This week we welcome Sabina Sethi Unni, a public theater artist, community organizer and urban planner dedicated to telling funny stories about our crumbling infrastructure (and neighbors organizing to save it) in public spaces. Sabina and I were both participants in last year’s Street Works Earth event on Jackson Heights’ 34th Avenue Open Street, which was organized by Make Justice Normal for Climate Week NYC.
Sabina wrote and directed “Flood Sensor Aunty,” a show about how the best way to protect yourself from flooding, climate change and despair is through knowing your neighbors. Halfway between a funny play about a flood sensor who really wants to be a movie star and community disaster preparedness, you’ll leave nourished with a belly full of chai, laughs, disaster preparedness materials, and calls to action, thanks to partnerships with NYC Emergency Management, NYSCA and other supporters.
Unnis says: “I have a background in climate planning, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat through (or organized!) boring multi-hour workshops about climate change and resiliency. Instead, I see public theater as an exciting strategy for meeting people where they’re at (with resources and information and systemic calls to action), while also having fun! My proudest credentialing (scroll through my site for more conventional credentialing though) is writing and directing public programming in open spaces in every corner of my city: Hunts Point Riverside Park, Traver’s Park, Queens Botanical Garden, Qahwah House Astoria, Washington Square Park, Newkirk Open Street, La Plaza Cultural, Lt. Frank McConnell Park, Rockaway Beach, the Astoria Food Pantry, Gowanus Dredgers Community Boathouse, PYO Chai, Edgemere Farm, Rockaway Community Park, 31st Avenue Open Street, PS Family NYC and more if you let me!
I’ll highlight ‘Rainy Day Play,’ a piece that I directed and co-wrote as an artist in residence at NYU Flood Net Center and brought to three waterfront community spaces; ‘Lunch Break,’ a collaborative protest performance that I wrote and directed for Make the Road with worker-organizers from DRUM, Local 79 and the Street Vendor Project for their May Day Rally; and ‘A Fun Play about How Scary Climate Change Is,’ a piece that I wrote and directed and took to six waterfront spaces and the Queens Botanical Garden’s 2024 Climate Art Festival.
I’m the co-founder and artistic director of Fresh Lime Soda Productions, a contemporary South Asian political theater ensemble and incubator, an inaugural member of the Tank’s Writer-Director group (TAG), the Motor Company’s Writing Circle and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Theater of Change workshop.”
Scroll through Sabina’s website for an exhaustive list of past projects.
