During Climate Week 2018, the entire New York community had the opportunity to experience a multitude of events and projects designed to deepen our understanding of climate change and impact on our lives. The Point NYC was an inspired initiative by local organization, Greenpoint Innovations, that featured evocative street art and theater to challenge our progress-driven society to consider the deeper, still mysterious ways that our choices will impact future generations.
The Point NYC focuses on our youth. “With UNICEF being one of our supporting partners, young people were established as one of our key audiences,” said Stephen Donofrio, founder of Greenpoint Innovations. “By leveraging the arts to bring together a local and global representation of children, youth, dignitaries, business leaders, and the general public, our goal is to recognize and act on the human impacts of climate change and the power and role of all people, particularly the youth, to take action for a better future.” The Point NYC addresses the reality that many of the yet-unknown consequences of global warming will be shouldered by a demographic that is not responsible for its cause.
The Point NYC’s theater production of “Tre: The Adventures of Brother Earth” was based on a comic book written by youth winner of the Climate Comic Contest, Sona Sridhar.
The play was performed collaboratively by Hypokrit Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre during Climate Week. It allowed audiences of all ages to experience the heartbreaking destruction of nature’s beauty and the hope of committing to fight what underlies this destruction.
Sridhar explained, “This story is about a young superhero trying to teach the world that long term sustainability is more important than short term economic gains. I became passionate about the issue of climate change when my town in Chennai, India was flooded – my family and I helped people who were displaced, but tragically, lives were destructed and even lost. We need to take action on climate change!” The rich character portrayal in this story allows everyone, regardless of whether they’ve personally experienced such a tragic consequence, to connect with the message.
Another facet of The Point NYC is wall murals by street artists Sonny and ASVP, both painted on the walls of Intermediate School 318 Eugenio Maria de Hostos (“IS 318”) in East Williamsburg. This journey began in late spring when Susan Anderson, local non profit Town Square‘s Executive Director, introduced Stephen Donofrio and Greenpoint Innovations to IS 318, the largest public middle school in North Brooklyn. IS 318 is also a Title 1 school, which means that the majority of the students are from families living below the poverty line.
Anna Sellinger, IS 318 PTA President, proudly shares that “despite these challenges, IS 318 is a wonderful school with a renown national chess championship team, a music program that performs at Carnegie Hall every year, a baseball championship team, a basketball championship team, a softball championship team, a math championship team, a robotics championship team…the list goes on and on. Many IS 318 students go on to the best and most sought after public high schools in New York City. Our beautiful students and school amaze me! And with these murals, we can now share our school’s inner beauty with our community at large.”
Donofrio agrees. “Since the concept for the project was initially inspired by a youth-oriented climate change comic book, working with a Title 1 public school such as IS 318 seemed like a perfect opportunity to showcase the comic book’s superhero story while connecting the dots between local Brooklyn youth and global youth.”
Sonny hails all the way from South Africa. His stunning piece features half of a child’s face combined with half of a jaguar’s face. The child in the painting is of the Yawanawa Tribe, a Brazilian group of indigenous people known for their commitment to protecting their environment (including the jaguars that live there). Sonny’s immersive work merges humans, wildlife, and the natural world, creating a sense of humanity’s inherent dependency on harmony with the rest of life on earth, a theme of his work as an artist: “With a true passion for wildlife, Sonny believes that the well-being of animals is intricately connected to our own ability to thrive.”
ASVP are Brooklyn locals, and their stark black-and-white mural depicts a stack of endangered animals supporting a human, who is reaching toward a bird descending from flight. All of the creatures depicted in the mural are endangered, except for humans. And yet, as powerful and dominating as the human race is, ASVP’s vision depicts man’s position at the top as only a result of “the support that it receives from the world around it, visually portrayed by the animals.”
The riveting murals halt passing students and commuters, alike and spark animated conversations. Donofrio says, “Ultimately, if we can collectively produce public art that positively engages through its beautiful aesthetic, then we’ll have a larger platform to discuss with a greater audience the purpose behind the paint: climate sustainability, forests, and people. By placing these two murals on opposite walls of a school to provide educational launch pads for the young people within, our hope is that so too will the diverse surrounding community find sustainability insights and inspiration from this beautiful art.”
He continues, “These projects are made possible by the selfless contributions of many. We are very grateful to the support that we have received from NYS Assemblyman Joe Lentol and his office, NYC Councilman Stephen Levin and his office, Superintendent Alicja Winnicki of District 14 schools, IS 318 Principal Eric Windley, IS 318 PTA Head Anna Corinna, Susan Anderson with local non-profit Town Square, and their environmental initiative Go Green BK!”
IS 318 invites everyone to a celebratory ribbon cutting at 10:50 AM, this Wednesday, October 3rd at 101 Walton Street. Please RSVP here!