News
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News ⋆

09/21/25: Save the Date for Street Works Earth
Join Make Justice Normal and Street Works for a joyful street arts and climate action festival in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC, on September 21 (Sept 27 rain date).
We’re bringing together artists, neighbors, and changemakers to co-create art, share stories, and learn about how we can care for our planet and each other.

Calling Volunteers for Street WorKs Earth
We’re looking for volunteers to help bring Street Works Earth to life. Read here for roles. To sign up, email collective@makejusticenormal.org. What we most need is flexibility and reliability, but we’ll do our best to match people with roles that fit their interests!



In the News: Climate Art and Activism Work in Tandem at Street Works Earth Festival
“What we need to do is what our elders did, our ancient people did, which was pull back to the roots.” -- Nicolas Linares, referring to ancient medicinal and agricultural technologies.

09/22/24, 11AM — 5PM: Street Works Earth details & logistics
Announcing: Street Works Earth 2024 event details. Here’s an at-a-glance view of details so far on artist installations and participating creatives tabling with resources and actions. See you on the Street!

Remember Y(our) Connection: envisioning beauty and building compassion
Artist Spotlight: Learn about Remember Y(our) Connection, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant. This public participatory art project aims to cultivate relationships through dialogue and conversation about shared struggles and indigenous wisdom. They are presenting Mushroom Power! a creative thought exercise inspired by the power of mushrooms to cleans the environment.

All Street Collective: local communities responding to climate change
Artist Spotlight: Learn about All Street Collective, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant. This artist collective and gallery exhibits works by emerging and underrepresented artists and hosts programs spanning education, performance, music, and community-building. They will present Community Climate where attendees can participate in building an archive of Queens climate actions.

Jing (Ellen) Xu: small actions make big impacts
Artist Spotlight: Learn about Jing (Ellen) Xu, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant, she is a visual artist. For Street Work, she has created an interactive art installation of colorful foam and cardboard rocks reflecting on how small actions can tip the balance toward positive change for the planet and its oceans.

Action at work: meet the experts & contribute to action libraries
We’re working to bridge from experience and joy to practical actions that anyone can take. For us, action is about giving and receiving and resting when you need to.

Kaleidospace: seeding hope and creating healing spaces
Artist spotlight: learn about Kaleidospace, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant, performance ensemble, and community convenor. For Street Work, they’re developing a 2-part music & dance experience immersing us in the story of corporate imperialism and its roles in climate change, as well as the role of collective community-based action in seeding hope, hard work, and alternative healing spaces.

Bayeté Ross Smith: confronting bias in visual journalism
Artist spotlight: learn about Bayeté Ross Smith, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant and visual journalist challenging bias. As part of Street Works, Bayeté is expanding on his Hip Hip 50 Boombox series blending music and sculptures made of sugar and cotton — two of the largest cash crops of American and European colonial powers.

Nitin Mukul: hyper- local art & community action
Artist spotlight: learn about Nitin Mukul, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant, painter, and co-founder of of Epi-Center NYC, a Queens-based community media platform.

Sabina Sethi Unni: community-centered disaster preparedness
Artist spotlight: learn about Sabina Sethi Unni, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant and a public theater artist, organizer, and urban planner raising awareness about disaster preparedness.

Veggie Nuggets: fighting for compost education
Artist spotlight: learn about the Veggie Nuggets, a 2024 Street Work Earth participant and youth climate action group participating in state and local advocacy and raising awareness about composting in NYC; check out their PSA!

Street Work Earth ‘24: Climate experts in creative conversation with artists
Meet the environmental and climate experts connecting with artists in creative conversations for the 2024 Street Work Earth. From interdisciplinary relationships come future friendship, collaboration, co-mentorship, and more.

Save the date: Street Works Earth, Sept 22, 2024, 11am-5pm
Register to join MJN, artists, and climate experts for a day of co-creative art, community building, and environmental and climate action on 34th Avenue’s Open Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, during New York Climate Week!

Welcome to 8 artists joining September Street Works Earth!
We’re excited to announce the 8 artists commissioned to participate in MJN’s inaugural Street Works Earth on September 22, 2024! (Image designed by Cari Hanson.)

Celebration! April convening of 2024 Street Works artists
Thank you to the 2024 Street Work artists for meeting in Travers Park for the first artist convening!

NY’s Climate Change Superfund Act passes!!
June 2024: After years of slow action, the New York State Assembly joined the State Senate in passing the Climate Change Superfund Act— intended to make the most polluting corporations in NY pay for the harm they’ve caused.