Madison Square Park is a park that attracts many different types of people every day. From the workers of nearby corporate buildings coming down to eat lunch during their break, the common dog walker, the stay at home mother who brings her children to the Mori Ann Smith Playground, and the Baruch student cutting through the park to get to their 9:05 AM Music History Class, Madison Square Park sees all of these people and much more. Described as a microcosm of The City, the park helps to bring in the same diversity of New York City by its calm and peaceful views.
During my daily morning commute to Baruch, I like to cut through Madison Square Park because it gives me a fresh start to my day. Seeing the City slow down within the fence of the park allows me to slow down as well. In a city that is always in a rush, Madison Square Park is the exact opposite. As stated by Lewis Mumford, Madison Square park becomes, “a theatre of social action” and a space of “significant collective drama.” All around me I can see musicians around the fountain, creating music that brightens the day of many visitors. Examples like these street musicians help to create the theatre image in Madison Square Park. The theatre like aspect of the Park continues when you see the audience began to grow. Many people stop to sit on the Cherry Lawn and bring their kids to enjoy a nice picnic on the Redbug Lawn as the music of the park fills their background conversations. The ability of Madison Square Park to be so versatile is what makes it a microcosm of New York City, because it allows for a multitude of “audience” reactions to the “theatre” music.
Madison Square Park continues its imitation of New York City as a whole by capturing the “significant collective drama.” From the mother yelling at her kids to stop feeding the hungry squirrels, to the homeless man yelling at the hungry squirrel trying to steal his food, Madison Square Park has a various range of drama being displayed every day. The people that pass through the park were all different, some had somewhere to be, some were just trying to capture the perfect photo of the Flatiron Building, all while others were just trying to enjoy the moment. This collective drama of Madison Square Park acts as the microcosm of New York City because these same interactions can be seen in the City on a larger scale.
Overall, we realize that Madison Square Park is the perfect smaller scale version of New York City as a whole because it captures the art, music, and social interactions within its borders. The ability of the park to capture a significant collective drama in the lives of passing New Yorkers is what makes this park a microcosm of the City.
– Abishek Johnson
