"This land is your land"

"From the Youth of the Hudson Valley, a message for President Obama! From: HRSloopClearwater | September 22, 2010 | 302 views Loading... In the true spirit of our founder, Pete Seeger, Clearwater's Power of Song youth and the Urban Farmer's League of Newburgh, NY carried forward the passion and energy from the America's Great Outdoors Initiative listening sessions held this past August to create a music video. The youth worked together to create new verses to Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," to voice their policy recommendations to President Obama. As a collaborative project, Clearwater partnered with Our Hudson Tomorrow and the Electronic Music Foundation to support their efforts and produce this video featuring these young leaders"

We are having movie nights the next three weekends. On Sunday September 19 and 26; as well October 3, 2010. Hope to see you there. If you have any question please feel free to contact Kim at either kim.bersin@gmail.com or 845 527 7826.

Harvest Party 2

The ReadNex Poetry Squad performing.
U-Nice performing

Alex Schein and DJH20 getting ready the day

Nu Fi Alpha performing

To honor those who were affected by the event on 9/11/01; we celebrated life by hosting a harvest party. We had performances by Nu Fi Alpha, U-Nice, Alex Schein,and ReadNex Poetry Squad. This event was free to public. We had over a 50 people come through the garden throughout the day. In order to help support future of the Urban Farmers League we auctioned off : rosemary, lavender, mint, basil, and tomatoes from out garden at 59 Chambers Street. The remainder was given to our neighbors.

Chante showing her pride with a temporary tattoo

John and Decora getting ready for the auction and giving away of our harvest to our neighbors
DJ H20 Around the the turn tables

Chante and Will collecting tomatoes

John harvesting tomatoes

Press release for harvest party

La Vida garden Harvest Party

59 Chamber Street, was once abandoned garbage filled lot but now it has 7 organic beds, 3 organic fruit trees, a grape vine, and 2 raspberry bushes. There are 9 active board members from the age of 16-21. 45 neighborhood members who participate in our activities, and 5 community elders who are unofficial security guards, and about 95 facebook friends and growing.

In celebration of harvest Season, Newburgh’s La Vida Garden will be holding an end of summer harvest Festival. On September 11, 2010 from 12:00 to 3:00PM. This event is rain or shine. There will be live performances by The ReadNex Poetry Squad, DJ H20 and other local and nationally known artist. There will also be face painting and games for youth. The board of Urban Farmers League invites people from all over the Hudson Valley to perform in an open mic. In honor of harvest we will have dishes served made from produce from our farm and other local farmers along with food from The Wherehouse restaurant.


This urban community garden is a partnership between the Orange County Land Trust, Orange County Department of Health, Orange County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board, Pathstone Community Improvement of Newburgh, Greenway Environmental Services, Arts in Orange, Trust Your Struggle Art Collective, Knewton Test Prep, Leptondale Nursery, Taliaferro Farms, and Wherehouse Resturant.


For more information please feel free to contact Kim Bersin at 845-527-7826 or kim.bersin@gmail.com.

Working with Clearwater for a video for the Great American Outdoor Initiative

Vikki and Jelly of to the location of the shot.


Practicing with the young people from Clearwater and Beacon Green Teens.


Playing with Pete Seeger


Singing under a beautiful tree with Pete Seeger youth from Clearwater and Beacon Green Teen

Because of light we had a hard time watching the movie via the projector.

In honor of Michael Jackson our guests had fun showing us our dance moves

Warm up continuted with jumping jacks.

practicing our esquivas.

Capoeira workshop warm up

Getting ready for the workshop by using lotus essential oil

Due to the pending rain the workshop today at noon has been cancelled.

Tuesday 8/24/10

Weather permitting we will be having a capoeira workshop in La Vida garden tomorrow(Tuesday August 24,2010) at noon. Please bring water and a mat if you have one. For more information please feel free to contact Kim Bersin at 845 527 7826 or email kim.bersin@gmail.com

Due to rain movie night is cancelled tonight.

Upcoming events the week of August 22,2010

Weather permitting on Sunday we are having movie night at 7pm.
On Tuesday 24, 2010 we are having a capiera workshop at noon at the garden. Both events are held at La Vida Garden (on the corner of First and Chambers Street). These event is free and open to the public. For more infomation please feel free to contact Kim Bersin at 845.527.7826

On Tuesday August 16,2010 we had open mic night

We had a few guests come from Kingston Land Trust to come and learn about what we do in Newburgh. Their young children performed in our mic night by doing some free flowing and interruptive dance.

