Today, while out in Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach I had a photographer from Canary Project, Curtis along with me. He spent the day climbing lightposts, dodging traffic and laying on the ground to document the project. As I drew the line in front of a tall nursing home building, Curtis asked “So the nursing home would be under water?”
“Yes,” I answered simply.
It really got me thinking about how this project is both about local in the city/community sense, but also truly local, as in that building, that house in Manhattan Beach, that home in Canarsie, and yes, that nursing home in Brighton Beach. Curtis also spent some time photographing the things that would be lost. The park next to the NYPD horse stables, the long row of enormous condominium buildings on Ocean Parkway, the pizzeria, the small row of houses, the community college.
I hope to work with a few different groups to get neighborhood youth out looking at where the line hits, and talking about the areas and places that are of importance to them or their neighborhood that would be lost.
There was the guy in Gerritsen Beach whose family grew up in and owned houses in the neighborhood dating back to his grandmother – in the worst case scenario, his own grandchildren wouldn’t have that opportunity. The gentleman who chose to spend the summer at his mother’s place in Manhattan Beach instead of his apartment in Bushwick, his children or grandchildren may not have that opportunity.
But this project is about hope and belief in our ability to change the course we are on. There is the guy whose meditation class is focusing in July on less consumption. The woman in Sheepshead who wanted to get involved in the community in order to raise awareness about flooding. The family on the way to the beach who remarked how by saving energy, they could save money.
The project, for me, is a little bit of a rollercoaster ride every day and every week. It has its highs and lows. Sometimes I am really tired of pushing against the wall of trying to get permits. But then I speak to someone at a school or organization and there are great ideas for interactive programming. And for every one person who is a skeptic or annoyed about the chalk on the street, there are the 10 or more that are so excited about the project and the information that they high five me on the curb, or call out to say hello as I ride my tricycle down the road. Sometimes I am utterly utterly exhausted by the end of the day, but as soon as I put down the next mornings first stripe of chalk or have a kid run up to ask “What are you doing?” I feel energized and ready to take on the days path.
So here I am, about halfway through Brooklyn (because the line is really twisty in the South I have covered about half the mileage of the project), and getting ready to do my 6 weeks in Manhattan. I get to look back at the stories that I have heard and the incredibly varied neighborhoods that I have seen, and the people I have met, and I feel really truly honored to be the one who is bearing witness. I hope that I can find a way to share the sights and stories from the project. I hope that I also am able to give something back to the communities through which I pass and to the people that I meet.
[...] that crucial flood zone line – at least through Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. I wrote earlier about bearing witness. Well its true, now it is up to me to find ways to get out and talk about what I have seen. The [...]