ESSAYS | POINTS OF VIEW
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When Cities Fragment Care: Homeless youth, mental health, substance use, and the spaces between systems
Cities pride themselves on density, diversity, and opportunity. Yet for many young people, urban life is defined less by abundance than by instability—moving between shelters, friends’ couches, subway lines, school hallways, emergency rooms, and court buildings. Youth homelessness is not only a housing crisis. It is a mental health and substance use crisis unfolding in…
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Learning Climate Lessons from my 5-year-old
I heard the worried tone in Mía’s voice when she said, “This feels a little like a movie.” I was cooking us dinner while she watched a cartoon that I was only half listening to, before I keyed in and realized the show was about climate change. Hearing my five-year-old’s fear, I said, “Is it…
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Urban Mini-forests Can Reinvent How Cities Grow, Learn, and Respond to Climate Stress
Sunlight hits the concrete courtyard of a large public school complex in the northern outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil. It is a dense urban area with few trees and limited access to green space. Yet in the courtyard of CEU Parque Novo Mundo, children pick pitanga berries, teachers rest in the shade of young trees,…
TNOC’S MISSION
Cities and communities that are better for nature and all people, through transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.
We combine art, science, and practice in innovative and publicly available engagements for knowledge-driven, imaginative, and just green city making.
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ROUNDTABLES | GLOBAL DISCUSSIONS
PROJECTS | ART, SCIENCE & ACTION, TOGETHER
TNOC FESTIVAL 2026
The journey to greener,
more inclusive cities
continues…
SPROUT POETRY JOURNAL
ISSUE 4: CARE
This latest issue includes works that interrogate the modes of engaging with others in (urban and natural) space that can speak to the interrelated dimensions of care.
NBS COMICS: NATURE TO SAVE THE WORLD
26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity
Now a global project with over ONE MILLION readers, we invite comic creators from all over the world to imagine comics about how people and nature might thrive together. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) Comics empowers creators to combine science and storytelling.
STORIES OF TNOC: VOLUME 2
Cheeky monkeys, vertical farms, climate change, and tree tribunals. Our latest collection features 49 short stories from 20 countries that radically re-imagine city life.
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AROUND THE WORLD…
THE NATURE OF GRAFFITI
This is the nature of graffiti. It facilitates speech. It speaks to us. It stakes claims and makes statements. It tells stories.
The Nature of Cities hosts a public gallery about the graffiti and street art that motivates us in public places.
REVERBERATIONS EXHIBITION
Close your eyes. What do you hear?
An exhibition exploring the elements through art, science, and sound, with over 30 contributors from various disciplines in a multimedia experience. Produced by the USDA Forest Service and The Nature of Cities.
THE JUST CITY ESSAYS
