Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY
Art & Climate Solutions – VIRTUAL PAGEANT
Regenerative adaptation in this crisis period of Covid-19 and Social Distancing
LIVE STREAM – Saturday May 9, 2020 – 11am – 4pm
@ Earth Celebrations Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EarthCelebrations/
A remote creative collaboration with over 100 participants sharing videos of visual art, performances of dance, music, theater, poetry and sites celebrating climate solution and sustainability initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City 11am – 4pm.
NOTE: There will be no live procession with public performances – all locations listed are for the purpose of credit to garden, neighborhood and waterfront sites and their climate solution initiatives that performances presented remotely are based upon.
SIGN UP & PARTICIPATE – Create a nature inspired homemade costume celebrating the natural world, gardens, rivers and climate solutions and share a selfie video PARADING-in-PLACE from HOME!
SPECIAL FEATURES – LIVE PARTICIPATION
12:30pm
CALLS of the WILD – A Collective HOWL for the Lower East Side and an Ecological City – join your neighbors making bird calls, animal sounds and music from windows, balconies and rooftops.
1 – 1:30pm
PARADE-in-PLACE from HOME – ZOOM VIDEO – BECOME A CLIMATE SOLUTION
Create a nature inspired homemade costume celebrating the natural world, gardens, rivers and climate solutions and share a selfie video PARADING-in-PLACE from HOME!
TKTS – Free – REGISTER https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ecological-city-art-climate-solutions-virtual-pageant-tickets-92293487305
(request to receive ZOOM LINK)
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11 AM – OPENING CEREMONY – Earth Celebrations Introduction – Felicia Young
11:50 AM – 11th STREET EAST SIDE OUTSIDE GARDEN
@ 11th Street NE Corner btw. 1st and Ave. A
PERFORMANCE – Song for the Earth – Jenny Hurwitz
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Compost
JENNY AMANDA HURWITZ has been writing, strumming & singing her melodic Subversive Pop songs for a few decades – lyrics with a politically/socially progressive/feminist bent, set to a beat & unusual chord changes. Today she will play her original song “Our Community Garden”. Check out some informal videos of her tunes at her YouTube Channel: Jenny Amanda Hurwitz. jennyhurwitz@gmail.com. https://www.facebook.com/jenny.a.hurwitz
12 PM – EL SOL BRILLANTE GARDEN
@ 12th Street btw. Aves A & B
PERFORMANCE – Dance to the People “Birth of a Garden”
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Upcycling & Sustainable Solutions
DANCE TO THE PEOPLE is a female and immigrant led collective of dancers and other collaborators who work in non-hierarchical forms of art making to address social and environmental injustice. With each project we discover innovative ways to develop content and structures of movement research, choreography, training, performance and sharing, fostering horizontality in the exchange of resources in our community. We create together because we believe revolutionary art can only manifest itself through collective processes.
12:10 PM – CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP SCHOOL
@ 610 E. 12th Street (btw. Aves B & C)
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Art & Science Education
12:15 PM – CAMPOS GARDEN
@ 12th Street btw. Aves B & C
PERFORMANCE – Poem For Sustainable Urban Agriculture by Steve Dalachinsky
In memory of Steve Dalachinsky (9. 29. 1946 – 9. 16. 2019)
Performed by: Bonny Finberg, Mindy Levokove, Eve Packer
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Vertical Farming & Sustainable Agriculture
Steve Dalchinsky – Poet & Collagist. He wrote poetry, haiku, music criticism, CD liner notes, travelogues & had a long running column: Outtakes in The Brooklyn Rail. His publications include The Final Nite: A Complete Notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook 1987-2006 (Ugly Duckling Presse); Superintendent’s Eyes (Autonomedia); Reaching Into The Unknown (RogueArt); Flying Home (Paris-Lit-Up); Fool’s Gold (Feral Press); Black Magic (New Feral Press); Where Night and Day become One (great weather for MEDIA) & others along w/ many collaboration CDs w/ musicians such as Matthew Shipp, Joëlle Léandres & The Snobs. He received PEN Oakland National Book Award; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres; Acker Award; Kafka Award & Benjamin Franklin Award https://www.facebook.com/steve.dalachinsky
12:20 PM – 9TH STREET COMMUNITY GARDEN PARK
@ 9th Street & Ave. C (NE corner)
PERFORMANCE – ‘Song for Solar & Sustainable Earth’ by Stephan Said & ‘Without the Sun’ by Kim Kalesti
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Solar Micro Grid
STEPHAN SAID is an internationally acclaimed musician and activist whose songs have helped build movements for peace, human rights, and global justice across the world. He is also the host of “borderless,” a docs-series and global movement lifting the voices of people doing amazing things to make a better world. Stephan has been featured in the New York Times, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, NPR, PRI, BBC, NBC, CBS, Democracy Now!, Al Arabiya, ORF, Deutsche Welle, and more. stephansaid.com
New York City artist KIM KALESTI expresses her life through her music and paintings. You can experience her artistry on social media Instagram @kimkalesti Facebook, Spotify and https://kimkalesti.bandcamp.com/album/diggin-the-dirt
12:30 PM – LA PLAZA CULTURAL GARDEN
@ 9th Street & Ave. C (SW corner)
PERFORMANCES: Hurricane Sandy and Birth of Climate Solutions – collaborative project of Global Water Dances, Moving For Life, and Marymount Manhattan College Dance Department, Martha Eddy, Casey Martin, and Deandra Cuce
PERFORMERS: Casey Martin, Deandra Cuce, Allison Feller, Kirsten Kauffmann, Peyton Havens, Nick Camarero, Caitlyn Garofalo, Paige Cowen, Deven Marte, Emma Calame-Pennington.
