[title]
A massive 100-foot-by-30-foot Pride flag is now brightly decorating a giant staircase on Roosevelt Island.
The Progress Pride Flag, which is on the Grand Stairs within the Four Freedoms State Park, was installed to be a symbol of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and a reminder of the collective progress needed to achieve the Four Freedoms outlined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941—the Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.
RECOMMENDED: Guide to Pride in NYC
“Four Freedoms Park Conservancy’s mission is singular and simple: we create public programs, commission public art and produce installations to ignite conservations about basic human rights. President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, articulated these, in what now seems stunningly prescient: Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. This is what The Progress Pride Flag stands for—inclusion means inclusion in all the freedoms from economic security to freedom from fear and of course freedom of expression,” said Howard Axel, CEO Four Freedoms Park Conservancy.
The installation is also part of a series of special public offerings to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the State Park, which opened to the public in 2012.
To help launch the Progress Pride Flag's stint at Four Freedoms Park, the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy tapped Ballet Hispánico to celebrate and teach a class at the Free to be You children’s festival at the Park on Saturday, June 18.
You can check out the flag for yourself for free Wednesdays through Mondays from 9am-7pm. Just take the Tramway at East 60th St. or the Second Avenue F train to Roosevelt Island.
"We are proud to send this bold message of inclusion and acceptance at FDR Four Freedoms State Park,” said New York State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid. “Thanks to the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy for helping to make the park welcoming and open to all—and highlighting again what it means to be free.”
