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Gov­er­nors Island Arts Presents Bahar Behb­hani’s DAMASK ROSE: A GATH­ER­ING, Part of Its INTER­VEN­TIONS Series, May 16

May 14, 2026 10:17 am

A cel­e­bra­tion struc­tured around the ethos of the Per­sian Gar­den, with music, per­for­mance, sto­ry­telling, food, and bev­er­age unfold­ing across three ​“pools”, Damask Rose offers a method­ol­o­gy of care in a time of grief

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, presents Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing, a spring cel­e­bra­tion cre­at­ed by artist Bahar Behba­hani, May 16 from 1 – 5pm in Liggett Ter­race on Gov­er­nors Island. Inspired by the tra­di­tions of Per­sian Gar­den, the work cen­ters Damask Rose, an immi­grant flo­ra from the East, and hon­ors migra­tion and hos­pi­tal­i­ty. Guid­ed by con­cep­tu­al ideas of shade, wind, immi­grant flo­ra, and dias­poric eco­log­i­cal and ances­tral knowl­edge, this gath­er­ing brings togeth­er non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, food and drink sto­ry­tellers, herbal­ists, tea prac­ti­tion­ers, musi­cians, and many oth­er like-mind­ed com­mu­ni­ties and part­ners to share a moment of joy and resilience.

Damask Rose entwines two of Behbahani’s long-ges­tat­ing cre­ative and per­son­al desires. The artist whose research-based prac­tice approach­es land­scape as a metaphor for pol­i­tics and poet­ics had long want­ed to build a Per­sian gar­den in New York as a recla­ma­tion from West­ern roman­ti­ciza­tion — empha­siz­ing the tradition’s intri­cate engi­neer­ing, hor­ti­cul­tur­al wis­dom, and spir­i­tu­al foun­da­tions. As an immi­grant who came to the coun­try know­ing no one over two decades ago, Behba­hani has like­wise aspired to throw a giant par­ty to bring togeth­er the com­mu­ni­ties that have since become her own. When Gov­er­nors Island Arts engaged her for its annu­al INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series, she saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sym­bol­i­cal­ly unite these two ideas. 

She says, ​“I thought my voice itself is not enough: I’ve always want­ed to invite peo­ple whose work I admire into my home, to cook, read, play, and talk togeth­er, the way we do back home. But here, no one seems to have the time to live that way. This project felt like the time I could use to invite oth­er orga­ni­za­tions and oth­er voic­es to cook this with me and bring their own knowl­edge hold­er com­mu­ni­ties and radi­ant ideas. I real­ly get ener­gy from all these part­ners who got excit­ed and brought their com­mu­ni­ties into it and went so far beyond the pro­vi­sion of resources. We put hours and hours of work into it; even a tem­po­rary gath­er­ing can have a last­ing impact.” 

On the repur­posed for­mer mil­i­tary post-turned lush site of art and exchange, she sim­i­lar­ly cre­ates a site of cel­e­bra­tion and wel­come against a back­drop of war and mil­i­ta­rized immi­gra­tion enforce­ment. Reflect­ing the phi­los­o­phy of inter­con­nect­ed pools in Per­sian Gar­dens, Behba­hani cre­ates three stages that will be simul­ta­ne­ous­ly and con­sis­tent­ly acti­vat­ed through­out the four-hour event. 

Loose­ly, one ​“pool” will cen­ter music and bev­er­age: with an Afropol­ka col­lab­o­ra­tion bring­ing togeth­er Cameroon­ian singer Kaïs­sa Doum­bè, Gambian/​Senegalese kora play­er Malang Jobarteh, and Pol­ish drum­mer Maciek Schejbal (1 – 2pm); Move­ment & Flower Mus­es, god­dess mak­ing using Japan­ese paper and paint from matcha, turmer­ic, and hibis­cus, with Kaoru Shimizu and Milād (1 – 2pm); an audi­to­ry expe­ri­ence from SAG Radio/Sasan Osk­ouei high­light­ing mix­es from Iran­ian and South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists (2 – 3pm); The For­bid­den Spir­it, an event from SAG NYC sur­round­ing Aragh Sagi, the raisin-based dis­tilled spir­it from Iran, long banned but still present in under­ground cul­ture (3 – 4pm); and music from Imal Gnawa, the ensem­ble com­bin­ing the deep spir­i­tu­al and rhyth­mic lega­cy of Moroc­can Gnawa music and bold futur­ism, and oth­ers asso­ci­at­ed with Barza­kh Café (4 – 5pm). 

