Nolan Tredway

It’s my last day at and I am left withe one question, “Do mediums sometimes not want the spirit to leave?” Maybe some crescent city ghost residue will remain.

But my time here culminated in a CALL FOR CRYPTID STORIES AND ART. We’re going to make a tour of everyone’s cryptids and stories. The first tour will be in New Orleans, but the call is for everywhere and ongoing.

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Cryptids exist in the shadows, in the space between the world we know and the one that is possible. They are easily recognizable yet escape surveillance, databases, and classification. Cryptids are, by definition, monsters outside of dominant cultural norms and narratives. The continued existence of cryptids revels in the limits of institutional power, be it governmental, corporate, academic, or religious. Their stories are told in confidence between people in community, a shibboleth for a new world hidden within our own.

In this light, we are making a map and tour of collective cryptid stories. Stories based in place. Stories about cryptids as forces for healing or despair. Have you felt a mysterious presence along the river, or had a mischievous shadow pop out of a portal in an alley? Maybe you know a spirit who haunts gentrifying developments? Or has a shapeshifting Bat Boy demiurge accidentally shown you the future? Are you a monster? Is your body haunted?