Pollution Pirates – Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space with Time’s Up, Jim Simopoulos
Birth of a Garden Dance – Morgan Burns
Orator – Armand Ruhlman
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Sustainable Community Culture
MORGAN AMIRAH BURNS (choreographer, director, and dancer) is the founder and director of MOAMBU. Founded in 2020, MOAMBU is an art collective that aims to embark on research endeavors that create space between the personal and distant. MOAMBU will be re-imagining their work “The Persistence of Flowerhood” as a part of Earth Celebrations’ Ecological City focusing on the little moments we miss just when a garden is born. Holding true to the collective goal of “the use of movement to explore reciprocity as a means of feeding the earth and soul,” they are excited to spark effective conversations within the Lower East Side and Manhattan at large.
MARTHA EDDY – GLOBAL WATER DANCES NY/Studio 55 Martha Eddy, CMA, RSMT uses body consciousness to enhance our capacity to protect water, and in turn the planet. She is a co-founder of the biennial worldwide environmental dance event www.GlobalWaterDances.org that brought 60 countries together in June 2011 and now has 120 sites registered (and growing) on 6 continents for June 15, 2019. She directs Moving For Life in NYC which offers free movement and wellness class in all five boroughs for older adults and people of all ages in treatment or recovery from cancer. Moving For Life has its office and provides arts & movement programming for all ages at 55C Studio which MFL developed to be the Lower East Side’s center for Somatic Movement and the Arts. Martha leads movement choirs for conferences and brings Global Water Dances to environmental justice actions that focus on local or global issues. She is author of Mindful Movement. http://www.studio55c.org
12:40 PM – DE COLORES GARDEN
@ 8th Street btw. Aves B & C
PERFORMANCE & GARDENER – Bio-Swale Serenade by Elizabeth Ruf
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Bio-Swale
ELIZABETH RUF MALDONADO is a director, actor, writer, educator, and maker of socially engaged performances across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Her work is frequently seen at Theater for the New City and in NYC Community Gardens. In recent months she collaborated on the staging and performance of an excerpt from Michael Shenker’s masterwork, A Squatter’s Opera. As a guitarist and vocalist she plays with two punk bands, The Head Peddlers and Spike Polite’s SewAgE. She is a professor at Boricua College. She holds a Ph.D. in Theater from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation on the theater of Cuba, where she lived for a year. A member of the former ABC Garden and Co-founder of De Colores on East 8th Street, she has been collaborating with Earth Celebrations as the Community Spirit, Iris the Rainbow, and other roles since the early 1990s and is the mother of one of the Butterfly Children. https://www.facebook.com/elizabethlesnyc
12:50 PM – Carmen’s Garden
@ Ave C btw. 8th & 7th St.
