Summer Solstice & Opening Celebration: The 2026 Socrates Annual

Bring your friends and family to the Park to celebrate the longest day of the year and experience new works from our 2026 Artist Fellowship! Three out of ten selected fellows, who have been fabricating onsite since March, will inaugurate their site-specific projects. Join us for our Summer Solstice Opening Celebration of “Artists Choose Artists: The Socrates Annual Fellowship Anniversary” featuring the works of Artist Fellows Josué Guarionex, Jeremy John Kaplan and Nicole Mouriño*

Enjoy performances and activations by DJ Christian Martir of Sociedad Life, Caridad de La Luz (aka La Bruja), Juan Usera + La Tribu del Juey Sambuco, and Rebecca Gual. We will feature art making workshops and a special sunset paddle with Long Island City Boathouse. Please see the schedule below for more info.

Food Provided by Spring Food Spot offering fresh tacos, juices, and more!

About the Fellowship Program
For three decades, the Socrates Annual Fellowship has embodied the Park’s founding commitment to artistic experimentation, excellence, and care. The Fellowship remains one of New York City’s most vital platforms for early career artists to create ambitious public works and develop their practices in dialogue with community, environment, and place.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the program and the Park’s 40th anniversary in 2026, Socrates turned to its esteemed alumni network to help guide the next chapter through the Park’s first ever nomination-based process. Initiated in August, Socrates invited over 100 artist alumni to nominate up to two artists each. The Park, ultimately, identified ten artists to join the program over the 2026–2028 cycles. For more info on the Fellowship Program please see here.

Schedule
Note: schedule subject to change, please check the website, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on social media for updated information).

5pm : DJ Christian Martir (as part of the installation La Careta Made a U-Turn).

5:30 - 7:30PM June 21st Solstice Hallets Cove FREE Community Kayaking .

Note: All ages welcome but folks under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or a guardian. If you would like to volunteer for this sign up here.

6:15 - 6:45pm: Caridad/Poetry performance (as part of the installation La careta made a U-Turn).

7pm - 7:30pm: Juan Usera workshop + performance (as part of the installation La careta made a U-Turn).

7:45 - 9:45pm: One Way Kayak Trip from Hallet’s Cove to Anable Basin (please Sign up here for a seat on this trip and for more info). Must be 18 or over for this trip.

8:15 - 8:30pm: Rebecca Gual performance (as part of the installation Massage Core).

BIOS
Caridad de La Luz
Caridad De La Luz is an Emmy-winning poet known as LA BRUJA who in 2022 was appointed Executive Director of the NUYORICAN POETS CAFE where she began her career in 1996. In 2023, she helped secure a renovation project of $24 million for the Nuyorican Poets cafe located on the Lower East Side. She was the winner of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship for 2019-2020 and a 2021 David Prize finalist. Caridad balances a life of leadership, activism, spirituality, education and art with performances in successful Off-Broadway musicals such as I LIKE IT LIKE THAT. She has been one of America’s leading spoken word poets for over 20 years and has received the Puerto Rican Women Legacy Award, The Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Bronx Historical Society and was honored as A Bronx Living Legend by The Bronx Music Heritage Center. She was presented with a Citation of Merit from The Bronx Borough President in 2014 and named “Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know”. She has received the Bronx Cultural Visions Fund recently, a $20K grant from the Bronx Council on the Arts to finalize and present the production by 2025. For full bio and more visit her website here and follow @LaBrujaNYC on Instagram/Twitter/TikTok.

Christian Martir
Christian is an award-winning cultural producer whose work has been recognized and mentioned by various publications including The New York Times and Vogue. I have been able to work on a variety of projects from Madison Square Garden to Mexico City through partnerships that range from the NBA to Nike, to iconic cultural institutions including the Smithsonian and SummerStage. For more info and to learn more about Sociedad Life visit their website here.

Juan Usera + La Tribu del Juey Sambuco
Juan Usera is a fourth-generation Bomba practitioner. Juan’s practice comes from Cangrejos, San Mateo de Cangrejos, called Santurce today. Santurce was the first free Black settlement in Puerto Rico and the most important Black cultural enclave on the island. Juan was born and raised in Villa Palmeras, Santurce, Puerto Rico where he learned his artistic practice in an organic way from his family and community cultural bearers. Juan has been performing and teaching Bomba, Plena, and other Caribbean music styles in New York and Puerto Rico for over 20 years. Juan has performed with Paracumbé, Sonido Isleño, Los Pleneros de la 21, Papo Vázquez, Company Freak, and The Fadara Group among others. For a full bio and for additional information please visit their website here.

LIC BoathouseThe LIC Community Boathouse celebrates our “city of water” by reconnecting NYC residents with our waterways, providing access and instruction for recreational kayaking, an energizing and fun sport for everyone. Their mission is to provide residents and visitors with educational and recreational paddling opportunities. Our programs raise awareness about estuary ecology, supporting the goal of restoring the natural beauty and health of New York Harbor for all to enjoy. For more info and to sign up for their newsletter please visit their website here.

Image credit: Image: 2026 Artist Fellow Josué Guarionex – project rendering for La Carreta Made a U-turn, 2026