Tag: Environment

Sidewalk Talk: Creative Placemaking

Arts and culture are an important component of a thriving main street. One method for supporting and celebrating the arts is through local events and festivals. Join Pattern for Progress for a discussion with the organizers of O+, a longstanding festival in the City of Kingston, and the Phoenix Festival, a new event debuting this year in the Village of Nyack. Register here!
In this webinar you will learn from presenters with first-hand experience about establishing and running an event, creative ideas for celebrating the arts, and how to connect an event to the community where it takes place.
SpeakerS: Joe Concra, Organizer, O+ Festival and  Craig Smith, Organizer, The Phoenix Festival
O+ EMPOWERS COMMUNITIES TO TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR COLLECTIVE WELLBEING THROUGH THE EXCHANGE OF ART, MUSIC AND WELLNESS. O+ (pronounced O Positive) supports the health of underinsured artists and musicians through festivals at which they exchange art-making and performances for wellness services: the art of medicine for the medicine of art. O+ helps strengthen community wellbeing with Narcan and CPR trainings, expos of local health-and wellness-related nonprofits, cycling events, classes in the healing arts, mural tours and healthcare forums. 
Nyack joins the roster of world class arts events with the launch of The Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack — an annual celebration of classical theater, music, local culture and the creative spirit of community. For the inaugural year, the event will span five weekends in September and October 2022. All performances will be presented live and outdoors against a backdrop of majestic Hudson River vistas and Nyack’s lively, jazzy riverside village.
The Festival is hosted and produced by the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, an internationally recognized leader in creative contemporary theater and winner of multiple prestigious awards for excellence in theater arts. Founded in New York City in 2004, the Ensemble makes Rockland County its second home.
Ensemble artistic directors Elise Stone and Craig Smith lead the Festival creative team, engaging local, county and New York State institutions, educational organizations, businesses and non-profits in support of this exciting event.
“The Festival offers joy to audiences of all ages, while at the same time bringing visitors to Rockland, new revenues for local businesses and workers, a spotlight for non-profits and educational opportunities for young people who want to get up-close and hands-on with live performance.” –Craig Smith, Executive Director

Your Role in New York’s Climate Action (virtual)

When New York’s draft scoping plan, written by the Climate Action Council, is finalized later this year, it will impact every New Yorker: our energy choices, the industries we work in, the communities we live in, the investments we make in affordable energy, and the ways we can protect ourselves and our neighborhoods against climate change. The River Newsroom climate reporter, Lissa Harris, will talk with people who have been following the state’s climate planning process closely about what the scoping plan means for all New Yorkers—and what action you can take.

Register here!

Driving Change in the Transportation Sector? NY’s Draft Scoping Plan, and How You Can Get Involved (virutal)

Transportation is one of the largest sources of climate-damaging emissions in New York, and a major source of other harmful pollutants that damage our health, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Eliminating those emissions will be critical to reaching the emissions and equity goals of New York’s Climate Act. Join New Yorkers for Clean Power for this teach-in on Tuesday, May 24th at noon about the transportation section of the State’s proposed Scoping Plan. Learn about what the Climate Action Council is recommending and whether those recommendations go far enough.

Register here!

Earth Day Celebration with Evergreen Minds at the Vassar Farm (in person)

Project Growing Together Community Garden is located on the grounds of the ecological preserve at Vassar College.

11 am – 11:45 – Musical Meditation in the Garden – Eric Fraser

Eric Fraser is a licensed music therapist and a multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, and songwriter. Eric’s orientation to Indian classical music serves as inspiration for melody, and a creative tool for improvisation on original styles that incorporate voice, guitar, keyboard, electronics and looping. Join Eric in the garden with his Bansuri (a bamboo flute from India) for a relaxing and grounding musical meditation in and with nature! www.ericfraser.com

12-12:45 – Wild Hudson Valley – Justin Wexler & Anna Plattner

Those That Sustain Us: The Role of Plants in Hudson Valley Native Life:

Local indigenous communities once relied on the great diversity of plants that call the Hudson Valley home. Join ethnoecologist, teacher and farmer, Justin Wexler of Wild Hudson Valley to explore some of the important plants for food, tools, fiber, medicine and dyes, and their role in Lenape culture both centuries ago and today. www.wildhudsonvalley.com

