The Ecological City
The Ecological City—Procession for Climate Solutions (currently in its sixth year) is a pageant event that happens across multiple sites in Lower Manhattan. Through music, dance, poetry, processionals, visual art, puppetry, and speech, The Ecological City highlights the importance of green and natural spaces in the city as urban climate solutions.
In this episode, “The Ecological City,” Felicia Young (social action artist and founder of Earth Celebrations) tells a story about her inspiration for social and environmental activism, the development of the Lower East Side community gardens, and the 2023 Ecological City processional. As you listen to street bands, music performances, puppet making, and other sounds from this year’s Ecological City event, you can hear how the arts are vital to effecting social and environmental change.
All proceeds from this episode will be donated to Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization on the Lower East Side that engages communities to generate environmental and social change through the arts.
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[The voices of all the storytellers from Season One of The Sonocene begin to overlap and blend together in a single, collective gesture.]
Listen.
Listen to my voice.
To spoken words and ambient sounds.
[An intense rhythmic pattern sounds out at sticks hit a drum. People shout as a parade moves down the street. A speaker addresses a crowd: “Due to global warming…” The sounds of a street procession, several musical performances, and poetry readings begin to blend together.]
Together they tell the story about people and place; about plants and animals; about the ecological relationships within New York City during a time of rapid change. And the way they all resonate as an interwoven network of vibrations.
[Voices and sounds crescendo, and then hard cut to silence. All the storytellers from Season One exclaim in unison:]
Welcome to The Sonocene—
[The voice of “The Ecological City” episode storyteller, Felicia Young, replies.]
ecological stories told through sound.
[A flutist performs a slow, legato melody. Wind blows through the branches of trees and photography cameras “flicker” and “click” as they capture images. A crowd listens quietly. Art sounds throughout the streets of New York City.
[00:56] So the current Ecological City Procession for Climate Solutions is a project now in its sixth year. It involves recognition of the value of the community gardens that we help preserve as urban climate solutions.
[1:11] Today's storyteller is...
Felicia Young. I'm the founder and director of Earth Celebrations—a nonprofit organization applying the arts to build community, collaboration, and action on environmental challenges.
[The musical performance continues as the flute melody reaches a high register.]
[1:35] I lived in New York City, that's where I grew up. In high school, I interned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was 16, training 11 year olds to give tours to eight year olds in the African, Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. I started recognizing that the masks and the costumes were not really meant to be seen within the context of a museum or gallery space. They were part of socially functional ceremonies that had a purpose. And in a lot of times there was a lot of community engagement and collaboration in those ceremonies. And then in college, I studied art history and came across these theatrical pageants of the artist Jacques-Louis David, known as a neoclassical painter who, while doing portraits of Napoleon, was also organizing pageants for the French Revolution in the streets. So I became very interested in the idea of the artist not alone in a studio, but the artist who went out into the streets.
[A percussionist enthusiastically strikes a membranophone as an ensemble of drummers responds to the call. Rhythmic grooves lead a processional.]
[3:13] Back in New York City, I got my first job at the Alternative Museum, which was a sociopolitical art museum in Tribeca, founded in 1974. And even though we were doing important political shows about issues, there were only other artists coming to these exhibitions. And I at a certain point realized, well, we're talking about the issues, but we're communicating to a very small, insular group of art educated people. And I just felt that was limited impact. So I said, "That's it. I'm just going to go out into my own community and look around." And at that time, there was over 60 community gardens. So this is back in 1990.
[The energy of the Samba ensemble slowly crossfades to the sounds of birds “chirping.” Cars pass in the distance and people chat nearby. The soundscape of Tompkins Square Park enters your foreground.]
[4:04] East of Avenue looked like a war zone—abandoned buildings, vacant lots with huts and left over car parts. There were dead bodies found in them. They were havens for drug dealings and prostitution. I mean, it was... today you would not imagine the way it looked. The city pulled out resources from these neighborhoods in the seventies and it was left to decay. And it was the low income people without money who finally said, we've had enough of the crime, enough the drugs. We're going to clean out the rubble, we're going to plant gardens and we're going to improve the neighborhood for ourselves. So this is a completely grassroots initiative done out of city neglect, which is completely different than a top down approach. And after 25 years, so by the time I got involved in 1990, the gardens had already existed for about nearly 20 years.
