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Last August, New York State announced that East River State Park in Williamsburg would be dedicated to LGBTQ civil rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. The news overall was welcome—it marked the double milestone of the first-ever time a New York State Park has honored an LGBTQ person and a transgender woman of color. The less-than-verdant design, however, left a bit to be desired.
Now, following backlash from the initial proposal, the State has engaged Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners to create a new proposal for the park, as first reported by Brooklyn Paper. The new design incorporates more greenery into the waterfront destination and does away with some of its more controversial elements, like a giant plastic rainbow mural.
"Too often, the marginalized voices that have pushed progress forward in New York and across the country go unrecognized, making up just a fraction of our public memorials and monuments," said Governor Cuomo in a statement back in August when the park was first announced. "Marsha P. Johnson was one of the early leaders of the LGBTQ movement, and is only now getting the acknowledgement she deserves. Dedicating this state park for her, and installing public art telling her story, will ensure her memory and her work fighting for equality lives on."
Johnson was an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights and HIV/AIDS treatment. During her life, she was a leader of the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, a founding member of the Gay Liberation front, an activist with ACT UP and a co-founder of S.T.A.R. with Sylvia Rivera. She also established a shelter in the city for young LGBTQ individuals who were rejected by their families.
East River State Park is a seven-acre waterfront park in Williamsburg that hosts a number of popular events including the well-known food festival Smorgasburg, which is open this summer in a brand-new location in Jersey City.