GARDENER CEREMONY: Sustainable Garden by Carolyn Ratcliffe
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Permeable Paths
1 PM – GREEN OASIS GARDEN
@ 8th Street btw. Aves C & D
PERFORMANCE – Butoh – Dance of the Pollinators – Betty Kao, 8th Ocean Body
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Pollinator Rain Garden
BETTY T. KAO is an artist and writer integrating both as tools for storytelling. 8th Ocean Body is her collaboration exploring the integration of science, heritage, mysticism, anthropomorphic objects, and social change. Kao’s work reflects the collective subconscious and the mythologies we create. Her art installations and performances have been featured in spaces including La Mama, FARM Festival, Catharsis DC, BAX, Bowery Poetry Club, The World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science, and The Museum of Art and Design. She has a BA in environmental studies and visual arts. Kao is an alumni of The Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics. https://www.instagram.com/be_chao | https://www.facebook.com/8thOceanBody
1:10 PM – ORCHARD ALLEY
@ 4th Street btw. Aves C & D
PERFORMANCE & GARDENER – Ayo Harrington “Song for Clean Air and Water”
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – TREES AIR FILTRATION
1:15 PM – EL JARDIN DEL PARAISO
@ 4th Street btw. Aves C & D
Wellness Ceremony – Lifestyles of Bioremediation, Symbiosis, Regenerative Culture, and Wellness
PERFORMANCE – Jill McDermid – Holistic Healing & Wellness Ceremony – Artist: Dragonfly Duration: 6 minutes
Song for the Healing of the Earth by Marta Vi
GARDEN – CLIMATE SOLUTION – Holistic Healing & Wellness
GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE: Grace Exhibition Space in the East Village is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art. Vision 2020 LES : GES & Perma-Culture. An exploration of the intersections of Performance Art and Perma-Culture: Promoting lasting natural habitats through our community of performance artists and community activists. Supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. https://www.grace-exhibition-space.com/index.php
MARTA VI is a self taught artist through living, since the 80’s. I work with all medias, growing up in an environment where everything was recycled made me develop skills that gave me the perspective I have today. I like to work with natural and recyclable materials to create new pieces in an effort to help solve the waste problem. As a singer, I like to improvise, working with my surroundings and emotions. And in that line I explore the lights and shades of emotion through voice and sounds.
1:20 PM – PARQUE DE TRANQUILIDAD
@ 4th Street btw. Aves C & D
PERFORMANCE & GARDENER – Trudy Silver’s Earth Celebration with Scottie David and Evangeline Hyman
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Carbon Sequestration
Trudy Silver is an established pianist and composer in New York who has worked with an impressive array of cutting-edge collaborators from Daniel Carter to Makanda Ken McIntyre. Her virtuosity on the piano embodies the European and American classics in dynamic and dramatic fashion. Check out her original music at trudysilver.com.
Scottie Davis is a member of Actors Equity, Screen Actors Guild, the Episcopal Actors Guild, African Folk Heritage Circle and a client of American Talent Management. Her life’s work has been in professional community based theatre as a producer, director, instructor and performer since 1978. myspace.com/mwimbaji
Evangeline Hyman has been living, teaching kids and volunteering in the Lower East Side of New York her entire life.
1:25 PM – SAGE’S GARDEN
@ 4th Street btw. Aves C & B
GARDENER – Holly Derrito
PERFORMANCE – “Say Goodbye” Trumpet, Composer: Pam Fleming www.FearlessDreamer.com; Video: Chris Whitehead.
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Permeable Paths
1:30 PM – 6TH STREET AVENUE B COMMUNITY GARDEN
@ 6th Street btw. Aves A & B (SW corner)
PERFORMANCE – “Water Song” Singer: Lee Taylor
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Water Harvesting Pond & Rain Barrel
LEE TAYLOR is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. Writing and performing in a wholly unique style, Lee dazzles audiences with her blues, jazz, pop and gospel. Her voice has been described as “distinctive” by legendary bassist Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis), “uncommon” by The Memphis Commercial Appeal, and as “a voice to cut diamonds” by The Canberra Times. www.loveleetaylor.com | nibiwalk.org
1:40 PM – EARTH SCHOOL (PS364)
@ 6th Street btw. Aves B & C Ave B (SE corner)
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Green Roof
EARTH SCHOOL In 1992, teachers in Manhattan’s East Village founded the Earth School on a dream: to create a peaceful, nurturing place to stimulate learning in all realms of child development intellectual, social, emotional and physical. Visit the Earth School today and see how that dream has flourished. Today it is a thriving community of over 300 children in pre-kindergarten through grade 5 with a teaching staff dedicated to the founding values of hands-on exploration, an arts-rich curriculum, responsible stewardship of the Earth’s resources, harmonious resolution of conflict, and parent-teacher partnership. https://sites.google.com/a/theearthschool.org/theearthschool/
1:50 PM – 6BC Botanical Garden
@ 6th Street btw. Aves B & C
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Botanical Diversity
GARDENER – Jane Knox
2 PM – 6TH STREET COMMUNITY CENTER
@ 6th St btw. Aves B & C
PERFORMANCE – Children’s Bee Roof Farm Ceremony & Zero Waste Performance
STEWARD of SUSTAINABILITY – Howard Brandstien
CLIMATE SOLUTION – Rooftop Bee Farm, Zero Waste & CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
SIXTH STREET COMMUNITY CENTER
Located in a lovingly restored former synagogue in the heart of the Lower East Side, also known as Loisaida. the Sixth Street Community Center has been working to empower the community through grassroots organizing since 1978. We offer a variety of programs and events including free arts, writing and gardening after school and summer programs for local youth; affordable adult workshops, donation-based yoga, zumba, and dance classes; a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); poetry and open mic nights; and much, much more. Whether you’re interested in learning more about what we have to offer, hoping to join the CSA, or hungering for a fresh, organic juice on-site at our Organic Soul Café, our doors are always open. We are located at 638 E Sixth Street. Just stop by! http://www.sixthstreetcenter.org/
2:30 PM – EAST RIVER PARK SITE 1
@ Waterfront Near 6th Street Bridge Area
PERFORMANCE – River Revival – Artichoke Dance Company
STEWARDS OF THE EAST RIVER PARK – East River Park Action – Pat Arnow, “Statement on the ESCR East Side Coastal Resiliency plan and community vision for a Sustainable LES future.”
