AS NYC PREPARED TO SET ITS BUDGET, I WAS ASKED TO WRITE POEMS TO SET A BETTER AGENDA.
New York City’s quarterly budget decisions impact everything from policing, to healthcare, to housing access. To push for more investment in social and community-oriented services, Hester Street Collective, Make the Road, VOCAL-NY commissioned a group of poets, animators, and illustrators to work with community organizers across the boroughs to launch a public arts campaign. “FUTURES NYC” debuted at City Hall, and in wheat-pasting blitz about the city.
WE ASKED COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO SHARE THEIR VISIONS FOR the city.
artists THEN put these IDEAS into WORD AND PICTURE.
PARTNERING WITH local organizers, I WROTE A POEM TO ADDRESS each KEY ISSUE area.
THE WORK WAS POSTED AT CITY HALL AND WHEAT-PASTED ABOUT THE CITY. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THEM HERE.
“The Futures NYC initiative is a key tool in engaging a public conversation around some of the most difficult issues facing our city…this program advances bold ideas that we need to ensure our city, especially Black and brown folks, equitably recovers from the pandemic.”
- COUNCILWOMAN CRYSTAL HUDSON