RAK isn’t just Random Acts of Kindness. It’s creative acts of kindness. That might be the only way to explain the loose collective of N.Y.C. do-gooders’ latest initiative: The Random Acts of Kindness Music Fest, which takes place in Central Park on Sunday, June 13 at 4 p.m.
We’ve never heard of anything quite like it. Nearly 400 “free” albums will be on display — everything from modern classics like Pearl Jam’s Ten, to ‘90s dance gems like Snap!’s The Madman’s Return (remember “Rhythm Is A Dancer?” It’s track six), to cheesy mixes like Pure Energy, Vol. 2. Maybe that’s the random part.
The creative part? Each album comes with a kindness idea inspired by the album title or a song on it. Pick up U2’s Achtung Baby, for instance, and you commit to dropping off a pack of baby diapers at the home of a new mom. Grab Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing, and you must give half the money in your wallet to the first random stranger you see. Take Enya’s Enya, and you’re tasked with giving a toy boat to youngster in your life.
Adding a CD to your collection (or tossing it under your bed after the event) is as good an excuse as any to do something good for those around you. As event organizer Shephali Patel says, the good acts may inspire those on the receiving end to “pay it forward.” It could be goodness gone viral. At the least, the RAK Music Fest is an excuse to shake you out of your routine, “sort of like a good-willed Punk’d,” Patel says.
Anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate in the event, which fittingly takes place at Strawberry Fields (72 Street and Central Park West), a memorial dedicated to John Lennon that lies directly across from the Dakota apartment building where he lived and was murdered in 1980.You won’t, however, find Lennon’s Imagine for the taking on Sunday.
That can’t be random.
Photo by Husky via Wikimedia Commons.
