Forty life-size buffalo puppets are about to roam across stretches of Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi runs its herd through the city on September 18 and 19.
On September 18, the herd marches through Lower Manhattan from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., starting at Bowling Green Park and ending in Foley Square, with performances popping up along the route. On September 19, the buffalo cross into Downtown Brooklyn from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., traveling from Abolitionist Place to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
It wants better content.
This herd doesn’t do encores
Produced by St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Walk Productions, and KBH Arts, the lineup walking alongside them reads like a festival bill. Participants include Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, and Pilobolus, backed by Native Pride Dancers, Heather Christian and the Terce Choir, and First Nations tribal members from the Lenape, Shawnee Tribe, and Delaware Nation. More names are coming before the walk.
Ukwanda Puppets of Cape Town, under puppetry director Craig Leo, built the puppets out of plywood, metal, and burlap. More than 150 volunteer puppeteers, drawn from around the world, are training now to run them through the city.
This isn’t St. Ann’s and The Walk’s first rodeo. The same team traversed Little Amal, the 12-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee girl, through all five boroughs in 2022, drawing crowds at more than 50 events.
There’s no box office here, which means the only real logistics question is where to stand. Event specifics—exact viewing spots, stage locations, timing along the route—will roll out at stannswarehouse.org ahead of the 18th. Free range means you’ll need to grab your spot early. Get there before the herd.
Fast facts: ‘Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi’
Forty life-size buffalo puppets, built by Cape Town’s Ukwanda Puppets, stampede through Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn over two days, no tickets required.
- Manhattan: Sept. 18, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m., Bowling Green Park → Foley Square
- Brooklyn: Sept. 19, 2 p.m.–4:30 p.m., Abolitionist Place → Brooklyn Bridge Park
- Details: stannswarehouse.org
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