New York is known as a place of diverse communities, however, the contemporary NY has widened the gap between the rich and poor, thus further marginalizing minority populations: homeless, lgbtq+, disabled, etc.

Belmont Island, an island left abandoned for wilderness to take over. A wasteland created as a result of the Steinway Tunnel construction in the 1890s that was then used by the UN Peace Mediation group to maintain and plant greenery until the 1990s when access to the island was revoked. The island is known as a reef, a site of industrial intervention and ingenuity, a place of both protest and contemplation during the early years of the United Nations, and now a nature sanctuary seen by New Yorkers and tourists as the city’s waterways become a place of both transit and entertainment once again.

Fringe Collectives,

brings light to minority groups that New York turns a blind eye to using this island as an anchor for conversation with the UN and NYC as it sits between Manhattan and Queens.