East River Alliance – Ayo Harrington
East River Park ACTION is a grassroots community group determined to avert an environmental disaster that is the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan that will demolish East River Park starting in the fall of 2020. Formed less than a year ago by Pat Arnow and other neighborhood residents, more than a thousand people have signed on to demand a flood control plan that provides immediate interim flood control and a long-term plan that will retain existing parkland and biodiversity. https://eastriverparkaction.org/
LYNN NEUMAN – ARTICHOKE DANCE COMPANY – Artichoke Dance Company, directed by Lynn Neuman, works at the intersections of performance innovation, environmental activism, education, community building and civic engagement. The company is known for onsite performances and hands on upcycling workshops, particularly trashion, fashion made from trash. Recent commissions include the Soraya, connecting California State University to Los Angeles River revitalization, the National Gallery of Art for Voices of the Ocean project, and Waterfront Alliance to celebrate the Bicentennial of the Erie Canal. The Gowanus Canal, New York City’s first named superfund site, is a focus of Artichoke’s local work with biannual festivals occurring along the canal. Ms. Neuman is a national leading eco-artist and the only choreographer to be awarded a Marion International Fellowship. Lynn is also an Association of Performing Arts Professionals Leadership Fellow and was featured in Dance Magazine for her ecological activist work. www.artichokedance.org
2:45 PM – EAST RIVER PARK SITE 2
@ Circular Maze (Labyrinth Pavement Painting by Diana Carulli near Houston Street)
STEWARD OF THE RIVER PARK – Labyrinth Artist, Diana Carulli, East River Park Coalition
Choreography: Laura Ward, Dancers: Cassie Roberts Rossi, Fiona Oba, Natalia Wodnicka, Eva Janiszewski Juliette Janiszewski, Laura V Ward
EAST RIVER PARK COALITION is a dynamic group of local artists, organizations and community members who realize the immense value of East River Park to New York City. Together, East River Park Coalition is working to raise awareness of the park as a vital link to the East River waterfront and a free multi-use public space for the densely populated Lower East Side. Working in and beyond the park, we are reaching out to local youth, the creative community and citizens groups to design enlightening activities and share knowledge about this park’s unique history and potential. www.facebook.com/erpcoalition
LAURA VICTORIA WARD, BA, CMA, RSME, is an award-winning choreographer, Laban Movement Analyst, teacher, and artist. She is the artistic director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre (founded in 1998) and the Glam Rock Cabaret (2018). She is also a member of the punk rock band the Dick Pinchers. https://octaviacup.weebly.com/
3:00 PM – EAST RIVER PARK SITE 3
@ Waterfront Under the Williamsburg Bridge
PERFORMANCE – Dance “East Side Coastal Resiliency” with Infinite Movement. Director: Shaheeda Yasmin Smith
STEWARD OF THE RIVER – GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side)
SHAHEEDA YASMEEN SMITH ( Infinite Movement) has been empowering youth and families through the arts and wellness for twenty years in NYC for twenty years. Book and street smart, she attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, attended City College of New York, is a certified dance and movement therapist and is now pursuing her Masters in Social work at Fordham University. She has dedicated her life to teach, mentor, connect and organize around social issues. Her experience with LES settlement houses and GOLES aides in moving the needle of injustice through the arts and activism. As the CEO and founder of Infinite Movement, her mission is to alleviate the negative effects of trauma and social injustice through the arts and wellness to underserved communities and families. IMI customizes programming to support the needs of all genders and generations, to propel community voice and create change. https://www.facebook.com/InfiniteMovement/
Steward of the River – GOLES – Housing preservation organization that has served the Lower East Side of Manhattan since 1977. Its mission is dedicated to tenants’ rights, homelessness prevention, economic development, and community revitalization. Recent programs address issues of sustainability and resilience projects including the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan for Lower Manhattan. The Ecological City has been integrated as the Creative Community-Engagement Phase 2 integrating data gathered by GOLES in phase 1. The culminating pageant will develop and bring together a cohesive resiliency plan and solutions for the neighborhood. Photo and video documentation along with live excerpts will be presented as part of deliverables GOLES has been mandated to provide on the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan and will provide creative testimony through the city planning process. goles.org
