Right to Flight

On May 30, 2026, Noo Arts welcomes Right to Flight: a rooftop installation and live performance on the Kingsland Wildflowers green roof in Greenpoint, asking a 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.

For our outdoor season opening event on May 30, Harriet Harriss joins forces with her artist crew to ask a simple but urgent question: Who is the city for? Harriet’s 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.
On Sunset Sage, live music by Celine du Tertre drawn 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.

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

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 will remain on view throughout the summer as part of WE ARE NATURE: Transformation Stories, Noo Arts' 2026 season and our annual Residency Award.

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.

Donation-based & open to the public

Suggested donation $25 (general) - $5 (Artist/Student)

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Host or Publisher NOoSPHERE Arts