[The sounds of Tompkins Square Park crossfade to the ambient sounds of a community garden in the Lower East Side. A speaker addresses a crowd.]
[5:05] ... gardens to people. And this garden, like many in the East Village, was started in the seventies when this was a rough neighborhood. But there were a lot of abandoned plots and people said, "You know what? Let's do something about them and not let them go for waste." And I love the recycling theme that you have going on here. I think that's a message that can't be brought across often enough. This nature only survives with us in it because we are here on this planet, but we need to treat it. And I didn't even know….
[The sounds of the speaker crossfade as the soundscape of Tompkins Square Park returns to your foreground.]
[5:38] And if you looked at sort of the economy, you know, '87 was a crash and so things slowed down. But by 1990, things started picking up again and developers were beginning to look around the Lower East Side to develop those sites. The city's maps had only listed community gardens as blighted vacant lots. They were not listed as gardens that had been cultivated with trees, flowers, butterflies and community programing, all given free to the low income community.
[The soundscape of Tompkins Square Park subtlety crossfades to the sounds of photography cameras “clicking” and a speaker addressing a crowd. The speaker is almost indiscernible, but the phrase “...write at the form that you get for families…” is distinct. There are families and children present at the gathering.]
[6:21] I realized, well, that's what I can do. I'll create a pageant. That'll be one way of telling the community's story.
[The speaker returns to your foreground momentarily as your hear the prase, “… and we're going to do a fun little educational, jazzy number called ‘Bees, Beavers, and Bats’…”]
[6:33] We went to nearly 40 gardens from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.. This was really a devotional pilgrimage because people cared and people wanted to participate.
[The speaker fades to silence as the sounds of people quietly chattering enter your foreground. Papers “crinkle” and pins “pop” as a giant paper mache puppet takes form. An eraser rubs with intense friction against a canvas. Paint brushes “dust” a thick layer of paint on construction paper. A community works together to create pageantry artwork.]
[6:50] We'd create visual art. We'd create giant puppets and costumes representing the different spirits of the gardens. And over the course of the day would tell a story about the struggle of the gardens versus development and how the community would save the garden. So we projected the storyline that we would be victorious.
[The sounds of community art-making quickly crossfade to the sounds of a hushed audience. Two viewers casual chat before quieting their conversation. Photography cameras “click” and “snap” as onlookers excitedly observe the children actor who prepare to take the stage in a small performance. A youthful narrator begins the play.]
[7:22] “Once upon a time in a neighborhood not so far from here, a local park flourished near the East River, housing hundreds of species of insects, birds, and mammals and providing a shady and luscious green space for children and adults to live and play. The park was enjoyed by neighbors and shared by the human and animal community. One day, a dark and deadly storm named Hurricane Sandy swept through New York City…”
[The play and narration fades, but continues in your background.]
[7:41] Even though we were up against Giuliani and the biggest development interests in New York, I figured if we built a movement, we'd certainly save some along the way.
[The conclusion of the play and narration returns to your foreground as “cheers” and “yells” ring out from performers and audience alike.]
[7:53] “…In the end, the East River community has defended their home through protest. The bad guys may have had money and the big yellow monster. But the animals had resistance, community, and love, which allowed them to take back their land and say no to corporate greed.”
[The sounds of cheering quickly crossfade to a brass band playing energetic processional music.]
[8:11] Even on the history of the Lower East Side, there was an American pageant movement in the early 1900s. So Henry Street Settlement, University settlement, they used the pageant form as a way of bringing together all the new immigrant population and redefining the new America. There were social reform pageants. There were protest pageants with factory workers. It seemed to be the perfect form for communicating in the streets and with a diverse population, and facilitating the telling of a community's struggle. And not just telling of a story and saying, "Well, that's it." But you're actually creating and mobilizing an action, and building a movement over time that can actually impact policy.
[The brass band slowly crossfades to the strumming of a guitar. A singer addresses an audience: “How does that sound? Is that good on volume?” The musician prepares to perform a song in a community garden. The soundscape enters your background.]