The sec­ond ​“pool” will be a site of dis­cus­sion and reflec­tion, fea­tur­ing Talk­ing Peers: Tea as Ves­sel, a tea-shar­ing acti­va­tion from Asia Con­tem­po­rary Art Forum (ACAF) (1 – 2:15pm); Braid­ing Resis­tance, a hair-braid­ing and knit­ting event from New York Kur­dish Cul­tur­al Cen­ter with a read­ing by Kur­dish poet Sama Ali (1:45 – 2:30pm); and Hikay­at: Dreamweav­ing, an event from ArteEast bring­ing togeth­er artists and spe­cial guests for a col­lec­tive dis­cus­sion weav­ing togeth­er a tapes­try of his­to­ry, mem­o­ry, and sur­vival, root­ed in a sen­so­ry explo­ration through the ves­sel of the Damask Rose (2:30 – 4pm). 

Anoth­er ​“pool” will fea­ture engage­ments for kids and par­ents: The Recon­struc­tion of (WE): Botan­i­cal Cyan­otype, a work­shop high­light­ing the bio­di­ver­si­ty of trees on Gov­er­nors Island with Natalia Nakaza­wa (1 – 2:30pm); a weav­ing work­shop that con­sid­ers the imme­di­ate real­i­ties of dis­place­ment and what peo­ple car­ry with them when they’re uproot­ed, with Cyn­thia Alber­to (1 – 2:30pm); The Daugh­ter of Api, an inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence from Par­dis for Chil­dren engag­ing kids in a col­lec­tive rain-sum­mon­ing rit­u­al (2:30 – 4pm); and Eight-Trea­sure Tea Kids Cir­cle, an oppor­tu­ni­ty for kids to look, smell, touch, and taste the ingre­di­ents orig­i­nat­ed along the ancient Silk Road, from Tea Arts & Cul­ture (4 – 5pm).

Link­ing these areas are path­ways of green­ery that will be peri­od­i­cal­ly acti­vat­ed through­out the day, fea­tur­ing tea and curat­ed sweets from Eat Off­beat; also from Eat Off­beat, Samanak: A Rit­u­al of Sweet­ness and Strength with the Afghan women com­mu­ni­ty; offer­ings of raisins and grapes from Milād; Hafez with setar per­formed by Mani Nilchi­ani, along­side recita­tions by Sham­sy Behba­hani; From Seed to Sip, a plant­i­ng work­shop focus­ing on the ancient roots of Sekan­jabin in Per­sian cul­ture from Hor­tus Life & Jabin Bev­er­age Com­pa­ny (1 – 2:30pm); and, also from Hor­tus Life, a live flo­ral demon­stra­tion, invit­ing the com­mu­ni­ty to engage with the rose as both a cul­tur­al sym­bol and a liv­ing, sea­son­al pres­ence (3 – 4:30pm). Learn more and reserve free tick­ets online at www​.gov​is​land​.org.

The ​“pools” are out­lined by hand­wo­ven car­pets from across Iran, Moroc­co, and Afghanistan, with gen­er­ous sup­port of Ker­man­shah Rugs. Inter­spers­ing them Behba­hani has craft­ed shade-giv­ing struc­tures using cro­chet woven by her moth­er Sham­sy Behba­hani—along with Pooran Shams, Fazi­lat Hakimzadeh, Mehrnoush Jelveh, Iran­dokht Far­jad, Shahin Mazid-Aba­­di, and Abbas & Nikoo Afshar—over the last tumul­tuous months of protests, gov­ern­ment repres­sion, and the intense bom­bard­ment of the US-Israeli war on Iran. 

