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It's hard to believe that almost all of 2014 has already passed! Time is like Ice Cream - it Melts!
Life Frames has been very busy and productive, continuing to develop our existing Branch Living Library & Think Parks in San Francisco and New York City, working with over 2500 children, youth, and adults each month, year-round, in hands-on learning and greening of the community and their school’s campus.
Additionally in San Francisco, we have been continuing to plant and develop the Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk that is linking multiple schools, parks, public housing, streets, and other open spaces leading to the currently hidden Islais Creek at the south side of St. Mary's Park. We have planted over 1000 California native trees and hundreds of native understory plants with scores of volunteer youth and adults.
We also supported the A.L.L. ECO-Stewards Paid Green Internship for H.S. Youth to Age 21 again this summer, in which they learned practical, green skills, while helping with planting and plant establishment of this emerging, expressive, and beautiful, narrative landscape. The Living Library Nature Walk is a prototype for what can be developed throughout the Islais Creek Watershed, the largest in San Francisco, that links eleven communities, as a way to revitalize urban neighborhoods and resources, and reconnect them to each other, while making them greener, more beautiful, and healthier places to live, work, learn, and play.
A Living Library is Cultivating the Human and Ecological Garden !
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Bringing added value to A.L.L., we are also in active discussion with diverse communities interested in developing their unique, place-based, Branch Living Library & Think Park - from San Antonio, Texas, to Udaipur, India, Mexico City, Mexico, to Chengdu, China and Turin, Italy, among other local and global environs. The Founder & Director of Life Frames and A Living Library, Bonnie Ora Sherk, was invited to present A Living Library in India in March, and has been invited to travel to San Antonio and Chengdu, in the next few months to work with those local communities to begin planning for their site and situation-sensitive, Branch Living Library.
One of Life Frame’s goals is to interlink A.L.L. Branches through Green-Powered technologies, so we can learn and share our commonalities and diversities of cultures and ecologies – near and far. Stay tuned!
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A few of A.L.L.'s Auspicious Achievements include:
• Working with close to 2000, PreK-12 students monthly, year-round, at seven SF public schools (PreK-12), during school day, after school, and summers in three, low-income neighborhoods in hands-on greening, science, math, literacy, multi-arts, technology, nutrition, health, youth leadership, and other subjects
• Working with hundreds of students and community members, year-round, on Roosevelt Island, NYC from PS/IS 217, the 217 Beacon, and PTA in hands-on greening, science, math, literacy, multi-arts, nutrition, and other subjects
• Establishing two diverse, year-round, after school and summer, Paid Green Internships for Middle and High School Students:
• A.L.L. ECO- Stewards at St. Mary's Recreation Center & Park for HS to Age 21
- Diverse California Native Drought Tolerant Zones with colorful and dramatic Understory
- Student-led Organic Vegetable, Flower Garden
- New Colorful Interpretive Signage for diverse Plant & Wildlife Species
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• A.L.L. Green Futures Student Stewards Create Art from Nature
• A.L.L. Students Cook Foods of the Americas: Tortillas, Papusas, Guacamole and More !
• A.L.L. Green Futures Student Stewards celebrate the Chinese Year of the Horse
• A.L.L. Green Futures Student Stewards Present Research About Raising Chickens
• Hundreds of community members worked with Life Frames and Bonnie Ora Sherk to create new RI Living Library Gardens on Roosevelt Island in NYC on Roosevelt Island Day, June 21, 2014, as we have each year since 2002, and hundreds of youth are maintaining and enjoying them this summer, as part of our RI Living Library Summer Program in conjunction with the RI Youth Center and Beacon.
• Life Frames & SF Recreation & Park Department (RPD) jointly hosted multiple Volunteer Events with One Brick, Salesforce, Pinewood School, Junipero Serra Elementary School, Amigos de las Americas Youth Ambassadors, Creative Arts Charter School, Jewish Community Federation Young Adults, A.L.L. ECO- Stewards, and other groups, to continue planting the Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk in Holly and St. Mary's Parks.
• Founder & Director of Life Frames & A Living Library, Bonnie Ora Sherk was invited to present A Living Library in India in two cities!
• Roosevelt Island PS 217 children discuss meaning of A Living Library and create their own A Living Library Illustrated Books led by Bonnie Ora Sherk.
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In addition to the Branch Living Library Programs in schools and communities, A Living Library, and Bonnie Ora Sherk's early work, leading to its development, were featured in many articles, books, exhibition catalogs, and interviews with Founder & Director, Bonnie Ora Sherk - both in print, online, and on the radio. Additionally, several Art Exhibitions were mounted.
• Bonnie Ora Sherk interviewed about her ideas and work in developing A Living Library on KPOO Radio, 89.5 FM on August 28, 2014, 1-2 PM, on Connecting The Dots.
• A Living Library and Bonnie Ora Sherk featured in a new article and interview on ROOSTERGNN, Global News Network, by astrophysicist, Sinziana Paduroiu.
• FOODshed: Art and Agriculture in Action, curated by Amy Lipton at Smack Mellon Gallery in adorable Dumbo, Brooklyn NY, from June 7-July 27, features Bonnie Ora Shrek and A Living Library.
• Another exciting exhibition that features Bonnie Ora Sherk's work with A Living Library and her earlier Life Frame, Crossroads Community (the farm), was in Turin, Italy, at Parco Arte Vivente (PAV). The international exhibition, which opened on May 30 through November 2, Vegetation As A Political Agent, curated by Marco Scotini and Andris Brinkman.
• Bonnie Ora Sherk and A Living Library were featured at the Open Engagement Conference on Social Practice Art at Queens Museum in New York, on May 17, 2014. The panel focused on Watersheds, and Ms. Sherk discussed, with a slide presentation, the Branch Living Library & Think Parks underway at five schools in the Islais Creek Watershed in San Francisco, and the Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk.
• A new ecoartspace Video Interview with Bonnie Ora Sherk focused on A Living Library is being developed as a companion to complement the prior Video Interview with Bonnie Ora Sherk discussing her early work. The original interview is conducted by ecoartspace's Founder & West Coast Curator, Patricia Watts.
• A Living Library is featured in Centerpoint Now, a Journal published by World Council of Peoples of the United Nations (WCPUN), in affiliation with the United Nations & UN Department of Public Information.
• Video of Early Life Frame Leading to A Living Library: Crossroads Community (the farm).
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