My name is Janna Kennedy Hyten, a.k.a. The Halloween Lady who resides at 313 Clinton Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. My first neighborhood Halloween experience in Clinton Hill was in the fall of 1985. At the time, there were reports of poisoned candy and hidden razor blades in apples. My reaction was to post a sign on the bell: "Ring Hyten ONLY... For Halloween Treats... Everyone else is DEAD!!!" Needless to say, we sat all night without any trick-or-treaters!
By 1994, Clinton Hill was slowly becoming a more child-friendly neighborhood and the Society for Clinton Hill launched their now-renowned Children's Halloween Walk. The walk not only created safe houses for children to trick-or-treat but it fostered friendly competition among neighbors who devised imaginative and ambitious Halloween displays.
My reaction was to make an artistic, political and humorous statement. I enlisted the help of my three dear friends from Florida State University: Andrew Watts, Marc G. Ashmore and Kathie Wilson. We fabricated five tombstones to display in the yard and a fifteen-foot paper mache Jack Skellington. Jack loomed over the front stoop of the house as we opened the parlor level of 313 Clinton Avenue as a Haunted Mansion to the Clinton Hill neighborhood children and threw our first Halloween bash.
A guest signed my autograph book with this poem. It says it all and has been posted in the front yard of 313 on Halloween ever since.
"Two days before All-Hallows Eve a gathering did commence
Attending the extravaganza were a full and Sundry crowd-
or was it Sunday crowd?
Any way- gather they did-
Drawn by the beat, moved by the moon
All wishing for little more than the
next that the magic would overtake
their soul like it used to do
when they were so very young
without a care in the world.
It isn't like that any more.
But on this night- this night of darkest nights
They can return if but for a breath of a moment
to their childhoods."
Kyle Shannon, 1994
In 2004, to my delight Claudia Howard moved into the house with her husband Richard Poe and Halloween has never been the same. Her brilliant writing has elevated our efforts to Broadway-quality. With her arrival, the party moved outside and we enacted .Zombie School for Ghouls. for the neighborhood children. The shows have grown in scale and imagination ever since. In 2007 the "lawn theater" expanded to include neighbors 315 and 321 Clinton Avenue when Halloween "attacked" and an alien space ship "landed" on the front lawn. In 2008 we held auditions for "Clinton Hell High's, High School Musi-Ghoul" not to be complete without our rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance.
Each year it's a challenge to up the ante from the one before. As long as we have strong support from the Society for Clinton Hill, our neighbors and volunteers - who donate countless hours of sweat equity and imagination - we promise to keep on entertaining you and bringing big smiles to the faces of our Clinton Hill neighbors for years to come!
Stay tuned for the Clinton Hell Carnival of Carnage!
Janna Kennedy Hyten
The Halloween Lady