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South Bronx Food & Film Expo!

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South Bronx Food & Film Expo!
DECEMBER 5th, 12 noon
This event is Free!!! Food/clothing donations encouraged

Quick Links

Dear Friends:

Please join us at THE POINT CDC (and Friends of Brook Park and more!) on December 5th for the South Bronx Food & Film Expo (12-5pm). If you are interested in growing your own food, or having better access to healthy food, or getting involved with changing current food policies, this is the event for you! Our expo features groups that can help you do all this and more. Or if you simply want to come sample free local healthy foods, maybe learn a thing or two, and watch a few great films, you are welcome as well!

We have included a flier in this email so you can help the spread the word about this event. Everyone is invited! If you plan on bringing a large group please just let us know, otherwise no RSVP is required.

Here are the details…

SOUTH BRONX FOOD & FILM EXPO
sponsored proudly by Urban Farming

FOOD:
Locally-sourced vegan meals will be prepared on site by Bascom Catering. Free lunch!

FILM:
We will be screening two feature films:
What’s on Your Plate? @ 12:15
FRESH! @ 3pm

We will also be showing a few short films made in the Bronx @ 1:30, such as an extended version of this urban farming video

There will be a Q&A discussion at the end of the screenings.

EXPO:
Our interactive expo features groups from the South Bronx and beyond that grow and supply healthy local food, and fight for change in food policy.

Why does local food matter?
What government decisions effect what YOU eat?
Find answers. Meet people. Get involved!

DETAILS:
This event is FREE!
Food/clothing donations are encouraged
$10 suggested contribution

This is a child-friendly event.
Childcare will be provided.

For more information, contact:
Adam, actionatthepoint@yahoo.com

South Bronx Food & Film Expo!
and donation drive

DATE: Saturday December 5th
TIME: 12 noon
LOCATION: @ THE POINT CDC
MORE: FREE FOOD!

Sincerely,

THE POINT CDC

"Green" exhibition at Haven Arts

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“Green” exhibition at Haven Arts

Haven Arts
50 Bruckner Blvd., Bronx, NY  10454

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Carol Zakaluk at 718-292-8217 for information

                                          
“Green”
Curated by Carol Zakaluk

October 17 – October 25, 2008
Opening Reception:  Friday, October 17, 5 – 9pm
Authors’ Talk:  Wednesday,  October 21, 5 – 8pm
Gallery Hours:  Daily, noon – 6pm

Haven Arts is pleased to announce “Green,” a two-part exhibition.  In Gallery I, we will showcase recent projects of organizations and individuals who strive to make both New York City and the nation a greener and more self-sustaining place.  In Gallery II, we will present the work of dedicated eco-artists, and artists who use recycled materials and pigments made from earth.

Exhibiting in Gallery I, the organizations engaged in greening their communities are: Alliance For Climate Protection (posters and television ads from their national campaign), Friends of Brook Park (Mott Haven Tree Project, community garden work, and more), South Bronx CSA Program (growers and consumers providing mutual support), South Bronx Food Coop (providing affordable, nutritious, organic food), and The Bronx TNR Group (Trap, Neuter, and Return of feral cats as humane solution to too many strays).  Also on display are sustainable design proposals for a new Willis Avenue, Bronx corridor, and an air-filtration system for the Major Deegan Expressway by five students from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.  Architect Juan Carlos Taino contributes green design proposals for the Melrose neighborhood in the Bronx.

Eco-art and earth-friendly art fills Gallery II.  Environmental art as seen in this exhibition interprets nature, informs us about nature’s processes, and stridently calls attention to environmental problems we face.  It re-envisions our relationship to nature, proposing new ways for us to co-exist with our environment.  Some attempts to reclaim or remediate damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in artistic ways.  One piece, created by an artist from South India, reverentially pays homage to the Earth as mother goddess.  Included is work in sculpture, photography, painting, collage, and fiber art by participating artists Bob Braine, Jacob Bluestone, Harry J. Bubbins, Gian Pietro Carriozza, Janet Culbertson, Nickolas Lascot,  MArishka, Walter Mason, Catherine Blackwell-Pena, Sarah Phillips, and Ustya Tarnawsky.

Highlights from “Green” in Gallery II include–

Catherine Blackwell-Pena’s participatory sculpture, where the viewer steps atop a 24” cement square to view a photo of a man on a hillside, standing on a similar square.  The piece invites the viewer to heighten their environmental awareness as they assume a new vantage point both physically and mentally in a re-examination of the clash of culture and nature.

