Overview
It’s springtime in New Orleans/Bulbancha! Since April 2021, we have been inviting the public to join a series of hands-on learning, arts, and environmental stewardship activities. Explore the themes of water, ecology, and infrastructure through community conversations, creative activities led by artists and musicians, a native wildflower meadow and rain garden plantings, infrastructure and garden walks, film screenings, and musical performances.
This public program provides opportunities for people of all ages and interests to connect with water, soils, plants, mosquitoes, local ecology, environmental stewardship, and resilience. The emphasis will be on being outside and directly engaging environmental phenomena, infrastructure, places, and people. We will build shared knowledge through observation, listening, and dialogue, while interweaving science, art, music, and storytelling.
Make sure to check back for new events and the most up-to-date information.
Organizers and Support
The lead organizers of Seeds and Beats are Civic Studio, Water Leaders Institute, and artist Courtney Egan. Financial support for programs and activities comes from the Practice Grant, the Platforms Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, and in-kind donations from each of the organizers and partners.
Partners include Antenna, the New Orleans Mosquito, Termite, and Rodent Control Board, New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability, Arts Council of New Orleans, Native Plant Initiative of GNO, Greater New Orleans Iris Society, Delta Flora Nursery, and Junebug Productions. We are thankful to the VEGGI Farmer’s Cooperative, Blaise Pezold, poet Chioma Urama, artist/musician Sly Watts, artist Langston Allston, artist Brendon Palmer-Angell, artist Ashley Pridmore, Les Cenelles, Dr. Jelagat Cheruiyot, Dr. Jennifer Breaux, and additional partners for their contributions to this program.
Fall 2022: BUGS & BLOOMS
Tuesday, November 1, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. || CIVIC STUDIO at 1626 SOUTH RAMPART
This workshop examines how the political economy of reproductive violence and public policies interact to control and regulate the bodies, lives, and geographies of people and natural landscapes through various forms of subjugation, extraction, containment, and disposability. Participants will engage the concept of reproductive violence and reimagine reproductive autonomy, spatial ecologies, and sustainable practices.
Dinner at 5:30 p.m., followed by the workshop from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Shana M. griffin is a feminist activist, researcher, sociologist, artist, abolitionist, and mother.
Thursday, November 3, 4 to 6 p.m. || Mosquito control headquarters at 2100 LEON C. Simon
How does the city manage insects and rodents? What does the inside of a termite mound look like? How many kinds of mosquitoes live in New Orleans, and which ones should you be worried about?
Drop by for happy hour at the meadow and visit New Orleans Mosquito, Termite, and Rodent Control Board headquarters to see their diagnostic labs, insect surveillance and management technologies, insect collections, and insect art! Meet with NOMTRCB entomologists and ask them questions about their work and anything else you want to know about bugs.
All ages are welcome.
SATURDAY, November 5, 9 to 1 p.m. || Mosquito control headquarters at 2100 LEON C. Simon
From 9 a.m. to noon, join us in taking care of the native wildflower meadow and rain garden, and to join artist Courtney Egan in making sun prints (a kind of cyanotype).
From noon to 1, we will serve lunch and host a discussion on the topic of environmental stewardship in the context of climate change, flooding, and subsidence. We will also be honoring master gardener Jeanette Bell, and celebrating a new book featuring Jeanette called American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens.
All ages are welcome.
April + May 2021
Gaillardia, by Jo Farley
Native Wildflower Meadow Planting
Thursday, April 22, 5 to 7 p.m. || Mosquito Control Headquarters at 2100 Leon C. Simon
Help plant a native wildflower meadow and take home an illustrated wildflower field guide. The New Orleans Mosquito, Rodent, and Termite Control Board (NOMRTCB) is working with Civic Studio, the Water Leaders Institute, Antenna, the Native Plant Initiative of GNO, and artist Courtney Egan to plant a native wildflower meadow at Mosquito Control headquarters, located at 2100 Leon C. Simon. The public is invited to join the planting process, and to engage a diverse array of opportunities for hands-on learning, dialog, art, and music from April to June, 2021.
