CALL CONNECTS - December 2023
Rescuing Tibbetts Brook Community Gathering
On October 26th, CALL organized a community gathering at Manhattan College to update stakeholders and residents on the progress of the Rescuing Tibbetts Brook initiative and to brainstorm ideas for the future. The Gathering invited participants to note points of Interest, Opportunity, Concern, and Importance around the Daylighted Tibbetts. Presentations were made by many of CALL’s partners including Dart Westphal (Professor, Environmental Studies, Manhattan College), Stephanie Ehrlich (Executive Director, Van Cortlandt Park Alliance), Amy Motzny (Section Lead, Climate and Equity, NYC Department of Environmental Protection), Jessica Wilson (Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Manhattan College) and Robert Fanuzzi (President, Bronx Council for Environmental Quality). These presentations were followed by an artists roundtable featuring Matthew Lopez-Jensen, Kamala Sankaram, and Manuel Acevedo– all artists who have created Rescuing Tibbetts projects– as well as Daven Asafo (gardener, Outer Seed Shadow at Marble Hill Houses). This roundtable was moderated by Jennifer McGregor, a curator and arts planner member of CALL’s board.
Breakout sessions followed the roundtable to discuss how community members, business owners, and property owners can become more engaged with the greenway. Discussions and presentations raised vital questions about the next steps and provided a platform for engaged dialogue Subsequently, Kamala Sankaram and her virtuoso ensemble performed an excerpt from Kamala’s composition The Buried Brook--featured in her augmented reality app which can only be experienced while tracing the former path of Tibbetts Brook. The evening concluded with a community dinner, allowing participants to socialize and further discuss the interesting ideas brought up throughout the afternoon. CALL hopes to build on the ideas exchanged during the Gathering and incorporate them into future programming.
CALL Celebrates WaterMarks Immersion Report Back, Hosted by Agnes Gund
On November 30th, Agnes Gund– a prominent NYC art collector and philanthropist– hosted a cocktail reception at her apartment to celebrate CALL’s recent WaterMarks Immersion tour, which was held this past September. The evening was well-attended, with several participants flying in from Milwaukee. It served as an important opportunity for CALL to share the progress of WaterMarks as well as describe new and ongoing initiatives in NYC. We hope to build on the event and gain new collaborators and partners.
A Reflection on CALL's 2023 Highlights
Rescuing Tibbetts Brook
Begun in 2019, the Tibbetts Estuary Tapestry, by Ana De La Cueva and Matthew López-Jensen, invites the public to reimagine how the congested streets of the Northwest Bronx could incorporate green roofs, vertical gardens, and other green spaces to improve the environment. They created the Tapestry with 100+ volunteers who embroidered their visions of green spaces along the Broadway corridor from Van Cortlandt Park to the Harlem River. The completed Tapestry opened at the Van Cortlandt House Museum in December 2022, and has been touring around the NW Bronx since.
Artist Manuel Acevedo have been working with youth in northwest Bronx schools and community centers in a series of drawing workshops. In these sessions, young people were given the opportunity to visualize what their neighborhoods might become alongside a revived Tibbetts Brook. This exercise was designed to empower the students to envision a greener Bronx
CALL commissioned composer and sound artist Kamala Sankaram to develop The Buried Brook, an interactive augmented-reality sound map of the Northwest Bronx. The mobile app launched October 2023. Partly derived from recordings made in Van Cortlandt Park during public workshops led by Sankaram, The Buried Brook allows audiences to explore the sonic ecology of the Tibbetts Brook watershed from Hester and Piero’s Mill Pond down to 230th Street, where the Brook once met the historical course of the Harlem River.
WaterMarks Milwaukee
Over the past year, WaterMarks has established two new Neighborhood Project Teams, conducted one new neighborhood walk, completed the installation of two new commissioned artist projects, conducted or participated in dozens of community meetings, and installed three new solar-powered WaterMarkers in Milwaukee. Eight more are on the way in 2024.
To celebrate and recognize these accomplishments, CALL Board Members, Trustees, and friends all joined on a weekend-long WaterMarks Immersion in late September 2023.
CALL WALKS DC - Head Above the Water
In the last week of June 2023, CALL and the DC Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) facilitated a WALK in Anacostia DC along the Oxon Run and the Watts Branch rivers. Artists Cary Michael Robinson and Nicole Salimbene led the walk, paired with scientists and community members, amplified by festive traveling performers. Together the presenters and participants raised awareness of climate change and the challenges of storm water management.