Inspired by my inclusion in the Bay Ridge Public Art & Ecology Biennial: Essential Shore / Permeable Future, I began exploring connections between the immigrant/refugee experience and environmental awareness, researching a series of “green cards” featuring words that speak to our interconnection and interdependence. The process revealed words with multiple meanings apparent only in context, embodying a kind of interconnectedness within the word itself. I stumbled on words that seem to subvert ego in favor of indigenous identity. I asked for words that transcend categorization and objectification. I received words that break down duality to reveal the whole, or the one.

Added to game play by random selection each round, these words replace GREEN CARD in whichever language they correspond to. Once the cards are in play, they can all be matched to one another, regardless of language or origin. They compliment other green cards that allow the phrase IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE to be replaced with REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE in each of the 9 languages. A compassionate reminder that migration is rarely a choice, and that climate refugees are still not recognized for asylum under international law despite their ever increasing numbers.

The 9 languages in the Bay Ridge iteration are Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Russian, Norwegian, Lenape, and English. The green cards feature the additional languages: Caddo, Nahuatl, Quechua, Old Norse, Sicilian, and Crimean Tatar. The individual boards are centered on the relative locations of the 4 scheduled Bay Ridge events: Stand4 Gallery / Bay Ridge Library / Bay Ridge Center for Older Adults / Narrows Botanical Garden. An artist talk is scheduled for June 7th from 1-3 p.m. at Stand4 Gallery to demonstrate the new game play dynamics.