Local food resources
The Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salons have continued each month. The second Sustainability Salon (as well as the 14th, 15th, 26th, 27th, 38th, 39th, 51st, 52nd, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 74th, 75th, 87th, and 88th) focused on food -- growing it, sourcing it locally, and eating more humanely. Afterwards, Maren put together a list of many such local sources: CSA farms, farmers' markets, grassfed and humanely raised meats and dairy, natural foods suppliers, bakeries, and advocacy organizations. This list now resides on a growing Resources section of the Putting Down Roots Blogger site.
Nov 20: House Concert with Lui Collins
Putting Down Roots is pleased to announce a house concert with New England favorite Lui Collins!
“… one of New England's clearest and most distinctive folk voices, with unusually piercing lyrical insight..." - Hartford Courant
“Folksinger for our times” - The Boston Herald
“… one of New England’s first and brightest stars.” - The Boston Globe
Folk singer/songwriter Lui Collins has been performing, writing and recording for over 40 years, her early Philo and Green Linnet recordings earning international acclaim and establishing her as a respected voice in the folk world. Lui has shared the stage with such notables as Pete Seeger, Bonnie Raitt, Stan Rogers, Dar Williams, and John Gorka. Renowned guitarist Dave van Ronk called her “one of the best guitarist-arrangers I have heard in years.”
“Lui sings my songs better than I do.”
- Canadian folk icon Stan Rogers
From playful 4-string arrangements of some favorite original songs, to the fabulous jazz chords in American standards and bossa nova, Lui translates her rich and complex guitar arrangements onto her tenor ukulele to create something unexpected and delightful.
"Lui has a gentle way of capturing the hearts of her audience and having what amounts to a musical conversation with them during her performances… No one weaves a spell quite like she can." —Champlain Valley Folk Festival Newsletter
Nov 20, 2020 at 7 p.m. (door 6:30), at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill. Light fare to share (food contributions appreciated, but not expected). Suggested donation $15-20. Directions and other info will come after RSVP -- and please do RSVP even if you know your way! Email me with "concert" in the Subject line, with name(s) of attendees -- or via Eventbrite if you're on the email list for Sustainability Salons (email me with "salon" in the Subject line if you'd like to be added). You can also call 412-251-5814 (9-9, please, and do leave a message!)
Previous Putting Down Roots house concerts have included Tom Neilson & Lynn Waldron, Two of a Kind and Brad Yoder, Mike Agranoff, Sparky & Rhonda Rucker, Putnam Smith, Ken Gaines and the Squirrel Hillbillies, and Randal Bays & Davey Mathias.
MarensList is Experiencing Technical Difficulties
Due to a change in how this platform works, it has become very difficult to make new postings for future events. I hope to find a solution soon, but in the meantime my apologies for a rather thin slate of events! There really is a lot going on...
Oct 10: Sustainability Salon on the Election (and What To Do About It)
Although we did a two-part series on elections and election law last June & July, the importance of this year’s election -- and the real danger of national upheaval should the results not be clear -- mean that we need as many boots on the ground (and the phones, and the pens, and the polls), as possible. I know that many people have already voted, but official deadlines still haven't passed, and you may know potential voters who are still unregistered, or on the fence, or confused about how to proceed through electoral chaos.
We'll talk about voter information, registration drives, youth engagement, get-out-the-vote efforts, poll access, voter protection, key races, and how the election will affect issues like climate change.
How can you get involved? Activities include door-knocking, literature drops, postcarding, telephoning, texting, letters to the editor, pollwatching, and donating. Are you already involved? Share your experiences (and maybe join in other efforts, as well). Speakers will include:
• Bethany Hallam, At-Large member of Allegheny County Council and member of the County Board of Elections (as well as serving on the Jail Oversight Board), will share her inside perspective on how it's all going to work.
• Are you unsure of some of the voting procedures this year? Bring your election questions for attorney Caroline Mitchell, longtime volunteer lawyer for ACLU's Election Protection team (and local and state Democratic Committee member, former Judge of Elections, and a legal adviser to several local progressive candidates).
• Have you been confused by the wording of ballot questions one too many times? Political strategist and UNITE cofounder Daniel Moraff will talk about the Alliance for Police Accountability's work on the Police Review Board ballot initiative, the Home Rule Charter amendment you'll see on your ballot if you live in Pittsburgh.
