In this piece, the last living passenger pigeon, Martha, has emerged from her grave dirt to surveil the new world she inhabits.

The passenger pigeon in 20 years went from being the most abundant bird in North America to functionally extinct. They were hunted for sport by colonizers and their habitat was deforested. However, in cryptozoology circles, the passenger pigeon belongs to a category of cryptid called “living fossils”, those being long gone but possibly still flying among the living. With the help of many others, this poster I made circulated through three states in the northeast, and made passerby’s consider the common pigeons and doves a bit closer in their daily encounters.

Linked here is a poem I wrote while reflecting on this project called “How to find the passenger pigeon”

featured in RISD’s student publication V1 : https://volume-1.org/Fall-2023-How-to-Find-the-Passenger-Pigeon