Being handed a slice of cake on the train isn't the weirdest thing to happen in New York, is it?
Performance artist and culinary student Bettina Banayan treated a few New York City subway riders to a slice of homemade cake earlier this month. What's her mission? It's to change how people interact on the subway.
Yahoo News reported that Banayan walked onto the subway cart carrying a vanilla cake, whipped out a container of frosting and started to work. She frosted and decorated an entire cake on her lap, while sitting on a crowded train and while fellow passengers stared at her.
Everyone was oblivious to what was going on until she finally said aloud, "Does anyone want cake? I have plates, forks, everything."
She cut the cake and served the slices on paper plates to strangers.
"New Yorkers aren't very personable with each other," Banayan explained, after she finished. "We're constantly in people's private space, especially on the subway. I think it's important to have some kind of community."
In the video, which has been uploaded to Youtube with 185,000 likes, Banayan asks subway riders, "Everyone likes cake, you know?"
In regular New York fashion, some commuters were reluctant to accept a slice from Banayan. Even the kids refused. Laughter was heard in the train car when she asked if anyone wanted a slice of cake.
After revealing her intentions, people started warming up, even offering to pass some slices around to people.
"I like to share food with people," she tells another onlooker. "It's pretty good cake."
"We're constantly in people's private space, especially on the subway," she explained to another fellow passenger. "I think it's important to have some kind of community."
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