A Little Something About Bees.

 

So here I am, on August 22nd, experiencing the last full day of an artist residency program I was lucky enough to participate in at wonderful WaveFarm.org. Wave Farm is...(from their website) "A non-profit arts organization that celebrates creative and community use of media and the airwaves. Our programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form."

The community radio station they operate 24/7 is situated on 30 acres of meadow, woods and pond, in the Catskill Mountains. It is drop-dead gorgeous, and a very exciting artistic and community-driven endeavor!

My artistic partner and I have been here for the last 9 days, doing a series of live broadcasts based on a poetic libretto I composed called "NIGHT." There is spotty phone reception and internet here on Wave Farm, which is actually a true blessing. It's so nice to be rather unavailable to talk and text, just mentally and emotionally texting with nature and reestablishing my citified, and so sometimes dwindling, kinship with it.

When I wasn't writing or prepping for the live radio broadcasts, I found myself watching the bees around the property--which seriously abound, and I do understand why. The wildflowers are truly wild here, their bold yellow and purple limbs cartwheeling up and around the deck, it's incredibly beautiful and irresistible. And they are so very busy! Bees, hummingbirds, butterflies all creating just this marvelous commotion in that thick, lovely tangle.

I've been intrigued by bees for a while, especially knowing the state of their survival is in peril, and have started doing a bit of research on them.

 FACT: Bees smell with their feet, antennae and mouths.

I've also spent some time while in this residency, being very inspired by them:

Women who run with the bees

Today I ran with the bees!

Ok maybe not exactly running

But I more mindfully folded in with them,

Into those brash tufts of wildly purple lace cones

And that eye rush of bright goldenrod

Just

The most industrious beautiful fuzz bubbles on this earth I swear it!

If I could only pet them

I have such that small silly longing...

They have no time for me

Or you

They don't have time for anything but the wild plump drift from bloom to bloom

They don't look up

I have never seen such a determined flight

Such single-minded purpose! (don't tell me they don't have minds)

Herds and glides of them

Gentle glides of them

Their panties of pollen

Their dangling sunrise shirtsleeves

Their lovely gentle drift hanging heavy

In the damp soft rag of the air...

One afternoon, a storm moved in. The bees were in full swing, and I wondered what they would do once the rains started. I popped out when I heard the first drops, and only a few bees remained, huddled up under flowers. Makeshift umbrellas? Brilliant! But most were gone, back to the hives to wait things out.

Less than 24 hours ago, on one of the occasions I was able to access the internet, I got this event notice from SJC on FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/1664719450410395/

Wow, a BEE-vent! How wonderfully timely!

Here is a short explanation, lifted from the bee-vent page:

NYC Beekeeping Liane Newton will introduce the work of nycbeekeeping.org, and give a short talk on Bees, Climate Change and Complexity. We’ll talk with her about how you can get involved in beekeeping, what is working in NYC, including the Trees for Bees component of her program, and how it’s all “mutually intertangled.”

FACT: Bees dance!

I clicked "Join." I hope to see you there!

Patricia Kositzky

Worth Your While – Community Feedback Requested + Event Updates

The amazing ‘Rutgers Landscape Architecture Students Take On Jersey City!’ summer long exhibition is coming to a close and if you haven’t had a chance to stop by, you have until Thursday to check out these 80+ works on two floors at the Casa Colombo Art Center at 380 Monmouth. More information about the installations – Environmental Resources and Issues: Investigations of Environmental Solutions for Jersey City (Gallery 2) and Building Studies: An Archive of Jersey City Architecture (Gallery 3) – can be found here http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/event/rutgers-landscape-architecture-students-take-on-jersey-city-local-environmental-groups-sponsor-exhibits-at-casa-colombo/?instance_id=4036. This has been the first time that a key group of JC community orgs collaborated to bring greater awareness about the relationship of environmental issues, cultural heritage and evolving development perspectives together. It is a pivotal time of change for JC stakeholders and together with our colleagues from Rutgers, we hope the exhibition and the associated talks we’ve hosted, will inspire greater input from the public, on behalf of a more sustainable and resilient planning framework for Jersey City. To that end, please respond to Professor Jean Marie Hartman’s request for FEEDBACK about the map series that was created by the Rutgers Student / Faculty Team; these cornerstone documents are an important component of the Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI) work they have substantially begun to forge for Jersey City - your input is greatly appreciated. Please review maps and see the FEEDBACK FORM here -https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6E6A_mCKTpkfmJHZ0RlVEpnUTI2T09NQWh6RjR1bVU2Q25DU2lHN2RPT09ReU5HSmUxNlk&usp=sharing

Lastly, Sustainable JC has invited Dr. Richard Shaw - State Soil Scientist for New Jersey, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, to speak this coming Tuesday evening August 25^th, about the urban ecology of Jersey City and opportunities for better understanding of the significant role SOIL plays in our planning decisions and quality of life aspects – these should not be taken for granted.   This will be a fascinating discussion and hope many of you can attend. Details about his talk and link to RSVP (seats are limited !) can be found here “A Soil Scientist’s Perspective of Jersey City” http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/event/11012/?instance_id=4062 Host venue Casa Colombo, 380 Monmouth St., downtown JC, 6:30 – 8:30pm.

