Ben Barsotti Scott

East Williamsburg — Days after attending the rehearsal, I felt similarly marked by the opera’s thickly sedimented opening refrains: “Don’t be scared / Don’t touch the water / Don’t get in the water / Don’t drink the water.”

West Village — D. Smith’s admission that she cut the film using iMovie elicited a ripple of sympathetic laughter inside the IFC Center.

Coney Island — At this year’s Mermaid Parade, homespun fashion transformed hopeful fictions into galvanizing community.