Map of the Eccentric

New York City is a place for overachievers, for individuals with strong beliefs in themselves, of entrepreneurs with absolute determination to pursue their lives in a particular way. Many of these individuals’ seal for pursuing their own lifestyle has often appeared off-putting to some; some of them have been labeled eccentrics. Writer Edith Sitwell in 1880 described eccentricity as a kind of “innocent pride."

"Map of the Eccentric" focuses on the lives of individuals who at some point may have been deemed eccentric by their contemporaries: a theosophist Russian artist, the worst singer in history who would rent Carnegie Hall for her lavish solo performances, the first woman leader of an American religion, a psychoanalyst in the Upper West Side of Manhattan who started one of the most scandalous radical left-wing cults in US history. The walk with take the group to places connected to past and present individuals (and with the addition of some special guests) who have merited the label of eccentrics, and will pry open our own relationships between eccentricity and creativity, and what, in fact, should actually be considered “normal” in our day and age.

This walk holds 12 people and will be held in English, though The Alpine Rooster also speaks Spanish.

Click here to see photos from "Map of the Eccentric."

Image credit: Academy Artworks