3:15 PM – EAST RIVER PARK SITE 4
@ Seal Park near Grand St
PERFORMANCE – Jody Sperling – Time Lapse Dance
Plastic Virus – Choreographed, performed, shot & edited by Jody Sperling, Costume: Lauren Gaston; Fish Dance – by Mindy Levokove, filmed by William Hohauser
STEWARD OF THE RIVER – Lower East Side Ecology Center – Kellan Stanner
JODY SPERLING is the Artistic Director of Time Lapse Dance and NYC-based dancer-choreographer. She has created 45+ works and is considered the preeminent exponent of the style of modern-dance pioneer Loïe Fuller (1862-1928). Sperling earned a World Choreography Award nomination for her work on the French feature film “The Dancer” (2016 Cannes Film Festival). In 2014, Sperling participated in a polar science mission–as the first choreographer-in-residence aboard a US Coast Guard icebreaker–and danced on Arctic sea ice. Currently, she is developing a performance practice called eco-kinetics that cultivates the relationship between the dancing body and the environment
Steward of the River – THE LOWER EAST SIDE ECOLOGY CENTER is a non-profit organization working toward a more sustainable New York City by providing community-based recycling and composting programs, developing local stewardship of green space, and increasing community awareness, involvement and youth development through environmental education programs. Also known as Outstanding Renewal Enterprises, Inc., we were founded in 1987. The Ecology Center offers services and education for a range of environmental subjects: organics collection/composting, electronic waste recycling, and stewardship of public green spaces. lesecologycenter.org
MINDY LEVOKOVE is an East Village multi-media poet and performance artist. William Hohauser is an East Village videographer. They are both Community Garden members. Mindy has been a Global Water Dancer, since 2011. mlevokove.com
3:30-4PM – EAST RIVER PARK SITE 5
@ WATERFRONT – Near amphitheater at Cherry Street
PERFORMANCE – East River Park Homage: River Cleansing and Closing Ceremony
Shakti – Dance by Lynn Needle – Art of Motion
STEWARD OF THE EAST RIVER PARK – Michael Marino, Friends of Corlears Hook Park
STEWARD OF THE RIVER – Paul Mankeiwicz, The Gaia Institute & Kate Boicourt– Waterfront Alliance
Lady of the Willows Serenade – Vlada Tomova
Bio-Remediation Sculpture Offering by Dee Maucher – MOS Collective
“Death and Rebirth of the East River Park” Song by Susan Mckeown
LYNN NEEDLE (Art of Motion), RYT/500 Founder/Artistic Director of Art of Motion, Inc. – a non-profit and home to The Art of Motion Dance Theatre has toured to six out of seven continents and almost all United States as a former soloist with the Nikolais Dance Theatre. A recipient of numerous awards and grants including an Andrew W. Mellon CEF Grant for her artistry and teaching at The Universidad de Colima, Lynn’s work celebrating Legend, Myth & Nature has been presented internationally in site-specific venues. AOMDT.org
THE GAIA INSTITUTE is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation. Our work couples ecological engineering and restoration with the integration of human communities in natural systems. While much environmental engineering has the worthy aim of minimizing harm, the Gaia Institute explores, through research and development, design and construction, how human activities and waste products can be treated to increase ecological productivity, biodiversity, environmental quality, and economic well-being. The purpose of The Gaia Institute is to test through demonstration the means by which the ecological components of backyards, communities, towns and cities, as well as watersheds and estuaries, can be enhanced through integrated wastes-into-resources technologies. Thegaiainstitute.org
VLADA TOMOVA – One of Bulgaria’s most exciting contemporary voices and a rising world music star in the USA, Vlada Tomova leads an ensemble of the world’s top instrumentalists on both sides of the Atlantic. Vlada’s Balkan Tales offers a refreshingly different take on Bulgarian folk songs, infusing traditions from the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East into a contemporary acoustic sound, while illuminating the connection between traditions. The critically acclaimed full-length album, Balkan Tales, was hailed by The Boston Globe for its “haunting, otherworldly energy” and NY Music Daily as “a rich, intense treat, all the way through”. Additionally, Vlada Tomova is the founder and leader of Yasna Voices, New York’s Bulgarian Women’s Choir, and the creator of the Bulgarian Alphabet Song. She is the principal force behind several musical troupes – Bulgarian Voices Trio, Songs of the Spice Road and The Lazarus Rose – that interweave ethnic music traditions within a twenty first century context. https://www.vladatomovamusic.
