Drawing a Line, Walking a Wire:
Philippe Petit & Mordicai Gerstein
Philippe Petit
Mordicai Gerstein
Invitation to the event
March 31, 2005 (2005 Annual Meeting)
Weinstein Auditorium roared with laughter as French high wire artist Philippe Petit and author/illustrator Mordicai Gerstein recounted Petit's amazing 1974 walk between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. One veteran FSCL member described it as "one of the most entertaining events ever sponsored by the Friends." As the two men wove a narrative around the event and its recording by Gerstein, the audience enjoyed the spontaneous chemistry between the pair as well as the mime, caricature sketches and juggling that were casually woven into the program.
In August 1974, Petit strung a wire between the roofs of the World Trade Center towers, a quarter of a mile above the pavement, and crossed eight times. He spent an hour alternately walking, jumping, dancing and lying down on the high wire. Gerstein began writing about The Man Who Walked Between the Towers on the day of the September 11th attack as a way of processing the shock and trauma of the event. The author had seen Petit perform on the streets of New York City and felt that a book about his signature feat would be a fitting tribute to the Twin Towers. His book won the prestigious Caldecott Medal of the American Library Association in 2004 for the most distinguished American picture book for children. In 2002, Philippe Petit recounted his adventure in To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers.
For more about Mordicai Gerstein, see http://www.mordicaigerstein.com/
For more about Philippe Petit's book, see http://www.fsgbooks.com/fsg/toreachclouds.htm - or about his high wire walk http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/newyork/peopleevents/p_petit.html