NOMRTCB is replacing 1,200 square feet of turf grass with a native wildflower meadow. This will be a chance for project partners and the public to explore how native plants can be integrated into urban landscapes in order to improve biodiversity, create pollinator habitat, reduce runoff, and develop more sustainable practices for designing and maintaining urban green spaces.
Participants will learn from plants experts about different native wildflowers, and how they interact with soils, bugs, and water. Participants will receive an illustrated field guide to the wildflowers that make up the meadow, as well as common weeds to look out for as the meadow gets established.
Image: Junebug Productions
Homecoming Project: Water Virtual Redux
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 7 P.M. WITH JUNEBUG PRODUCTIONS [ONLINE]
“As mother of the planet’s living things, holding memory and mystery, healing flesh and rock, carving veins in mountainsides — water is the great collector down to the molecular level.” - free feral
Homecoming Project: Water is a collection of stories — told in the form of dance, music, spoken word, and film — exploring the depths of our vastly different and complex relationships with water. During this time of pandemic, Homecoming Project Lead Artists Sunni Patterson, Frederick “Wood” Delahoussaye, Kesha McKey, Jeremy Guyton, free feral, and special guest Spirit McIntyre revisit Homecoming Project: Water from a distance.
Reimagined with stunning visuals from Melisa Cardona and Malachi Middleton artfully stitched together by Jazz Franklin, the Homecoming Project: Water Virtual Redux premieres a little over two years after the original performance premiered on a gloriously watery, stormy night.
About Homecoming Project: Homecoming Project is a community-based, storytelling performance series that aims to marry high-quality artistic practice with a commitment to maintaining the essential relationship between art and progressive social change through engagement with New Orleans communities that have been historically oppressed and exploited.
This event will be streamed on Junebug Productions’ Facebook Page.
Tell Your Story, by Langston Allston
Water Map Preview
at all Seeds & Beats Events taking place at MOSQUITO CONTROL HEADQUARTERS AT 2100 LEON C. SIMON
Take a look at the in-progress Water Map New Orleans / Water Map Bulbancha, and provide feedback on map graphics and information. Water Map New Orleans is a multi-media platform for exploring the past, present, and future of our relationship to water in this delta city. The purpose of the map is to connect the region’s residents and visitors to information critical to building water literacy, and to provide a platform for building towards a collective vision of “living with water” in the years ahead. Since summer 2020, a multidisciplinary team has been collecting data, researching histories, developing graphics, and creating prototypes with seed funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In digital and paper forms, this map will provide access to key data layers, including information on the city’s waterways, waterfronts, and wetlands; drinking water, sewerage, and drainage systems; topography; and also levees and other flood control mechanisms. Custom-designed graphics will highlight geographic features, histories, technologies, and cultural references. The map’s hyperlinks -- and accompanying social media, live events -- will highlight the knowledge, initiatives, leadership, and imaginations of the region’s scholars, artists, designers, and environmental stewards.
Photo by Cfreedom
Community Conversation: Plants, Bugs, and Ecology
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 5 TO 6:15 P.M. || MOSQUITO CONTROL HEADQUARTERS AT 2100 LEON C. SIMON
Grab a spot on the grass next to the newly planted wildflower meaow, and join a conversation on plants, bugs, and ecology in urban areas. Ecology and evolutionary biologist Dr. Jelagat Cheruiyot and NOMRTCB entomologist Dr. Jennifer Breaux will share their perspectives on the interactions of plants, bugs, soil, and water, and lead an open conversation on the ecology of neighborhoods like Gentilly and urban areas like New Orleans. We will use the trees, wildflowers, grasses, weeds, roadways, and infrastructure that is around us to explore each of these topics.
Open to all!
(RAIN DATE: Wednesday, May 12 at 5 p.m.)
Chioma Urama, photo by 3rd Eye Network
Poetry & Animation at the Wildflower Meadow
Friday, May 14, 7 to 8:30 p.m. || Mosquito Control Headquarters at 2100 Leon C. Simon
Join us at dusk for an outdoor poetry reading and movement workshop with Chioma Urama, followed by music and animations by Sly Watts.
