Reminders: Spring awakening is today!

As previously noted, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its sixth Spring Awakening today in honor of the neighborhood's community gardens.

The day of garden-related activities begins at 11:30 a.m. at El Sol Brilliante on 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. Follow the map...



Per the LUNGS website: "Join us as we are close down Avenue C for FREE Pony rides, music, a pop up community garden, free raffle prizes, a wellness circle, puppet show, Easter egg dyeing and much more."

Spring comes alive in East Village community gardens this Sunday

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its sixth Spring Awakening on Sunday in honor of the neighborhood's community gardens.

The day of garden-related activities begins at 11:30 a.m. at El Sol Brilliante on 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

You can follow the parade route below with the help of the twisty green arrow... the parade wraps up on Avenue C and Ninth Street at La Plaza Cultural and the Ninth Street Community Garden ...



Find more details at the LUNGS website.

Prepping for the Spring Awakening in the neighborhood's community gardens

On April 14, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is once again hosting a Spring Awakening in honor of the neighborhood's community gardens.

Per the LUNGS website:

This is LUNGS 6th Spring Awakening. It is a neighborhood celebration of the season and the opening of the community gardens. It is all FREE. There will music, a greening theme, kids’ activities, art as well as community-based programs and environmental and educational workshops. Please come and enjoy!

Ahead of that, there's a costume and poster-making workshop this Saturday at the Green Oasis Garden, 368 E. Eighth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. The activities take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Per the flyer: "We've got the supplies, bring your imagination."

LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival brings 100-plus activities to community gardens this weekend

The 7th Annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival is coming to a community garden near you this weekend.

More than 100 free events are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday in 50-plus gardens in the East Village and on the Lower East Side.

There are too many performances, concerts, screenings, beekeeping demos and other related events to list individually.

So you can find the full lineup here for Saturday and here for Sunday.

Related reading:
How the East Village grew to have the most community gardens in the country (6sqft)

An Earth Day Spring Awakening to celebrate the neighborhood's community gardens

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is once again hosting a Spring Awakening in celebration of the neighborhood's many community gardens.

Here are details via the LUNGS website:

Please join us on EARTH DAY, Sunday, April 22 as we parade and party to welcome the Spring and celebrate the opening of our community gardens!

Spring Awakening is a touch of Mardi Gras, a taste of charivari, we will be making music, making soap, making mudballs, swapping seeds and dancing around the Maypole. A joyous Let’s celebrate the season and honoring Mother Earth.

Beginning at 11:30 am we will parade from garden to garden around the neighborhood, visiting 27 gardens.

We will arrive at El Jardin del Paraiso, on E.4th St at Sunday, April 22 at 2 pm. There we will have music, dance refreshments, games, workshops and fun.

Time for the 6th annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival this weekend

More than 100 events are scheduled this weekend in the neighborhood's community gardens as part of the LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival.

You can head to the LUNGS website here for a rundown of the various performances, concerts, screenings and other related events.

Details on the $10-a-week CSA in these East Village community gardens

Via the EVG inbox...

LUNGS Fresh Food Bag CSA
Get a bag full of fresh & healthy produce straight from the farmer to you for only $10 a week — and only the weeks you want — along with volunteer help from you and the gardens of our New York City Community Garden District. The program is managed by LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens).

HOW IT WORKS:
This CSA is unique — you pay in advance but only for the weeks you want. SIGN-UP & PICK-UP is Sunday from 1 pm to 3 pm. When you pick up on Sunday you will pre-order and pay for the following week, or the week after.

See you this Sunday, August 6th, between 1 pm and 3 pm at Green Oasis on 8th Street between Avenues C&D to sign up!

It’s run entirely by volunteers, so all the money goes to the farmer. The family farm we work with uses organic methods but is not certified organic. The CSA typically begins in mid-June and—as we have for the past four years — runs every Sunday until Thanksgiving.

Pick up your produce between 1 and 3 pm on Sunday. If you cannot make the pickup time you need to arrange for someone else to pick it up for you. After 3 pm we are not responsible for your order. So if there are bags not picked up at the end of the day we will sell them to cover any losses that are inevitable in a volunteer-run program.

Bring tote bags! The first week you order please bring two tote bags for the season. Please bring good sturdy bags that can carry 10 pounds of produce. When you pick up the following week, bring back your bag!

Please remember that ALL the money that goes through this program goes to the farmer. This is a strictly volunteer program bringing fresh healthy food to your table. Please respect the time and energy that goes into setting this up and putting it together week to week.

Schedule of Loisaida community gardens hosting the LUNGS CSA:
August — Green Oasis, 8th Street between Aves C&D
September — La Plaza, 9th Street & Ave C
October — De Colores, 8th Street between Aves B&C
November — TBD
(and thanks to Campos, 12th Street near Ave C, for hosting us in July!)

CONTACT info@lungsnyc.org with CSA in the subject line if you would like to join.

Celebrate local community gardens this weekend with the LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival

Via the EVG inbox...

The Fifth Annual LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) Harvest Arts Festival will take place in 38 community gardens on Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25.

The Festival is free and open to all. Events include music, dance, performance, films, photography, painting, sculpture, puppets, and comedy as well as environmental workshops and yoga. Each garden designs its own programing, so the festival is as interesting and eclectic as the Lower East Side.

The 2016 Harvest Arts Festival is organized by LUNGS, a nonprofit organization founded to promote, protect and preserve the community gardens on the Lower East Side.

Here's the complete schedule by garden.