So within the first year we had several thousand people who were part of it, and immediately people automatically started talking about what role they wanted to play the next year.
[The musician briefly returns to your foreground as you hear the beginning of a musical phrase: “…Bees, Beavers, and Bats all help the environment!” The song performance continues in your background.]
[9:18] We'd been doing these pageants, but we also formed this Lower East Side Garden Preservation Coalition out of it, and that became the New York City Coalition for the Preservation of Gardens. So it grew from being this Lower East Side thing, that had been going on for five or six years, to all of a sudden being a citywide movement representing people throughout New York City.
[The singer momentarily returns to your foreground as your hear the lyrics: “Bees, Beavers, and Bats…”]
[9:44] I call this cultural organizing. A lot of people might call it creative placemaking. But it's applying the arts, music, dance, theater, visual art and poetry to build community, collaboration, and action on environmental challenges in New York City, and also applying that to other ecological challenges around the world.
[Lyrics surface to your foreground briefly as the tune continues: “...important creatures with many features!”]
[10:15] You have to start with the place. What's happening on the Lower East Side? Or what's happening on the Hudson River? If it's a crisis or a challenge that people care about or need to know about and will care about, you need to start with that. And then it builds. But it has to be a common story because it's tangible and it's local and it's in their neighborhood. It's not just a storyline that's floating out in the universe.
[An instrumental interlude occurs as brass instruments and a kazoo assume the lead melodic voice. The song continues in your background.]
[10:51] That's where the current project comes in—Ecological City Art and Climate Solutions Project. Because, you know, all those years we thought we were preserving open space. We weren't really thinking that we were preserving urban climate solutions.
[The musical performance crossfades to the sounds of birds chirping, traffic flow, and a microphone with ample gain. A poet addresses an audience.]
[11:05] “Hi, Happy Earth Celebration Day. I'm Marsha Eufield and I'm honored to read two poems. This one is called, ‘Letter to a Solitary New York City Tree.’
Dear Tree, Companion of our loneliness. How do you survive out there inside a fence that doesn't have your name? Steps away from the nearest green? I know you're busy cooling the city, cleaning the air, giving us oxygen, helping us breathe. We share the sun, the moon, the stars and the night. Though with the street lights you hardly have enough dark to sleep, which is probably why your suburban cousins outlive you. Yet you survive and thrive in the time you have. Let us learn from you. Notice how you reach out from nearby branches, sway in June, and welcome birds and blossoms. Let us, in particular, note how you support your roots as they break through every obstacle to emerge, no matter how gnarled and convoluted. Let us learn.
[A musical drone enters your background. A high-pitched melismatic voice sings over the drone. Another artistic performance as part of The Ecological City Procession for Climate Solutions begins.]
[12:22] So the current Ecological City Procession for Climate Solutions is a project now in its sixth year. It involves recognition of the value of the community gardens that we helped preserve as urban climate solutions, and to bring together these solutions not only within the community gardens, but the neighborhood, as well as what was happening on the waterfront. So we identified 21 sites, each with its own unique climate solution. So it's a whole ecosystem model of sustainability within the Lower East Side.
[The drone and voice crossfade to the sounds of a hushed audience, birds chirping, distant traffic noise, and cameras snapping photos. A speaker addresses a large group of onlookers.]
[12:55] “Due to global warming, pollution, and public buffering, rising seas and impacts of climate change. Our gardens that offer urban climate still remain threatened with destruction by development plan. Let us sing and dance and make offerings of peace and love. Offerings that will joyously affirm a sustainable future for all. It may just be a matter of life and death, pax vobiscum, peace be with you.”
[Applause, which then quickly crossfades to the sound of a low drone. Long sustained chords begin to overlap and blend. Later, “clacking” of earthy windchime-like instruments join the texture. Another performance as part of The Ecological City begins.]
