RIGHT TO FLIGHT Rooftop Performance To Be Presented By Noo Arts

Noo Arts, in collaboration with the Pratt Institute, will present Right to Flight, a rooftop performance and installation which invites NYC to reimagine the city for migratory birds: Site-specific installations and live performances across the Kingsland Wildflowers Rooftops crowning Noo Arts' Greenpoint headquarters (520 Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222). This outdoor event launches WE ARE NATURE: Transformation Stories, the 7th iteration of Noo Arts' multidisciplinary summer series. Admission is donation-based ($5-$25 suggested) with RSVP at https://www.nooarts.org/calendar/right-to-flight.

Right to Fight asks the simple but urgent question: Who is the city for? Led by international author, architect, artist, and Pratt Institute professor, Dr. Harriet Harriss, in collaboration with fashion and textile designer, Brooke Garner, artist Leslie Ruckman, and students from the Pratt MS Historic Preservation Program, the project brings together architecture, public art, and collective ritual to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that die each year colliding with New York City buildings.

Dr. Harriss' sculptural birdbox installation placed along the skyline will be complemented by a human-size grief nest embedded with handwritten community messages featuring cast bird-carcass memorials by Leslie Ruckman.

Live music by Celine du Tertre will be presented on the Sunset Stage, drawing from the songs of four extinct migratory birds: the Passenger Pigeon, Bachman's Warbler, Eskimo Curlew, and Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, whose reincarnations will prance across the rooftops in costumes by fashion and textile designer Brooke Garner. Led by dancer Mariko Endo, audience members will be invited to move together as a "flock," reflecting on interdependence between human and avian life.

The art installation, conceived and creatively directed by Dr. Harriet Harris is made up of five bird nesting boxes and feeders modeled on iconic NYC City skyscrapers. Addressing the issue of avian death resulting from habitat loss and building window collisions, the birdhouses made of Baltic birch are collectively built with students from Pratt's Historic Preservation Program and Greg Sheward. The installation, which is this year's winning proposal for Noo Arts' annual Public Art Residency, will remain on view throughout the summer as part of WE ARE NATURE: Transformation Stories (2026). The commissioning of this site-specific artwork combining aesthetic form with care for wild birds was made possible by a generous donation from JFM Foundation, New York City.

This opening night spectacle making Right to Flight a collective ritual for interspecies care is made possible by the generous support of Pratt Institute's Historic Preservation Program.

Noo Arts' Public Art Residency @ Kingsland Wildflowers is an annual open-call contest inviting local artists to create unique, site-specific installations for their green rooftops. Noo Arts seeks non-intrusive, sustainable artworks that highlight its one-of-a-kind surroundings and encourage reflection on the seasonal theme and humanity's impact on the environment. The winning proposal is displayed on the Upper Meadow of the Kingsland Wildflowers rooftop community center throughout the outdoor season (May - October).

The award is produced and presented by Noo Arts. Program sponsors include Broadway Stages (2022-24); Support the Arts - the Gift that Keeps on Giving in honor of Mothership NYC (2025); and JFM Foundation (2026). The awardee is selected by a jury consisting of representatives of all partners in the coalition behind the Kingsland Wildflowers outdoor community center alongside invited arts professionals.

Noosphere Arts (Noo Arts) is a 501c3 organization and cultural center led by a team of international creatives whose backgrounds blend the arts and sciences. Its freewheeling, multidisciplinary approach engages diverse audiences and builds community through a range of vibrant public events in its indoor-outdoor home in New York City's Greenpoint, Brooklyn.