid execution. Speeding through several waves of terrorist road blockades to drive their way through freedom.
The image that will stay with me was the enormous collection of lost & found items collected by the Israelis who were tasked with cleaning up and categorizing all the remains left around the festival grounds. It was a horrible site to see, and the mood inside the large event space was somber indeed, despite some of the trance music playing in the background.
The last two images are pictures of memorials. In one section, candles burn in a room with pictures of all those identified to have lost their lives. In another space, there is a large spiral art design on the floor comprised of white rocks with messages written on them by people who visited the exhibit.
After a somber start to the afternoon, I offered to treat my mom to some dessert, so she drove me back to Brooklyn to go to Win Son, the well-regarded Taiwanese bakery. My mom got a delicious strawberry meringue tart, and I got a piece of custard toast. Her dessert was much tastier than mine. I regret my choice.
The rest of the day was spent in my apartment grading papers and preparing lessons for the school week ahead. I took a short break to watch the new episode of Saturday Night Live and scored another early night to sleep. It will be nice to start the week well rested! Until next time...
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