Urban Wild / Natural Watercolor Workshop


Sat, April 20, 2019, 1 – 4PM

140 58th Street, Brooklyn, NY, USA


Join Booklyn for an Earth Day celebration with readings and two drop-in workshops focusing on urban nature and environmental issues. All ages are welcome.

Urban Wild Coloring Activity, 1 – 3pm

In the urban environment, we often think of green spaces more as a backdrop—sources of shade, a haven of beautiful things to look at, or merely a reminder of the more expansive wild beyond the city walls. However, no matter how big or small urban green space, whether it’s a designated park, an overgrown vacant lot or the tree plot outside your door has a significant role to play within our urban ecology. Plants of any kind found anywhere contribute oxygen, sequester carbon, strengthen the soil, and often times remediate soils while also providing habitat for hundreds of species.

In this workshop we invite children and adults to engage in a visual, tactical, and creative collaboration with the often hidden yet surprisingly abundant edible/medicinal plants found thriving throughout the city. Common Knowledge believes that our disconnection from what thrives along our footpath is at the root of cultural and environmental degradation. This activity is designed to encourage reverence and reciprocity with the land we inhabit and to restore the importance of place-based identity in our understanding of learning how to live well with the Earth. (Led by Alyssa Dennis, www.commonknowledge.com)

Natural Ink Watercolor Workshop; 2-4pm

In this walk-in workshop, you will experience the luminous quality of vegetable dyes by using them as paints, on paper. Substituting commercial watercolors for vegetable and plant dyes, create subtly colored washes, patterns and drawings. All materials provided. (Led by Iviva Olenick,http://www.ivivaolenick.com/)