So for real…
I suck in the soil, but I been farming me a garden for a little while now, and I’m living off the fruit…
But before we get there…
I’m sitting in my car outside of starbucks with my engine running as I read the new york times…
It’s December of 2007, and the Bush administration has used the Environmental Protection Agency as a proxy to reject 17 states in their bid to impose more rigid emissions standards on the automobile agency. Not that I wasn’t noticing the overarching wackness of our president’s policy making, but something about this PARTICULAR decision felt particularly sinister to me. Despite the illusion of inclusion into a domestic body politic, corporations clearly have no national identity, no allegiance to people.
With this decision Bush was going beyond the xenophobia that psychologically bridged the U.S to war in Iraq. The EPA couldn’t claim even a false moral ground here, was transparently and intentionally corporate in a manner that showed neither allegiance to country nor planet.
Ooohhh… they actually for real, DON’T give a fuck…I thought…
And soon there will be nothing left to eat but money, and regret…
Me? I got sustainability issues (and not just the personal ones)… I fly everywhere, drive hella much, eat out often, sometimes travel across oceans to perform 5 minute poems. Mine is a garden of robust messaging and performance language…an organization, professorships, hella foundation awards, several touring shows, talking head heaven, the whole nine…
My green lettuce is feebly wilted by comparison…something’s got to change…time to USE THE PRESENT cultural assets and position to MAKE THE FUTURE.
So folks I’mo try something, and use this space to document the process of moving from thought to action the best I know how. In the break between convictions and contradictions, bush bashing and casual consumption I find art, and I think maybe, community…
The idea is to make a LIVING COMMUNITY in PERFORMANCE called red black and GREEN: a blues…
At the center of this community is the belief that the term “green” presupposes an appreciation and value for life. Further, the ugly reality is that for a number of reasons, this fundamental value of life is systemically stunted within the black community. The evidence is in the data. For instance, Blacks are more likely to die of heart disease, stroke, HIV/AIDS, flu, pneumonia, diabetes, cancer, asthma, AND homicide than Whites. All this according to the CDC’s latest statistics.
So before we go green, we go brown, with a specific strategy to reflect and affirm life for all, beginning with a series of events and installations called life is living. “Life is Living” is a one day festival cum national branding initiative, a direct link between black and brown communities, contemporary arts centers, and the planet. Watch this video to SEE what I mean, or peep this abstract to READ what I mean…
Either way, the deal is this…
I am choosing to alter my personal relationship to public space, and through politics, performance, cartography, and film, I am inviting communities all over the united states to do the same, beginning in Harlem and Brooklyn, uptown Chicago, the 9th ward in Houston, West Oakland, and the Excelsior district in san francisco…
Along the way, the documentation of the process will appear on this site in blog, photo essay, and hopefully a community of links looking toward action…my starting eight of hero/allies in this are the YOUTH SPEAKS massive, Eli Jacobs Fantauzzi, the mighty MVMT crew, the women of MAPP, Brett Cook Dizney, bethanie hines, jeff chang and you.
Somewhere along the road, I will build my next dance theater work with the dirt and residue of these dreams…
Art in action. For real…
Re-use this blog…
Re-cycle these ideas…
Life is worth living.
Living is green.
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Check out Dr. Octagon’s visual rollercoaster in ‘Trees’. It presents the disturbing reality about our environment, our trees, and our communities in a type of a video hallucination.
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Reading a recent post from Eco Razzi, I discovered the # 1 reason thousands of youth are not joining the green movement. It’s just not being taken serious.
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Photo by Scott La Rockwell
‘Between the greenhouse gases and earth spinnin off its axis
Got mother nature doin’ back flips
The natural disasters
It’s like 80 degrees in Alaska
You in trouble if you not an Onasis
It ain’t hard to tell that the conditions is drastic’
Released last year in April, Mos captured a much ignored issue in our communities-the neglect of the Environment. Once, I had a friend comment that there were too many other issues in disenfranchised communities in America, and furthermore, throughout the world that needed to be dealt with before the environment.
There’s no order of operations to our life.
Everything is important. Environment is as important as is the economy or the social problems or whatever else maybe prevalent in our communities. The reason the environment is neglected is because it is not, or people can not, directly connect it back to money, gold, wealth, to prosperity.
That is exactly why we must focus on the environmental degradation of our communities. Because it is the health of our environment that will yield to this prosperity or wealth. Having money doesn’t feel good when your surroundings, your environment is ugly.
This leads to a wider conversation about wealth. It’s safe to say that the most naturally beautiful parts of the world are those that hold a natural beauty. The Himalayas, the hills upon which the Great Wall of China stands, the waterfront beaches of Monaco and St. Thomas… They’re beautiful because they are Green friendly. They’re not colored black by smog and pollutants. They are also prosperous. Businesses venture to them because people will come to them.
And so, if anything, if not for the sake of our children’s health or for the beauty of our communities, how about we become green to become rich? ‘Nicer’ areas attract businesses, restaurants, better real estate. This improves our communities; it empowers them. And lets not let it take form as gentrification but rather as a revitalisation of our communities, by our own hands.
