People + Parks

“On 
a lovely summer day, we visited the Green Girls program in Jamaica, Queens so we could interview one of the ladies that run the program. At first we were lost, since the area was compacted with dozens of plants and trees. We were escorted to this beautiful pond in this deep wooded place where people come to fish and enjoy the relaxing environment.

Danielle, Coordinator of Green Girls, explained to us that the Green Girls Summer Institute is a program for girls who want to explore and analyze the environment around them.  They travel around the New York area, including upstate, to learn more about the environment. As we looked around, we saw girls, roughly around the ages of 8-13, showing interest and ambition in what they were doing.

Today, we were going to film the girls catching and scientifically labeling dragonflies. Some of us filmed and recorded audio, while the rest of us skipped rocks; then we switched positions. Meanwhile, as Christian and I were filming the girl’s excitement of catching dragonflies and seeing them walk on their hands and arms, we heard George and Emanuel having a conversation with a young boy, who has been fishing for about four years. I instantly rotated the camera to capture the fisher at work; he caught a fish with various striking colors of yellow, blue and green. While the boy was talking with us, the fish had a chance to escape and wriggled out of his hand, and plopped back in the pond. Somewhat disappointed, he shrugged his shoulders and continued to fish. He even showed us a couple of pointers on fishing, which was interesting.

After several minutes of filming the girls trotting in the grassland, eager to catch a dragonfly without it getting away.  The girls were learning how to catch a dragonfly, learning to flip the net over, so the insect cannot escape. We then interviewed several girls who were part of the program, and they had similar responses to our questions; saying they loved the program and they liked that it gave them a chance to get out and examine natural resources. Then we interviewed Danielle, and while I was interviewing her, suddenly she began to chuckle, noticing that Chris was freaking out when an insect few on him. Oh, if
 only we caught that on camera…

I took a break, and George and Brian began the filming. We caught a glimpse of turtles laying on a tree bark, and Emanuel went to investigate. Unfortunately he couldn’t get too close, since a huge marsh was in his way of grabbing the turtles. Meanwhile, the girls were eating lunch. Quickly after, we headed back to the recreation center; saying farewell to the Green Girls and the women who run it.

It was an intriguing day. We learned a lot about the Green Girls program, and we also had some fun too!”

– Text by Epiphany Maxwell, Hook & Smith Productions

“Some of us from Hook & Smith Productions sent a crew to Umoja Garden, a City Parks Founation Learning Garden, in Bushwick, Brooklyn to create a documentary portrait. The crew members were myself, Dimitri Brown, Matthew Pine, Bekere Grandison, Christian Pimentel and Amanda Torres. We got footage of the many types of vegetable and plants.  We also had the chance to invite a gardener nearby to interview.  His name was Frank. He was as cooperative as the healthy vegetables were fresh (the vegetables were picked off the plant).  Frank had described the many vegetables and flowers that are being planted, and indicated ones that were abundant, special and the best. He was 83 years old, but looked extremely young and healthy, and gave us some tips on gardening and eating healthy.

Furthermore, we had the honor to have Geimy, program director, as a tour guide.  She told us about the educational programs with kids that she runs at Umoja Garden and other Learning Gardens in the city. We met her two high school interns and saw how they took care of all the plants and vegetables. It was raining off and on, and we had to go back and forth to the shelter of the subway tracks, which ran right above the garden.

When we left, Geimy gave us all a good handful of fresh veggies to take home!”

– Text by Hacon Chen