Flood Sensor Aunty

Flood Sensor Aunty is a municipal comedy about a flood sensor desperate be a movie star, but is busy keeping her aunt’s chai shop afloat from rain gods clogging the bathroom pipes and culturally (in)competent permit inspectors falling in love. Halfway between really funny theater and culturally competent community disaster prevention, this show is about how the best way to protect yourself from flooding, climate change, and despair is through knowing your neighbors. Developed in deep partnership with NYC Emergency Management and trillions of community partners, thousands of audience members in public spaces like chai shops and boats and parks across all five boroughs leave nourished with bellies full of chai, tools for flood protection, and calls to action from community leaders. Check out robust coverage on Grist, Spectrum NY1, the CITY (!!!), the Queens Knight, Streetbeat, SI Live, WaterWire, and more.

This first installation was supported by NYC Emergency Management (as part of National Disaster Prevention Month), Chhaya CDC, FloodNet, Street Works Climate Art Festival, Huntington Art Works, and Culture Push. Two public space performance highlights: our very first performance was interrupted by a wedding, and the groom’s baraat (with a dhol and tassa outcompeting our actors for noise) lasted the entire second act, and our very last performance was interrupted by a rainstorm, but over 200 audience members still laughed through it.

📍 Qahwah House Astoria, PYO Chai, Travers Park, and Lt. Frank McConnell Plaza 

Written and directed: by yours truly
Performer/devisers: Ray Achan, Kshithij Hegde, Isa Nicdao, Val Ramirez, and Alex Scelsco
Community organizer/devisers: Janggo Mahmud, Jess Balgobin, Mehrnaz Tiv
Talkback hosts: Rana Abdelhamid (Malikah), Sadia Rahman (Chhaya CDC), Jill Cornell (NYC Emergency Management)
Documentation: Jesse Herndon and Sarah Drepaul
Sound design: Sriram Iyer
Tea: Miles Kirsch and the Tea Stand
Graphic design: Kruttika Susarla and Abbie Preston