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ESSAYS | POINTS OF VIEW

  • Framing the Future: Voices and Visions of Youth in Puerto Rico

    Framing the Future: Voices and Visions of Youth in Puerto Rico

    As cities expand, urban inequalities become more pronounced. In many cases, cities fall short of serving the needs of residents. Youth have unique experiences of these shortcomings as they occupy and rely on urban spaces they had little to no say in creating. However, they will soon be the inheritors and stewards of these spaces,…

  • Street Tree Tarot is a Tool for Storytelling, Connection, and Reflection

    Street Tree Tarot is a Tool for Storytelling, Connection, and Reflection

    Matthew López-Jensen, the artist, author, and educator behind New York City Street Tree Tarot. The Street Tree Tarot deck is a photography deck designed to be used like any other tarot deck, but with the hope that users will bring their own meaning to the cards and develop new patterns and ways of interacting with…

  • When Cities Fragment Care: Homeless youth, mental health, substance use, and the spaces between systems

    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…

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

The Just City Essays
26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity
Produced by The Nature of Cities, together with The J. Max Bond Center, and Next City, we ask what would a just city look like, and what could be strategies to get there? We raised these questions to architects, mayors, artists, doctors, designers, scholars, philanthropists, ecologists, urban planners, and community activists. Their responses came to us from 22 cities across five continents and myriad vantages.