MulchFest 2013

Bring your holiday tree to a designated city park to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings across the city!

Brook Park is a site!

Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation , and GreeNYC to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips. These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree . More than 24,000 trees were recycled last year. Help us top this number!

Safe Streets in South Bronx Rally Calles seguras en el sur del Bronx Rally

Remembering an elder killed in our community by a truck.

Safe Streets in South Bronx Rally
Calles seguras en el sur del Bronx Rally
Saturday December 22, 2012

WHERE: East 138th Street and St. Ann’s Avenue, Bronx
Calle Este 138 con la Avenida St. Ann, Bronx

Last week an elder in our community was killed by a truck here.
La semana pasada, un anciano de nuestra comunidad fue muerto por un camión.

We need SAFER STREETS.
Necesitamos calles más seguras.

We do not need more trucks from companies like Fresh Direct.
No necesitamos más camiones de empresas como Direct Fresh.

BRING SOMETHING FOR THE COMMUNTY ALTAR TO REMEMBER
TRAER ALGO PARA EL ALTAR DE LA COMUNIDAD PARA RECORDAR

Sponsored by: South Bronx Unite and Casa Atabex Ache, Community Connections for Youth, Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, Friends of Brook Park, Heketi Community Charter School, Mothers on the Move, Transportation Alternatives, United Confederation of Taino People, and more, be a co-sponsor

Contact: www.southbronxunite.com

Autumn 2012

Dear Friends of Friends of Brook Park,

Friends of Brook Park has much to be grateful for this time of year. Foremost is our gratitude to the indigenous peoples of this continent and across the world. Our Indigenous Culture Committee has helped facilitate numerous events that recognize and respect the values and traditions that respect Nature and help educate the next generations.

In addition, this year:

*we served more people than ever before, on land and water, with our gardening and canoe programs

*the Harlem River Working Group coalition that we helped form hosted the Secretary of the Interior on the Harlem River

*that Con Edison started the deconstruction of the navigation obstacle on the Bronx Kill that we advocated for years to remove

*that the South Bronx Unite coalition is winning the effort to stop $127 million in public subsidies to Fresh Direct to take over our waterfront

*that we only lost a noble willow and our community greenhouse in the storm, when so many people lost more

*the Brook Park chickens are the only fowl on twitter, and we had the best honey harvest yet from our bees

*that our efforts garnered the attention of an unprecedented number of reporters and film makers

*that our Alternatives to Incarceration program has helped steer youth away from the prison industrial complex

*we were able to continue to work with great students and local youth, host numerous activities from a Columbia University waterfront visioning project to the 25th Anniversary of local group Vamos La Pena because of the generous support from foundations, public agencies, and individuals like you.

Thank you for being a part of our continuing success.
Please consider keeping us growing with a year-end gift.
Friends of Brook Park need you to continue the global revolution!

With best wishes from all of us at Friends of Brook Park for a safe and happy Autumn,

FRIENDS OF BROOK PARK Team

Click Here to Donate

The Brook is Coming

The Brook Restoration project includes planning a wetland system in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx with native plantings to support fauna, similar to the natural brook that ran through the park in the late 1800’s. Rainwater harvesting from adjacent buildings will be divert 1,000,000 gallons of water a year from the combined-sewer to an above ground cistern for irrigation, and below-grade cisterns used to maintain water levels in the wetland. A comprehensive ecosystem assessment will be used to determine native plantings and diverse species habitat. Community involvement and stewardship will ensure the success of the project over the long-term.


Our South Bronx community needs and wants more green and aquatic open space to provide a more natural landscape. The Friends of Brook Park with the wider local community has had many discussions, meetings, and design sessions, as well as made presentations to solicit input and involvement in a grass-roots vision for the redesign of the asphalt portion of the park, and an exhibition at the local Mott Haven branch of the New York Public Library. This has been facilitated through a planning and design grant with the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. The project will improve our community with this environmental resource unique to the area, and further link upland communities with the surrounding waterways.

Brook Restoration Informational Handout. Click on the image for a larger version!

The study phase of this exciting effort is funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) South Bronx Waterfront Partnership funded by Congressman José E. Serrano and managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). We welcome your support and ideas as to how to obtain the resources necessary to implement.

Our Restorations Project Manager Aaron Petersohn is guiding this unique effort and our partnership with The Gaia Institute and others. Email us.

Art Show 10-20-12 “OBJECT OF LAND SEA CLOUDS: HOVER ON THE LINE” by Columbia Fiero

FRIENDS OF BROOK PARK Arts Committee presents:
“OBJECT OF LAND SEA CLOUDS:
HOVER ON THE LINE”
by Columbia Fiero
an Art Installation in BROOK PARK, BRONX
Opening reception Oct. 20, 2pm – 6:30pm
Special performance 2:30 to 4pm by theatre troupe
Concrete Justice
of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Also on view every Wednesday from 3PM till Sundown. and other days and hours weather depending,
contact us for more information or to arrange a visit. On view October 27th from 11AM on.