In her reading, poet Chioma Urama will be exploring the idea that “all water has a perfect memory” and connecting this idea to themes of ancestral memory and healing from her poetry collection A Body of Water. After the reading, Chioma will lead a gentle movement workshop that incorporates breathwork, stretching, and meditation, with the intention of being fully present with our bodies and the information they hold.
Once the sun has set, Sly Watts will be presenting music and two short animations. One animation is inspired by the interaction between soils and water, and the second animation is inspired by the life cycle of the mosquito. The music builds upon sounds of mechanical processes and rushing water recorded inside of the Sewerage & Water Board’s Drainage Pump Station No. 1. Conversation with Sly Watts to follow.
This event will be outside, on the grass, and we encourage everyone to bring a blanket to sit on. Participants will have opportunities to learn about the Native Wildflower Meadow Planting taking place at this site, as well as the Water Map New Orleans/Water Map Bulbancha project.
(RAIN DATE: Friday, May 21, at 7 p.m.)
Tell Your Story, by Langston Allston
St. Anthony Greens Streets and Public Art
SATURDAY, MAY 15, 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M. || GATTO PLAYGROUND AT 1929 WILDAIR ST., WITH ARTS COUNCIL NEW ORLEANS
Make a collage, create a wildflower seed ball, take home a portrait, and learn about the Gentilly Resilience District infrastructure and public art projects.
Artists Brendon Palmer-Angell and Ashley Pridmore will be sharing their public art proposals for Gatto Playground, and lead hands-on creative activities for all ages focused on the themes of water, remembrance, adaptation, and ecology.
Artist Langston Allston will be sharing mock-ups of his basketball court and playground fence murals for nearby Filmore Playground, and working with residents to create collages using geometric shapes, maps, and local flora and fauna.
Artist Courtney Egan will be sharing her bridge design for Filmore Playground, and partnering with volunteers from the Native Plant Initiative of GNO to introduce residents to native wildflowers such as coneflowers and partridge peas, and to provide seeds with which participants can create their own “seed balls” to take home and plant in their yards.
Photographer Jose Cotto will be taking portraits of neighborhood residents that they can take home with them, and the portraits may also be featured -- with permission -- as part of a temporary display at Filmore and Gatto Playgrounds.
Meet with the design team and city representatives to learn the latest on the St. Anthony Green Streets project, which is part of the Gentilly Resilience District. Organized in partnership with the Arts Council of New Orleans.
(RAIN DATE: Wednesday, May 19 at 5 p.m.)
VEGGI and the Canal Gardens of Village de l’Est
Saturday, May 22, 9 to 11:30 a.M. || Meet at 14000 Dwyer Blvd.
Visit the VEGGI Farmers Cooperative and the Vietnamese canal gardens of Village de l’Est.
Join us in New Orleans East for this special opportunity to visit a working farm, wetland buffer, and canal gardens situated amongst the lagoons and canals of the Village de l’Est neighborhood. We will learn about the importance of farming and gardening to this community, and see how gardeners have integrated drainage canals into their agricultural practices.
Khai Nguyen of the VEGGI Farmers Cooperative will be our tour guide and translator as we meet with VEGGI farmers as well as individual gardeners cultivating herbs and vegetables alongside drainage canals.
This event will be outside and involve roughly 1.6 miles of walking in summertime heat and humidity as we move between different sites. We encourage participants to dress accordingly, to wear comfortable shoes for walking, and to bring plenty of water. We will be providing lunch -- banh mi from Dong Phuong Bakery!
There are a limited number of spots -- make sure to get your ticket as soon as possible! And please notify aron@waterleadersinstitute if you need assistance with transportation to get out to New Orleans East. We can help arrange a carpool or other transportation option.
(RAIN DATE: Saturday, May 29 at 9 a.m.)
June 2021
Wildflower Meadow Check-in and Community Conversation
thursday, june 3, 5:30 TO 7:30 p.M. || Mosquito control headquarters at 2100 Leon C. Simon
Check in on the native wildflower meadow and join a community conversation on planting and environmental stewardship.