DEE DEE MAUCHER – MoS COLLECTIVE Dee Dee is an instigator of the Masters of Succession Collective where they invent lifestyles that leave a better trace and a spiral of serendipities — instead of deprivation. She has a PDC from Center for Bioregional Living, BFA Syracuse Ad design & Media arts. DD has Presented Microremediation at TedX, taught at NYU Gallatin, Parsons/New School. She has designed lifestyle ecological systems complete with branding for a living tree house at Sony music, a documentary & revitalization plan for Lake Anne Village, plans for merchants, community centers. She grows & accumulates things to make restorative costumes, sculptures. As an image maker she embodies movement of the lifestyle stories through Butoh. She is passionate in helping people manifest their regenerative goals, and networking them into our symbiotic relationship grid to strengthen our beneficial supply chains and waste product resource flows. Then we live in the magic.Currently to be found working on a Lower East Side design plan & lifestyles at Grace Exhibition Space. And at 6th St Community Center partnering with Ecological City Pageant to make biophilic restorative art & costumes. http://www.MoSCollective.net http://www.Ddmaucher.com/LSD
SUSAN MCKEOWN (mick-yone) – Grammy-winning Irish vocalist, songwriter, producer and arranger. She has lived on the LES since 1990. In a distinguished career, she has performed with Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Arlo Guthrie and The Klezmatics, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Glastonbury, and The Edinburgh Festival. A BBC Folk Music Award nominee, hers is the woman’s voice on the audio recording in the Irish apartment of the LES Tenement Museum. Susan is the founder and director of Cuala Foundation, transforming disadvantage into advantage through culture. www.cualafoundation.com
ECOLOGICAL CITY – ARTIST CREDITS – BIOS
ECOLOGICAL CITY: Procession for Climate Solutions is produced and directed as a collaborative community-based ecological arts project by Felicia Young, the Founder/Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization founded in 1991 on the Lower East Side of New York City to engage communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. She has developed a successful methodology applying the arts, community engagement, partnership building and environmental action. Her projects over the past 30 years include a fifteen year collaborative community art project, Save Our Gardens (1991-2005) on the Lower East Side which built a local and then citywide grassroots coalition effort and led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens in New York City. The Hudson River Pageant (2009-2012) was a collaborative art project to engage the community in the restoration efforts of the Hudson River estuary and revitalization of the waterfront in downtown Manhattan. Her recent Vaigai River Restoration Project (2014-2016) applied this model to build an international and local collaborative effort in the city of Madurai, South India to restore the sacred Vaigai River, which is in a severe crisis due to pollution and the drying effects of climate change. In 2018 she launched the Ecological City: Cultural & Climate Solutions Action Project to bring together and celebrate sustainability and climate solution initiatives throughout the gardens, neighborhood and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side.
