Category: Events

EPA Summit!

EPA


Please join us for the first EPA Summit!

When: September 23rd, 9:30am – 5:30pm
Where: EPA Headquarters at 1067 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, NY

The EPA Summit is cross-disciplinary gathering bringing together artists, thinkers, scientists and others in the fields of urban ecology, art, dance, movement and performance to explore the possibility of embodied research, and the value of urban weeds as collaborators, guides and mentors.

The Summit is a public day-long event rain or shine. We invite you for the duration of the gathering, but if you cannot dedicate the whole day, RSVP either for the morning or the afternoon.

RSVP REQUIRED: TO REGISTER CLICK HERE
Suggested Donation of $20/person

Any questions please contact: environmentalperformanceagency@gmail.com

SCHEDULE

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
WELCOME with Fresh Foraged Chicory Coffee

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
EMERGENCY WEEDY RESILIENCE KIT: The Weeds Welcome You
Catherine Grau

10:30 AM – 11:15 AM
INTRODUCTIONS
Welcoming remarks by EPA artist collective

11:15 AM – 12:30 PM
URBAN WEEDS GUIDE TO BORDER CROSSING
Chris Kennedy

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
POOR BUT SEXY (Activist) LUNCH
guided by Catherine Grau
with special guests Darryl Montgomery-Hell, Moira Williams, Johann Diedrick and Thomas Choinacky

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
RADICAL CARE SITTING: Guerilla Encounters with Weedy Islands
andrea haenggi

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
NEXT EPOCH SEED LIBRARY: Time Capsule for Pacific Street Futures
Anne Percoco + Ellie Irons

5:00 PM- 5:30pm
GROUP REFLECTION
End remarks by all participants

*Several sessions involve actions out in the streets and are not suitable to casual drop-in mid way. Thank you for being considerate!

Anthrobotanical at the Schuylkill Center

EPA


The EPA is participating in an exhibition at the Schuylkill Center in Philadelphia next week! We’ll be sharing research and ephemera from our summer field work. The opening is Sept. 7th, 6-8pm. More details about the show below:

“Most people know that we rely on plants for the food we eat and the air we breathe, but the interconnections between plants and people actually go much deeper and are more nuanced. Scientists continue to discover the complexities of how plants take in and respond to information, even communicating with each other through underground networks and chemical signals. Human systems powerfully influence plant communities, locations, and health – and they also exert a powerful influence over us. Yet, despite the intricacies of the plant-human relationship, plants are often overlooked, even compared to other aspects of the natural world.” [More info]

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Open Garden Session: Weedy Resistance, Border Crossings and Decolonizing Science

EPA
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The EPA was a flurry of activity yesterday during our 3rd Open Garden Session. Collective members andrea haenggi, Carrie Ahern, Ellie Irons and Chris Kennedy offered a variety of experiences for visitors. Chris and Carrie co-led the second part of the Urban Weeds Guide to Border Crossing involving a neighborhood walk and mapping session that focused on two living lots near the EPA Headquarters. Using a ladder and our bodies, we peered over barriers (a metal gate and chain link fence) to observe and speculate on the spontaneous urban plant communities along Pacific Street. What can we learn about borders by looking at how weeds adapt and translate across territories? How can we move in response? [two new islands have been named as well – Friends and Princesses garden at 620 Classon Avenue; and Grand Terra Garden on the corner of Grand Ave and Pacific Street)

Ellie led a weedy pigment making workshop, showing us how to create watercolor paints from a variety of plants found in the EPA’s urban weeds garden and surrounding area. We also developed signs for ongoing demonstrations using Pokeweed ink and recycled cardboard as materials. andrea also continued her radical care sitting practice offering a plant naming score, and a special iced tea made from foraged weeds in NYC!

Collective Weed Improvisation Jam: Seeds!

EPA


Ellie Irons leads the Weedy Improv group in learning about seeds from weedy species in the NYC area. Every 4th Tuesday of the month, the dance floor of the sanctuary of weedy species at 1067 PacificPeople becomes a learning lab for cross-pollinate weedy practices. The two and half hours is organized where one hour is a class facilitated by a rotating roster of Weed Facilitators and follows by an open score jam. All movement levels are welcome.

The Collective Weed Improvisation celebrates the idea of By By By Utopia to explore collective situations to improvise and play, movement as potential for healing and constructing social sculptures with humans and urban wild plants, we call weeds. We will begin by “planting” together.