A lot of reasons to visit community gardens this weekend

The 4th Annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival is this weekend. Here are some highlights via the EVG inbox…

• Jack Hardy Songwriter's Exchange
Saturday, 1-7 p.m.
DeColores Garden, East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C
--> In 1970's Greenwich Village, Jack Hardy wanted to write more songs, so he got a group of like-minded souls together. Everyone agreed to write a song a week. Decades of pasta dinners, a crop of legendary careers, and thousands of brand new songs later, the group continues to meet with an ever-shifting cast of wildly various characters aged 8 to 78, representing every genre of music.

• Martian Harvest Moon Annual Dance Party
Saturday, 5-10 p.m.
Dias y Flores Garden, East 13th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
--> Live Afro-Cuban music by local musicians, Ray Santiago and Friends.



• Faith
Sunday, 7 p m.
Green Oasis Garden, East Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D
--> "If Nina Simone had a power trio with a rock/soul and reggae flair, it would sound something like this." (Doug DeFalco, Talent Buyer, Southpaw).

• Hayes Greenfield and the Gravity Unplugged Trio
Sunday, 1-3 p.m.
6B Garden, East Sixth Street and Avenue B
--> Hayes Greenfield, the innovative jazz musician and long time East Village resident, brings his Gravity Unplugged trio back to celebrate the LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival. From inside to outside and everything in between, Hayes and Gravity Unplugged deliver an unpredictable journey through jazz.

The opening party for neighbors and community gardeners is tonight from 6:30-9, La Plaza Cultural Garden, East Ninth Street and Avenue C.

You can visit the LUNGS website here for the full listing of events and more details.

A lot of things to do in community gardens this weekend

[EVG file photo of Orchard Alley on East 4th Street]

Via the EVG inbox...

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its 3rd annual Harvest Arts Festival this weekend — a celebration of the arts, community gardens and Loisaida.

On Saturday, 30-plus community gardens throughout the East Village and Lower East Side are hosting performances in music, dance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, the arts, environmental workshops and teach-ins, and more.

On Sunday, the Festival gets on its feet as gardeners march together in the People's Climate March en masse.

Find all the info right here.

Tonight: LUNGS Harvest Fest Opening Night Party

From the EVG inbox...

Please come to the opening night celebration of the Second Annual LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) Harvest Arts Festival tonight at LaPlaza Cultural at East Ninth Street and Avenue C. Come and bring your friends, drink and dance and have fun with us.

The schedule for Friday is:

5-6:30 For kids, with Circus Amok

6:30 Tompkins Square drummers

7 Welcome remarks featuring Rosie Mendez, Scott Stringer and Brian
Cavanagh

MUSIC
7:30 to 8:15 Eric and Friends

8:15 Pierre Monney

9:00 Mike Cobb & the Crevulators

Find more details about LUNGS here.

This month: A lot of community garden plays and art on the Lower East Side

From the EVG inbox...

1) COMMUNAL SPACES: A GARDEN PLAY FESTIVAL

This September, five short plays inspired by and performed in Lower East Side community gardens will take place. The 2013 version of writer, director and native New Yorker Lillian Meredith's Communal Spaces marks the outdoor festival's third annual installment. Meredith, whose body of work uses site-specific productions to "explore the boundaries of performance and the role of the audience in live theater," has commissioned five 30-minute plays. Each takes place in a different Lower East Side community garden.

Fri.-Sun., Sept. 13-15, 20-22 and 27-29. Each play is 30 minutes.
For more info, visit lillianmeredith.com. Admission is FREE. No
reservation needed.

Schedule: Fridays - Sundays: Sept. 13-15, Sept. 20-22, & Sept. 27-29.

11:00am - Tim and Tuna in Town.
Written by Josh Gulotta, Directed by Jaki Bradley
Siempre Verde Garden on Stanton and Attorney Streets
(no performance on Sept. 14)

12:30pm - Extinguish Yourself
Written by Angela Santillo, Directed by Michael Padden
Miracle Garden on East 3rd Street btw Aves A and B

3:00pm - Yield!
Written by Will Arbery, Directed by Stella Powell-Jones
All People's Garden on East 3rd btw Aves C and D

4:00pm - CO . OP
Written by Patrick Shaw, Directed by Lillian Meredith
Parque de Tranquilidad on East 4th btw Aves C and D

6:00pm - Limoncello Limoncello.
Written by Alexandra Bassett, Directed by Lillian Meredith
Green Oasis Garden on East 8th btw Aves C and D

Find more details here

2) LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens)
SECOND ANNUAL HARVEST ARTS FESTIVAL IN THE GARDENS

Saturday, September 27 & Sunday, Sept. 28
24 Community Gardens
Loisaida / The East Village / The Lower East Side / The Village

WHAT TO EXPECT

A multidimensional arts festival that reflects the creative spirit of the neighborhood and the integral part that community gardens play in the culture and life of Loisaida. Scheduled events include music, dance, performance, films, photography, puppets, environmental workshops, yoga. Each garden is designing its own program, so we know it will be interesting.

In addition, The Communal Spaces Play Festival, five 30-minute plays inspired by the selected garden landscapes, will wrap up its three-week run during the Harvest Arts Fest.

We hope you'll join us for an hour, a day, or the full weekend.

WHAT IT COSTS
Nothing. Nada.

HOW IT HAPPENS
The 2013 Harvest Arts Festival in the Gardens is organized by LUNGS (Loisada United Neighborhood Gardens).

This year's festival is sponsored in part by a generous grant from The Citizens Committee for New York City.

Find more details here.

LUNGS aims to promote and preserve Lower East Side gardens

LUNGS — Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens — is a new group to, as the flyer shows, "work to promote, protect and preserve gardening and greening on the Lower East Side." First meeting: Saturday afternoon at 1 in the garden at 311 E. Eighth St.