The Halloween Parade’s Theme: ‘Meow’
Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out why the theme of the annual Village Halloween Parade is “meow.” We’ll also meet some Mexican American artists who have been assembling Day of the Dead altars with one thought in mind: authenticity.
Jeanne Fleming decided on the theme for this year’s Village Halloween Parade during the summer, when she heard that Senator JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, had once said that the United States was effectively run “by a bunch of childless cat ladies.” “I immediately went ‘meow,’” said Fleming, the longtime artistic and producing director of the venerable parade, “and that became the theme.” So tonight will be for more than just ghoulish ghosts and ghastly goblins.
There will be more cats on the Avenue of the Americas between Canal Street and West 15th Street than there were in a certain Broadway musical — 35 giant purring puppets; unicyclists dressed as Cheshire cats, a samba reggae drum line of cat-costumed women and people who are transgender or nonbinary; and the actor André De Shields as grand marshal.
Fleming offered him the role because he had appeared as Old Deuteronomy in “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” the recent reimagining of the long-running musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. “In a sense, the theme is not political at all,” Fleming said. “It isn’t as much about politics as what the vibe is.” She says she tries to “read the zeitgeist” before settling on a theme.
