Freaknik was an annual Spring Break weekend event in Atlanta for students from traditionally black colleges. The principle concerns were chaos and ass, which can be portmanteau'd as cha-ASS. I'd wager that more bouncing, clapping asses were exposed for daytime public consumption during Freaknik than at any other point in American history.Freaknik started quietly in 1982 and eventually, after attracting a quarter of a million people (mostly dudes) during the mid-90s, was stamped out by the city. The last official Freaknik was in 1999, a darkly ironic footnote in light of the ass-party-to-end-all-ass-parties it once was.
Annons
In its heyday, Freaknik was like a massive wildcat strike without an agenda, Mardi Gras without the parades or cultural approval and a Lakers championship celebration without a trophy--there was a magic in the air that told you in a loud, booming slur "The rules no longer apply." Without any real structured events, cruising was the main activity. People drove for hours and barely moved more than a few blocks. The gridlocked streets transformed into a bizarro world American Graffiti. Non-partying residents of the city were paralyzed while celebrants danced and caroused in the streets and on cars. Men (often armed with the behemoth video cameras of the era) pleaded for asses from car windows, there was sex behind bushes, pissing in the streets, occasional light looting, general hooliganism, fire and brimstone raining from the skies, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together. The local media would regularly deploy their traffic copters to cover the event like it was some sort of Escape from New York zombie riot, and for months surrounding the event the AJC would be filled with letters from freaked-out homeowners threatening move to Chattanooga and almost always mentioning public urination as a "symptom of lawlessness".It bears mention that Atlanta has always been a pretty racially divided city, it is home to Stone Mountain (the Confederate Mt. Rushmore, now a majority-black neighborhood), and this was smack in the middle of the era of Congressional hearings on rap lyrics and the inner-city black teenager thug being paraded as an all-purpose boogeyman, so the festivities are generally remembered in that context. For certain elements that might be an appropriate association but for all of Freaknik it is way too reductive and crackery.
Annons
The incidents of general harassment and sexual assault are indefensible and were always the trump card for arguing why Freaknik should end. Still the say-yes-to-everything, fun for the sake of fun, "Whose streets? Our streets!" mentality, while somewhat asinine and juvenile, is applaudable for its enthusiasm to meet new people, create some mischief, and just see what happens. No cell phones, no social networks, no GPS, no plan but to party seems like a decent way to evaporate a weekend when you're in your early twenties.EZRA MORRISThese two videos are sadly unembeddable, but essential Freaknik viewing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yobYbsD4oN0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3xs4tKUvjg
