Sarah Griesbach 
The Mile Square City is a dense little town. Everyone has a lot of neighbors, but many residents don’t know many of the people living on top, below, to the side, or across from them. Falling into social isolation is probably more common now than ever before, but Inheritance Theater Project aims to change that. Read on to learn about this community-building arts project that culminates in staged performances of local stories and a giant block party with an open invitation for all of Hoboken.
Local Crowdsourcing Made It Happen
The Hoboken iteration of ITP kicked off in September of 2024 with an informational table at the Hoboken Fall Arts + Music Festival. Nine months of productive local events organized by ITP followed. The first few months were dedicated to “friend raising” because a play about Hoboken requires Hobokenites in order to tell it!
Following their decade-informed process, ITP national leaders tapped Hoboken artists Rose Ginsberg and Namibia Donadio to host “conversation salons” in various third spaces around the city. Initially, they met with folks identified as civic leaders. As Rose and Namibia and their ITP national team program manager, Róisín Goebelbecker, met with one set of residents, they were then provided introductions to even more locals with insight into Hoboken life today and in the past. These connections led to further salons and then creative workshops that fed into the place-based community project that is Recollection: a Hoboken Story.
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Everyone is Invited
Photo Credit: Mile Square Theatre
On Friday, May 30th, at 7PM, the first of three performances of Recollection: A Hoboken Story will play on stage at the Mile Square Theater. All are welcome to attend the three free, ticketed theater events and, then, a very special Hoboken Community Block Party will close out the big weekend and the nine-month-long Hoboken Inheritance Theater Project (ITP) on Sunday, June 1st, at the 14th Street Viaduct Park.
This staged production is a work of collaborative playmaking. The theatrical format is referred to as a devised play. This means that the script was created from scratch with the community at large. By the time of its performance, everyone involved in the process of experience-sharing helped to shape the story told. In this case, that “everyone” holds a broad spectrum of Hoboken locals.
Every Hoboken Resident has a Story to Tell
The conversation salons and playwriting workshops hosted by ITP were located all across Hoboken — at the Hoboken Library, at Symposia Books, in the Housing Authority Community Rooms, and at St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church, and various other welcoming spots. New residents and people with long family legacies in the area, some of them high school students, others parents and elders, came together to share their stories of high rents, impossible mortgages, and shifting landscapes, along with all sorts of tales of beautiful lives lived in this fast-changing city. At the close of this introductory phase in the Inheritance Theater Project, the theme that stood out as one that connected the many disparate tales was water.
This Hoboken Story is About Water
The traumatic history of Superstorm Sandy, when the Hudson River overflowed its banks, surged into Hoboken and flooded its low-lying areas for days, emerged as a pivotal event in the memories of Hoboken locals who gathered in the months of ideation, consultation, and experience-sharing that ITP organized. Of course, flooding in Hoboken is a perennial problem. Major rain events and subsequent street floods happen more and more frequently as development exceeds infrastructure needs and nature is paved over.
Joyful water stories were also shared by residents. The city of Hoboken faces what is arguably the most dramatic water views on Earth. Some groups who joined in the ITP conversation salons could hardly be prouder of their progress, bringing Hoboken residents and visitors to the waterfront and their work to protect the health of the Hudson River. Members of Resilience Adventures, Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse, Fund for a Better Waterfront, and H2Oboken have developed Hudson River water sports, designed welcoming public parks on the water’s edge, and planted rain-absorbing gardens on rooftops and across in-between places all around Hoboken. There is a great deal for these local orgs and many other water-focused folks to be proud of.
Relationships with People | Relationships with Place
The nine-month gestation period for the Recollection: a Hoboken Story play brought people together who were unlikely to gather otherwise. Age, income, faith, and family background were all personal attributes that took a back burner as participants shared the ingredients of their lives. All of these people live close to one another, yet the opportunities to connect are hard to come by.
Some participants remembered an era when Hoboken moved more slowly, people sat outside on their stoops and talked. Because space came at less of a premium, creative adventurers started projects in buildings that few could afford to occupy today. Today’s Hoboken seems very different for many from the city they hold dear in their memories. Still, there were stories told by young people of the beauty in coming up right now, in 2025, surrounded by cousins, and friends they call cousins, and all the tight relationships that make Hoboken home.
To Play + to Party
Those of us who did not participate in the making of Recollection still have an opportunity to join the conversation. When we attend the final performances, we are welcome to bring fliers promoting the things we are doing to share on a developing community bulletin board. Everyone who comes to the big block party from 3PM- PM on Sunday, June 1st, at the 14th Street Viaduct Park can join in playful community-building activities, represent their corner of Hoboken by wearing school or neighborhood swag, and receive a Community Resource Guide. There will be music, games, and refreshments. No one should willingly miss the free play, but attendance is not necessary to come to the big party. This may be the end for the Hoboken Inheritance Theater Project, but it is a starting point for the caring community that incubated throughout its duration.
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Hoboken singer-songwriter Rio the Messenger was inspired to write this song following a conversation salon she joined. The lyrics here were then folded into the play that will be performed at Mile Square Theatre.
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Down by the River
Heaven Hell or Hoboken
This town is not the same as it used to be
The River is rising but there’s so much water inside of me
Most days I go down by the river and there’s a kind of glory being out in the open air
Some days it’s down by the river the only peace I find in the mile square
One day the river came to my house
She didn’t even say hello
She was acting so strange
She swallowed everything I own
Most days I go down by the river and there’s a kind of glory being out in the open air
Some days it’s down by the river the only peace I find in the mile square
Water water everywhere
But not a drop to drink
They say we could swim in the river now
Honey what do you think
I was taught to fear her
But I long to be near her
Most days I go down by the river and there’s a kind of glory being out in the open air
Some days it’s down by the river the only peace I find in the mile square
Won’t you swim with me
Won’t you
Won’t you swim with me
Won’t you swim with me
