Commons Sense: Poromboke Comes to New York

Date: Friday, October 16, 2026
Time: 6–7:30 PM ET
Location: Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, 860 11th Avenue, New York
Featuring: T.M. Krishna, Carnatic vocalist and HfHR Advisory Board member, in conversation with environmental justice activist Nityanand Jayaraman
Part of: The exhibition Uneven Geographies

What can the commons teach us about value, belonging and care?

Poromboke is a Tamil word for shared-use, communally held, unenclosed spaces. Degraded in colloquial use to suggest worthless people and places, the word has been reclaimed through fisher communities’ struggles to defend Chennai’s wetland commons.

From the ash-choked waters of Ennore Creek, this concert and conversation brings T.M. Krishna and Nityanand Jayaraman together to explore the relationships between music, environmental justice and the worlds we hold in common.