Summer Solstice 2025
Friday, June 20 | 5 – 8:30 pm
RSVP Free HERE
Bring your friends and family to the Park to celebrate the longest day of the year! Enjoy food by local vendors as the sun sets, and more. Enjoy an inflatable art installation by Mookntaka along with interactive workshops by Wearable Tracy, Kimberly Chou Tsun An, a performance by Fogo Azul NYC, and food provided by Kinky Taco truck!
Schedule and Descriptions
5 pm – 8: 00 pm Mookntaka Installation
Mark is an architecturally-trained artist who infuses design with humor. Having worked as an architectural and interior designer for world-renowned firms, Mark uses his experience designing private homes and high-end furniture to create thoughtful, well-crafted public artworks to be experienced by all. Karyn is a fiber artist that believes we are like pompoms— many pieces connected by a common thread. She learned about inflatable-making in art school and fell in love with the guerrilla nature of inflatable art and the ability to make large scale sculptures easily transportable. Whether it be inflatables, pompoms, or community craft nights, the heart of Karyn’s work is to bring people together and connect through play. Mark brings the scale and structure, while Karyn brings the softness and color. Together, we experiment and produce playful objects and joyful experiences for all ages! For more info please visit their website here.
5 pm – 8:30 pm: Food provided by Kinky Taco Truck
Building upon this experience, we showcase soulful African American flavors with bursting blends of Cajun and blackening spices, while infusing a variety of traditional Mexican peppers. Our menu has been professionally designed and curated by celebrity chef, Airis Johnson, a Food Network ‘Chopped’ Champion, and a two-time competitor. Featured in Forbes magazine, Chef Airis lends her expertise in global cuisine and fine dining in creating an exceptional and elevated taco experience. Kinky Taco Truck will remain true to its roots in the Brooklyn area, with a focus on East New York and surrounding neighborhoods where there is a need for more quality food offerings. For full bio and info visit their Instagram page for updates.
5 pm – 8 pm: Pipecleaner Crown Making with Wearable Tracy
Become pipecleaner royalty at Socrates at this crown making workshop with Wearable Tracy!
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm: : A guided tea meditation and ritual with Kimberly Chou Tsun An
“Looking deeply, we can see that a simple cup of tea, a tangerine, or a morsel of bread are nothing less than an ‘ambassador of the cosmos.’ Eating with the energy of mindfulness we can experience our interbeing with the planet that is nourishing and sustaining us, and heal our feelings of loneliness and disconnection.”
Join Kimberly Chou Tsun An for a guided tea meditation and ritual — inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness meditations — engaging with herbal tea cultivated from her cross-cultural medicine garden as part of the 2024 Socrates Annual Fellowship, harvested and blended with community members over the course of the growing season. Learn together about Western and Asian herbalism, and share knowledge and stories of your favorite herbs.
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Performances by Fogo Azul NYC
Fogo Azul NYC is New York City’s best and most powerful performance group. The New York City-based all-women, trans, and non-binary Brazilian Samba Reggae drum line Fogo Azul (Blue Fire) was born at the intersection of founder and Buffalo, NY native, Stacy Kovacs’ passion for Samba Reggae, her deep respect for its cultural roots as a music of protest and resistance, her belief and activism in support of gender equality and her sense of civic duty in the current environment to publicly awaken and inspire people to resist oppression and exercise their power to uplift society —loudly. Launched in 2016 as an extension of Marcus Santos’s Samba Reggae-based Grooversity education project, Fogo Azul NYC is an age and ethnically diverse community that spans the drummer spectrum from novice to professional. For more info visit their website
Image: Li Schmidt activation of “Yours, Mine, Ours: Community Garden” by Kimberly Chou Tsun at Summer Solstice 2024. Photo: Bob Krasner