The NYU Animal Rights Collective hosted RatFest, a music and arts festival in celebration of rats, Saturday, Nov. 23 in Tompkins Square Park. The highlight of the festival was the live music, with local artists Angel Grace, mudskipper, Headfooter, Maxwellbean, Dasi and Lt-1233523 performing.
Tisch senior and ARC music coordinator Rosey Jones, who helped plan the event and performed as a singer in the band Dasi, flounced around the park, chatting with fellow musicians and moshing in the crowd.
When choosing performers, Jones said she picked artists that attendees “could dance to,” and included her favorite local bands — mudskipper and her own band, Dasi.
First year at the Graduate College of Arts and Science and ARC president Nora Teter planned the event to create a space “to celebrate an animal that often doesn’t get celebrated.”
“They’re underappreciated, they’re under-celebrated,” Teter said. “They’re not an animal that we often think about what their experience of the world is and what their feelings might be in that moment. And so it’s good to sort of take a moment to extend some love to an animal that doesn’t get that a lot.”
ARC had a similar festival for spotted lanternflies last spring, and is planning to hold a festival for pigeons this upcoming May to further celebrate other stigmatized species. Teter says the club enjoys doing celebrations of certain species through events centered around music and art, all created or organized by members of the club.
“We wanted it to be fun and light and beautiful,” Teter said. “The Animal Rights Collective is a collective of artists and activists and academics, and we believe that those shouldn’t be mutually exclusive written categories, and that art and academia and activism need to be happening in conjunction to make a real impact. It needs to be fun and community oriented.”
Sitting behind a table with a fluffy hat with rat ears, CAS sophomore Micah Sagar was assigned to paint faces at Ratfest. Sagar said this was the first ARC event she’s been a part of, and though she tried to arrive early, she found many members had beat her to the park.
“It seems to me like the team works very, very hard, and I admire that a lot,” Sagar said. “That’s why I joined. They take a lot of pride in [their work].”
Knowing firsthand the work the club put into planning the festival, Sagar felt fulfilled seeing attendees enjoy the event and how receptive they were to its message.
“I think it’s a really fun and exciting way to get people to interact with animal welfare and the idea of expanding animal rights without pushing a narrative,” Sagar said. “It can be a very sensitive issue, and some people don’t want to engage with that, but I think this event makes it very easy. And the team is made up of people who are willing to hear other people out and talk to them and agree to disagree.”
LS sophomore and attendee Eleanor Gil participated in blockprinting.
“Rats are so very intelligent. I feel like people give so much hate to rats, but they’re so smart. I love rats,” Gil said.
The club passed around multiple flyers with fun facts about rats. Gil’s eyes sparkled as she read through the sheet, particularly amused by the first fact that read, “Rats giggle when tickled!”
“I love how kind everyone is,” Gil said. “You can see they’re very passionate about rats and about animal rights. I think that’s really cool, and I love that. I feel like more people should care about animals.”
Contact Kiran Komanduri and Mikaylah Du at [email protected].