[13:30] So the pageant takes place throughout those 21 sites. We're currently running workshops creating giant puppets and visual art and performances, all created with community participation and over 50 community partners. It takes place throughout the 21 sites over 5 hours, ten miles long. Sites include rooftop bee farms and a green roof. Then over to the waterfront, where we address sea level rise and coastal resiliency redevelopment plans. A central ceremony where we enable each of the stakeholders of those particular sites to say a few words about that particular climate solutions. So it's another very tangible way that people, they may walk past a garden, they may say, "Oh, I see the trees," but they don't realize that that is a pollinator garden or there are bio swells in this garden that are filtering pollutants from going in to the river or a water harvesting pond where permeable pathways that help absorb water. And of course the role of carbon sequestration for plants and soil absorbing carbon and filtering pollutants from the air. Tangible solutions that we don't to say, "Oh, we imagine these solutions in the future." They're happening, they're all around, they're in your neighborhood and, you know, you can recognize them. And also see their importance by bringing them together as a cohesive ecosystem that's community cultivated.
[The drone, chords, and windchimes fade as the sound of applause enters your foreground. A speaker addresses a group of onlookers.]
[15:08] “Every year we participate in Ecological City and it's a really fantastic celebration of our community, as well as the ecological solutions that all of us are working so hard for. So without further ado, because I know we have a lot…”
[The drone and chords return to your background.]
[15:21] That kind of resource sharing and collaboration, I think that's so important even when you're talking about the climate crisis and people living in silos and not bringing their different expertise to confront an issue. Here we're doing it in this sort of, you know, very small community way, but everybody has something to offer and can help make this big thing happen.
[The drone and chords crossfade to the opening soundscape of this episode: a flutist performs a slow, legato melody. Wind blows through the branches of trees and photography cameras “flicker” and “click” as they capture images. A crowd listens quietly. Art sounds throughout the streets of New York City.]
[15:56] They don't want to feel helpless and they want to feel positive and what can they do? And I think this project makes them understand that there are some very tangible ways that you can reach out in your community. Sometimes it feels overwhelming if you just think about it as a global crisis and it's too big to deal with, it's too big—what difference can I make? And then you just bring it back home. It's like, okay, we live here. These are our neighbors. These are people. These are our community centers and our schools. And we're just going to take this huge problem and we're just going to look at it within our own neighborhood and tell its story. And so it's the local story, but of a much bigger global challenge.
[Other sounds from the episode—a samba procession, low drones, melismatic singing, guitar strumming, brass bands, whistles, yelling and cheering, poetry readings, orators addressing audiences—begin to blend with the sounds of the flute performance.]
[16:52] I think art becomes a safe zone. It's a place where people can experiment with ideas. It's sort of an imaginary world, and you create this communal experience of what you want to project or create or a narrative and a storyline. But everyone's experience together in real life, not on a stage, not in theater, but out in their neighborhood. And there's something that then goes on beyond, okay, the pageant's over. But somehow there's been some change. The community itself is slightly different because it's created this thing together. It's built it together. And whatever that story is that everyone helped co-create somehow lingers on afterwards. So it doesn't end when the pageant's over.
[An audience applauds and their soundscape fades to silence.]
[A simple electronic melody, alongside a resonant percussive groove elicits a feeling of earnest contemplation. This is the outro music, composed by UCC Harlo.]
[17:55] The arts has a really important role to play in our ability to communicate not just the climate crisis, but how we can actually make things change in for the better. And I feel that the arts is the one place where people are creating something and they're putting forward new ideas so you don't have to just reflect the world as you see it. You can also imagine the world you want to create and you can put that out there in real time in the world through all of these arts. And that's where I feel that bridging of where we are today and where we want to be. And the arts provides a bridge.
The Sonocene is supported by Humanities New York, the NYU Center for the Humanities, and the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science Music Department. Our production team is a collective of environmental humanities scholars and artists, including Elizabeth Fickey, Bailey Hilgren, Konstantine Vlasis. Original Music by Annie Garlid, a.k.a. UCC Harlo. Sound Design and Mixing by Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan. And voiceover by me, Elizabeth Geist. All proceeds from today's episode will be donated to Earth Celebrations. If you'd like to support this podcast, have an ecological story you'd like to share, or would like to learn more about the topics of today's episode, please visit our website at www.thesonoscene.com or check out our social media pages @thesonocene. Thanks for listening.
