Trees of Tomorrow: The Hidden Politics of Ornamental Street Trees

Trees of Tomorrow is an exploration of the hidden politics of ornamental street trees in Flushing Queens — the site of the first commercial nurseries in the colonies, where nature arguably gets defined and othered in early modernity.

Photos by Margaretha Haughwout, Benji Geisler, Cody Ann Herrmann, and Julian Phillips

Trees of Tomorrow is a guided, speculative tour of the trees of Flushing, Queens — exposing the ways trees shape, and are shaped by, neighborhoods, economies, and soils of Flushing; a tour publication, echoing a futuristic theme; a speculative workstation where, in collaboration with teens from John Bowne High School Agricultural Department, we generate visual art, stories and cultivations of Flushing’s trees and tree grafting; and an ever evolving map/network/system where, through conversations with neighbors in Flushing, we make collaborative art that tracks the political pasts, presents and futures across naturecultures. Trees of Tomorrow asks how to empower new natural cultural futures that enable local solidarity and survival across species.

Trees of Tomorrow


2018
"Trees of Tomorrow" that can inform the future of how, Clifford Gallery, Colgate University, New York / by invitation / Group exhibition / (Trees of Tomorrow: Margaretha Haughwout, Cody Ann Herrmann and Julian Phillips, John Bowne High School Agricultural Department, Social Practice Queens MFA program, and other neighborhood stakeholders) /

"Trees of Tomorrow," Sustainability, Open Engagement Symposium, Queens Museum, Queens, New York / Juried / Group exhibition / (Trees of Tomorrow: Margaretha Haughwout, Cody Ann Herrmann and Julian Phillips, John Bowne High School Agricultural Department, Social Practice Queens MFA program, and other neighborhood stakeholders) /

"Trees of Tomorrow." Talk. Environmental Studies Brown Bag lecture, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY.