Hello. I hope you are well.
Today I’m sharing updates on a few seeds I’ve been watering for a while that are popping into the world. They are all such new shoots, I’m both excited and nervous. I don’t know what will happen next with any.
But I do know that each connects to the ways I want most to be a human right now: working for the planet; making art; and taking small, tangible steps right where I am – in all the senses – that feel positive, amid a lot of darkness that is out of my (or anyone’s) control.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on any or all of these new projects – especially the art poll in section 2!
Project 1: Brightline 2040
I made the picture above for the first issue of Brightline 2040, which launched yesterday. Our small team, all people who live in Queens, aims to document what achieving the city and state’s ambitious climate goals looks like in our community (and beyond).
Fossil fuel power plants in my neighborhood have historically contributed half or more of the whole city’s power. Perhaps not surprisingly, that has also led to increased rates of asthma and some kinds of cancer in our area, which is also home to some of the city’s biggest public housing complexes.
There is now hope that this can change, with new investment and infrastructure getting underway to meet New York’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2040, with 40% of climate action benefits directed to disadvantaged communities. What happens here over the next several years holds much promise for the future, and I’m so glad to be able to use my background in writing and marketing to help tell the story.
Project 2: Art market
I am also thrilled to be joining a maker’s market here in Queens this November and December! The market is run by QNS Collaborative, a wonderful community-based group of makers, creators and artists.
I’ll be making prints, stickers, greeting cards and postcards. I haven’t decided exactly which pieces to use for the stickers. Here are some options – please let me know in the poll which you think I should do:
You can vote for any or all. (Too many birds? leave me a comment!)
Project 3: Learning Arabic
Soon after I visited Egypt in May, I saw an exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum called “Designing Peace,” which looked at how design can help build a peaceful, pluralistic world. I was familiar with a few of the wide range of projects included, but most were entirely new to me.
I learned so much from this exhibit, and it gave me so many threads to follow (like exploring Social Ecology and making a connection between my friend Susie, who I wrote about in July, and HarrassMap). And it changed how I thought about what activism could be.
I hadn’t thought about learning a language spoken by many in my neighborhood, yet not by anyone I know, as something I could do. Maybe this is naive; I’m still such a beginner. But I have learned to speak and write a little Egyptian Arabic, and I’m able to read some store names, some labels at the grocery store, that I didn’t really even see before.
(That says “I speak a little Arabic.” I think.) I would love to find a conversation partner. In these days, with the unspeakable violence and brutality in Israel and Gaza, with both terrible antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks rising in the U.S., making human connections feels more important than ever.
Thank you for being here with me.
I can find you a conversation partner. Call me. She is recently retired in her 60’s. Worked as a translator for UN
Never too many birds!