Please join us for a series of artist-led workshops that will visualize the possibility of daylighting Flushing Creek. Flushing Creek was artificially forced underground at sections into pipes for the construction of the 1939 World’s Fair grounds and now runs beneath and through the center of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Daylighting, or restoring underground portions of a waterway into above ground habitats, has immense benefits for social-ecological health and climate resilience.

Led by poet Nadia Misir, participants of this first workshop will learn about the submerged history of Flushing Creek by examining maps and walking through Flushing Meadows Corona Park. We will learn about the elegy and the shape poem as two forms that can help us think about how to restore the cultural memory of the creek to maps of the land as it exists today. We will read quotes and poems centered around water, memory and grief by Toni Morrison, Lucille Clifton, and Rajiv Mohabir to guide us as we write our own poems inspired by what we learn.

Organized by Guardians of Flushing Bay together with artist and educator Julia Norton, each of the four workshops in this series will be led by a different Queens-based artist selected through an open call . Some workshops will move through the park to examine Flushing Creek first hand, while others will remain in the museum to consider the waterway more broadly. The workshops will allow for exploration within a variety of artistic mediums, such as conceptual practice and hands-on art making. The goal of the workshops is to reveal Flushing Creek through visual materials and content that can be utilized in engaging local park users in the future possibility of daylighting Flushing Creek.

These workshops will be designed for adults ages 18 and older. Any minors older than 12 are welcome to participate, but must be accompanied by an adult. All participants should be prepared for uneven terrain, long outdoor walks and muddy conditions. No prior experience is necessary.

Join for one workshop or for the whole series. Registration is required in order to attend each workshop. Please click here to RSVP.

Other upcoming workshop dates are:
April 30, 2023, 1-4pm
May 21, 2023, 1-4pm
June 25, 2023, 1-4pm

More about the artist:

Nadia Misir is a poet who would rather paint than write. Born, raised and still living in South Ozone Park, Queens, she posts more on Instagram than she submits to literary journals. Nadia works as an activity specialist in an after-school program at a public school on the Lower East Side. She received her BA in English from SUNY Oswego and an MA in American studies from Columbia University. She also holds an MFA in fiction writing from Queens College, CUNY. Her writing has been published in Poetry, Kweli, Papercuts, The Margins, No, Dear Mag, and QC Voices. Her creative practice has been supported by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Louis Armstrong House Museum, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and Queens College, CUNY’s QCVoices. She has facilitated writing workshops in collaboration with South Asian Feminism(s) Alliance, Queens Memory, Reimagine, Five Boro Story Project and others. She is in transit more often than she is at home.