Current Projects
The Tideshift Project
This series of three oral history collecting events preserved the memories of waterfront workers who witnessed the transition to containerization first hand. This project was partially funded by grants from Humanities New York and The New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs.
- Creating a social media plan for The Waterfront Museum to build audience leading into the summer season of performances
- Developing audio tours for the Waterfront Museum, accessible via Urban Archive, to enhance museum visits and provide a visitor experience outside of open hours
- Designing a set of tour texts and enhancements
- Identifying photos to accompany audio along with appropriate attributions
- Recording and editing audio clips
- Gleaning the highest quality files for Seamen’s Church Institute archival photos for inclusion on Urban Archive
- Building an on-boarding video based on the Seamen’s Church Institute’s archival photos
New York Maritime Heritage Floating Conference, 2019
On behalf of the Seamen’s Church Institute, I produced a one-day conference on digital archives for maritime heritage organizations held at the Waterfront Museum. Almost 40 people representing 16 organizations attended this event aboard the 1914 Lehigh Valley no. 79 lighterage barge in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
We enjoyed six presentations on digitizing maritime archives, including examples of work by organizations that have launched digitization efforts of printed material and oral histories along with an introduction to Urban Archive’s exciting tools that put geolocated archival images into people’s hands on our street corners.
This was a series of articles launched in 2018 examining the vessels that shaped New York. In this act of crowd-curation, individuals and nonprofits from around New York Harbor and Estuary were invited to tell the story of New York’s history as they see it through a list of 10 boats. 160 boats and vessel types were mentioned in all and still there were several notable ones(e.g. sandbaggers) that the project overlooked.
Canal to Coast: Reuniting the Waters, 2018
On behalf of Waterfront Alliance, I led a festival celebrating the Erie Canal’s bicentennial. A grant from the New York State Council on the Arts funded this series of five performances and five boat tours of New York Harbor.
Featured performers included musicians Bells and Motley, Artichoke Dance Company, artist Marie Lorenz, cellist Christopher Bell, dancer Davalois Fearon in collaboration with musician Mike McGinnis and historian podcaster Greg Young, playwright Joanie Fritz Zosike, and folk musician George Ward.
The boat tours featured New York City maritime historians visiting Erie Canal terminals, warehouses, and moorage basins along with other important sites in New York canal and freight shipping.
Estuary Explorers, 2018
On behalf of Waterfront Alliance, I led a series of 30 water science field trips serving 700 middle school students from northern neighborhoods of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. These field trips were funded by City Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez, Costa Constantinides, and Paul Vallone along with Douglaston Development.
Students learned about their estuary at their neighborhood water access, tested the water for temperature, salinity, and pH, and learned about the impact of climate change on these qualities and the local marine ecology.
Resilient River Festival, 2018
On behalf of Waterfront Alliance, I led a one day festival of art and science to foster dialogue about community resiliency in the face of climate change. City Council Member Mark Levine funded this event held aboard Baylander, a retired military vessel moored at West Harlem Piers in Manhattan.
Three dance companies drew visitors with performances about water on the foredeck while marine ecology organizations offered marine biology experiences below decks.
Cardboard Kayak Race, 2018 & 2019
On behalf of Waterfront Alliance, I coordinated the 2018 and 2019 Con Edison Cardboard Kayak Races, a highlight of the annual City of Water Day. In this event, more than a dozen teams representing schools, corporations, and community groups race kayaks they build in just a few hours using only cardboard and packing tape. Since 2018 the race has been held on the beach at Dover St. under the Brooklyn Bridge. Racers launch into surf, with some requiring rescue by our safety team in their plastic kayaks.
Forepeak Solutions 