• By day, SEIU Healthcare Executive VP Lisa Frank organizes frontline health workers to garner a seat at the table and improve their lives; by night (and weekend) she helps make the most of progressive support -- reaching out to alienated voters to achieve high voter turnout, and helping ensure a smooth Election Day with Voter Protection efforts. Come learn about Deep Canvassing with Lisa and dedicated election activist Marta Pelusi.
• And back to the "why" -- Maren will put on her Climate Reality Leader hat, and remind us of the importance of climate action, as one more motivator to get active, as part of Climate Reality's annual 24 Hours of Reality event.
• Bonus: Maren will vote, live on Zoom! (I've received my mail-in ballot, and saved it for just this occasion.) Join me, if you also have your ballot in hand!
In the "Mark Your Calendar" department: On Sunday the 11th, OVER will hold a workshop on movement building and popular resistance, and the role direct action and civil disobedience plays in a long-term strategy (2-4 p.m., email for the Zoom link). GASP is having an air Trivia Night on the 18th, hosted by none other than Dirty Gertie the Poor Polluted Birdie. The regional Green New Deal discussion group that met earlier this year is convening a new series to help support collective efforts to develop concrete environmental justice platforms, policies, and legislation. The first full meeting will take place on October 23rd. And the next Sustainability Salon, on November 21st, will return to our regular fall feature on air -- this time, Pandemics and Air.
Salons currently run 4-8 p.m. on Zoom (shorter without the potluck supper). Plan to join the call after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the program right around 4. If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful. Please email me (at maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to RSVP (yes or maybe), or click on the link in your Eventbrite notice (if you're not already on my list, just email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).
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Please do RSVP each time -- it helps greatly in several ways (and with a virtual event, it's how you'll get the call-in info!). Please make every effort to RSVP well in advance -- I'll be sending out the registration link manually, so could miss last-minute registrations while setting up and hosting the event! Be sure to include salon in the Subject line if you email, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day. And if you're new, please let me know how you heard about the Salons!
Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events, as well as better formatting for this event description) for updates. And if you aren't yet on my list, if you're interested in Sustainability Salons (and our occasional house concert, simply contact me and I'll put you on my email list.
As always, I'll be sending out directions and such (in this case Zoom instructions), and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before (usually Friday night). So if you don't have it yet, please be patient! One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's. NEW:Eventbrite should also send you the Zoom registration link after you RSVP. (I'm working on that streamlining!).
Past topics have included air quality and environmental justice, social investment, local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme; with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).
Coronavirus update: As you know, people in Pittsburgh and around the world are sequestered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing is still the rule for most Americans. That's a bit of a misnomer, though -- we need physical distancing to flatten the curve, but technology now allows for rich interactions even so! I believe that community is one of our greatest strengths, so in March as events began to be cancelled, I hosted the first virtual Sustainability Salon via Zoom teleconference -- rather than gathering our usual 50-80 people in a contained space. It went quite well (even engaging participants from hundreds of miles away), and we're looking forward to June's salon! Please be sure to RSVP (via email with "salon" in the Subject: line, or via Eventbrite) so you'll receive the sign-on information.
If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place. If interested folks are online and everything is working smoothly by around 3:30, perhaps I can conduct a virtual tour.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, think back to our evening sings -- we typically ran the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time was had by all. Folks would bring instruments, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations would continue through the evening, as well. With a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!
Oct 8: PennFuture Women in Conservation Awards
Since its inception in 2015, this event has traveled around the state to different communities to ensure recognition of local leaders, volunteers, and career professionals. In 2020, they are celebrating women in Southwest Pennsylvania -- and I am incredibly honored to be counted among the awardees!
They've announced the honorees of PennFuture’s Sixth Annual Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards and ask you join in congratulating these eleven amazing women!
Before we get to “open the envelope, please” we do need to address some changes in our event this year due to COVID-19.
There was to be a banquet and award ceremony on April 30th at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh -- but, pandemic! Now, not surprisingly, there will be a virtual event, instead -- on October 8th. Your $40 Login Ticket will include a "PennFuture Swag Bag" with all kinds of useful things. Please register here!
And now, here they are, the 2020 Celebrating Women in Conservation Award Honorees!!!
