Relationship at work: where the 2024 Street Work is and who it's for

Among the four design principles that ground Street Works is people and local relationship: centering the people participating, with particular focus on people who live and work in an area where an event is taking place. For us, this is essential and natural: for example, if we have an event in the park, we design, curate, and create for the people visiting it every day. (How else would you do it?)

But events are more complicated than that, in part because our connection to place has thinned and complexified as a result of public/private design.

For example, we often live far from where we work, and far from our closest community. Costs also drive our choices, and the way we receive information is totally decentralized.

This all affects how we participate in community connection. An event might be exclusionary because it's too expensive to attend (yes, events can also be expensive to create). Or you might never hear about it because you're reading totally different news sources from your neighbor. Or your event might be a reunion for people who have been spread across the world.

MJN seeks to center in people in place, while still grounding in the fact that our members live very far from one another and have found ways to not let proximity prevent solidarity. Read on to learn more about Jackson Heights, Queens, the place we’re centering for the 2024 Street Work.

Western Queens

We've got a lot of Queens pride at MJN. Several of us have lived here for a long time, and some of us were born here. Our Queens team lives and is connected in different ways to 3 connected neighborhoods: Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona. They’re among the most diverse places in the world: about 86% BIPOC, with many recent and first-gen immigrants. About ~130 languages are represented here. Gentrification is fast moving from Manhattan.

Queens Represents

Six of the eight invited artists participating in Street Works live in and make for Queens residents. 4 of them have regularly work in Jackson Heights public spaces. All live nearby and seek to care for the city we call home.

Relationship

We always say: Street Works should be kind of like anniversaries: not exactly the main point. They are marking moments in a longer journey to strengthen solidarity, one of MJN’s foundation system principles, and to celebrate all of the amazing things participants are doing to support it every day.

Practically, this means that we distribute income across participants where we can, rather than spending more on production; we prioritize building connection people before, during, and after events rather than designing events that look like polished performances. We think about what will benefit local businesses; we think about ways to keep income in mission-aligned community.

Will we succeed in using the focal point of an event to think concretely about long term relationships? We don't know. In a community that is short on time & money, including us, relationships are hard to foster. We see the challenges and use the curatorial principles to stay true to our purpose.