WHAT: OpenHouseGCEF! WHERE: McGolrick/Winthrop Park, Russell St. and Driggs Ave. WHEN: Saturday, October 14, 11am-3pm (NOTE: If heavy rain the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. event will be cancelled!)
If you haven’t heard about the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund, it’s the silver lining resulting from our neighborhood’s heavily industrious past—the disastrous Exxon oil spill, which leaked between 17-30 million gallons of oil into Newtown Creek over the course of several decades. The state was awarded millions of dollars ($19.5 mill to be exact), to be earmarked toward grants for Greenpoint-based environmental organizations. Since the GCEF was established in 2011, 46 grants totaling $16.8 million have been awarded to 40 projects, and the fund has leveraged an additional $37.6 million in matching contributions from grantees.
We’ve written about Greenpointer, rooftop gardener and farming renaissance woman Annie Novak before—she heads up the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm (44 Eagle St), founded Growing Chefs, is manager of the Edible Academy at the New York Botanical Garden, and she literally wrote the book on how to turn your urban rooftop into a farm or garden. What you probably don’t know is that she’s also a wildlife and nature illustrator, with a new book coming out on bird migration. This Wednesday Oct 11th from 6-8pm at Kingsland Wildflowers (520 Kingsland Ave) you can see her give a lecture on her latest research and slideshow of her illustrations. The event kicks off at 6pm with a walking tour of Kingsland Wildflowers’ green roof and a cocktail hour, with the “Safe Flight IPA” featured beer—a collaboration by local brewers KCBC & NYC Audubon to raise awareness of annual bird collisions.
The event is part of Kingsland Wildflowers’ monthly artist lecture series, featuring local Greenpoint artists who have created environmentally-focused bodies of work. Once a month various artists will speak at Kingsland Wildflowers about their process, inspiration, and ideas behind their unique take on the world around us and the habitat in which we coexist.