Women of Lifetime Achievement in Conservation
Caren Glotfelty
Beverly Braverman
Dr. Patricia DeMarco
Woman of Environmental Community Engagement
Maren Cooke
Woman of Renewable Energy and Climate
Sharon Pillar
Woman of Environmental Arts
Ann Rosenthal
Woman of Environmental Media, Marketing, and Communications
Kirsi Jansa
Woman of Environmental Education
Camila Rivera Tinsley
Woman of Environmental Justice
Raina Rippel
Woman of the Watershed
Melissa Reckner
Young Woman of Conservation Leadership
Leandra Mira
You can learn more about each of these women on the event page -- and register to attend!Sep 26: Sustainability Salon on Air Quality and Environmental Justice
We'll also hear from some affected residents living near polluting facilities. Clairton Coke Works (the largest coke plant in North America) is the biggest polluter in Allegheny County, racking up fines into the millions as it frequently exceeds emissions standards and its own operating permits. Clairton resident Melanie Meade is among those who have decided to speak up, and will share some of her experiences in the fight against toxic emissions. And the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock and North Braddock, also part of U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works, has been operating since 1875. Local activist and filmmaker Tony Buba is part of North Braddock Residents For Our Future, a group organized to face the prospect of fracking at the steel mill, and has been filming the town for close to fifty years (including a stint on Night of the Living Dead).
The only way to really know what's in the air we breathe is with air monitors. Organizations like GASP, government agencies, academic institutions, and individual residents have been taking advantage of recent technological advances to characterize emissions and human health risk. With the Shell petrochemical facility nearing completion, air activist and documentarian Mark Dixon is coordinating a network of monitors in Beaver County to measure both fine particles and VOCs.
In the "Mark Your Calendar" department (also the "Please go buy a ticket and support a great organization" department), coming up on October 8th is PennFuture's Women in Conservation Awards event. I am incredibly honored to be counted among the awardees! Please consider joining us (virtually).
A note about MarensList: Blogger has made some changes which seem to make it impossible for me to set dates in the future. I am working to find a solution, but in the meantime I may not be able to post new events for a while.
As always, I'll be sending out directions and such (in this case Zoom instructions), and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before (usually Friday night). So if you don't have it yet, please be patient! One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's.
For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum; it's a mini-conference; it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues; fit's a house party with an environmental theme. We usually have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening.
If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place. If interested folks are online and everything is working smoothly by around 3:30, perhaps I can conduct a virtual tour.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all. Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations will continue through the evening, as well. (with a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!)
Coronavirus update: As you know, people in Pittsburgh and around the world are sequestered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing is still the rule for most Americans. That's a bit of a misnomer, though -- we need physical distancing to flatten the curve, but technology now allows for rich interactions even so! I believe that community is one of our greatest strengths, so in March as events began to be cancelled, I hosted the first virtual Sustainability Salon via Zoom teleconference -- rather than gathering our usual 50-80 people in a contained space. It went quite well (even engaging participants from hundreds of miles away), and we're looking forward to June's salon! Please be sure to RSVP (via email with "salon" in the Subject: line, or via Eventbrite) so you'll receive the sign-on information.
Salons usually run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill -- but this time we're on Zoom, and things may wind down earlier without the potluck supper. Plan to join the call after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the program right around 4, after folks have had a chance to (virtually) meet, mingle, and maybe tour around an interesting and productive urban permaculture site. Talks and discussion will probably wind down by around 7. If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful. Please email me (at maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to RSVP (yes or maybe), or click on the link in your Eventbrite notice (if you're not already on my list, just email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).
|
Please do RSVP each time -- it helps greatly in several ways (and with a virtual event, it's how you'll get the call-in info!). Please make every effort to RSVP well in advance -- I'll be sending out the registration link manually, so could miss last-minute registrations while setting up and hosting the event! Be sure to include salon in the Subject line if you email, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day. And if you're new, please let me know how you heard about the Salons!
Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events, as well as better formatting for this event description) for updates. And if you aren't yet on my list, if you're interested in Sustainability Salons (and our occasional house concert, simply contact me and I'll put you on my email list.
As always, I'll be sending out directions and such (in this case Zoom instructions), and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before (usually Friday night). So if you don't have it yet, please be patient! One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's.
Past topics have included social investment, local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme; with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).
If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place. If interested folks are online and everything is working smoothly by around 3:30, perhaps I can conduct a virtual tour.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all. Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations will continue through the evening, as well. (with a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!)
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