It was certainly an honor to be recognized as a Syracuse Area Earth Justice Activist during ArtRage Gallery’s recent “In The Windows” exhibit, alongside Robert Shetterly’s Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series new exhibition “Without Courage There Are No Other Virtues”. Read more below from the ArtRage website and View the Virtual Exhibition Here.
I was recognized in my role as Co-Founder and President of The Alchemical Nursery Project”
Frank came to Syracuse in 2005 to study at SUNY-ESF, receiving a Masters of Forestry in 2008, and then planned to become a forest manager, somewhere such as his rural coal-mining region in southern Pennsylvania. Instead, he fell in love with Syracuse and with creating urban food forests, promoting land stewardship, and moving access to the land into the communities’ hands, transforming vacant lots into viable food production. To date, either personally or through The Alchemical Nursery Project, he has transformed over five vacant or abandoned properties based on principles of permaculture design, including the Rahma Forest Garden on South Salina, the 610 Gifford Community Garden, the Bitternut Collective Home lot, Bitternut kitchen garden and nursery lot, the 713 Marcellus St. Depot for tool sharing and bike clinics, and the 711 Otisco St. pop-up garden. Unlike many “neighborhood improvements” that become gentrification, the intended beneficiaries for these projects are existing area residents.
Frank’s theory of change is that In order to create change you need to understand the current state of affairs that you are in – and the only way to do that is to be present in those affairs. In addition to The Alchemical Nursery Project, Frank is a Senior Business Advisor and Educator with the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College, specializing in employee-ownership and cooperatives. He also serves as the Professional Administrator At-Large Representative with NYSUT Local 1845.
“Ignore FOMO. Think of where you want to concentrate your focus. You always feel like you could do more… drifting out of your focus area reduces your capacity to do what you want to do in the world.”
And my image was captured while I was out working in the backyard of our Urban Ecological Co-Household the Bitternut Homestead”
In the Windows: Syracuse Portraits of Earth Justice Activists
September 10, 2022 to October 29, 2022
Photography by Marilú López Fretts
Biographies by Lindsay Speer
View the Virtual Exhibition Here
Successful movements depend not just on one person, but many. These portraits highlight local activists who deserve our gratitude and thanks for their efforts to make our community better, healthier, and more just, understanding the intersectionality of environmental and social justice. These are people who are often not the ones out front, but roll up their sleeves and consistently get the seemingly little things done that keep a movement moving. In short, they are representative of the “culture of engaged citizenship” inspired by people like those in Robert Shetterly’s portraits, and who in turn inspire others themselves. They too are representative of so many more without whom successful environmental justice campaigns would not be possible.
The commitment of each of these people to work closely with and listen to their communities, often those typically not represented in mainstream environmental movements, and build coalitions and connections empowering everyday people, have been key to the success of their campaigns. Many of the people represented here are the grassroots communicators, consistently sharing information among their networks. Together they focused on practical action, kept track of decisions and decision-makers, and were not afraid to tell those in power what to do… or if they were afraid, they did it anyway.
This project was a delightful opportunity for me to reconnect with old friends after many years apart, and get to know others better. To ask, what got them involved in the first place, and what keeps them going? When asked about their origin stories, those moments of their lives that made them the activists they are, themes emerged of family traditions of social justice activism, interaction with gardens and woods and fields and forests as a child or teenager, education by others in their lives and communities, and seeing injustice and refusing to let it be perpetuated.
These portraits capture an important snapshot of the local environmental movement, representing the next generations of activists emerging, and elders whose stories we need to learn and share. The importance of this was underscored by the sudden passing of one of the elders, Joanne Stevens (1949-2022), within a week of her interview. No words are truly adequate to express the bittersweet gratitude felt for that one last opportunity to speak with her, and be part of telling her story. She is remembered.
-Lindsay Speer, interviewer and author of the biographies
