Felicia Young is an artist and the Founder/Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization based on the Lower East Side of New York City, engaging communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. Felicia has developed cultural strategies applying the arts and the theatrical pageant art form, along with civic engagement and environmental activism, to provide a creative, collaborative and public platform for residents, artists and organizations, in our low-income neighborhood, to address and amplify environmental issues and solutions.
Seeking an art-form that could engage diverse communities as well as address and impact on issues for positive change, Felicia was inspired by theatrical pageants (processions with site-specific performances) enacted in her mother’s native land of India, civic pageants popular in early 20th century America and political pageants of the French Revolution. Theatrical pageants as a public art-form, utilize the inspirational power of the arts including sculpture, painting, music, dance, theater, poetry, and ceremony, to inspire and engage people to work together creatively to achieve common goals.
Her community-based collaborative art and environmental action projects for over 30 years, include the Save Our Gardens Project (1991-2005), which applied a collaborative art project and theatrical pageant to build a grassroot coalition effort, which led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens in New York City. She then applied these successful cultural strategies with a collaborative art and environmental action project to engage community in the restoration efforts of the Hudson River and climate impacts on the river and waterfront. She expanded these cultural strategies to a global context (2014-2016), initiating the Valgai River Restoration Pageant & Project, an international and collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai South India, that is in a severe crisis due to pollution, waste dumping, and the drying effects of climate change. The effort led to the Mayor of Madurai and Governor of Tamil Nadu appointing an official panel for the restoration of the river, establishment of a Trust for the Vaigai River Restoration and recognition on a national level by the Smart Cities Council of India and commitment of 1 billion rupees for the Vaigai River Restoration Project implementation. Felicia’s current initiative, the Ecological City: Art & Climate Solutions Action Project, was launched in 2018, applies collaborative arts strategies to engage community residents, youth and over 50 partner organizations, to address, amplify and develop solutions to mitigate flooding, carbon pollution, runoff and climate impacts throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
She has also developed an ecological and social action art course/project for Princeton University, “Art, Ecology, and Community: A Lake Carnegie Pageant” to engage students, community residents, youth, and local organizations through creative collaborative arts strategies to co-create a performance and art project exploring Lake Carnegie and the watershed. The Course/Project developed for Princeton Atelier Program of the Lewis Center for the Arts, includes collaborating Partners: The Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), The Arts Council of Princeton and The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. She shares these creative strategies as a guest speaker on urban sustainability and artistic activism at numerous schools and colleges including New York University, Columbia University, School of Visual Arts, New School/Parsons and Hunter College.
Felicia Young has created and produced ecological and social action art projects for numerous organizations including: The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Arts >World Financial Center, Alternative Museum, World Trade Center/Post Authority of NY/NJ, St. John the Divine, Independent Friends of McCarren Park, New Wilderness Foundation, and Earth Day New York, among many others.
Felicia Young is also the Founder of the first Ecofest event for the New York City Parks Department (1989) and the Trash Monster (1990-1995), Earth Day New York, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The World Trade Center, and Port Authority of New York/NJ.
As a native 3rd generation New Yorker, she has deep roots in the City of New York, as well as much inspiration from the festivals, ceremonies, and mythic dramas from her mother’s native land of India.
Felicia Young has a BA in Art History from Skidmore College and a MA degree in Performance Studies from New York University. Learn more about Felicia at: http://feliciayoung.info/ and 30 years of Cultural Organizing and Ecological Change Video
Felicia’s Statement:
“Right here in New York City where we may often feel disconnected from the natural world, we are also part of a unique ecosystem, one where we must curb our production of waste, pollution, environmental destruction, as well as restore the ecological balance in our city. Art does not only have to reflect life, but can affect it as well by inspiring people’s imagination and bringing them together to address crucial issues. Earth Celebrations programs engage the community to celebrate the natural world, cultivate culturally diverse arts and traditions, document and perform local history — and revive the arts at the center of community life!”
Felicia Young is a climate change superhero who uses the arts to spur community action. Her work has contributed to saving hundreds of New York’s community gardens, cleaning up a sacred river in India, stymieing one of America’s most powerful politicians, spotlighting local solutions to the climate crises, and most importantly, bringing people together to make real change.– William Cleveland, Author, Director Center for the Study of Art & Community
Felicia Young and her Earth Celebrations company are a wonderful example of community based, creative placemaking approaches to environmental advocacy though community-created art and performance art. She works with a wide and diverse group of stakeholders to create colorful, musical, mythological celebrations of Earth and nature and representations of the threats to our planet and our neighborhoods from deliberate or thoughtless damage to the environment. She understands how to motivate people across a wide spectrum of backgrounds, but also how to work with local non-profits and government entities and can work miracles on modest budgets.
Adrien Benepe, CEO Brooklyn Botanic Garden (former Commissioner New York City Department of Parks & Recreation)