Quietest Places in New York City is available to Pre-Order!
Cover reveal for my new book
Friends, I have a very exciting announcement: my book, Quietest Places in New York City, is officially available to pre-order!
This book began right here, as a Substack post to you all, called Quietest Places in NYC. That post was forwarded to an editor at Rizzoli, who reached out and asked if I wanted to turn it into a book.
When I wrote that original post, I thought it was the least climate-related piece I’ve ever written. When I signed the book deal, I knew if I was going to put my heart into this work, I needed it to have a climate focus.
So after lots of research, I found a clear connection between climate change and quiet. I started an Artist-in-Residency at the non-profit Quiet Communities, and their team helped me understand that most of the noise we hear is generated by fossil-fueled powered machines (cars, air conditioners, construction). This led me to my thesis: fossil fuels are noisy and clean energy is quiet.
I began to realize that the quietest places in New York are often the greenest too. They’re places where you can hear birds singing, the river flowing, or barely any street traffic from all the trees buffering the sound.
As I uncovered hidden gems across New York, I discovered secret ways the city is becoming more sustainable. From the Healing Forest on Roosevelt Island to thriving community gardens in the East Village and even a rooftop farm in Sunset Park.
In the book, half of the locations are green spaces. All the restaurants are plant-based, vegetarian, or farm-to-table. And I share the innovative ways New York is becoming more climate resilient.
Each location is paired with a mindfulness prompt, inspired by my 10 years of meditation practice and informed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Buddhist philosophy, to help you connect more deeply to the environment around you.
Creating this book has been my love letter to New York. I painted 67 of my favorite places in the city. It’s been so hard not to share the art from this book until now, and I’m so excited for you to see the new style I was able to develop.
Writing this book allowed me to explore three of my favorite things: New York, mental health, and sustainability. Quiet became the connecting thread. I define quiet not as the absence of sound, but as the presence of calm within and around you. Through this lens, I began imagining a quieter, more sustainable, and joyful future.
I was honored to receive a blurb from the incredible Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who said it best:
A celebration of climate solutions, this book is the sweetest and most beautiful guide to my hometown.
-Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author of What If We Get It Right?
Here’s a little preview from when I got the color test proofs of the art while I was on a call with my climate bestie Lyn Stoler!
The book launches on March 10, but pre-orders make a huge difference for authors. They signal to the publisher to produce more copies and support marketing. If you’re able to pre-order or share the link with a friend, it would mean the world to me!
very very cool
I just LOVE the cover!