FELICIA YOUNG, PRODUCER & DIRECTOR of the ECOLOGICAL CITY: Cultural & Climate Solutions, a collaborative community-based ecological arts project. She is the Founder/Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization founded in 1991 on the Lower East Side of New York City to engage communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. She has developed a successful methodology applying the arts, community engagement, partnership building and environmental action. Her projects over the past 30 years include a fifteen year collaborative community art project, Save Our Gardens (1991-2005) on the Lower East Side which built a local and then citywide grassroots coalition effort and led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens in New York City. The Hudson River Pageant (2009-2012) was a collaborative art project to engage the community in the restoration efforts of the Hudson River estuary and revitalization of the waterfront in downtown Manhattan. Her recent Vaigai River Restoration Project (2014-2016) applied this model to build an international and local collaborative effort in the city of Madurai, South India to restore the sacred Vaigai River, which is in a severe crisis due to pollution and the drying effects of climate change. She initiated Ecological CIty: Cultural & Climate Solutions Project in 2018 to apply the arts to build collaboration and action on climate solutions throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side. Felicia Young has produced projects for Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts, Arts>World Financial Center, The Alternative Museum, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and The Hudson River Park Trust and engaged numerous organizations, schools and community service centers to collaborate on these efforts. These projects have received awards and grants including: LMCC-Fund for Creative Community / Manhattan Community Art Fund, DCA-Public Service Award, Threshold Foundation- Arts & Social Change, Puffin Foundation, Hudson River Foundation and International Women’s Caucus on the Arts to the UN-Artistic Activism Award 2017. She has also developed a course, Art, Ecology and Community for Princeton University. Felicia has a BA in Art History from Skidmore College and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. http://earthcelebrations.com/about-felicia-young/earthcelebrations.com
Visual Artist Bios 2020
MICHELE BRODY – ECOLOGICAL CITY VISUAL ART/COSTUME WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR will engage community participants through our workshop series building costumes and mobile sculptural artworks from organic and living materials. Michele has worked with Earth Celebrations leading our costume workshops series since 2009 for the Hudson River Pageant projects, where she presented the growing of the river grass skirts for the pageant as part of an exhibition at Brookfield Properties/Arts< World Financial Center. She is a visual ecological artist creating public art, ephemeral installations and living sculptures, as well as participatory rituals and community-engaged performances. Her works are made from natural and organic materials including seed, grass, bamboo, hand-made paper, and fiber. Michele has had one-person shows at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Chashama 461 Gallery, Arts>World Financial Center-Winter Garden and internationally in Germany, Costa Rica and France. She received grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council-MCAF, Pollack Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Puffin Foundation, Bronx Council on the Arts, 2015 Community Arts and Arts Fund Grants, Bronx, NY. Her public art installations include Bamboo Teahouse for the Bronx, Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx and MTA Arts for Transit Program and through the Public Arts for Public Schools Program. She has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College 1989 and an MFA from the Arts Institute of Chicago in 1994. michelebrody.com
LUCRECIA NOVOA – ECOLOGICAL CITY PUPPET/SCULPTURE WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR will engage the community through our workshop series building paper-mache puppets and masks. She has worked with Earth Celebrations and our community participants since 1997, leading workshops for the Save Our Gardens and Hudson River pageant projects. She is an experienced mask-maker, puppet builder, performer and arts instructor who has received numerous awards and residencies in New York City, Boston and Chile. She as an MA from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, 1983-1988, and a BA in Fine Arts from University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. She conducts mask-/puppet workshops through Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Bronx Zoo and Studio in a School, New York City; Edison School, Portchester, NY; Carver Center, RAIN and SEBCO Senior Centers. Exhibitions of her work include: NY Botanical Garden, Clemente Soto Velez Center, Latin Views Exhibit, Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art, University of Ct and Material Culture Exhibit, Longwood Art Gallery, Hostos College, Bronx, NY. www.mascaraviva.com
KATHERINE FREYGANG – ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE – MOBILE MURAL and climate solution banners 2020. Katherine Freygang studies and celebrates ecological relationships in art, events, exhibition design, architecture, and poetry. She works as an activist/educator in Connecticut and an artist/designer in New York; and is currently developing projects with Connecticut Innovations, Clean Water Action, Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, Connecticut’s UCC Congregational Environmental Ministry Team, Cornwall Energy Task Force, and Earth Celebrations. katherinefreygang.com
