Ed Woodham, The Keepers, Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY, 2025, (photo courtesy of the artist)

The Keepers/ Coney Island is an environmental performance art intervention created by longtime NYC cultural provocateur, Ed Woodham – beginning at sunrise at the Coney Island beach near West 12th Street and continuing at several different Coney locations until 11am.

The Keepers – a durational still performative group action – aims to bring attention to the blatant disregard of Coney Island’s history, ethos, and longtime residents by Thor Equities.

The Keepers appear when life is out of balance with nature in response to the gentrification and rapid mass development of urban areas where the importance of the mixed-use district, the history of the area, and the natural environment has been ignored. The Keepers are a life form living on the border between animal and plant consciousness. They disrupt conventions, identities, and norms. The Keepers are aberrations in response to the rapid mass redevelopment of urban areas where the importance of the diverse community, chronicled past of the neighborhood, and the natural environment has been disregarded.”

Over the years, The Keepers have been spotted at various gentrified global sites in New York City at Penn Station neighborhood; Gowanus, Brooklyn; and Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens; several sites in Sydney and western Australia; Krakow, Poland, and Asbury Park, NJ.