It was so fun to have students come to Herbert Von King in Bed Stuy. We created a collaborative collage of found objects (image below).

Did you know that the Cultural Arts Center in Herbert Von King is the only NYC Parks Rec Center that is totally FREE for members? I signed up with some students. Also, if you are under 24 all NYC Rec centers are free for you, even the ones with pools! Anyway, it was really hot so we didn’t go to Imani Community Garden as a class and did everything in the park. But some students didn’t want to leave and decided to come to Imani with me. We talked about compost, did a tutorial about opening fire hydrants, watered the plants, and hung out with the chickens.

On Wednesday, we continued field work and classes went out into the (local) field and took field notes. Field notes are observation notes- basically choosing a location and taking notes about what you observe. Here is a field notes template. In the first cohort, we decided to go to the rooftop of the library across the street. We went inside and had to go through metal detectors… it was very carceral. One student said, “they have to have those” and I replied that they just installed them after the renovations and never had them before. I don’t believe they are necessary. Anyone, only one student set off the detectors and had to get her bag checked. I think it was because she had a metal cap on her water bottle… Anyway, then we went onto the elevators on the right side and went to the 7th floor which is their rooftop terrace. It was nice to be there with students (especially the ones that had never been there before). I took a picture of some of our reflections in the glass wall.

The other two cohorts, I sent off into the field without going with them because I wanted to catch late students and also because I forgot my ID today and it’s annoying to open my digital ID because you have to do two factor authentication… Below are my (scratch) field notes.