Jackson Heights Festival Merges Climate Action with Community Engagement During NYC Climate Week

Street Works Earth returns to 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights for its second annual festival, combining art, climate action, and community engagement during New York Climate Week. The day-long event features over 100 artists, climate experts, and community groups collaborating through co-creation practices. This gathering matters because it directly addresses New York's lagging compliance with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), using creative engagement to push for rapid climate action while centering frontline communities in the solution-building process.

This year introduces Future@Work, a career fair designed to help people of all ages explore climate-related career paths. The initiative is co-designed by multiple organizations including ALIGN, El Puente, Frontline Resource Institute, KALEIDOSPACE, Make Justice Normal, Street Works, The Veggie Nuggets, Waterfront Alliance, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice. The career fair offers practical support for those seeking employment in the growing green economy, running primarily from 12:00-2:00 pm. Jenille Scott, Climate Director at ALIGN, emphasized that "Future@Work shows that climate action and good jobs are inseparable. A just transition means creating opportunities where frontline communities and working people can thrive with dignity, creativity, and purpose."

The festival's importance extends beyond career development to demonstrate how climate solutions can integrate with daily life and community needs. Additional themes include Thread Lightly, exploring the cultural and political power of fashion, and Kindred Roots, celebrating practices of care and mental wellness. These programs illustrate how environmental justice must encompass cultural expression and community wellbeing, not just policy compliance. The event builds on last year's success, which attracted over 3,000 attendees and 75 participating artists and community groups, indicating growing public engagement with climate issues through accessible, community-driven formats.

Street Works co-founder Anjali Deshmukh noted that combining practical support like job opportunities with joy and creativity builds community resilience. "We need practical support, like good jobs, as well as joy, creativity, and collaboration. Combining these is how we build resilience, experience shared power, and find ways to face the future collectively," Deshmukh stated. This approach represents a significant shift from traditional climate advocacy by integrating economic opportunity with cultural expression and community bonding, creating more sustainable engagement with environmental issues.

The free, family-friendly festival serves as both a cultural event and a platform for community organizing around climate justice. As Monique Aiken, Queens-born co-founder of Make Justice Normal described, the event represents "a living experiment in normalizing justice-centered organizing" that demonstrates equitable, care-driven solutions co-created with the community. This model shows how climate action can be embedded in local culture rather than imposed through top-down policies, potentially creating more effective and lasting change by building community ownership of environmental solutions.