Rebecca from the Kingston Land Trust is interviewing Angelica. In the background we are being a dazzled by a great dance.

Earth Rhythms

Kerri and Chante were at Newburgh Jazz Series Earth Rhythms talking to people about the Urban Farmers League.

Memorial for young people who we lost to violence on August 10,2010

A couple doors away from La Vida garden a 10 year old boy was killed by an accidental shooting. The board members wanted to remember our young neighbor by lighting candles in memory of Brandon.

Chante getting ready for the memorial

Lighting candles for the young people we lost to violence.

Getting ready for placing the candle to Brandon's memorial


Our candles placed at Brandon's memorial

Movie night

Yesterday we had movie night after cancelling it twice due to concerns with the weather. The next movie night August 15, keep posted for updates .

Tasting a peach from La Vida

Harvesting tomatoes

Our First Open Mic

On Tuesday we had our first open mic night. After the performances we went to National Night Out. Our next open mic is August 17.

Look at Chante free styling.

Bike Newburgh

Hi, folks. I know it’s been a while, so here’s the latest from BikeNewburgh:


What we’ve been doing:

Since May, we’ve held five great repair sessions in front of the church on South Street. We met lots of children, adults and families, some from across the street and some from Cornwall and New Windsor. We repaired a lot of brakes, fixed a lot of tires, and made many new friends. In July, we were invited to host weekly community repair sessions at the Urban Farmers League garden at 59 Chambers Street.

There we found more kids and more bikes than two of us could possibly handle. For all its challenges though, Chambers Street has been blessed – with fathers and uncles who share their love of kids and community and pick up a wrench and help out for hours on end, with moms who come and teach patience, and with children who smile and share and trust.

We’ve made a commitment to continue at 59 Chambers Street through the month of August, and hope to resume our sessions on South Street in the next two weeks.

It has been your gracious generosity and your amazing ability to involve friends and community from a larger area that has made this possible, and we are grateful for all you have done so far. Thank you. Since the very beginning folks have asked us what we need. Now that we’ve been on the street, we can see more clearly what we need.


What we need:


Brakes. The number one safety item is functioning brakes. We’ve had some parts donated, but our best source of brake parts has been recycled from donated bikes. Which means we need…
Space. Your ability to donate bikes has been way beyond our ability to take them in, up until now. We are looking for some secure, ground-level space to store donated bikes. If you have vacant space or know someone who does, please contact me. If that space (or spaces) also leaves room to work, that’s even better. Then we can work with…
Volunteers. Cleaning and repairing donated bikes and harvested parts takes time and patience. It is also a great way to teach and learn the basics of bike maintenance and repair. If you have patience, the ability to teach or the desire to learn, and a little bit of time, we need you. Email to john@bikenewburgh.org or come to our open house.
Helmets. One of our volunteers just donated more than a dozen brand new helmets, in assorted kids’ sizes. It’s tough to get kids to wear them all the time, but it is irresponsible not to try.


How you can help:
Join us for an open house, discussion, story telling and planning meeting from 6:30 to 8:00 Tuesday night, August 10, at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 120 South Street, Newburgh. We’ll be indoors, serving up some Iced Tea and snacks, and maybe patching some inner tubes. If you can’t be there, have questions or comments, or want to help in any way, please email or leave a message at 562-8730. Thanks!

Newburgh urban farm's launch draws big crowd

News

By Michael Randall
Published: 2:00 AM - 07/27/10
City of Newburgh – More than 100 people attended Saturday's opening of La Vida Garden, a youth-run urban farm created on a formerly abandoned lot at 59 Chambers St.
The site has been converted into an organic farm and cultural center by city youth.
It features organically grown tomatoes, eggplant, arugula, basil, mescaline mix, hot and sweet peppers, peaches, cherries, raspberries, grapes, flowers and herbs.
A graffiti mural done by the youth and professional artists who belong to Trust Your Struggle Art Collective decorates the site.
La Vida Garden will host events, including open mic nights on the first and third Tuesday of each month; a movie night every Sunday; and workshops every second and fourth Tuesday at noon.
The garden is a partnership among a dozen government and not-for-profit agencies and local businesses.
For more information, visit their website at www.urbanfarmersleague.blogspot.com.
mrandall@th-record.com