Experts Call

Make Justice Normal is designing a 1 day Street Work dedicated to art, Earth, and climate action in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, during New York Climate Week (NYCW), September 22-29, 2024.

We’re excited to invite activists, cultural bearers, companies, collectives, and/or suppliers to develop spaces onsite to support climate and civic action, or partner with community-engaged artists developing their own projects. Please fill out a 5 minute call for interest by March 20. Thank you for all you do.

Design Principles

Street Works are by artists dedicated to co-creation in public spaces. It lives in MJN’s arts studio, which is dedicated to fostering mutual support for artists that have committed to justice as the center of their discipline. (Learn here about MJN’s 4 characteristics of justice: democracy, circular leadership, anti-bias, pro-Earth, and decoupling wealth & power.) 

Street Works are by artists who embody most or all of the 4 principles below. We welcome activists, culture bearers, organizations, or companies seeking to learn and practice these principles on the street to join us. No prior experience necessary. Space is limited!

  • ✺ Residents-First

    Street Works center people & groups hoping to connect with local residents; design for people of all ages with 5 minutes or 5 hours; ground in local priorities, languages, contexts, & relationships; and center joy and healing as fundamental.

  • ✺ Public Spaces

    Street Works are for people & groups interested in designing for public space and committed to supporting experiences that care for, create in, and respect streets, sidewalks, parks, and other public spaces.

  • ✺ Co-Creation

    Street Works are for people & groups excited to collaborate with individuals, communities, and institutions through participatory processes, shared power, and deep interaction — vs pushing out an idea or product.

  • ✺ Action

    We welcome people & groups looking to spark hopeful, concrete co-actions that local residents can take to transform frustration, fear, and uncertainty into solutions and personal impact.

Earth

Make Justice Normal’s inaugural Street Work is a 1-day event dedicated to art, Earth, and climate action in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, during New York Climate Week (NYCW), September 22-29, 2024.

In an era of climate injustice, Street Work Earth answers the need for more spaces to practice hope, foster joy, and enable concrete climate action. We also reject siloed thinking: with climate action as the guiding star for Street Work Earth, we invite experts of all focuses to build bridges from artistic inspiration to practical actions that ground in respecting and naming diverse community priorities.

Questions?

Feel free to contact a member of our collective, Anjali Deshmukh, if you have any questions. We're glad to hear from you. If you have any trouble filling out the form below, try this link.

THANK YOU!!

THANK YOU!!

Street Work Studio Members

About Street Works

Street Work Studio Members!
Make Justice Normal: what’s in a name?
General
Make Justice Normal: what’s in a name?
General

When Make Justice Normal was founded, we initially wondered: was the name too big? Were we setting ourselves up for failure in a world in which injustice is normal? Could we embrace the emergence of it all?

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What is MJN’s theory of change?
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What is MJN’s theory of change?
General

For values to become group norms, we must embody in souls. For values to become to lasting norms, we must embody in the systems we control. For embodied systems to scale, we must test and transfer them. (Image by Anjali Deshmukh).

General
How do narratives form?
Arisen, General
How do narratives form?
Arisen, General

MJN sees narrative as the stories and facts told to us and we tell ourselves, including beliefs and ideas formed from words, pictures, sounds, & more. Narratives don’t sit on the surface of content. Instead, they shape how we think, what we think, and what we do — on our own and together.

Arisen, General
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What need does Street Work address?
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Why we need new national platforms for social practice artists and BIPOC-led micro-organizations that advance diverse narratives, present art differently, take about climate change in different ways, and embody different business models.

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Arisen, Street Work
How might Street Works have an impact?
Arisen, Street Work

Why arts have an impact, and why we think today's models of quantifying impact do a deep disservice to the systemic, non-linear nature of human transformation.

Arisen, Street Work
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What data supports the need for Street Works?
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How mountains of data, at the intersection of art, climate, and justice, have led us to design programs the way we have.

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Why and how are we practicing “justice”?
General
Why and how are we practicing “justice”?
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How we’re structuring our collective to embody our values of loving care, justice, and solidarity in every thing we do.

General
Why Street Works, and how does it advance MJN’s mission?
Street Work
Why Street Works, and how does it advance MJN’s mission?
Street Work

Can our public spaces be electrified with the energy of people exploring and co-creating solutions that match their community priorities? We say yes!

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Arisen
What is the impact of centering artists in collaboration?
Arisen

Why the wild creative spirits of artists matter, and how to think about effectively working with them towards aligned goals.

Arisen
Arisen, Street Work
What exactly is “social practice”?
Arisen, Street Work

An art discipline that aims to create social and/or political change through collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions, often in the creation of participatory art.

Arisen, Street Work
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Is Street Works art?
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Yes. Street Work is in itself a social practice project by social practice artists. It is not an “arts presenter.” It is centered in mutual aid.

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