Artists take over Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for 'Nightfall,' a spooky fall treat
"Cemeteries are not just for the dead, they're for the living."
Charlotte Canda was coming home from her 17th birthday party in the winter of 1845 in New York when she was thrown from her horse-drawn carriage and died.
Before her early death, she had been designing a grave for her late aunt. Her father, a rich Frenchman, took her designs and instead turned it into Charlotte's own monument.
And so, Charlotte's grave that she unknowingly designed for herself was erected at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
"There are so many famous people buried in Green-Wood, but some of the people who are famous are really famous for the way that they died," Dan Nuxoll, program director of Rooftop Films, told ABC News while telling Charlotte's tale.
Charlotte's story -- made more tragic by the fact that her fiance killed himself a year after her death and was buried in an adjacent plot -- prompted an early media sensation and her grave became a tourist destination.
This weekend, Charlotte's grave will again be the center of attention, lit up and projection mapped, with a solo cellist performing for her.
It's all part of "Nightfall," an interactive event at the Gothic cemetery featuring music, art, circus performers, films and storytelling.
From spring to fall, Green-Wood hosts a variety of performances, and for "Nightfall," they all come together. This will be the second "Nightfall" after its debut last year.
The creative team this year includes the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Death of Classical, which regularly performs classical pieces in the crypt, Morbid Anatomy, which specializes in the arcane and esoteric, The Moth, which puts on storytelling events at the cemetery, Pioneer Works, a cultural center, and Rooftop Films, which does movie screenings at the cemetery.
"This is a time for all of us to get together and create something that's a little more than the sum of its parts and make the cemetery come alive, so to speak," Andrew Ousley, the curator of Death of Classical, told ABC News.
The theme this year, inspired by Charlotte, is "lovesick." Throughout the night, attendees wander around a path at night and experience various performances.
If it seems strange to have an artistic party at a cemetery -- let alone a full season of programming -- talk to Harry Weil, director of public programs and special projects.
Green-Wood was founded in 1838 and is a National Historic Landmark. Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Jean-Michel Basquiat and other icons are buried there.
"What we hope to do is reimagine what a cemetery is supposed to be in the 21st century," Weil told ABC. "Everything we do always tries to be of the utmost respect to the people buried here, and all the programs we do highlight the art, history and nature of this space."
Plus, Weil said, "With the fall and the change of the season, nothing's more atmospheric than being in a cemetery at night."
Weil designed "Nightfall" around the values of the cemetery -- and the logistical limitations. They had to pick out a route from the 478-acre cemetery that is walk-able and within easy reach of the few exits and bathrooms.
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And while Green-Wood, which Weil describes as being "like out of a storybook" has a lot of space, a lot of it is taken up by mausoleums, and, well, graves, and Weil works to ensure performances aren't set up right over where people are buried.
Not to mention, there is no electricity in the grounds, so there's the management of generators, candles and other light sources to consider.
Rooftop Films will have a "tunnel of love" projecting a series of short films "all relating to love and heartbreak and intense feelings of romantic attraction that don't usually work out for the best," per Nuxoll.
Death of Classical is managing a series of musical performances -- including classical, jazz and even a theremin and DJ -- throughout the route.
"Cemeteries are not just for the dead, they're for the living, and we're not dancing on anyone's grave; we're trying to bring life and joy and thought and emotion and beauty to this space," Ousley said.
The Moth, meanwhile, will feature three people -- including writer Annabelle Gurwitch -- telling stories about death, along with a musician and host.
Catherine Burns, artistic director at The Moth, has, of course, attended The Moth's events at Green-Wood, but she also is a regular attendee of their other programs.
"Green-Wood is such a magical place," she told ABC News. "You feel like you're in on a secret that you get to be there."
"I personally would love to have my final resting place be Green-Wood just because I love the idea of there being so much life going on -- you wouldn't just be stuck away someplace for all eternity that nobody visits," she added.
"For many of the people buried here, maybe they haven't had visitors in decades or well over a century," Weil said. "So by activating this space through these programs, we're shining a light on all the people who are buried here. It's a way for us to not fade into oblivion or just be an overgrown cemetery."
So this weekend, they hope to both enliven the place and pay tribute to it and its inhabitants.
"We definitely feel like the dead are present when we're there, in such a wonderful way," Burns said.
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