Easter Re-Imagined and According to Br'er Rabbit

What do bunny rabbits, marshmallow chicks and colorful eggs have to do with Easter and the resurrection of Christ? Not a whole lot.

But, just like with Santa Claus and Christmas trees, the folklore and fun play that accompany these holy days are wildly popular with children, as they become their invitation to also take part.

Bed-Stuy resident Aisha Cousins gets it: She understands well the concept of ritual and the importance of creativity, even if it is all... well, imagined.

And precisely for this reason, Cousins has started “Brer Rabbit Day” a day for children to re-imagine for themselves a new "holiday," one based on the adventures and lessons of another historical hare first known throughout the Antebellum South as “Br'er Rabbit.”

The stories of Br'er Rabbit (a loose translation for “brother rabbit”) tell of him as a trickster character who succeeds by his wits rather than physical strength and by manipulating authority and sometimes bending social mores, often in scenarios where he is at a great disadvantage.

The stories are identical to the West African tales of his cousin, Anansi the Spider, which were passed down to American slaves. They were then written down by Robert Roosevelt, an uncle of President Theodore Roosevelt, who recalled, his aunt in Georgia “knew all the Brer Rabbit stories, and I was brought up on them.”

“So, I was thinking about what could be possible if we used this fascination with the Easter Bunny, but talked instead about Brer Rabbit,” said Cousins.

“I found that people saw Brer Rabbit as a visible symbol of strength and art and the persistence of African culture. And it also came from an opportunity to celebrate things that are essential to the identity of the black community.”

Those things, said Cousins, were creativity, intuition, resourcefulness and a wit strong enough to survive even the toughest of circumstances. Just as these gifts were key to Brer Rabbit’s success, she said, they were values essential to black people meeting the challenges and life adventures in Africa and the Diaspora.

And Cousins added, the notion of creating a new holiday is less about the actual holiday itself, than it is about what it would take for young people and the community to materialize it for themselves.

Cousins, an artist and founder of The Story Skirt Project, already has held two moderately successful Brer Rabbit Day celebrations, in 2011 and 2012. Following the second one, she applied and won a grant for $3,000 from the Brooklyn Arts Council, as well as supporting sponsorship from a “Bed-Stuy Who’s-Who” list of supporters, including Gather Brooklyn, the Macon Branch Library, BreadLove and many more, to expand upon Brer Rabbit Day.

This year's Brer Rabbit Day community celebration is on Sunday, April 7, from 2:30 p.m. - 5:30pm. at Freebrook Spaces, located at 375 Stuyvesant Avenue. The day will be an all-ages gathering of Brer Rabbit Day activities, traditions, storytelling, food and music.

Cousins also has organized two arts and crafts workshops leading up to the April 7th event day on Tuesday, April 2, from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 6, from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., at 361 Lewis Ave. (at Macon St.). At the workshops, participants learn how to make decorations for Brer Rabbit Day out of recycled materials found around the home.

For more information on Brer Rabbit Day, visit their website. And if you would like to participate in Brer Rabbit Day by sharing your talent, stories, or to help setup, cleanup, decorate, donate or spread the word, email Aisha Cousins at Transmission.Completed@gmail.com or call 347-422-6543. 

“We often feel like our only option is to be a consumer of someone else’s creation,” she said. “But the process of trying to convince others that it’s real starts as an exercise of imagining what a new holiday would mean to you, what you would want it to look like.

“It’s a day for the adults to share their personal history and to encourage their children to exercise their creativity and their brains over brawn.

“...Brer Rabbit Day will be whatever you want it to be, a day for people to celebrate who they already are.”