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Emily Raboteau on New York City's Bird Murals
Documenting birds in street art before they disappear
© Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau’s book, Lessons for Survival, begins with a painting of two Burrowing Owls on the security gate of a local business in West Harlem, near where she teaches. Intrigued, she found more bird murals nearby, later learning that they are part of a collaborative effort between the National Audubon Society and artists to highlight bird species at risk of extinction due to climate change. Emily decided to seek out all the murals and photograph them before they disappear – because like birds, street art is ephemeral.
BirdNote®
Emily Raboteau on New York City's Bird Murals
Written by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
[Manhattan soundscape]
Emily Raboteau’s book, Lessons for Survival, begins with a bird. Well, a painting of a bird…
Emily Raboteau: … in New York City, actually in West Harlem, where I teach, and it was a mural of two birds, a pair of Burrowing Owls. And I found the mural to be really delightful, and also kind of surprising in the context of the cityscape.
After the Burrowing Owls, painted on the security gate of a local business, Emily saw another mural, and another. She later learned the paintings are a collaboration between artists and the National Audubon Society to highlight bird species at risk of extinction due to climate change. Scattered throughout New York City, Emily decided to seek out all the murals and photograph them.
Emily Raboteau: Because as you know with street art, it's gonna disappear, probably. It's not gonna be there forever. Grime is gonna change it, or it's gonna get tagged over by another graffiti artist, or the business is gonna change hands, and the bird’s gonna disappear. So I wanted to document them before they were gone.
[White-throated Sparrows singing in Central Park]
Emily Raboteau: My project was also — it’s about loss. It's about like, recognizing beauty while it's here, in an act of love and devotion and conservation, in the same way that people participate in bird counts — participating in something that’s bigger than myself.
You can learn more in Emily Raboteau’s new book, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse.” For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. White-throated Sparrow ML537236261 recorded by Ryan Zucker.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote June 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# RaboteauE-01-2024-06-03 RaboteauE-01
Michael Stein
Narrator
Conor Gearin
WriterSights & Sounds
