Public Address, 2025-, iterative public artwork consisting of handwritten log entries, upcycled aluminum city street signs, concrete, and steel, curated by Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa with support from Kendal Henry, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Petrosino Square, New York, NY
Public Address, 2025-, sidewalk intervention consisting of upcycled aluminum city street signs, 8.5 x 14”, 13 signs across Manhattan
Public Address is a citywide public artwork curated by Storefront for Art and Architecture that grows out of my role as Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Cultural Affairs (2022-present). Since 2023, I have led multilingual “log-writing” workshops in dozens of shelters across the boroughs. Traditionally an internal form of record-keeping, these logs are instead used for public testimony and personal expression addressed to the broader NYC public. The entries span housing insecurity, navigating shelter, migration, care, and resistance, offering space for both advocacy and reflection. More than 300 people have contributed, and I continue to hold log-writing workshops.
Through extensive inter-agency negotiations and relationship-building, I brought the Department of Transportation (DOT) on as a partner, enabling participants’ handwritten log entries to be printed onto upcycled aluminum street signs fabricated in the DOT Sign Shop. Public Address operates not only as a representational artwork, but as a civic intervention that repurposes the language and material protocols of municipal infrastructure. It asks existing systems to function differently and redirects the authority of street signage in support of people experiencing homelessness.
Five large-scale, site-responsive installations--one per borough--are currently rotating through NYC Parks. The installations are designed as spaces for listening and respite in a city where public space is increasingly privatized. Each installation anchors a broader network of street-level signs distributed across the borough. One sign is installed in every community district, affixed to lampposts or drive rails, prompting passersby to pause and engage. As the project iterates and travels, new log entries are integrated in real time.
This project is realized in partnership with Commonpoint, where participants in their construction job training program are hired to install and deinstall the installations as they move between boroughs. Public Address is activated by transdisciplinary public programming focused on housing justice, migrant rights, the criminalization of homelessness, and community-driven systems such as mutual aid networks, tenants’ unions, and community land trusts.
︎︎︎ Map of individual signs across the city
︎︎︎
Storefront for Art and Architecture newsprint featuring texts by curator Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa and Department of Cultural Affairs Assistant Commissioner Kendal Henry
Through extensive inter-agency negotiations and relationship-building, I brought the Department of Transportation (DOT) on as a partner, enabling participants’ handwritten log entries to be printed onto upcycled aluminum street signs fabricated in the DOT Sign Shop. Public Address operates not only as a representational artwork, but as a civic intervention that repurposes the language and material protocols of municipal infrastructure. It asks existing systems to function differently and redirects the authority of street signage in support of people experiencing homelessness.
Five large-scale, site-responsive installations--one per borough--are currently rotating through NYC Parks. The installations are designed as spaces for listening and respite in a city where public space is increasingly privatized. Each installation anchors a broader network of street-level signs distributed across the borough. One sign is installed in every community district, affixed to lampposts or drive rails, prompting passersby to pause and engage. As the project iterates and travels, new log entries are integrated in real time.
This project is realized in partnership with Commonpoint, where participants in their construction job training program are hired to install and deinstall the installations as they move between boroughs. Public Address is activated by transdisciplinary public programming focused on housing justice, migrant rights, the criminalization of homelessness, and community-driven systems such as mutual aid networks, tenants’ unions, and community land trusts.
︎︎︎ Map of individual signs across the city
︎︎︎ Storefront for Art and Architecture newsprint featuring texts by curator Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa and Department of Cultural Affairs Assistant Commissioner Kendal Henry
ACTIVATIONS:
“The Right to the City” with writer Jennifer Egan and Will Watts, Deputy Director of Advocacy for Coalition for the Homeless
“The Right to the City: Homelessness and Advocacy” opened the series of programs with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jennifer Egan and Will Watts, Deputy Executive Director for Advocacy at the Coalition for the Homeless. Together, we discussed the current state of homelessness in New York City, the only municipality in the United States that guarantees a right to shelter, a protection won through decades of advocacy and litigation, and the ongoing need for supportive housing and collective accountability. View the documentation here.
![]()
“Homes for People, Not for Profit” with Art Against Displacement
“Homes for People, Not for Profit” brought Public Address into dialogue with Homeless at Home, an artist-led project at Storefront that used stencil-based interventions to address homelessness on New York City’s streets in 1985-86. The program included a conversation with Art Against Displacement (AAD) about their organizing work confronting gentrification and predatory development. This discussion was followed by a hands-on workshop in which participants created prints using replicas of the original Homeless at Home stencils alongside contemporary adaptations. These prints were produced for distribution in public space and for use in AAD’s ongoing advocacy.
“Homes for People, Not for Profit” brought Public Address into dialogue with Homeless at Home, an artist-led project at Storefront that used stencil-based interventions to address homelessness on New York City’s streets in 1985-86. The program included a conversation with Art Against Displacement (AAD) about their organizing work confronting gentrification and predatory development. This discussion was followed by a hands-on workshop in which participants created prints using replicas of the original Homeless at Home stencils alongside contemporary adaptations. These prints were produced for distribution in public space and for use in AAD’s ongoing advocacy.
The opening celebration offered free food to anyone attending the exhibition or passing through the park, prepared by EVLovesNYC’s Cafewal. This free restaurant provides free meals and jobs for new New Yorkers.
PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE:
Research image of log book at NYC shelter
NYC Department of Transportation Sign Shop in Maspeth, Queens where all signs for the project are printed using upcycled aluminum city street signs
Individual sign installation process with DOT
Installation at Petrosino Square with Commonpoint construction training program
Exhibition credits: