 Exploring the Power of Historical Community Gardens
By Robert Waddell, September 22, 2009
In deference to the Environmental movement or projects to green-up major metropolitan areas, bringing nature to urban areas is nothing new. In East Harlem, around the turn of the 19th century, immigrants planted gardens near Thomas Jefferson Park. After the Bronx burned in the 1970s, communities brought blossoms out of the blight in their community gardens. And as Puerto Ricans continued to preserve their culture, New York City’s Casitas served as cultural spaces, fincas and jardins that were small slices of Borinquen.
Now, this long green history has been photographically laid out, decade by decade at the City Park’s Arsenal Gallery in “Greenthumb’s Gotham” expertly currated by Jonathan Kuhn, the City’s Park historian, archivist and art and antiquities czar. But most of the work was done by Edie Stone and GreenThumb who provided most of the photographs.
In “Greenthumb’s Gotham” there are over 50 photos and documents of community gardeners and those who have fought to preserve their lands when the city wanted to sell off community gardens to real estate developers. This photo exhibit is full of pictures that reveal resident’s faces full of hope and dedication to spaces they cultivated. One photo from around the early 1900s shows a sepia toned picture of children in a corn field. The later colored photos have a sharp, poignant and personal perspective that look back on a time not too far away but close in its contemporary importance.
In this cogent and intelligent photo series, “Greenthumb’s Gotham” tells the history of community gardens and their importance to the people who planted, pulled weeds, mulched and composted. In many ways community gardens have been self-sustaining entities that have brought light and air to people in areas as diverse and wide spread as the South Bronx, Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Flushing Queens. Seen are photos of proud gardeners who are New Yorkers to the root.
“Long before ‘sustainability’ had become a buzzword, such activities were used to teach children about nature, science, self-improvement, land stewardship, and economy,” reads the curator’s introduction. “From planting seed to reaping the harvest, the children learned about the process of cultivation and growth… ‘cultivating one’s garden’ assumed almost a moral imperative.”
In another of the introductions to the photos, a viewer finds the information that the term Gotham comes from the phrase “goat town,” which was coined by novelist Washington Irving. While Central Park, and most traditional city parks, keep green New York City, it is important to note that has been community gardeners who seek to improve, revitalize, save and enrich their homes or plot of land. The photographs presented here are examples of their efforts.
The historical photos are themselves plots or windows into the past and like so many of Arsenal Gallery exhibits, this show is a window into the human and historical drama that is New York City. These aren’t just photos of people planting but of immigrants and community organizers who fought for their plot of the American dream. Without a doubt, Kuhn has a marvelous green thumb for the historical, the quirky, the political, the culturally diverse and his photo selections are proof positive.
Important to note, whatever the reason for planting in the city --- restoring community, recapturing a sense of their home land, or recouping a piece of pastoral peace --- community gardens have been a place of caring: people who cared for their neighbors and the place where they lived and called home.
This photo exhibit, up until October 10th at the Parks Department Arsenal, 64th street and Fifth Avenue, next to the Central Park Zoo, is a wonderful exploration into the history of community gardens and community life from the beginning of the 19th Century to the present. This is not only a history lesson but a still on going personal and political drama that continues to play itself out today. In “GreenThumb’s Gotham” there is a seed and a root of what is good about New Yorkers and what has yet to be done. As autumn has just arrived, this photo exhibit, presented by the Park’s department and GreenThumb, is a bountiful harvest for this fall.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
