Dreaming with the Archives: Brooklyn Bridge Park Opening Celebration

Kinfolk Tech presents Dreaming with the Archives, an augmented reality (AR) exhibition (June 19-August 30) opening at Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 19, featuring artists Olalekan Jeyifous, Hank Willis Thomas, Ari Melenciano, Kiyan Williams, Wangechi Mutu, and Jeremiah Ojo.

Join us for the Opening Celebration and an artist panel with Olalekan Jeyifous, Ari Melenciano, and Jeremiah Ojo, moderated by American Artist on June 21, 5pm.

Take a guided walking tour of the exhibition before the talk at 3:30pm and immediately following the artist conversation. The celebration will be opened by a poetry reading from Flatbush born and raised poet Diane Exavier, who created an original poem for one of the AR monuments.

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About the Exhibition

​Dreaming with the Archives is a public art exhibition that transforms Brooklyn Bridge Park into a canvas for radical imagination through augmented reality (AR). This groundbreaking exhibition invites visitors to experience digital monuments to Brooklyn's layered histories — that exist atop and surrounding the park — while engaging with the current landscape and inspiring futures re-dreamed.

As you move through the park, your mobile device becomes a portal through which to encounter immersive augmented reality monuments created by visionary artists Ari Melenciano, Olalekan Jeyifous, Kiyan Williams, Wangechi Mutu, Jeremiah Ojo, and Hank Willis Thomas. Each of the artists created site-specific artworks to honor the abundant flora, fauna, agriculture, skilled laborers, — enslaved and free — and the sounds that make up the rich cultural history and ecology of Brooklyn and the African diaspora

Dreaming with the Archives invites us all to imagine new futures for our public spaces — futures grounded in our shared pasts and radical possibility. Juneteenth 2025 marks the opening of a portal in public space for NYC to engage with our dreams of liberation and the stories powering our collective memory, through the Summer.

​Presented in collaboration with Brooklyn Bridge Park, this exhibition marks the inaugural moment of Kinfolk Tech’s year-long, multi-city initiative, Dreaming with the Archives, activating imaginations and preserving stories of place through art and technology across NYC, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.

Free and open to the public. Download the Kinfolk app and visit Brooklyn Bridge Park to experience the full exhibition.

Kinfolk Tech brings place-based stories to light, weaving together art, collective storytelling, and technology to create immersive narratives that reshape history, connect generations, and open new pathways for imagining the future.

Brooklyn Bridge Park, one of the most transformative public projects in New York City in a generation, has revitalized a formerly industrial waterfront into a dynamic 85-acre civic space. Created to be environmentally and financially sustainable, Brooklyn Bridge Park is a model for resilient urban design that reconnects New Yorkers and visitors to the waterfront. Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) operates as a non-profit public benefit corporation of the City of New York and is responsible for the stewardship of the park—maintaining its landscapes, maritime infrastructure, and public amenities. BBP develops and delivers dynamic public programming that weaves together arts and culture, recreation, and environmental education to engage, inspire, and serve a diverse community.