Queens Botanical Garden opens a new interactive exhibition on Saturday, October 24, built by two artists and 61 young farmers from a Harlem urban farm. The show, Supremely Unequivocal in Our Commitment to this Moment of Being, is by Cameron Russell and Mei Tao, and its opening day runs from 1 to 3 pm at the garden's main entrance on Main Street in Flushing.

The work asks a direct question: what would it take for a city to make more room for people, animals and plants at the same time? It answers in several forms at once, with photography, sculpture, performance, poetry and drawing spread through the garden.

An exhibition you are meant to touch

This is not a walk-past show. According to the garden, visitors are invited to play with light and shadow, with wind and with sound, and to make things with plants as they go. Play, improvisation and collaboration sit at the center of the work, and the point is to think about how care and cooperation shape the spaces people share.

The pieces were made with 61 young farmer-artists from Harlem Grown, a nonprofit founded in 2011 that runs 14 urban farming sites in Harlem, from soil farms on former vacant lots to hydroponic greenhouses and school gardens, mostly for elementary-age children. That puts a Harlem farm's young growers on view in a Queens garden, two boroughs away from where they work the soil.

The exhibition takes its long title from an essay by June Jordan, the poet and essayist, written in 1977 about the creative spirit and children's literature.

Who made it

Russell and Tao first met more than 20 years ago, working on the same fashion shoot. For the last five years they have made art together with caregivers in several countries, and this year both are fellows at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Russell is the author of the 2024 memoir How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone, published by Random House, and is working on a book about care work, pregnancy and the climate crisis. Tao is a photographer and filmmaker; her photography portfolio Passing Through opens at Photobook Café Gallery in London in November, and her film Homecoming was an official selection at the Austin Spotlight Film Festival and the New York Indie Shorts Awards.

More at the garden this week and next

The exhibition opening lands on a busy stretch of the garden's fall calendar:

  • Autumn Garden Tour, Saturday, October 24, 11 am to noon. The garden's horticulture director leads a walk through the fall plantings, two hours before the exhibition opening.
  • Honey Bottling Workshop, Sunday, October 25, 11 am to 12:30 pm. Beekeeper Helen Colhoun leads the session. The listed price for non-members is $30.
  • Halloween at the Garden, Saturday, October 31, noon to 5 pm. A costume show for small children, a trick-or-treat trail, Halloween crafts, a look at the garden's spooky plants, a storytelling walk with griot Darlene Deloris, live performances, and for adults, harvest beers and ciders, fall foliage and a vendor fair of local businesses. Tickets are $10 for non-members and $8 for children; members get in free.

Admission, hours and getting there

The garden asks visitors to RSVP for the opening through the Eventbrite link on its event page. General admission from April 1 through December 15 is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors 62 and older and for students with ID, $2 for children 4 to 12, and free for children 3 and under and for members. From December 16 through March 31, admission is free.

The garden is open Tuesday through Sunday, 8 am to 6 pm through October, and 8 am to 4:30 pm from November through March. It is closed Mondays.

The main entrance is at 43-50 Main Street, Flushing. Take the 7 train (or the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch) to Flushing-Main Street, then ride the Q44 Select Bus Service or the Q20 south on Main Street, or walk about eight blocks south. Drivers can use the parking garden at 42-80 Crommelin Street, which charges $8 on weekdays, $10 on weekends and $15 on special event days.

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