12:50-1:45 –Creating Mushroom Sculptures for the Garden! —Serena Domingues:

Serena is a multi-media creator exploring conceptual ideas about human nature and how we impact the natural world and ourselves. She will be hosting a sculpture workshop; teaching the importance of mushrooms and how to make one out of clay! Each participant will be able to keep a mushroom and give one to the garden. Her website is www.serenasnature.com to learn more about her work and classes. Suggested donation $10-$20 pp–Pay what you can for this activity!

1:50 – 2:10 – The Practice and Science of Home Composting—Joyce deVries Tomaselli: Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County

Joyce deVries Tomaselli is Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County’s (CCEDC) Community Horticulture Resource Educator and a Master Gardener. 

Join us as Joyce shares how to effectively compost organic materials and successfully use them in gardening. Learn how organic matter improves key aspects of soil and enables plants to take up the nutrients they need. Join us to learn all about it! http://ccedutchess.org/

 2:30-3:15 – Move with the FLOW of NATURE: Qigong in the Garden—Kele Baker

Relax, restore and revitalize in this comfortable qigong (“chee-gong”) session. Through a series of easy, fun meditative movements, learn how to embody the resilience of a tree, the joy of the sun, the groundedness of earth, the courage of the mountain, and graceful flow of water. These therapeutic movement and breathing practices are easy to do and adaptable to all abilities. You are welcome to stand or sit for the session. Teacher Kele Baker is a senior trainer for Holden Qigong, Healer Within Qigong and Tai Chi Easy. Locally, Kele teaches qigong courses for Vassar College LLI and Marist College CLS. She also teaches online group classes and one-to-one coaching sessions. www.kelebaker.com

3:30-4 – Closing Celebration & Music in the Garden with Dementia Care Champion, Dr. Al Power, MD

We are honored to have the world-renowned G. Allen Power join us as we officially open our community garden! Dr. Power will be playing his guitar for a fun, musical ribbon-cutting in the Garden!

Dr. Power is a board-certified internist, geriatrician, and clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. He is also a Certified Eden Alternative® Educator, a member of the Eden Alternative board of directors and an international educator on transformation models of care for older adults, particularly those living with changing cognitive abilities.

In addition, Dr. Power is also a trained musician and songwriter with three recordings, including Life Worth Living: A Celebration of Elders and Those Who Care for Them.  His songs have been recorded by several artists and performed on three continents. Peter, Paul and Mary performed his song of elder autonomy, “If You Don’t Mind”, and Walter Cronkite used his song, “I’ll Love You Forever” in a 1995 Discovery Channel profile of American families.

You can learn more about Dr. Power’s contributions to dementia care and his books, Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care and Dementia Beyond Disease: Enhancing Well-Being at http://www.alpower.net/alpower_bio.htm

Other FUN Happenings Throughout the Day:

  • The fabulous Vassar Band, Fowlmouth Adds to the Earth Day Festivities https://www.instagram.com/fowlmouth.band/
  • Our Intern, Lixuanyi (Joy) Pan will be preparing an authentic Chinese Dish!
  • Nature Mandala Making: Everyone is Welcome to add to Our community Mandala!
  • Pix with Chix! Join Bea the Mayor—The World’s Most Beloved Chicken (ok, well…maybe just in the Hudson Valley)…and her person, Evergreen Minds Board Member, Karen Finnegan visit and you can have your photo taken with The Mayor!
  • Our hard-working Vassar Interns and community Volunteers will be here to greet you and help throughout the Event!

Sustainability & Innovation Conference (in person)

The Sustainability & Innovation Conference is a senior capstone project with a mission to create an intersectional conversation around the fashion landscape, its effect on the environment, technological innovations, and how we can create meaningful changes in the industry. Through panel discussions with industry vets, experts, and authors [Ralph Lauren, Eileen Fisher, Joshua Katcher, Lenzing and more] the audience will learn about the importance of sustainability in all its forms.

Following the event, there will be an exclusive networking hour to interact with our panelists. Register now!