Introducing Everyday Environmentalism

In this episode we sit down with Everyday Environmentalism’s own Maddy Aubey! Maddy is a PhD archaeology student at UCLA who tells us about her undergraduate thesis: “Visions Underfoot: Seneca Village and the Poetics of Remembrance.” It’s an interdisciplinary project that combines archaeology, history, and poetry. Maddy used physical objects found by archaeologists at the Seneca Village dig site as a way to creatively ponder the interior lives of the individuals who called it home. This is Part II of our series of episodes on Seneca Village. If you want a more traditional history about the facts and origins of Seneca Village, listen to our previous episode with Dr. Nan Rothschild if you have not already. Here are the resources we discuss in this episode: “Seneca Village Unearthed,” The NYC Archaeology Repository: https://archaeology.cityofnewyork.us/collection/digital-exhibitions/seneca-village-unearthed “Venus in Two Acts,” Saidiya Hartman (on critical fabulation) My Seneca Village, Marilyn Nelson Black Feminist Archaeology, Whitney Battle-Batiste *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. This podcast is hosted by Amanda Martin-Hardin, Maddy Aubey, and Prem Thakker. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: *coming soon*

Did you know before Central Park was built a rural community of African Americans owned property & built homes there?  They were displaced to build the park & it took well over a century for New Yorkers to rediscover Seneca Village. This episode features Dr. Nan Rothschild, a historical archaeologist and Professor Emerita at Columbia University who worked on the team that excavated Seneca Village, a predominantly African American community that was displaced to build Central Park in the nineteenth century. We discuss why Seneca Village is a historically significant site and what it took to convince the reluctant NYC Parks Department to allow an excavation to take place, among many other fascinating topics. Dr. Rothschild has done archaeological work in New York City and the American Southwest, and most of her research concerns the expression of social realities in materiality, focusing on gender, ethnicity, race and social class.To learn more about Dr. Nan Rothschild's work, visit this link: https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/nan-rothschild *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. This podcast is hosted by Amanda Martin-Hardin, Maddy Aubey, and Prem Thakker. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: *coming soon*

Archaeologists aren’t just interested in digging up relics of the past. This episode features Dr. Kelly Britt, an assistant professor of urban archaeology at Brooklyn College who focuses on community-based historical archaeology of urban spaces. We discuss Dr. Britt's experience excavating a site at City Hall and her knowledge about the African Burial Ground. We also discuss the importance of community-based archaeology, particularly as it pertains to ways archaeologists can assist urban communities in the aftermath of "natural" disasters. Other topics include "green gentrification" and the need to drop the term "climate resilience." To learn more about Dr. Kelly Britt's work, visit this link: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/schools/naturalsciences/undergraduate/anthropology/faculty/kellybritt.php *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. This podcast is hosted by Amanda Martin-Hardin, Maddy Aubey, and Prem Thakker. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: *coming soon*

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Thomas Campanella, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Historian-in-Residence and a Cornell history professor who researches city planning and the urban built environment. We have an off-the-beaten path conversation about NYC parks history, including: the roots of American anti-urbanism; Brownstone Brooklyn’s glacial history; graveyards as the predecessors of public parks; the Indigenous history of Marine Park; European design influence on NYC public spaces; Robert Moses and Frederick Law Olmsted; Dr. Campanella’s park recommendations, and more! To learn more about Dr. Thomas Campanella’s work, visit www.builtbrooklyn.org, or read his books: Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, and The Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm. *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. This podcast is hosted by Amanda Martin-Hardin, Maddy Aubey, and Prem Thakker. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: *coming soon*

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Marika Plater, an environmental historian and visiting assistant professor at Dickinson College. We discuss what nineteenth century low-income New Yorkers did for fun outside, including taking trips to public parks in their neighborhoods; riding ferries and streetcars to beer gardens and pleasure grounds; and taking steamboats that traveled to waterfront excursion groves. Dr. Plater explains the "3 P's of Parks," which included partying, peddling, and protesting. These 3 P's often caused tensions between New Yorkers of various classes, genders, and racial identities, as well as clashes between the public, politicians, and police. Despite the conflict, Dr. Plater maintains that parks can and have been spaces of equality and solidarity, too! To learn more about Marika Plater's work, visit their website: https://marikaplater.wixsite.com/marikaplater or follow them on twitter @marikareads. *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. This podcast is hosted by Amanda Martin-Hardin, Maddy Aubey, and Prem Thakker. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/a3yHBulMV2lmG0tqhyft7x0Ak3k

