09/15/2026
RIGHT TO FLIGHT
A Public Performance & Participatory Artwork
Join us for an afternoon of performance, art, and collective reflection, reimagining the city for migratory birds.
📅 Sunday, September 27 | 1:30–4:00 PM
📍 The Climate Imaginarium, Governors Island
Registration required — link in bio.
Swipe to explore the project →
Right to Flight is a participatory public installation and live performance that invites New Yorkers to reimagine the city for migratory birds.
At its heart is a monumental communal nest, woven from reclaimed textiles and natural materials as a place for collective mourning, storytelling, and hope.
Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds are killed each year through collisions with New York City’s glass buildings. Hand-cast memorials honor birds lost, transforming ecological grief into an act of collective care.
Through handmade costumes, sculpture, sound, performance, and public participation, Right to Flight brings the lives of migratory birds into the human landscape of the city.
Each feather becomes part of a larger act of remembrance and imagining.
Together, these objects create a space to mourn what has been lost while imagining what might still be possible.
Performances inspired by extinct birds invite us to encounter the more-than-human lives that share our cities.
Through movement, costume, and sound, dancers transform ecological memory into a living performance.
The nest becomes a site of collective grief, connection, and hope.
Rather than presenting biodiversity loss as inevitable, Right to Flight asks us to imagine cities where humans and migratory birds can coexist.
Through costume movement and sound, the extinct Passenger Pigeon, Bachman’s Warbler, and Ivory Billed Woodpecker are fleetingly resurrected.
Right to Flight is made possible through a community of collaborators and supporters, including Trust for Governors Island, Pratt Historic Preservation, and Climate Imaginarium, as part of the broader climate conversation surrounding Climate Week NYC.
