In 1981, Kisch returned to New York City, working briefly on Leonard Street before relocating to Broadway, where she was among the artists moving into converted Soho lofts. She built a studio on the first floor "because of the need to use heavy and bulky material." This same year, The Milwaukee Art Museum exhibited The Leonard Street Series, a group of sixteen large drawings made in oil stick and white gesso. The Milwaukee Journal reports Kisch as saying of the series that "the drawing developed because of my passion for New York, rather than my passion for drawing."
