Street Works Earth Festival Returns to Queens with Focus on Climate Careers and Community Action

Street Works Earth, a day-long festival of art, climate action, and community, returns for the second year to 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights on September 21, 2025. This annual gathering, built through co-creation with artists, organizers, climate leaders, and neighbors, takes place during New York Climate Week and introduces Future@Work, a career fair designed to help people of all ages explore climate-related career paths. The initiative addresses the urgent need for practical support and job opportunities in frontline communities while fostering joy, creativity, and collaboration.

Future@Work is co-designed by multiple organizations including ALIGN, El Puente, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, emphasizing that climate action and good jobs are inseparable. Jenille Scott, Climate Director at ALIGN, stated that a just transition means creating opportunities where frontline communities and working people can thrive with dignity, creativity, and purpose. The career fair, running from 12:00-2:00 pm, provides pathways to green jobs, particularly for young people, immigrants, and BIPOC communities, enabling them to shape the climate future.

The festival also highlights additional themes such as Thread Lightly, which explores the cultural and political power of fashion, and Kindred Roots, celebrating practices of care and mental wellness. These themes, co-designed by organizations like Make Justice Normal and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, underscore the intersection of environmental justice with daily life and cultural expression. Sasha St. Juste, Organizing Manager at WE ACT, noted that climate solutions must speak to our daily lives and futures, addressing both pollution burdens and economic opportunities.

Last year's event attracted over 3,000 attendees and 75 participating artists and community groups, featuring artworks that change with each passerby, embodying the practice of co-creation. This year's festival continues this approach, fostering co-creative decision-making between residents, justice leaders, and policymakers as New York falls further behind on compliance with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The event serves as a rehearsal for a just and joyful world, centering collective power rather than organizations or policymakers.

Free, family-friendly, and open to the public, Street Works Earth runs from 11:00 am-6:00 pm ET, demonstrating how reclaiming public space for art and activism can build resilience and shared power. As Monique Aiken, co-founder of Make Justice Normal, described, it is a living experiment in normalizing justice-centered organizing, showcasing equitable, care-driven solutions co-created with the community. This model highlights the potential for streets and public spaces to become healing, powerful areas centered on people rather than cars, particularly in environmental justice communities like those along the BQE corridor.