Final Notice is a traveling dance tangibly marking the increasing floodplain caused by climate change in coastal Brooklyn.

Performances activate a new interactive map app that exposes climate change, environmental racism, and historical erasure on the Brooklyn waterfront, emphasizing neighborhoods with Superfund and Brownfield sites. The #FinalNotice app was made over a 2-year collaboration with paid Youth Leaders at Red Hook Initiative and El Puente.

Click the button to explore the free app in English and Spanish

Performances by

Antuan Byers

Jason Collins

Christine Flores

Vanessa Vargas

Choreography by Danielle Russo

Costumes by Jenny Lai

Performances will start at the coastline and travel inland, traversing city parks and marking the increasing floodplain caused by climate change in Red Hook and Southside, Williamsburg. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, the tangible risks of Brooklyn’s floodplain are very present.

In Red Hook, the dancers will traverse terrain anticipated to be inundated by the floodplain; in Williamsburg, the work will travel the length between the floodplain edge, illustrating the way the Southside community will be fully surrounded by the waterline.

Final Notice consists of 6 cyclical dances based on the scientific data and historical archives we gathered in building the #FinalNotice map app with Youth Leaders and community allies—local environmentalists, conservationists, historians, and activists doing important work in the face of climate change. With each revolution, these dances accumulate in content, size, and locomotion—echoing and palpably scoring the anticipated 80-year land recession of the Brooklyn waterfront. 

Data research, diverse archives, and community interviews will be cued on audience members’ phone screens and headphones, correlating to their real-time locations. For example, climate change visualizations of increasing high tides and Urban Heat Islands are layered with information about well-known local sites like the Red Hook Houses. Meanwhile, lesser-known histories of Lenapehoking farmland and Red Hook’s “Tin City” Hoovervilles will pop up alongside site-specific oral histories from today’s Brooklynites. Additionally, the performers will wear GoPro cameras to actively record the landscape endangered by climate change.

The territory traveled in Final Notice is located on ancestral Lenape homelands. We honor the importance of these lands for Lenape nations past and present. We acknowledge the ways we have benefitted from colonization, and we are committed to unearthing these systems—and patterns of indigenous erasure—through sharing lost and excluded indigenous histories.

EVENT DETAILS

Final Notice is programmed in part with Climate Week NYC

Saturday, September 25

Performances will begin at 4 pm at Grand Ferry Park, at the intersection of Grand and River Streets, just north of Domino Park. Audiences will be led to various locations along the coastline and surrounding neighborhood, arriving at El Puente’s  ¡WEPA! Festival at 5 pm on Roebling Street between South 4th and South 2nd Streets.  

Sunday, September 26

Danielle Russo Performance Project will host a community gathering at 2 pm at ~GBX | The RETI Center’s Blue City barge at the intersection of the Erie Basin and Gowanus Bay. Performances will begin at 2:30 pm and travel north through Red Hook and Coffey Parks.  

GoPro footage will be streamed via Instagram at @finalnoticebk for remote viewing.

Safety & Accessibility

Accessible locations are provided on route maps. Audiences are asked to follow social-distancing guidelines and to wear a mask for the duration of the event; disposable masks will be offered onsite.

Due to the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19, we will be continually updating this webpage to reflect current protocols. It is important to note that performers are vaccinated and tested regularly, and they are rapid tested on the day of public performance.

For general inquiries, please contact info@finalnoticebk.com. 

Rain Dates

October 2 and 3

Press Inquiries

To request an official press kit and high-resolution imagery, please contact Doug LeCours at info@finalnoticebk.com.

About the App

The first of its kind, the #FinalNotice app synthesizes past and living histories, community resources, and scientific research to steer users toward actionable, everyday solutions and initiatives in the immediate area—those already actively working to dismantle structural racism and build local, urban resilience in the face of climate change. Danielle Russo Performance Project developed the app in collaboration with the Youth Leaders, who were paid through career exploration programs at Red Hook Initiative and El Puente. Together, we gathered, processed, and organized research and data content, and in doing so prioritized self-authorship and reclaiming narratives—particularly championing the Youth Leaders, many of whom are Black and Brown adolescents [between the ages of 10 and 22] whose lived experiences have been directly impacted by the systemic and environmental racism investigated in our collective research. By centering and amplifying their voices and those of local community allies, we reimagine “archive” as a collaboratively generated, living record where science, history, personal storytelling, and activism meet. 

The #FinalNotice app was developed by lead designer Henry Holmes and technologists Winnie Yoe, Tong Wu, and Stuart Lynn.  

Our ever-growing community of researchers, writers, collaborators, and contributors currently includes:

Abdul Keshinro

Akem Le Gendre

Antuan Byers

Arianna Villafane

Ashly Tavarez

Billy Jean

Carolina Salguero

Catherine Hadlock

Cheng Bao

Christine Flores

Danielle Russo

Deandre White

Demetrius Negron

Devin Dennis

Devrin Goodridge 

Doug LeCours

Efrain Gonzalez

Elyse Mertz

Gita Nandan

Henry Holmes 

Hugh Ryan

Iris Ivey

Isis Ivey

Ismael Diaz-Tolentino

Jady Woo

Jakai Lowe 

Jason Collins

Jazmin Nazario

Jholdy Cruz

Jordan D. Baptiste

Jorge Luis Berríos

Karen Blondel

Kathryn McKenzie

Katie Dean

Kayla Farrish 

Kellyn Thornburg

Kia Glean

Kimberley Lucas

Kymani Hines

Lauren Kimiko Parrott

Laura Rodriguez Torres

Leslie Gomez-Rivera

Lisa Willis

Luz Ortiz

Lyndsay Lewis

Marcelo Ortiz

Maria C. Rosa

Michelle Lau

Michelle Montalbano

Monae Minter

Nyla Sprinkle

Nevaeh Middleton

Pascal Perich

Peter Rothenberg

Reniia Sealey

Roya Carreras Fereshtehnejad

Stephanie Zheng

Steven Jeltsch

Stuart Lynn

Suzanne Spellen

Tiffany Agront

‘Titi” Esmerenciana Rodríguez

Tim Gilman

Tong Wu

Valentina Tepepa

Vanessa Vargas

Whitney Browne

Winnie Yoe

Yacetie Santos

Yuneicy Ramirez

Zaniya McDay

#FinalNotice is led by Danielle Russo Performance Project, Red Hook Initiative, and El Puente, with community partners and ally organizations such as The RETI Center, Blue City, Red Hook Farms, Resilient Red Hook, The Brooklyn Public Library/Center for Brooklyn History, PortSide NewYork, and Los Sures, to name a few.

For more information about the app and its community engagement programming, please visit www.finalnoticebk.com.