Homage to NYC at the Living Portrait

We were very excited to snap up our free ticket and queue up on 23rd at The Living Portrait NYC, an interactive installation put on by Citizens Bank. Although corporately sponsored, thsi is a cool reminder of why you love living here in the Big Apple. The experience begins with tickers of a host of headlines, all the things going on around you. It's dizzying! Then you step into a statistics hub, that 'cuts the Apple' infinite ways, telling how many of us were born out of state, out of country, are in relationships, have pets, what we spend, what we make, what we do in our free time. After crunching the numbers, you head over to another room wehre we saw a watch a rap sesh, 3 extremely talented MCs that rap some of New York's most frustrating features. It's interactive with the audience.

Note, the feature changes by performance, so if not rap, it will be something cool--there's a rotating list of dancers, spoken word poets, musicians and more! Then it's off to a screen filled room (the amount of screens is crazy!) and you get these impressive moving images of the city around you, featuring New Yorkers telling why there's here, and draws them to the city. "Some days it's like you've been given the best kiss of your life. And the next it's as if you've been kicked in the face!" I think we can all relate.

Lastly, it's your turn. Step into a booth and get a photo taken, take a quick questionaire and then appear amidst the thousands of black and white pics of the faces and chosen attributes of your fellow New Yorkers: pizza loving, pizza rat loving, ambitious, carefree, empathetic, advernturesome and a host more descriptors from floor to ceiling. 

I can say I loved New York coming in and I have a renewed pride in my city coming out. Good for all ages, families, New Yorkers and New York aficianados. Get your FREE tickets here. Ends September 27th.