Other upcoming events –

• Closing Reception of the exhibition will be held Thursday evening August 27^th, starting at 6:30pm at Casa Colombo – all are welcome and will be a relaxed opportunity to connect with those of like mind.
• Sustainable JC kicks off our Fall season with our Monthly Meetup on Tuesday evening September 1^st at City Hall, Caucus Room #204, 7-9pm. We’ve invited a couple of fabulous guest speakers to talk with us about BEEkeeping / CLIMATE CHANGE / COMMUNITY POLLUTION PREVENTION. Join us if your schedules permit, more details here - http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/event/sjc-monthly-meeting-eat-meet-talk-2015-3/?instance_id=4075

REMINDER - 'Symphony of the Soil' Film Screening This Thurs Nite

Join us for this beautiful and important film - family gathering with healthy, low cost, kid-friendly food, including Organic Pop Corn ! PLEASE Pre-register so we have enough food for everyone.

More details below about the movie, menu and location - hope to see you there :-)

Parking available on-site, short walk from the Journal Square PATH.

http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/event/symphony-of-the-soil-film-viewing/?instance_id=4055

REMINDER: This Saturday, Mushroom Cultivation Workshop with Sean Walsh, Permaculture Teacher

Details about the workshop and registration link here - WORKSHOP LIMITED TO 25 PEOPLE !

http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/event/mushroom-cultivation-workshop-with-sean-walsh-permaculture-teacher/?instance_id=4037

Plus -

Additional information below on extraordinary properties of Mushrooms, how they benefit people and plant life AND HOW THEY CAN HELP IN FILTERING OUT PATHOGENS IN CSO CITIES !!

• Great TED Talk by Mushroom Guru Paul Stamets here - 6 WAYS MUSHROOMS CAN SAVE THE WORLD  http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world?language=en

• This research effort will expand knowledge of the application of fungal biotechnology in an innovative and interdisciplinary way by tying together the fields of public health, environmental engineering, and mycology. The research team will seek to identify which fungal species and cultivation methods can filter pathogens from storm water - See more at: http://www.fungi.com/blog/items/mycofiltration-for-urban-storm-water-treatment-receives-epa-research-and-development-funding.html#sthash.jBtO0Whn.dpuf

Society for Parallel Botany Exhibit at The Brunswick Window

Now on view: An intricate collection of fake leaves, gathered from commercial products and packaging. This exhibit was organized by artist Anne Percoco under the guise of the fictitious Society for Parallel Botany.

The project is also viewable online, and you can submit your own specimens of faux foliage to be part of the collection!

Visit at 158 Brunswick Street through the end of June.

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We (humans) have created an entire kingdom of plant imagery ranging from abstract little green footballs, to fantastical baroque drawings, to naturalistic depictions. The study of Parallel Botany combines life science, anthropology, and aesthetics. While parallel species have inhabited our collective imagination for thousands of years, they now proliferate in illustrations, advertisements, logos, and decorative products. Parallel plants are as numerous and varied as non-parallel plant species, and they signify qualities such as freshness, eco-friendliness, luxury, leisure, health, beauty, growth, etc. (In contrast, non-parallel do not normally act as signifiers.)

Plants that thrive in the parallel realm, according to scientific historian Leo Lionni, are “real because we want them to be.” He continues:

“If we find them intact in our memories, the same as when we saw them before, it is because we have invested them with the image that we have of them, with the opaque skin of our own confirmation…Motionless, imperishable, isolated in an imaginary void, they seem to throw out a challenge to the ecological vortex that surrounds them.”¹

As our lives (especially as city-dwellers) are increasingly divorced from direct contact with natural flora, these images can sometimes stand in for the real thing. Additionally, as biodiversity decreases in non-parallel species, the diversity and volume of parallel species seems to increase. Science journalist Brandon Keim describes our renewed focus on such species as: “…..A psychic escape from the pervasive sense that no space on our map remains blank, that civilization has filled its container and is pushing back inwards.”

This exhibition, the most public of its kind, contains local species as well as some from distant lands, and focuses exclusively on foliage. These specimens have been collected and catalogued according to their morphological characteristics, aesthetic qualities, and function in their environment. The Society would like to thank Roger Sayre of the Brunswick Window as well as exhibition assistant Kether Tomkins. Submissions of amateur collection samples are welcome through the submission form.

1 Lionni, Leo. 1977. Parallel Botany. New York: Knopf.

This website and accompanying exhibition at The Brunswick Window in Jersey City was produced by the Society for Parallel Botany and organized by Anne Percoco.