This episode features a conversation with Lena Tibebe, the founder of Ride to DC, which is a NYC-based organization that aims to diversify cycling. Last year, Ride to DC began hosting an annual group bike ride from NYC to DC--hence, the “Ride to DC”--as a way to recognize the existence and significance of Black Lives. During the inaugural 2020 ride, 127 cyclists joined the week-long, 306-mile journey. We discuss the origin and inspiration behind Ride to DC with Lena, as well as providing more context about her own personal relationship with cycling in New York City. Lena is also an ESL teacher in the Bronx and a Bike New York board member, so she brings many different perspectives to her understanding of bikes in the city. This conversation was such a delight because it covered so many topics--from fun places to bike in the city, to inequitable bike infrastructure across different boroughs, to why bicycles became such powerful tools of protest last year. If you want to learn more about Ride to DC, or even join the 2021 ride, visit www.ridetodc.com. You can also find and follow them on Instagram @RidetoDC. *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** To see to a transcript of this podcast with accompanying audio, visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/YJ5Y2e83CIkrUv8H2gKcJKpQPZk ***

This episode features Dr. Evan Friss, a U.S. urban historian who teaches at James Madison University. He researches the intersections between bicycles, people, and cities. In this episode we discuss the long history of cycling in New York City, including its liberating potential (from a tool for mass protests to an escape for suburban kids), as well as the way access to bikes has often been impaired by race, class, and gender. We contemplate the many forms of cycling in NYC, from Citibike, to food delivery cyclists, to competitive athletes training in Central Park. We also speak about when and where we’ve personally had the most fun riding bikes in NYC! Dr. Friss has written two books: The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s and On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City. He also co-curated an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York called Cycling in the City. To learn more about his work, check out his website (www.evanfriss.com) or follow him on Twitter @EvanFriss *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** To see to a transcript of this podcast with accompanying audio, visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/rq1-TT4N6dxZxXJ8ZLDUKUw_AT4 ***

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, a professor of communication at Texas A&M University and the author of The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation. Dr. Wanzer-Serrano teaches college courses in rhetoric, cultural studies, critical theories of race/ethnicity, de/coloniality, and Latinx studies; and he has a research focus on the same topics. We discuss the Garbage Offensive, a protest that the Young Lords organized in New York City in 1969 to protest the environmental racism their community of East Harlem/El Barrio faced: the New York City sanitation department's extreme negligence in picking up the neighborhood's garbage. Dr. Wanzer-Serrano explains how the Young Lords' grassroots organizing activated a new political paradigm among Puerto Rican New Yorkers, as well as how they successfully built multi-ethnic and intergenerational coalitions. We contemplate what lessons this historical activism can teach us about more equitable environmentalism today--with some musings on how the Green New Deal was likely informed by AOC's knowledge of the Young Lords' history, and more!  To learn more about Darrel Wanzer-Serrano's work, visit his website: https://wanzerserrano.com/dws/ You can also follow him on Twitter @DoctorDWS *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, click here or visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/C78JUCqE81Khls0Hw1ZDznrCbsE

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Catherine McNeur, an environmental historian at Portland State University and the author of Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City. We discuss how during the early nineteenth century, working class New Yorkers living in Manhattan raised livestock and even practiced a form of recycling by reusing urban waste. Battles over urbanizing and beautifying New York City ensued, involving tension over curated public outdoor spaces like Central Park; fights over sanitation and animals in the streets; and how to manage recurring epidemics and diseases like cholera that ravaged the city.  Professor McNeur explains how these tensions exacerbated early forms of gentrification in the nineteenth century, and contemplates how we can learn from the past to create more equitable urban green spaces and shared environmental resources in the future.  To learn more about Catherine McNeur's work, visit her website: http://www.catherinemcneur.com/ *** Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information. *** For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/aevndM7qESN1G1VxpjoREoLHPqY

Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment. Our podcast interrogates questions like: Who do we consider an environmentalist? Can urban spaces be sites of environmental activism? Is it true that the environmental movement has historically been mostly white and wealthy? Who are the animal inhabitants of New York City? How can we forge more sustainable relationships with the environment in our own neighborhoods and communities? Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information.