Contact about artwork: Columbia Fiero 917-710-3253
Contact about theatricals: Katy Rubin 646-504-4582

Amongst the green-grey trees in Brook Park are objects
created by installation artist, painter, and photographer
Columbia Fiero. Encrypted in fabric, both sail and parachute
cloth, and paint–a vision of earth’s cycle which not only
includes consciousness of climate change, the shifting geologic
time, but also the objectification of land, sea, and clouds as
commodities, undermining what we must protect, entities with
rights. The vision is, at once, the community life process
(images: laundry–hanging cloths on a line, spirits).

The installation is there to catalyze dialogue. There are three parts
to the work, “Vivid celebration,” “Degradation,” and “Thirst.”
The last speaks to the presence of the underground Mill Brook
beneath the western half of the park. The Friends of Brook
Park hope to “daylight” this brook, in time, creating a wetland
ecosystem.
Travel, with the intent to observe, the attempt to absorb the
occasion of the human condition–seeing how people live in
relation to the earth, has been a critical influence on Ms.
Fiero’s work. Inspired by sculptor and mentor Bradford Graves
(who told her that to know the earth she had to walk the
earth), she has been to China, VietNam, Korea, India, South
America (including many indigenous villages), the Galapagos,
Europe, Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution, and has
made extensive and detailed journeys throughout the United
States.
Ms. Fiero is a graduate of Parsons-The New School for Design.
She has exhibited in North Miami during the Art Basel Miami
Festival, 55 Mercer Gallery, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Apexart,
Asian American Art Centre, Brooklyn Museum, Theater for the
New City, and at other venues. She is the photographer for the
Environmental Justice Initiative for Haiti. She’s been awarded
fellowships with residency at the Vermont Studio Center, The
Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences, the Scottish Sculpture
Workshop, and the Hanoi Fine Arts University, with support of
the Indochina Arts Partnership. For more on Columbia Fiero,
please see http://www.columbiafiero.com
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC brings CONCRETE JUSTICE, an
ensemble of homeless and formerly actors, to perform “Park
Bench Prophet: Beggar with a Cause” at the art opening.
TONYC partners with communities facing discrimination to
inspire transformative action through theater. Katy Rubin,
Director, will lead the Brook Park audience in theatrical
brainstorming or “forum theater,” in which the audience
becomes involved as “spect-actors” to offer alternative
solutions to problems onstage. Learn more about TONYC
here: http://www.theatreoftheoppressednyc.org
________________________________________________
Brook Park, the site of the art installation, is the home base
of the environmental organization, Friends of Brook Park.
FoBP, a community-based 501c3 organization, is a coalition
of residents, parents, educators, workers, and home and/or
business owners dedicated to managing and revitalizing
green spaces. For an overview, please see our website at
www.friendsofbrookpark.org.
VISITORS WELCOME TO BRING NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
TO SHARE.
RAIN DATE: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21
PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR IMAGES–
(High Resolution images are available upon request.)
Above, COLUMBIA FIERO’S Vermont Installation at TNC, a past
art installation at Theater for the New City which foreshadows
the work now being installed at Brook Park.
Above image, from Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
photo credit: Will O’Hare

Teacher Parent Orientation

Friends of Brook Park
Teacher Parent Orientation

*** WEDNESDAY 9-26-12

3-6pm anytime. Can be quick or longer, get a tour. ***
East 141st Street and Brook Avenue

Download the flier here.

There is an organic garden at the White House, and even more in the South Bronx! Teachers get the key.

Use the garden for ANY SUBJECT!!
Heal Nature Deficit Disorder. No Child Left Inside.

Or contact us for a scheduled group tour or orientation.

See our website for more: www.friendsofbrookpark.org

CONTACT: information@friendsofbrookpark.org 646.648.4362

Bike Tour of Port Morris Gantries, South Bronx Waterfront

Saturday, September 22, 12pm

Port Morris Gantries, Bronx

Sponsored by the Historic Districts Council.

BICYCLE TOUR led by Harry J. Bubbins, director of Friends of Brook Park

In the South Bronx neighborhood of Port Morris, a pair of ferry gantries deteriorating in an empty lot may seem an eyesore to some, but the Friends of Brook Park sees them as the centerpiece to an engaging public space. Taking inspiration from other New York City waterside parks, this new park will combine recreation, education, and preservation of New York’s history for residents and visitors alike. This tour will visit the exterior of the gantries site but also examine other historic areas of Port Morris. A limited number of bicycles are available upon advance request, otherwise bikes will not be provided.

Click here to register.

Six To Celebrate Walking Tour-Port Morris Gantries, Bronx