History

The Environmental Performance Agency was founded in the winter of 2017, partly in response to the presidential election and the ongoing dismantling of the US Environmental Protection Agency by artists Catherine Grau, Ellie Irons, Andrea Haenggi and Christopher Kennedy.

During the 2017 growing season, the EPA headquarters was housed at 1067 PacificPeople in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. 1067 PacificPeople was a five-year social-ecological movement-based art project by artist and choreographer Andrea Haenggi in collaboration with writer Robert Neuwirth. During that time, the EPA used 1067 Pacific Street as a hub for site-specific movement workshops, biocultural experiments, field work, and interdisciplinary art projects that explore new ways of thinking about NYC’s urban ecologies, plant-human relationships, and to advocate for the agency of all living performers co-creating our environment, native or migrant.

The EPA is now a nomadic collective that responds site-specifically to urban ecologies around the region.


Above: Site of the EPA Headquarters, 1067 Pacific Street, Brooklyn (2017)

Urban Weeds Garden

The EPA Urban Weeds Community Garden was approximately 1900 square feet. During the 2017 season, the EPA’s team identified 41 species of urban spontaneous plants (see table below).

Above: Urban Weeds Garden Map

Common Name Latin Name
common mugwort Artemisia vulgaris
downy brome Bromus tectorum
japanese hops Humulus japonicus
ragweed Ambrosia artemisiifolia
heath aster Symphyotrichum ericoide
white snakeroot Ageratina altissima
dandelion Taraxacum officinale
bull thistle Cirsium vulgare
common chickweed Stellaria media
west indian nightshade Solanum ptychanthum
wormwood Artemisia annua
horseweed Conyza canadensis or sumatrensis
hairy bittercress Cardamine hirsuta
virginia pepperweed Lepidium virginicum
devils beggarticks Bidens frondosa
princess tree Paulownia tomentosa
mile a minute Persicaria perfoliata
lambsquarters Chenopodium album
annual bluegrass Poa annua
annual fleabane Erigeron annuus
black medic Medicago lupulina
japanese knotweed Fallopia japonica / Polygonum cuspidatum
ladysthumb Persicaria lapathifolia / Polygonum persicaria l.
buckthorn plantain Plantago lanceolata
prickly lettuce Latuca seriola
sticky bedstraw Galium aparine
paper mulberry Morus papyrifera
virginia creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia
asiatic bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus
rhombic copperleaf Acalypha rhomboidea
wild radish Raphanus raphanistrum
green foxtail Setaria viridis
white clover Trifolium repens
Yellow woodsorrel Oxalis stricta
prostrate knotweed Polygonum aviculare
climbing false buckwheat Fallopia scandens
mouse ear chickweed Cerastium vulgatum
morning glory Ipomoea purpurea
black nightshade Solanum nigrum
common sow thistle Sonchus oleraceus
speedwell Veronica arvensis