Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Eco-Culture Events

Two upcoming eco-minded events at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The Gatherers: Greening Our Urban Spheres
October 31, 2008–January 11, 2009

Opening night party: Thursday, October 30, 6:00 to 9:00 pm

The Gatherers is an exhibition combining art and cultural activism to explore how we ensure sustainability for our growing urban populations. The Gatherers explores the differences and similarities of different cultural attempts to green urban spaces. The exhibit touches upon a broad range of interlinking matters, from environmental issues to urban spatial justice, through interactive programs, urban interventions and public dialogue.

Artists and artist collectives in the exhibition include:
Fallen Fruit, Amy Franceschini with Wilson Diaz, The National Bitter Melon Council, Oda Projesi, Marjetica Potrc, Public Matters, Ted Purves and Susanne Cockrell, Rebar, roomservices and Åsa Sonjasdotter.

More about The Gatherers.

Community Conversations: What Does it Mean to be Green?
November 11, 2008
6 pm, Grand Lobby, Free (Tickets required. Call YBCA Box Office at 415.978.2787)

A lively public conversation exploring the complexity and contradictions around greening urban environments.

Conversationalists include:
Matthew & Terces Englehart, Founders, Café Gratitude
Lynda Grose, Eco-fashion Instructor, California College of the Arts
Eliza Thomas, Editorial Director for
Common Ground Magazine/Lime Network
Casey Harre,
Slow Food Nation curator
Nwamaka “Maka” Agbo, Ella Baker Center’s Green Jobs Corps


1 comment:

sexysmartguyla said...

We want your fruit stories!

As part of our participation in "The Gatherers" at Yerba Buena, Fallen Fruit will be holding "in-sessions" in which we'll be gathering stories and data on people's fruit histories.  We came upon this idea this spring when we were told of a 1920s cottage complex in Oakland in the middle of which is an ancient lemon tree that arrived as a young plant with the grandmother of the original owner; she carried it from Italy in her corset, and everyone who lives there shares the lemons.  We'll be meeting with YBCA visitors, with questionnaires, conversations and video interviews to learn about their own history or family legacy of fruit and homeland.  We'll also be doing field work, visiting you to document sites like the lemon tree in Oakland.

This project has the working title of "The Colonial History of Fruit," and we're going to take it around the globe.  We're interested in juxtaposing two kinds of history: the "objective" history of how the fruit we eat came from a specific place and ended up on our tables, through specific economic, historical and political forces, and the "subjective" history, the anecdotal tales of how we find new fruits, rediscover old ones, or carry along others from distant places.  We think of this in the light of colonialism because of the colonial origins of fruit and the variety of personal and familial histories of various immigrants, colonizers and colonialists.

So please come talk to us!    Our dates at Yerba Buena are:
Sunday Nov 2, 12-5pm
Friday Nov 7, 12-5pm
Saturday Nov 8, 12-5pm