[FLPERMACULTURE] Activists Share Sustainability Skills at NY Green Fest, Aug. 10-12, Ithaca and Cayutaville

[Michael Burns]

NY Green Fest 2007

http://nygreenfest.blogspot.com

Activists Share Sustainability Skills at NY Green Fest, Aug. 10-12,  
Ithaca and Cayutaville

Fri. , Aug. 10, 6:30-9:30 pm at the Community School, 330 E. State  
St., Ithaca
Sat., Aug. 11, all day at Cayuta Sun, 2962 Swamp Rd., Cayutaville
Sun., Aug. 12, 10:00 am-4:00 pm at Bernie Milton Pavilion, Ithaca  
Commons, Ithaca

Activists from across the state will gather Aug 10-12 for a weekend  
sharing sustainability skills and visions at NY Green Fest. Workshops  
at locations in Ithaca and Cayutaville will address how to build a  
small wind turbine, bake in an earth oven, build a green roof, live  
off the grid, practice permaculture, live job free, build local food  
networks, practice liberation ecology, build new media outlets, and  
use third party politics to effect social change. Green Fest has been  
organized by an ad-hoc group to promote sustainability and is a  
benefit for the Green Party of New York. The festival is open to all  
who are interested in sustainable living and sustainable politics.

Exhibitors include VoxPop, the Climate Change Action Group of Central  
New York, Democracy School, Farm Sanctuary, SOA Watch, Cures not  
Wars, the Citizens Environmental Coalition, Eco Books, the Shopping  
Bag Action group, Sustainable Tompkins, Community Energy, Indigo  
Summer, MyshellaZ Art, Joey Gates henna body art, a veggie car and a  
small wind turbine. Musicians include the Native Earthling Band  
playing on their solar-powered stage, Deborah Magone, Dan Hill, the  
Peacesmiths and Burnin' Hearts.

The weekend offers many opportunities for sharing visions of  
sustainability.

Green Fest begins Friday evening, August 10, with a program on the  
politics of sustainability at the Community School auditorium, 330 E.  
State St., Ithaca from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Three speakers will address  
the power relationships that promote sustainability. Art Weaver from  
Renovus Energy in Ithaca, will speak on social change and its  
connection to renewable energy, Virginia Rasmussen from Alfred, a  
founder of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, will speak  
on the politics of sustainability, and Dan Hill, the Cayuga Nation  
representative to the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, will  
speak on sustainability for the long term. Dan will open and close  
the program with native flute music.

Saturday’s programs take place at Cayuta Sun, an off-the-grid  
permaculture homestead at 2962 Swamp Rd. in Cayutaville, 15 miles  
southwest of Ithaca. The workshops begin at 8:30 am with a bread  
baking workshop in the earth oven at Cayuta Sun lead by Lois Hilton  
from Tickletown Trust & Trade in Humphrey. Lois will also join  
Saturday’s panel on building a local food network, along with Matthew  
Glenn from Muddy Fingers Farm in Hector, editor of Southern Tier Farm  
to You Local Food Directory, Gwen Quigley from Keuka Cookin’ in Bath,  
Josh Dolan from EcoCity Ithaca and Michele Danels from East New York  
Farms in Brooklyn.

Living job free living and minimizing the need for money with  
ecological frugality and resourcefulness will be presented by Ed  
Haffmans and JoAnn Myers from the Catskills. A permaculture workshop  
will be conducted by Michael Burns and Steve Gabriel from the Finger  
Lakes Permaculture Institute. Grassroots organizing for  
sustainability is the topic discussed by Gay Nicholson from  
Sustainable Tompkins, Mike Sellars, Mayor of Cobleskill, from  
Sustainable Cobleskill, and Tony and Mary Lipnicki, the founders of a  
monthly discussion group in Andover, NY. Two off-grid pioneers, Steve  
Nicholson from Ithaca and Tony Moretti from Hammondsport will offer  
advice on living off-the-grid.

How to build a small wind turbine will be demonstrated Saturday  
afternoon by Barry Miller, a mechanical engineer from Hinsdale, New  
York. Barry has spent 20 years in the wind energy business. For nine  
years he operated a wind farm in Altamont Pass west of San Franciso.  
Four media activists, Sander Hicks from Brooklyn, Carl Lawrence from  
Brooklyn, Bill Huston from Binghamton and Deborah Magone from  
Rochester will discuss getting media access for alternative  
viewpoints. Carl, Bill and Deborah produce cable access television  
programs. Sander is editor, publisher and reporter of New York  
Megaphone, the founder of Soft Skull Press and the proprietor of Vox  
Pop bookstore.

Saturday evening Rafter Sass will present ideas for a Liberation  
Ecology. His topic is refusing to choose between social justice and  
sustainability. Rafter lives and works at the Germantown Community  
Farm, a collectively-run community food security project in the  
Hudson River Valley.

A Cob for Kids workshop will run throughout the day on Saturday.  
Lunch and dinner including local foods will be served on Saturday.  
Sunrise yoga at 7:00 am with Ann Eagan from Sunnyside, Queens begins  
the day. Deborah Magone will perform gutsy blues at 1:00 pm. The  
Native Earthling Band will perform from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, and Burnin'  
Hearts will perform in the evening.

On Sunday, August 12, Green Fest moves to the Ithaca Commons in  
downtown Ithaca with a series of speakers and musicians at the Bernie  
Milton Pavilion in the center of the Commons. Lexie Hain from  
Motherplants will show how to make a green roof. Ilonka Wloch, the  
editor of Positive News in Ithaca, Craig Seeman from Third Planet  
Video in Brooklyn, and Cyril Mychalejko from Upside Down World in  
Vermont will discuss building new media outlets that address  
sustainability issues. Helene Williams, Susan Blake and Leonard  
Lehrman from Peacesmiths will perform political songs.

Using third party electoral activism to foster social change and  
challenge the underpinnings of corporate power will be discussed by  
Howie Hawkins, SKCM Curry, Tony Gronowicz and Jason Nabewaniec. Howie  
was the 2006 Green Party candidate for US Senate from New York and is  
a current candidate for Syracuse Common Council. Tony Gronowicz, the  
2005 Green Party candidate for Mayor of New York City, teaches at the  
City University of New York. His most recent book is Grand Illusion:  
American Democracy from its Roots to the Present. Jason Nabewaniec  
from Batavia is a Co-Chair of the Green Party US. Sedinam Kinamo  
Christin Moyowasifza-Curry from Los Angeles is a Green Party  
candidate for Vice President of the US.

Sunday’s program concludes with a discussion of campus organizing for  
sustainability led by Ethan Rainwater, Sustainability Intern at  
Cornell University, Peter LaVenia from the Albany University Campus  
Greens, and Krista Carlson, a student at Alfred University.

$35 admission for Friday and Saturday, includes Saturday lunch and  
dinner, Sunday free. Camping available for an additional charge.  
Green Fest is a benefit for the Green Party of New York. For a  
detailed schedule, directions, registration forms and more  
information, visit http://nygreenfest.blogspot.com or call 607-569-2114.

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