Escape from the House of Mercy

Catherine Gallant presents her “Escape from the House of Mercy,” inspired by the notorious House of Mercy, located at Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan in the early 1900s. Described as “a home for abandoned and troubled women,” it was, in fact, closer to a prison or workhouse in which inmates were routinely punished with starvation diets, head shaving, and restraints, under the guise of rehabilitation. Gallant seeks to mine the feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness as they relate to the present in the drive for social freedoms and equity. At St. Michael’s Church, 225 W. 99th St., NYC.