In April, the Water Leaders Institute, NOMRTCB, NPI-GNO, Courtney Egan, Antenna, and Civic Studio came together to plant a native wildflower meadow at the NOMRTCB headquarters in Gentilly. Since then, we’ve hosted a range of community conversations and performances at this site.
From 5:30 to 6:30, we invite you to come out to the site to see how the different plants are doing, from the clasping coneflowers to the evening primroses to the lemon beebalm. Which plants are in bloom? Which weeds have also taken root? We welcome you to lend a hand with weeding and other upkeep that will help improve the health of the meadow, and also to take home an illustrated native wildflower field guide.
At 6:30, we’ll grab a spot in the shade of trees planted by the NOLA Tree Project after Hurricane Katrina, and host a community conversation on planting, wildflowers, and environmental stewardship. We welcome all perspectives and experiences as part of this conversation.
Community Conversation: Environmental Education, Water Literacy, and Climate Adaptation
thursday, JUNE 24, 6 to 7 P.M. || MOSQUITO CONTROL HEADQUARTERS AT 2100 LEON C. SIMON
Grab a spot on the grass and join us for a conversation on the connections between environmental research, community empowerment, and K-12 formal and informal education, co-hosted with Ripple Effect.
Since 2013, the environmental education nonprofit Ripple Effect has been exploring the concept of “water literacy” and the knowledge, skills, and ethical grounding critical to the well-being of individuals and communities in places like New Orleans. In 2020, Ripple Effect connected with over seventy teachers, scientists, practitioners, and community experts to develop a broad-based vision for water literacy and environmental education. Ripple Effect’s executive director Claire Anderson will share RE’s research findings, curriculum development, and teacher training. This will be followed by an open conversation facilitated by the Water Leaders Institute.
We welcome all perspectives and experiences as part of this conversation, and hope you will stay after for RISE at the Wildflower Meadow!
RISE at the Wildflower Meadow
thursday, JUNE 24, 7 to 8:15 P.M. || MOSQUITO CONTROL HEADQUARTERS AT 2100 LEON C. SIMON
Join us at dusk for a performance and talkback with chamber music group Les Cenelles, co-hosted with the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South.
Les Cenelles is a contemporary string ensemble exploring the Creole diaspora through melody and memory to honor our cultural ancestors and preserve the plurality of their experiences through a prismatic and contemporary lens.
As part of Seeds & Beats 2021, they will be playing a longer-form piece called “RISE,” with narration from Ms. Sharon Lavigne. Ms. Lavigne is a community leader and activist with RISE St. James. Following the performance, there will be a talkback with the musicians, facilitated by Antenna Interim Executive Director Shana griffin and Water Leaders Institute Co-Lead Aron Chang.
November + December 2021
November Saturday Meadow Morning
Saturday, November 13, 8:30 TO 10:30 a.M. || Mosquito control headquarters at 2100 Leon C. Simon
Collect seeds, weed, and help with stewardship of the Native Wildflower Meadow planted at New Orleans Mosquito Control Headquarters in April.
Take part in keeping up the native wildflower meadow we planted in April, and to prepare the meadow for next spring. We will focus on different aspects of site ecology and environmental stewardship. In November, we will be weeding the meadow and collecting the seeds for sowing next spring, and also for participants to take home.
Participants will learn from plants experts and designers about different native wildflowers, and how they interact with soils, bugs, and water. Participants will receive an illustrated field guide to wildflowers and common weeds.
December Saturday Meadow Morning
Saturday, December 4, 8:30 TO 10:30 a.M. || Mosquito control headquarters at 2100 Leon C. Simon
Collect seeds, weed, and design a rain garden at the Native Wildflower Meadow planted at New Orleans Mosquito Control Headquarters in April.
Take part in keeping up the native wildflower meadow we planted in April, and preparing the meadow for next spring. At each gathering, we will focus on different aspects of site ecology and environmental stewardship. In December, we will be weeding the meadow and collecting the seeds for sowing next spring, and also designing a rain garden that will complement the meadow and further increase the biodiversity of the site.
Participants will learn from plants experts and designers about wildflowers, and how they interact with soils, bugs, and water, as well as green infrastructure and water management.
