'Austin Grown' Plows Ahead Despite Pandemic
Following up on last year’s successful Austin Grown summer youth leadership program—but adding in a pandemic—proved . . . challenging. Last year, youth worked at BUILD Chicago’s Iris Farm and Peace Garden. They had their hands in the dirt. But during the first week of June, and with the program scheduled to begin on July 6, the word came in that all youth programs through After School Matters and One Summer Chicago (of which Austin Grown is a part) had to be 100% virtual.
What Happens When Artists and Climate Scientists Meet?
Third Coast Disrupted: Artists + Scientists on Climate is an exhibition of new artworks culminating a yearlong conversation between artists and scientists centered on climate change impacts and solutions in the Chicago region.
Through science-inspired sculpture, painting, collage and more, the artworks examine local impact—happening here and now—ranging from extreme heat to flooding to habitat loss and more. They also shine light on local solutions underway, like “cool roofs,” nature-based approaches to slowing stormwater, and backyard habitat restoration. Some imagine future possibilities.
In the Native Garden, It’s a Wild, Wild Life
Growing a native garden has never been easier: plant sales and information are readily available. Are you curious? Here are two resources you can access that will help you add more native plants, more beauty, more flavor, more life, and less work to your landscape.
The Fall Native Tree and Shrub Sale is going on now. Sponsored by several area non-profits, all proceeds will go to Green Community Connections and its programming. Support sustainability and beautify your yard: win-win!
Black, White, and Green: Closing the 'Space Equity' Gap
Who We Expect to See Where and Doing What
Some of you might have already heard of Christian Cooper via the 2019 One Earth Film Festival screening of "Birders: The Central Park Effect." Far more of us had a first introduction to him via his disturbing encounter with a dog walker in Central Park on Memorial Day and the subsequent news reports.
West Cook Wild Ones Grants 'Seed Money' for Native Gardens
West Cook Wild Ones launches its 2020 Garden for Nature program by announcing grants totaling more than $4,500 to 14 nonprofit and public organizations in the Chicago area.
Garden for Nature funds projects mainly in western Cook County that engage young people in planting native gardens and natural landscapes to make their communities healthier and more beautiful.
Mysterious Crimes of Bone, Bile, and Feather
In late 1989, hundreds of headless walrus washed ashore on the coastline of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, the westernmost part of the North American mainland.
Was it the result of subsistence hunting by Native Alaskans who traditionally used the meat, hides, blubber, bones, and ivory tusks without leaving so much waste behind? Was it the consequence of poaching for ivory tusks alone? Or could Russian villagers on the opposite side of the Bering Strait have been responsible?
Trees Close Up: Botanical Watercolors
The art opening for “Trees Close Up” will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Oak Park Public Library Art Gallery, 834 Lake St., in Oak Park. The exhibition will remain on display through Oct. 30
These paintings pay homage to common native trees in our urban forest. Most are larger than life studies of buds, blossoms and seeds -- miraculous moments in a process where sun, wind and water interact with the wisdom encoded in trees to perpetuate life.
Celebrate OAKtober Tree Forum
Some of our area’s oldest living beings are oaks that sunk roots here long before the first European settlers arrived. Ernest Hemingway might have walked under their branches. Generations of children played in their shade.
Celebrate OAKtober Tree Forum will honor these oaks and point us forward toward a “tree culture.” Featuring four exceptional speakers and information tables, the event will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, in the 2nd floor Veterans’ Room of the Oak Park Main Library, 834 Lake St.
Growing a Brighter Future in Austin
August brought an end to another successful completion of Green Community Connection’s youth sustainability leadership program, formerly known as “I Can Fly.” This summer’s program, “Austin Grown,” was a collaboration between GCC and BUILD Chicago, an organization serving Chicago’s at-risk youth since 1969 through gang intervention, violence prevention, and youth development programs.
The 8-week “Austin Grown” program involved 10 students, hailing primarily from the Austin, Garfield Park, and North Lawndale communities of Chicago, including two who returned from GCC’s 2017 pilot cohort.