Walter Mason contributes elegantly beautiful, transient “land art” (captured with four photographs) for which he meticulously placed 238 dewdrops on Autumn leaves, and balanced over 80 pebbles on sticks, on sand, and on concrete.

Bob Braine offers eight prints, images taken of North Brother Island, just off the Bronx, depicting nature’s reclamation of the abandoned Riverside Hospital, the contagious disease sanitarium and later, psychiatric hospital.  Braine additionally sent up a weather balloon with attached camera to capture the resurgence of nature through the derelict structures using infrared film.

Harry J. Bubbins offers photographs of his decade plus work in the South South Bronx in gardens and on the waters. With a sculptural installation featuring asphalt that was removed from an abandoned lot, to create more space for greenery.

Nickolas Lascot’s 13’ crocodile sculpture is a beast to be reckoned with, made from recycled newspaper, cardboard, home-made glue, various construction materials, and paint.   

Authors’ Talk

On Wednesday, October 21st from 5 to 8pm, two nationally acclaimed environmentally-minded authors will speak about their work.  Lori Bongiorno (author of “Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life”) and Eugene Linden (author of eight books, including “The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations” and “The Future is in Plain Sight: Nine Clues to the Coming Instability”).  After speaking, Ms. Bongiorno and Mr. Linden will answer questions from the audience.  Contact carol@havenarts.org for additional flyer about the talk, or to rsvp for a large group of attendees.

Directions to Haven Arts:  6 train to 3rd Ave./138th St.  Exit the station at the “Alexander Ave” staircase.   Walk South on Alexander Ave.,four short blocks to Bruckner Blvd. Turn left and walk East on Bruckner Blvd., less than 1/2 block to gallery.

FoBP in NY Times article for Randall’s Island Connector

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On the Water, a Tight Fit and Nervous Boaters

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/nyregion/thecity/07kaya.html?ref=thecity

Photo by: Rob Buchanan/newyorkharborbeaches.org

“It’s tricky to time it, to get under the conduits,” Rob Buchanan said of navigating the Bronx Kill.

By KATHERINE BINDLEY
Published: September 6, 2008
THERE are times when the narrow strait known as the Bronx Kill, which separates Randalls Island from the southern tip of the Bronx, looks neglected. At low tide one recent Saturday, for example, a T-shirt and a surge protector lay on the bottom, along with the remnants of a car that had turned the exact color of the rocks it had settled on.

But for canoers, kayakers and other boaters, who know to come when the tide is just right, the Bronx Kill is home to blue crabs and schools of fish, and serves as a precious passageway connecting the East and Harlem Rivers.

“It’s a natural day trip — float through, have a picnic and come back,” said Rob Buchanan, the president of the Village Community Boathouse in Manhattan.

But navigating the kill can be tricky. Directly over the water are two concrete beams, built by Con Edison in the 1960s, that contain cables that carry power to Randalls Island. Sometimes a boater has about a foot of clearance under the beams, but at other times it’s down to inches. “It’s tricky to time it, to get under the conduits,” Mr. Buchanan said.

Now, in light of significant changes planned for the area, boaters’ concerns have turned to this tight fit.

The first challenge was a plan to build a pedestrian bridge over the kill as part of the South Bronx Greenway project. When local officials and boating representatives heard the idea, they lobbied the city’s Economic Development Corporation to ensure that the bridge would be high enough for boat traffic. After seeing preliminary renderings of the bridge, the concerned parties were satisfied.

But now there is a second construction plan for the Bronx Kill. Con Edison wants to build more electrical conduits to Randalls Island to supply more power to a water treatment plant there.

The boaters say that if Con Ed proceeds with this project, it might as well raise the relatively low height of the current conduits. “If they’re going to do a big investment here, let’s do it all,” said Harry Bubbins, the director of Friends of Brook Park, a community environmental group that frequently runs boats through the kill. Noting that the undersides of the Con Ed beams show signs of decay, he added, “There’s a sense they’re just going to throw these things in.”

Chris Olert, a Con Ed spokesman, said that the utility hopes to finish the project by next summer. “We’re working with the city E.D.C., and I’m sure we and they together will address concerns,” he added. “There has to be sound engineering and the project has got to be affordable. Occasionally, people request things that just aren’t affordable for all of our customers.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Bubbins plans to continue to take people through the strait.

“We’re taking more people out to the site, introducing people to the project and raising awareness about it,” he said. “It’s very different when you’re on the water.”