Minetta Creatures will reveal the historic course of Minetta Brook through a performance of people costumed as plants and animals that would have inhabited the island of Manhattan prior to Dutch colonization. A long-term goal of Minetta Creatures is to create a permanent environmental artwork to celebrate the stream, to bring awareness of the hydrology of the neighborhood, and to connect parks within the watershed.

Minetta Brook is one of 101 waterways and water bodies of pre-colonial Manhattan. The stream once ran aboveground in Greenwich Village and lives on in streets (Minetta Lane, Minetta Street) and parks (Minetta Playground, Minetta Green, Minetta Triangle). However, the stream itself is largely hidden from view. You can almost picture a section of its flow in the curves and dips of Minetta Street and Downing Street.

Minetta Brook is a second-order stream; it has two, spring-fed, source tributaries. One arm originated at 16th Street at Sixth Avenue and the other between 21st and 20th Streets at Fifth Avenue. The two tributaries joined midblock between 11th/12th Streets and Sixth/Fifth Avenues. The stream flowed southeast then turned southwest entering Washington Square Park west of the Washington Arch. The stream left the park at the southwest corner traveling along MacDougal then along Minetta Lane then Minetta Street to Downing Street. At Varick and Houston Streets, the trunk split. One leg flowed west on Houston and turned south on Greenwich towards Charlton Street. The other leg flowed on Varick then traveled diagonally between King and Charlton. Both channels rejoined at Charlton discharging into the Hudson River at the former shoreline between Greenwich and Washington Streets.