Public Street Right of Way

 wrack zone

I have been in love with our salty edges and brackish banks since my folks first dangled my toes in Narragansett Bay. Since 2016-ish I have been part of organizing efforts led by neighbors advocating for environmental justice around our port. My enthusiasm for public access to our coastline has most recently been expressed through my efforts to celebrate and protect South Providence’s Public Street Right of Way. From 2024-2025, these efforts were supported by my participation in the Providence Commemoration Lab’s staging of temporary projects on public property to further understanding of commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation. My project included thatched shade structure, air quality warning windsocks, an illustrated map of safe(r) public access spots for fishing and swimming, and other amplifications of the threats and pleasures of this previously neglected public right of way to the bay. Stewarding community engagement process involving 100+ neighbors of Public St. and collaborating with groups including The People’s Port Authority, Breathe Providence, and The Davey Lopes Community Center.

Read the ecoRI article about this project here 

wrack zone is an indoor coastal naturedrag pageant, clown show, and DIY effort to unsettle time. Starring an iron-age bog body, Hulk Hogan’s ghost, Pangea-in-process, and at least one massive flock of endangered shore birds, this puny human play reckons with five billion years of the moon. Amidst 450 million years of horseshoe crabs, the tide(x2), SPF 50, and an egg salad sandwich in the sun. wrack zone messes with intertidal space/time and invites audiences into low-stakes collaboration through drawing prompts, snack eating and fabric handling. Bask in cardboard anthropomorphism and poetic semaphore. Join us to be overtaken. 

Created by Eli Nixon and friends