DEE DEE MAUCHER- MOS COLLECTIVE -BIO REMEDIATION SCULPTURE: Artist/Environmental Educator with El Jardin del Paraiso Garden to convene with gardeners to design and develop a sculptural work incorporating the gardens’ natural materials and bio-remediation techniques of dirt fermented with effective microorganisms. The sculpture could dissolve in the river and serve to revitalize the polluted waterway. She has developed bio-remediation art projects and educational workshops engaging participants in the creation of “mudball” and “bio-spheres” made of dirt fermented with microorganisms that improve the health of soil and water. Her workshops have been presented through artist Mary Mattingly’s SWALE, New Museum, Waterfront Alliance, LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival and Harbor Lab and events throughout New York City. moscollective.net
KATHY CREUTZBURG – Kathy Creutzburg is a public artist whose sculptures, mosaics, and paintings are inspired by landscapes. Between 2018- 2019, the collaborative team including Natalia Lesniak, Mirabai Kwan Yin, and Ms. Creutzburg won numerous grants and residencies for their sculptural installation, Whispers in the Grove. Exhibits include Figment NYC- “Dream Bigger” award, Governors Island; Phillips Manor Hall residency, Yonkers- NYS Council on the Arts; 6BC Botanical Garden and Lower East Side Ecology Center- Lower Manhattan Cultural Council- Creative Engagement award; and the Rye Art Center Public Art Program, Rye, NY. In 2018, Ms. Creutzburg was privately commissioned to create a glass mosaic on an East Village residential building. Mirabai Kwan Yin and Ms. Creutzburg collaborated on Triangula, a sculpture for the 2017 Chashama Gala. In 2016, Ms. Creutzburg’s steel sculpture work was commissioned for the UUA Peace Memorial Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also designed and facilitated a PSUMC mural in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A NYC School Construction Authority grant made permanent her sculptures, mosaics, and murals at Public School 61 in Manhattan in 2014. She exhibited monumental sculptures in the “Figment Summer Long Sculpture Garden” on Soldier’s Field, Governors Island for three consecutive years, 2012-214, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been shown in solo exhibits at Michael Mut Gallery and at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and group shows at Station Independent Gallery and Central Booking in New York City.https://www.kathycreutzburg.com/
Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions 2020 Visual Art
DIRECTOR – Felicia Young (Founder/ Director of Earth Celebrations)
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Hannah Wargo
INTERNS: Jesus Patino, Daniella Pagano, Jackie Plein, Kevin Kim, Hannah Buckley, Annalisa Dick, Yue Ren, Miya Zhang, Miku Fukazawa, Emily Kim, Jenny Mei, Sammi Chan, Amy Wong, Osman Hernandez, Taline Kalo, Hasan Khan, Jesus Patino
ECOLOGICAL CITY – CLIMATE SOLUTIONS VISUALS & SPECIAL THANKS
BIO-REMEDIATION GAIA SCULPTURE: Dee Dee Maucher – MOS Collective and East Village Wellness Circle
MOBILE MANDALA (LES Sustainable Solutions – UN SDG Sustainable Development Goals): Katherine Freygang
CLIMATE SOLUTION COSTUMES (Carbon Sequestration, Zero Waste & SDG -Sustainable Development Goals): Michele Brody with Rosa & Pedro and Anastasia Artemiev, Dee Dee Maucher & Kathy Creutzburg
CLIMATE SOLUTION PUPPETS (Carbon Sequestration, Zero Waste, Climate-Water): Lucrecia Novoa
PAINTED CLIMATE VISION STAFFS: David McGreevy and Thomas Harris
COSTUME PERFORMERS: Nadege Alexis, Barbara Augsburger, Jerrod Ullyses, Roshani Shah, Sami Ki
BANDS:
the African tradition and identity existing in Kisqueya Ayiti, known today as the
Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti. We use the name, Kalunga, to
highlight the Congolese cultural aspects retained in Dominican/Haitian culture
and throughout the African diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. Kalunga is a
goddess of the Congolese nation known also as the Muntu-Bantu or Bakongo,
she is the universal cosmos, the Big Bang from which all life comes from,
including the depths of the seas and
oceans.www.facebook.com/
trained and directed by Yasu Okkutsu and Glenn Healy of the East Village. Yasu
is a master guitarist, percussionist, and recording engineer/producer. Glenn is a
drummer, percussionist, and tri-lingual educator, working in 15 countries in the
last two decades. www.facebook.com/
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Rachel Elkind
VIDEOGRAPHERS: Roland Marconi
VOLUNTEER GROUPS: One Brick with Jon Fields & Vince Fuentes
SPECIAL THANKS: Atlantic Holdfast Seaweed Company
PARTNERS: Earth Celebrations in partnership with – LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens – representing 48 gardens), NYCCGC (New York City Community Garden Coalition), Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, GOLES, LES Ready!, NYC Community Garden District, Green Map, East 4th Street Block Association, Loisaida Inc. Center, Lower East Side Girls Club, Lower East Side Ecology, Solar One, Waterfront Alliance, East River Park Coalition, East River Alliance, East River Park Action, Friends of Corlears Hook Park, University Settlement (PS63), The Earth School (PS364), Sixth Street Community Center, Arts Loisaida, East Village Community Coalition, Infinite Movement, Grace Exhibition Space, Educational Alliance, Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, Times Up, Masters Of Succession Collective, Gaia Institute, Global Water Dances, FABnyc, Hunter College, and NYU.
SPONSORS: Con Edison, Fund for the City of New York, W Trust, Bluestein Family Foundation, Howard Bayne Fund,Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation,KPG Funds, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council – Creative Engagement is made possible in part with public funds supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC(New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council).