These images date from July of 1986 when I was asked by an Italian publisher to photograph the many Italian feasts in the various ethnic neighborhoods in New York City for a book.. The neighborhood is North Brooklyn that now goes by the gentrified name of Greenpoint and the church is our lady of Mount Carmel of Brooklyn. Here here the main attractions are two so called lifts. The larger of the two is an obelisk that has a statue of the saint on it's very top and musicians seated on it's base. The smaller one is shaped like a boat and carries men dressed as Moors with colorful costumes, made up faces and scimitars. The legend states that the town of Nola in Campania, now famous for its pasta, was saved from the threatening Moors by the appearance of the saint. These structures are heavy and there's always a large of faithful who volunteer to participate in this arduous task. Calling some of these characters faithful is a stretch to say the least. Nevertheless, everyone has lots of fun along with the throngs of spectators. Interestingly enough there's a similar legend in my town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Here the bad guys were the English who after raiding a Spanish ship threatened to lay waste to my town. The English started out as pirates but this is not something that these "civilized" people want you to know. The Madonna appeared on the mountains and the bad English fled after soiling themselves. Sadly the book in question was never published for "Italian" reasons too complex to explain here. I did get paid well and was able to keep many negatives and slides that I eventually scanned.
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