New ideas in Newburyport

North Shore Team--Winchester
When we rolled into First Parish Congregational Church in Newbury last week, the first thing we noticed was a huuuuge vegetable garden out back! “I hope that belongs to the church!” LT said. We soon discovered that it did, and is a community garden called the New Eden Collaborative. It’s a project of the Green Artists League, which describes itself as “an interdisciplinary artists' collective that creates public art addressing the global environmental crisis.” Our hostess Erin Stack is its director, and is a big fan of “subversive art” that actually tries to convey a message and create change. She’s done pieces like “Recently homeless polar bear needs ice,” a performance artwork which you can check out on their website. Coincidentally, I once ran into the homeless polar bear in Boston Common last year!
It was great to talk with Erin about our project and all of hers, about the role of art in activism, and about all the great stuff happening in Newburyport. She’s excited to plan an event for the International Day of Climate Action on October 24th with the First Parish church, and her enthusiasm is contagious. She also treated us to a delicious meal of pasta with homemade pesto and fresh romano beans that I helped her pick from the garden out back. Erin, thanks for all your help and hospitality, we’re excited to work with you in the future!


Last Monday night in Newburyport we had the pleasure of dining with Elizabeth, John, Ben, Nile, and Bernard, the core group of Transition Newburyport. The Transition movement is a fairly new one, with chapters growing all across the state and the country. Based on the premise that climate change and peak oil are inevitably going to alter our society, they work to find ways for their community to drastically reduce carbon emissions, significantly rebuild resilience and greatly strengthen the local economy. The purpose of the core group, they explained, is to prepare a plan for the community to adapt, and then to dissolve as the measures are put into place. They also have their own permaculture plot in the New Eden garden, in which they allow lots of local plants to coexist and try to keep the soil in as natural a state as possible. Transition is a really interesting movement, working on the cultural change aspect of the problem and trying to strengthen the community. Their message also ties in very nicely with that of Awakening the Dreamer; as we start to see some of the imminent effects of climate change, we need to address adaptation as a whole, connecting with a strong community. As the Wombat and as Rev. Tom Bentley of Trinity Congregational Church in Gloucester remind us, all is one! Transition has also encouraged its groups around the nation to plan an action for October 24th, so I’m excited to see what the 20 or so groups in Massachusetts come up with.
Here’s a quick video of Elizabeth Marcus, the Transition member who was unbelievably helpful with getting housing and a place for the symposium while we were in town. Thanks Elizabeth!



Hearing about and connecting with these great people and projects was so encouraging and exhilarating for us. If you’re looking towards a sustainable future for Massachusetts and the nation, I think Newburyport is setting a great example for us to follow!