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

Street Works Earth returns to 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights on September 21, 2025, for its second annual festival combining art, climate action, and community engagement. The event, organized by Street Works in partnership with Make Justice Normal, features over 100 artists, climate experts, and community groups during New York Climate Week. This year's festival introduces Future@Work, a career fair designed to help people of all ages explore climate-related career paths, co-created by multiple organizations including ALIGN, El Puente, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

The festival highlights two additional themes: Thread Lightly, which explores the cultural and political power of fashion, and Kindred Roots, which celebrates practices of care and mental wellness. These initiatives address the urgent need for climate action as New York falls further behind on compliance with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) at https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/Climate-Leadership-and-Community-Protection-Act. Last year's event attracted over 3,000 attendees and 75 participating artists and community groups, demonstrating the growing public engagement with climate justice issues.

Street Works co-founder Anjali Deshmukh emphasized the importance of combining practical support with creative collaboration, stating that this approach builds resilience and shared power to face future challenges collectively. The festival's co-creation model represents a shift from organization-centered approaches to community-centered solutions, with Street Works co-founder Ernest Verrett describing it as "a rehearsal for the just and joyful world we're building together."

The career fair component, Future@Work, addresses the critical intersection of climate action and employment opportunities. Jenille Scott, Climate Director at ALIGN, noted that "climate action and good jobs are inseparable," emphasizing that a just transition requires creating opportunities where frontline communities can thrive with dignity and purpose. This approach is particularly significant for communities disproportionately affected by environmental pollution, such as those along the BQE corridor represented by El Puente at https://elpuente.us.

Youth engagement forms another crucial aspect of the festival, with The Veggie Nuggets collective encouraging young people to explore how they can contribute to climate justice through their careers. The event demonstrates how climate action rooted in community, creativity, and care can create meaningful pathways for frontline communities to participate in shaping their environmental future. The festival runs from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm ET and is free and open to the public, serving as a model for how public spaces can be transformed into centers of community power and environmental justice.