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The Natural Builders donated some of their time during the Living Word Festivals “Environmental Caucus & Concert in deFremery Park (aka Little Bobby Hutton Park).
Bamboo Construction w/ The Natural Builders :: Photos by Betty Bastidas
The Natural Builders are licensed contractors offering design, build and consultation services.
The Natural Builders collaborate with artists, building professionals, and individuals in a range of fields, from the creation of ecological spaces, to the development of new materials, to the understanding and improvement of vernacular building techniques.
The term “natural building” refers to a range of construction methods that use locally sourced or minimally processed materials: straw, earth, bamboo, and sustainably harvested wood.
This, in return, results in architecture reminiscent of older, artisan-ally inspired housing that looks similar to modern day European stucco. I’m not an architecture aficionado by any means, but as many people are in this day and age of design/decor luxury, I do have a knack for aesthetics.
And our aesthetics, or at least the ones we take ownership of, represent a vast array of styles, forms of expression, etc. Aesthetics are also the evolution of consideration; and unfortunately, it is our own communities that have been deprived of this consideration. Simply put, we often perceive that to be a “home owners,” you need to be one of those “real estate” tycoons who build large sky scapers, give us temporary jobs, and kick us out of the neighborhoods we helped to build. That leaves us with one conclusion. Yes, the neighborhood looks new, but NEW FOR WHO?
Littered sidewalks and debilitated housings do not represent us; they represent the neglect implemented upon us; and so, it is time to take heed of our design genius and rebuild our communities accordingly.
Still, we establish our acts of inspiration and hope into our aesthetics. The aesthetics of our communities contribute to our own impressions, treatment, and respect for them.
Take for example, graffiti. Graffiti is the product of Our imaginations. Graffiti is beautiful. It fills our neighborhoods; and essentializes Our capability to enhance Our communities’ appearance, on Our own. 30-story building blocks fill our neighborhoods under the auspices of ‘Projects’. Lets call it what it really is. Political vernacular is a little more truthful… ‘Projects’ are institutionalized housing for the poor and ill-informed’. It’s time for change.
One way to reclaim the hidden beauty of our communities is through architectural and environmental reinvention. Yes, this is a humongous project. But we’re doing it right now! Hence, Life is Living.
And one way to go about this is by utilizing organizations such as Natural Builders and redirecting them to our neighborhoods in Oakland, New York, D.C. and beyond.
Check out their portofolio! All that bamboo makes me want to runaway to Cabo!
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by Hinna Jafri, MVMT
This is an all too common testament in cities across America. According to(statistics needed) …How do we address this? What can we do? What can you, as one person, do?
We’ve heard too many statistics too many times. Cities across America have severely higher rates of asthma compared to national averages. These aren’t small numbers either. 10 times higher, 20 times higher… 50 times higher.
Take charge… with others.
The only way to stop the pollution in our communities and prevent the lungs of our young ones from being infiltrated by smog is to aggressively combat it.
Fight it…with more Green, with more trees, and more responsibility. Yes, cutting down local pollution rates needs to work hand-in-hand. But some of that is a bit out of total control. Reducing car omission rates (People need to drive, hybrid cars are expensive or not accessible to our communities.) is a lot more difficult than planting more trees and not littering but rather recycling. Lets do what we have the ability to do. That’s more restructuring of our communities and gaining better habits.
Right?
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“Words are just words without action. But I think what we’re seeing here today with these poets is the beginning of action.” – Robert Redford
Robert Redford has been fighting on behalf of the environment for more than 30 years. From producing documentary films about solar power to lobbying Congress, his work has been both in the field and inside the Beltway.
These days, he has a new venue for environmental activism: slam poetry. Sponsored by Redford’s Sundance Preserve, in collaboration with Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that presents spoken-word performances, the Academy Award-winning actor is getting his message out in rhyme.
Redford spoke with Lauren Whitehead, associate director of Youth Speaks, and Simone Crew, slam poet and participant in “Brave New Voices: Youth Speaks! 11th International Youth Poetry Slam,” on Talk of the Nation about his latest project and getting young people involved in the fight against global warming.
Listen to the interview live here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92584973
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Big shout out to Grind For the Green, who organized an incredible Summery Eco-Musical Festival.
Grind For The Green
Here is some quick information about their work.
GRIND FOR THE GREEN (G4G) IS AN ANNUAL SUMMER ECO-MUSIC FESTIVAL PRODUCED BY AND FOR YOUTH IN THE SF BAY AREA. MORE THAN JUST A SHOWCASE FOR LOCAL TALENT, G4G PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK AND APPLIED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOUTH FROM THE HIP-HOP GENERATION BUILD BUSINESS ACUMEN AND TECHNICAL SKILLS NECESSARY FOR PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT. HUNDREDS OF PARTICIPANTS WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE PART IN ALL EVENTS, WHICH INCLUDE ARTIST DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS, JOBS, INTERNSHIPS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ROOTED IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FRAMEWORK.
See more online at http://www.myspace.com/grindforthegreen
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