“I look at the event as if it’s the cro­chet my moth­er and her com­mu­ni­ty wove togeth­er,” says the artist. ​“How can I weave us togeth­er? I didn’t want a ​‘per­for­mance.’ I want­ed to feel like we’re going to my Uncle’s house and some­one knows how to play some­thing, and some­one sings, and some­one serves tea. In a moment of such heavy grief, I thought the par­ty could be one where we get togeth­er as a method of care and hospitality.”

The Damask Rose — a resis­tant flower from arid regions like mod­ern-day Syr­ia and Iran that has over cen­turies become a glob­al com­mod­i­ty as well as part of many cul­tures’ culi­nary tra­di­tions — emerges as a recur­ring sym­bol across the event’s many threads.

Damask Rose is part of this year’s INTER­VEN­TIONS series, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. INTER­VEN­TIONS presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment. The series will con­tin­ue June 19 & 20 with Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born​’s col­lab­o­ra­tive per­form­ing arts prac­tice Sweat Vari­ant bring­ing to Gov­er­nors Island its first-ever out­door iter­a­tion of my tongue is a blade, a three-hour-long dura­tional move­ment work in and around a spin­ning mir­rored struc­ture that asks: What are the lim­its of our atten­tion and how does that test the strength of our bonds? my tongue is a blade is co-pre­sent­ed with Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) as part of their 2026 Riv­er to Riv­er Festival.

Damask Rose Pro­gram Partners

The event is a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort fea­tur­ing con­tri­bu­tions from pro­gram part­ners ArteEast, Asia Con­tem­po­rary Art Forum, Eat Off­beat, New York Kur­dish Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, Par­dis for Chil­dren, SAG NYC, Tea Arts & Cul­ture; sound part­ners Afropol­ka, Barza­kh Café, Sag Radio with per­form­ers Kaïs­sa Doum­bè, Maciek Schejbal, Malang Jobarteh, Imal Gnawa; weavers Cyn­thia Alber­to and Weav­ing Hand; hor­ti­cul­ture experts Half Hol­low Nurs­ery, Hor­tus Life. Pro­gram con­spir­a­tors: Maryam Ghor­eishi and Elaine Khuu. Botan­i­cal cyan­otype work­shop with artist Natalia Nakaza­wa. Move­ment and flower mus­es: Kaoru Shimizu and Milād. With the warmth of Ahmad Tea and Ker­man­shah Rug. Offi­cial hydra­tion part­ner: Jabin Bev­er­age Com­pa­ny. Dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ty part­ner: Nim­ruz. With sup­port from KODA and Mate­ri­als for the Arts. Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing is made pos­si­ble through in-kind fab­ri­ca­tion sup­port through Pow­er­house Arts’ 2026 Artist Sub­sidy Pro­gram.

About Bahar Behbahani

Bahar Behba­hani is an artist and edu­ca­tor whose inter­dis­ci­pli­nary work explores mem­o­ry, era­sure, col­lab­o­ra­tion, adap­ta­bility, and the search for a sense of place. For over a decade, the Per­sian gar­den has served as a cen­tral metaphor in her prac­tice, bridg­ing per­son­al his­to­ry with wider his­to­ries of pow­er, cli­mate, and the futu­ri­ty of ances­tral knowl­edge. Her recent projects include a pub­lic com­mis­sion for the 2024 Cre­ative Time Sum­mit and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Shar­jah Bien­ni­al 15, among oth­ers. She has received awards from Cre­ative Cap­i­tal, the Joan Mitchell Foun­da­tion, and the Pol­lock-Kras­n­er Foun­da­tion Grant. A trans­plant from the land of sun, she has adopt­ed New York as her home, where she teach­es at CUNY and cre­ates space for ques­tion­ing dom­i­nant nar­ra­tives through art and dialogue.

Fund­ing Credits

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Sup­port for INTER­VEN­TIONS is pro­vid­ed by NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

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About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.