Guggenheim New York has announced The Water Listeners, a public program series created by 2026 Poet-in-Residence Patrick Rosal. Running from July through December, the initiative presents poetry through readings, collective ceremonies, and interactive installations.
The series uses the museum’s Café Rebay as an active location for writing and storytelling, creating an archive shaped by visitor contributions over the season. The programming explores themes of water, memory, ancestry, and cultural exchange.
Events begin on July 28 with a public reading of Rosal’s poem “Brooklyn Antediluvian,” accompanied by a conversation with poet Ross Gay. Subsequent fall events include a reading with poet aracelis girmay focused on the legacy of Lucille Clifton.
The residency will conclude in December with a public ceremony of remembrance and renewal that incorporates collective public contributions. Rosal, who was appointed as the fifth annual Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence in April 2026, designed the series to bring poetry into communal spaces.
The annual Poet-in-Residence initiative at the Guggenheim focuses on creating poetry-centered programming for museum patrons. Further information and details on the upcoming schedule are available through the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Event programming
An Evening of Poetry with Patrick Rosal and Ross Gay
Tuesday, July 28, 6:30–8:30 pm
Reserve Tickets
General $20, Member $15, Students $10
2026 Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence Patrick Rosal performs the first-ever live reading of his long-form poem “Brooklyn Antediluvian” from his award-winning 2016 eponymous collection. Following the performance, poet and essayist Ross Gay joins Rosal in a conversation about the relationship between poetry and other artistic practices. The program concludes with a book sale and signing on the Rotunda Floor.
Serving as a conceptual foundation for Rosal’s residency projects, the program introduces central themes of ritual, water, naming, memory, and communal exchange. Moving between reading and dialogue, the evening explores how poetry can preserve spaces of stewardship across histories and communities.
“blessing the boats”: Poet aracelis girmay on Lucille Clifton
Tuesday, September 15, 6:30–8:30 pm
Reserve Tickets
General $20, Member $15, Students $10
Patrick Rosal invites the community to gather for a special reading with aracelis girmay, whose work as editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton(2020) illuminates poetry’s capacity to accompany us through journeys both personal and uncertain. Titled after Clifton’s poem “blessing the boats,” the program reflects on courage, resilience, and the unseen currents that carry us toward one another. Through the words of Clifton and girmay, the evening offers a shared meditation on the ability of language to guide us through the unknown.
A Ceremony for Water
Tuesday, December 8, 6:30–8:30 pm
Reserve Tickets
General $20, Member $15, Students $10
The closing ceremony for poet Patrick Rosal’s Guggenheim residency brings together the accumulated offerings, memories, and gestures gathered over the course of his year-long project, The Water Listeners. Blending poetry, ritual, and collective reflection, the public is invited to take part in this group gesture that marks both an ending and a continuation—a communal act of release, remembrance, and renewal.
Café Rebay
Through December 31
Café Rebay is a welcoming social hub where food, drink, creativity, and community come together—inviting visitors to gather, make, and linger while enjoying panoramic views of Central Park. In an ongoing participatory project designed by Rosal, various prompts and hands-on activities will encourage deeper interpersonal connection and emphasize the value of assembly, inviting visitors to experience poetry as a communal experience—something created through conversation, shared reflection, and collective meaning-making. Through this combination of dialogue, poetry, and making, the project foregrounds creativity as a social act and transforms individual reflections into a shared experience.
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