Robin Nagle on Loving Fresh Kills

Last Saturday’s downpour didn’t faze the hardy group of about 30 that came out to hear Robin Nagle’s talk on top of North Mound at the Freshkills Park site.  Our coming together “not in protest but in appreciation” for what was buried beneath our feet, in spite of the rain, was strong foundation for Robin’s claim that we can love a landfill.  Thanks to all who came out, and, of course, to Robin.

If you weren’t able to make it, or if you were and are hungry for more of Robin’s insights into the world of sanitation work, Slate published this week of her journal entries in 2004, which is a great read.

Gotham and its Garbage, tomorrow

NYU’s Robin Nagle, Anthropologist-in-Residence of the NYC Department of Sanitation, will be giving a talk tomorrow evening called Gotham and its Garbage: What it Was, What it Is and What It Might Become, at the Bloomingdale Library on the Upper West Side and sponsored by the Park West Neighborhood History Group.  Robin is a terrific speaker and knows an enormous amount about New York City’s waste management system.  Should be a great talk.

Tuesday, November 17, 6:00pm
Bloomingdale Library
150 West 100th St, bet Columbus & Amsterdam, 2nd floor

Freshkills Park on Time.com

Time.com has posted a short video piece on the history and transformation of the Freshkills Park site, featuring Park Administrator Eloise Hirsh and Department of Sanitation Anthropologist-in-Residence, Robin Nagle.

Upcoming Freshkills Park events

The upcoming week is a busy one for us.  Three terrific public events focused on different aspects of the Freshkills Park site: waste, art and ecology.  They’re all free, and we hope to see you at one or more of them.  An RSVP is needed for the first, but not the others.

WASTE
Saturday, June 20th, 12-2:30pm @ the Freshkills Park site
Sacred Geography: How to Love a Landfill
Robin Nagle, Anthropologist-in-Residence with the New York City Department of Sanitation, suggests that Fresh Kills, both as a landfill of yesteryear and as a park of tomorrow, merits our affection despite its troubled heritage. She goes so far as to claim that Fresh Kills is sacred space, a status she believes it held even before it became the location for material from the World Trade Center. Join us as she explores these provocative ideas on the North Mound of Freshkills Park.  Space is limited.  Please RSVP to Martha at martha.powers@parks.nyc.gov to participate.

ART
The Challenges and Channels of Public Art Production: A Panel Discussion
Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7-9pm @ Cargo Café
120 Bay Street, Staten Island, a short walk from the St. George Ferry Terminal
The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) and Freshkills Park present a panel discussion and dialogue about how commissioning entities, time scales, transient or permanent siting, and approvals processes moderate what public work can and should be.  Panelists are: Ingrid Chu, Director of RED-I Projects and Forever & Today, Inc.; Christina Ray, Director and Founder of Glowlab and Conflux; and New York City-based artists Michael Falco, Kathryne Hall and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the Department of Sanitation’s Artist-in-Residence who contributed to the master plan for Freshkills Park.  Moderator: Sara Reisman, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program.

ECOLOGY
Freshkills Park Talks: Urban Ecology at Fresh Kills
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:30-9pm @ The Staten Island Museum
75 Stuyvesant Place, a short walk from the St. George Ferry Terminal
Dr. Steven Handel, professor of ecology at Rutgers University and the Director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE), has been conducting research at Fresh Kills for nearly two decades. Dr. Handel will discuss his findings, what they mean for the restoration of compromised landscapes and the lessons we can learn from Fresh Kills in developing strategies for managing the ecology of our cities.

How to Love a Landfill: June 20th at Freshkills Park

We get a lot of raised eyebrows when we first talk about the Freshkills Park Project with the uninitiated.  Some folks are put off by the idea of landfills in general, and some are familiar with the stigma the site has given Staten Island over the past half century.

For skeptics and true believers alike, we’ve got a terrific event coming up Saturday, June 20th.  Robin Nagle, the Department of Sanitation’s Anthropologist-in-Residence, will be giving a a talk and leading a conversation on top of the North Mound about why the Freshkills Park site deserves our love–and why she calls it ‘sacred space.’  She’s written an essay that digs into some of the themes she’ll be touching on as we sit out on top of the mound on chairs, blankets and yoga mats.  You’re welcome to sign up for the event whether it sounds agreeable, provocative or flighty to you–at the least, you’ll get a free tour of the site out of it, and at the most, contribute to a healthy discussion.  This is only our second event like this, but last month’s reading on top of North Mound was fantastic.

Robin is no lightweight: she teaches anthropology and urban studies at NYU and has been Sanitation’s official anthropologist-in-residence since 2006.  Over the past several years, she’s been working to establish a New York City Sanitation Museum.  She’s thought A LOT about garbage, the Department of Sanitation and Fresh Kills Landfill and has been featured in the New York Times and an episode of This American Life on garbage.  We’re pretty excited about her talk.

Saturday, June 20th, 12pm-3pm
A Parks bus will pick up attendees at the St. George Ferry Terminal at 12pm, take them to the event, and deliver them back to the terminal at 2:30 or 3 pm.  This event, like all of our events, is free, but space is limited.  Contact Martha at martha.powers@parks.nyc.gov to reserve a spot.