Public Address: A Reading

The Brooklyn Public Library invites you to join artist Alex Strada, Public Artist in Residence with the New York City Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Cultural Affairs, as she brings her long-term project with Storefront for Art and Architecture to Brooklyn’s Columbus Park. She is joined by a cohort of advocates, artists, and writers who invite you to experience Public Address, a citywide public art exhibition centering the voices of people experiencing homelessness and frontline shelter staff.

The artworks in Public Address—handwritten and drawn accounts printed as aluminum city street signs—were created by people living and working within New York City’s shelter system through log writing workshops. Written to be encountered and responded to, these anonymous entries are addressed to the NYC public, inviting reflection and collective attention. The project reconfigures an internal system of record-keeping into a public-facing form, redirecting the authority of municipal signage toward public testimony and listening.

In this intimate encounter with a multi-year, participatory art project, leading voices on issues of housing and homelessness, migration, the arts and civic life will read and respond to the log entries on view.  Guest readers are scholar Alexandra Délano Alonso, architect Nandini Bagchee, Arash Diba of VOCAL-NY, artist Pablo Helguera, author Suketu Mehta, Eva Raison, Director of Brooklyn Public Library’s Outreach Services. community organizer and educator Rob Robinson, organizer Maria Ponce Sevilla, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS), and author Samuel Stein. The readings will be accompanied by an artist-led walkthrough of the installation and its movement across the city.